4728 – April 1, 2024
I don’t need suggestions for things to worry about; I am really good at coming up with them on my own.
When we rented our Hertz car in San Juan, I was surprised that I could not just go and look on the board, see my name, and grab my car. It is a plus for the Hertz Gold Members (which is, I believe, just about everyone). Anyway, I had to go to the desk, show my driver’s license, and then told where to find the car. No biggy.
The first issue was that the PSI warning sign came on. If you are a long time reader of my blog, you might know that I own a car that was, every winter, a PSI warner. So much so that I bought an air compressor to leave in the garage. I remember it being below zero and I would freeze my hands doing it. I have a memory of being a kid and being able to drive up to any gas station and get free air. Currently, it is a quarter for a few minutes of air. Air is also not available everywhere. Our current rental car’s driver side rear tire was at 25 or so and 35 was recommended. The passenger front tire was at 26. We stopped somewhere, I actually had two quarters, I put them in and it was not enough to get the air we needed. We stopped a bit later and MK paid a young lady at a gas station $5 to put the air in after she got the quarters. I could have done that but I think maybe I was getting frustrated with the situation and was more than happy to have someone else deal with it.
We were good to go for a few days and then, about midweek, the same tires were low in the 90 degree weather. We tried calling Hertz, were put on a long hold, got frustrated, so I called AAA. They were out within an hour and I had a fun time explaining things in Spanish as he did not speak a word of English. He got confused at the security desk of our gated community and I was expecting a tow truck. I drove to security and he drove past me in a tiny, red Scion. It was like an absurd play. We worked it out, though.
The air then held us till the drop off on Friday. The drop off, a day early due to our having to leave one day early due to JetBlue, was a surprise as they asked why I did not fill up the tank. I am now lazy and prepay the gas tank. Unfortunately, although I have this in my records on the Hertz website and app, it was not reflected on the Hertz franchise in Puerto Rico. I found out that there IS a difference between Hertz and Hertz in Puerto Rico, another way that the mainland is showing elitism. We worked that out but then yesterday I went to see if I had gotten any credit with Hertz for the rental and there seems to be no record of our having rented anything in March!
Phone time, being on hold, then told to e-mail Hertz with everything I told the lady on the phone.
There is always some kind of fun, right?
I have sent the e-mail, maybe I will be in for a cut in the rental fee?
Now how likely is that?
Okay, to help myself out, I did some retail therapy and bought myself a new NutSac bag for travel. It is a little larger than the current one and should be perfect.
Thoughts of a pretired French Teacher 