I tried to sit down and write a couple of times during the week, but I was just too busy.

The Enterprise Fiasco from Hell

The family came down and spent 5 days with me, which was a blast for the most part. We had a horror story worthy of an entirely separate posting, but I will summarize it a bit here:

1. Dad loses keys to rental van the morning of July 4th.
2. We get ahold of Enterprise Roadside Assistance at roughly noon, and are informed a replacement van can be obtained from the Airport once we get our stuff out of the van.
3. We proceed to use my Mom’s AAA membership to get a free locksmith out there to get into the van, Enterprise had claimed we did not have to worry about the towing, we could just leave the van there.
4. At 2:30pm I arrive down there at the parking garage where the van is located, approximately 1 hour after lining up the locksmith via AAA.
5. At 3:30pm we call the roadside assistance number again and are informed there is a tow truck en route, as well as some supposed locksmith.
6. At 3:45pm the tow truck arrives, it’s the wrong type, a flatbed, even after we specifically told them the parking garage had a 7 foot 2 inch clearance and they needed a low profile truck.
7. Shortly thereafter the locksmith arrives. At this point we figure out the key to the van had a transponder chip in it. He claims he can make a transponder key, we should’ve just left at this point
8. The locksmith leaves at 4:50pm after not having the correct base key to make the transponder key, he was however able to get us into the van so we could get all of our stuff out.
9. AAA informs us another tow truck is on the way, the right type of truck.
10. AAA informs us another locksmith is on the way, by now it’s nearly 6:30pm.
11. My Dad sends us home and says he’s staying there at approximately 6:45, the locksmith with the right transponder key base is supposed to be there at 7.
12. At 9pm my Dad calls me from the Irish Pub across the street from the parking garage. AAA sent another flatbed, and again to the total other end of the oceanfront. Similarly, the 2nd locksmith did not have the correct key as he had claimed specifically.
13. 10:30pm: Enterprise tries to get a cab to my Dad, AAA will not accept their credit card # over the phone, so no cab. My friend’s wife generously offers to drive me down there and pick my Dad up.
14. Of course, the ENTIRE time all of this is going on I am no more than a few minutes from talking or having talked to different managers for both AAA/Enterprise trying to figure out what is going on.
15. I am informed Enterprise finally authorizes an unattended tow of the van from the parking garage by AAA, and we will be able to get another van in the morning without a problem.
16. 7:30am: I call Enterprise and approximately 1 hour of phone tag later, I am informed a van is being prepared for us, and will be driven to my house.
17. Immediately after this, they call back saying the manager at the Enterprise branch where my Dad rented the van in NY were told by AAA that the van was at the dealership near my house and was being re keyed. They send someone to pick us up and take us to that dealership instead of just giving us the replacement van.
18. At approximately 11:15am we arrive at the dealership to find that the van is not there.
19. I call Enterprise and inform them they have two options. They start looking for plane tickets for my family to fly home, or they put them in a new vehicle within 45 minutes.
20. Approximately 30 minutes later they call back and inform me we have two options. The family drives back in a Grand Prix immediately, or they wait 3 hours for the van to be located and towed to the dealership to be re keyed. The 2nd option is obviously impossible since noone at either company knows at this point where this van is located.
21. The Enterprise employee that took us to the dealership takes us down to the branch that has the Grand Prix, they get my Dad all set up with it, and I lead my family onto the interstate and head home while they do the same, at 12:30pm.
22. The next day, July 6th, my Dad takes the Grand Prix back to the place in NY he rented the van from. He is given a total refund.
23. As of July 6th nobody at either Enterprise or AAA still knew where that van was, so the 3 hour wait for option B at the dealership the previous day would’ve made them have to stay an extra day with me.
24. I am never giving either company my business ever again.

Flickr

I have thrown a whole bunch of pictures onto my flickr page from the family visit, and from Saturday night with the Williamsburg crew.

Toys

If you called me during the last month or so and could barely understand me, it was because my old phone finally gave out after being dropped about 99999 times. I replaced it on Thursday with a Sanyo SCP-8400 and signed my soul away to Sprint again for 2 more years. I was able to keep my retention plan, however, which worked out well. I cannot get the DUN to work with my Nokia N770 though via bluetooth. Everything can see each other correctly, and the connection even behaves like it will work, but then doesn’t.

I will be talking about the N770 on the next Hak5 Live show on July 12th @ 7pm EDT. This show should be a hell of a lot better than the first one.