I have to put my car in the shop tomorrow. Since I have to take my brother to a medical appointment this week, I simply planned to rent a car in Durham. I booked a rental car online with Thrifty and received the confirmation. This afternoon, I secured an Uber ride to get to the Thrifty facility on Hillsborough Rd, which is not at an airport. After arriving, I found three guys working there, but only one was actually helping anybody. The others were just walking around and talking. Finally, one of them asked if they could help me. I said, "Yes, thank you. I'm here to pick up a car, here's my reservation." I handed him the printout as he asked for my driver's license and credit card.
He looked at his computer a moment and said, "We don't have anything for you."
I sat there just a moment, slightly in shock. "You mean I have to wait for a return?"
"No," he said. "We don't have anything for you."
"You mean I took an Uber here to pick up my confirmed reservation and I'm just stuck."
"I guess so," he said.
I was so angry, I just got up, retrieved my license and credit card and just walked around a second. Finally, I asked, "Well, do you have any recommendations?"
"No." Then another guy chimed in. "There's an Enterprise about two miles down the road."
"Oh. Could you give me a lift."
"No," and then they went to talking to each other like I wasn't even there.
For over two decades, I have traveled all over the country with speaking gigs at aviation events and film events. I have had some challenges in travel, but this is the first time I have experienced anything near this. Worse than the fact a reservation meant nothing to them was the fact no one there, including the manager, gave a damn. I contacted Uber to come and pick me back up and just went back to where I'm staying in Durham. I contacted Thrifty and that was a worthless waste of time, too. read more