Blake’s Blog

1.  Fly into Las Vegas

2. Spend a solid day having fun

3. Rent a car and drive to my Cousins wedding in Fresno

4. Drive home

Pretty simple, and step 1 and 2 went pretty well.  The Vegan and I arrived in Vegas, our room at the Luxor was descent, but I should have gotten a Tower room.  Mainly, we just walked around, and I drunk and smoked more than I should have, probably.

The Nightmare began Saturday morning.  We were up early and off to the Rent a Center where I had reserved the Car for 7am.  As I don’t have a license, I intended to pay for the Vegan so she could rent it.

First problem, Alamo doesn’t accept Debit Cards for payment- credit card only, which neither of us had.  She suggested Dollar Rent-a-car as they were the only ones there that did.

Dollar seemed fine at first, until I tried to pay for the car for her- The Driver ID holder had to make the payment, and she didn’t have enough in her account to cover the $350.  So we had to take a shuttle to the airport, which had a Wells Fargo, and sit around waiting for two hours until the bank opened, so I could put the money into her account. The Vegan now had almost $500 as an available balance.

We took a cab back to the Rent a Center as I figured we’d need to be on the road by ten to have any shot of getting to the wedding on time.  Now the place was packed and we had to wait in line for about 30 minutes before finally seeing a clerk.  Now for some reason the price was $450, a $100 more than we were first quoted.  I was so stressed and tired at this point I didn’t really pay attention to that, just thinking that I put enough money into her account to cover it.

He ran her card… AND IT WAS DECLINED.  He said that sometimes, for whatever reason, there’s a delay in the money showing up- BUT THEY COULDN’T RUN THE CARD AGAIN FOR 24 HOURS!!!

In a last ditch attempt, I asked him if I could pay for her, hoping that maybe he wouldn’t know about the ID policy or something.  I also mentioned that we were quoted a lower price earlier, and he was suddenly like “Oohhh, yeah, my mistake.  It’ll only be $300.”

Now, I should say here, IF HE HAD ONLY CHARGED $300 TO THE CARD INSTEAD OF $450, THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE IT WOULD HAVE WENT THROUGH!  This fucking asshole just ruined our trip.

Oh, and he did know about the ID policy and said he couldn’t accept payment from me.  I wish I had saw my Bank account activity, because I WAS IN FACT CHARGED- $430!!!  I didn’t find that out until I was at home.  So I’m still working on getting a refund, and hoping that my bank doesn’t start charging me Overdraft fees.

SO TO REITERATE, CAR RENTAL COMPANIES EXIST IN AN INNER CIRCLE OF HELL, AND DOLLAR RENT-A-CAR IS, IN FACT, SATAN.

Anyway, we didn’t really have a choice- I found a flight leaving at Noon for $100 bucks a ticket, and we took it and got the Hell out of Dodge and back to SF.

So, I missed the wedding which was a real letdown- it would have been my first!  I also felt bad because I knew how tight the guest list was.

Thankfully I’m off work today, so I can unwind today.  I believe I shall stay Local for awhile.