Jessie decided she wanted to rent a car because she was going to drive all over the place to all sorts of festivals this weekend. United sent her an email with a Hertz discount code that would also give her frequent flyer miles. Score! She rented a Corolla, and opted for the "Never Lost GPS". This is Jessie we're talking about after all, and she needs the GPS!
Fast forward to Saturday morning where she and Ester go to the airport to pick up the car.
20 minutes of boring waiting in the line.
Yay, rental contract received. Time to head to the garage to pick up the (red) Corolla.
E: Why is the hood of the car up?
J: Maybe we're supposed to inspect it before we drive off.
Mechanic: Um, I have to jump this car. They weren't supposed to rent it out.
Us: Um.
Mech: Just go to that booth down there and ask them for another car.
We go to the booth, hoping we get another car and we get to head off to the festival soon.
Customer: Blah blah blah I'm complaining rarg (I am paraphrasing here)
Customer Service Rep: Well, the only thing comparable is the Yukon, which doesn't get as good of mileage.
Customer: Grumble grumble I'll keep the one I have bleh bye.
Us: Um... hi.... I just got assigned a car upstairs but the mechanic says he's not renting it out. (I hand her the contract)
Service Rep: Yea... I just told them not to rent that. (She is of course suffering from Saturday morning working on a holiday weekend annoyance because customers are annoying like that).
Me: I guess they're not reading the memos up stairs. (Did you get that memo?)
Ester: Well, since we can't have the Corolla... can we get something bigger? Like a Camry?
Service rep: Well, we have a Sienna minivan.
Us: Ew.
Rep: You don't need the room?
Us: Um, no, we definitely don't need the room :)
Rep: Let's see.... do you want something fun?
Us: Sure. Whatever you have.
Rep: Well... it doesn't have the GPS....
Us: Well, how fun are we talking?
Rep: Brand new Camaro.
Us: We don't need the GPS.
This meant we got the new (8k miles) cherry red Camaro for the price of the Corolla, minus the $40 the GPS would have cost. Ca-ching.
After that, we were rollin' in style to the Scottish Festival, B-More and the Ren Fest. W00t!
Lesson to all: When things unexpectedly happen, be nice to the customer service people. They may just bend/break the rules for you and you get to vroom around in a brand new car of awesomeness for the weekend just because you were flexible.
Aside from the fact that mine had a sunroof, the car looked like this:
