Wish I had done better on this one
posted by swatkins at 7:19 PM
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Tuesday, August 19, 2008
I want the t-shirt
Someone writing on John McCain's website made a reference to "the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd." I didn't even know there was such a crowd. Seems like somebody would have sent me an e-mail about it at some point. Does anyone have a link to where I can buy the t-shirt? I'd wear that t-shirt.
I think the comment was (somehow) trying to criticize opponents of McCain for perceived slights against McCain's military service, or something?
I'll say it again: I have great respect and humble gratitude towards those citizens who would put themselves in harm's way in service to our country, but doing so doesn't qualify them to be President.
UPDATE: Also, when you look closely, McCain seems kinda dumb.
I think the comment was (somehow) trying to criticize opponents of McCain for perceived slights against McCain's military service, or something?
I'll say it again: I have great respect and humble gratitude towards those citizens who would put themselves in harm's way in service to our country, but doing so doesn't qualify them to be President.
UPDATE: Also, when you look closely, McCain seems kinda dumb.
Labels: politics
posted by swatkins at 1:28 PM
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Monday, August 11, 2008
John McCain plagiarizes speech from Wikipedia
There are several reports today that parts of John McCain's speech about the Russian invasion of Georgia were plagiarized from Wikipedia. Are you freaking kidding me? Lifting passages from an online encyclopedia is something we have to teach children not to do, and this elderly man who wants to be President thinks that it's okay to try to pass off Wikipedia's words as his own?
There is reporting of the story at The Washington Independent and AlterNet, but the story apparently originated from CQ Politics.
John McCain is not fit to be President. I have great respect for his service to the country, but being a POW does not by itself qualify him to be President. He demonstrates day after day that he is completely out of touch with reality.
Be courageous, America, and do not vote for this confused man.
There is reporting of the story at The Washington Independent and AlterNet, but the story apparently originated from CQ Politics.
John McCain is not fit to be President. I have great respect for his service to the country, but being a POW does not by itself qualify him to be President. He demonstrates day after day that he is completely out of touch with reality.
Be courageous, America, and do not vote for this confused man.
posted by swatkins at 8:25 PM
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Rant against Enterprise Rent-a-car
I was in San Diego for a conference, and I decided to spend a couple of extra days after the conference to do a little sight-seeing. I made a reservation with Enterprise Rent-a-car for 1pm on Friday, with the intention to return the car on Sunday at the airport before I flew out of town. Nearly every step of the process of dealing with the people at Enterprise was a hassle.
Haggling the price was the first irritating and time-consuming process. The website displayed one price, but when I spoke to them on the phone, they told me a different price that was about twice as high. I said, "But your website has a lower price," and, after being put on hold, the person came back and said that the lower price, from the website, was accurate. I said I wanted to rent the car from Friday through Sunday, and they said that their particular branch was closed on Sunday, so they couldn't accept a car return on Sunday. I told them I'd like to return the car at the airport instead, and they said that was fine, if I agreed to pay an additional $40 on top of the rental price. They also said that the lower price rate was only for a three-day rental, so if I only wanted the car for two days, it would be at the higher rate. I asked if I could get the three day rental, but return the car a day early, but that was evidently too complicated for the Enterprise rental system.
Finally, after being put on hold a few more times, I was offered a price for a two-day rental that was roughly in the middle of the two other quoted prices, so I figured, fine, I'll take it. I still had to pay the extra $40 to return the car at the airport. They also told me that Fridays were a busy time for them, and that I could expect perhaps a 20-minute delay in getting the car on Friday.
My plan on Friday was to get the car, go to lunch with two friends, then take one of them to the airport to catch a flight. At 12:23pm on Friday, I called Enterprise to check on when the car might be available, and they told me they didn't have any cars yet, but they should very soon. Over an hour later, I hadn't heard anything, so I called again at 1:38pm and learned that they still didn't have any cars, but said that they should have something "in 5 or 10 minutes." I got a call from another person at 2:06pm saying that they should have something very soon. Still nothing when I called at 2:56pm. When I called again at 3:06pm and reminded them that my reservation was two hours ago, they offered to come pick me up right away.
The person from Enterprise came and picked up my friends and me, took us to the office, and rented me a car. The time on the invoice is 3:23pm, nearly two and a half hours later than my reservation. The woman who picked us up revealed that part of the delay was due to the fact that she had gone to lunch. That was really annoying, considering that my friends and I had been waiting to have lunch ourselves since 1:00. We tried to make it to the restaurant, but didn't have enough time, so, still hungry, we decided to go to the airport so that my friend could make her flight. She barely made it.
The rest of the rental period was uneventful. The car performed adequately. I flew out of San Diego and came home on Sunday night.
On Tuesday evening, one of the clerks from the Enterprise office called to see if the returning of the car had gone smoothly. I told him that it had, but that I was dissatisfied with the delay I had experienced on Friday. The car was two and a half hours late, and because of this I did not get to have lunch with friends as planned. Instead we sat around waiting and hungry, and then had to rush to the airport instead of having our planned lunch together. Because of this complaint, the clerk I spoke with offered to lower the airport drop-off fee from $40 to $15. I thanked him for this gesture, and he asked if I was now completely satisfied with the level of service I had received. I said that no, even though I appreciated the discount, that I was not satisfied due to the waiting on Friday which had messed up my plans.
He then offered to send me a coupon for 50% off of a future car rental, and I said, sure, that would be nice. Then he asked again, now am I fully satisfied with the rental experience? I said again, that while I appreciate the offer of the coupon, I was dissatisfied with the service that I had received, and that in the future, I would have to weigh all my options when choosing a rental car company.
So then this clerk tells me, well, if you can't say you're satisfied with our service, then I'm not going to be able to send you the coupon. What the hell? I thought he was trying to make a gesture of apology for his company's screw-up, but it turns out that he's trying to extort some kind of lie out of me, and that if I don't play along and pretend that their bad service was satisfactory, then he's going to retract his offer of the coupon. What kind of backwards customer service is this? It's like somebody selling you a meal that makes you sick, and then offering a coupon for a future meal, but only if you say that the meal was delicious.
This retraction of his apology made me angry at the disrespectful attitude I was getting from Enterprise. They screwed up, and now I'm being made to feel like I owe them something. Sorry, Enterprise, there are other car rental places. I told the clerk that now, I would definitely not rent from Enterprise in the future. Instead, I decided to post the story of this experience on my blog, and send it to all my friends, and make as much noise as I can about the lousy service that I got from Enterprise car rentals.
This last paragraph is written in the hopes that it gets picked up by search engines: Enterprise Rent-a-car rude inconsiderate Enterprise Rent-a-car bad service Enterprise Rent-a-car apathetic unprofessional Enterprise Rent-a-car Nazi party Enterprise Rent-a-car Satan worship Enterprise Rent-a-car child molestation Enterprise Rent-a-car rape murder Enterprise Rent-a-car dishonesty swindle Enterprise Rent-a-car Nancy Grace Enterprise Rent-a-car diarrhea vomit Enterprise Rent-a-car disrespect smelly cars Enterprise Rent-a-car high prices
Haggling the price was the first irritating and time-consuming process. The website displayed one price, but when I spoke to them on the phone, they told me a different price that was about twice as high. I said, "But your website has a lower price," and, after being put on hold, the person came back and said that the lower price, from the website, was accurate. I said I wanted to rent the car from Friday through Sunday, and they said that their particular branch was closed on Sunday, so they couldn't accept a car return on Sunday. I told them I'd like to return the car at the airport instead, and they said that was fine, if I agreed to pay an additional $40 on top of the rental price. They also said that the lower price rate was only for a three-day rental, so if I only wanted the car for two days, it would be at the higher rate. I asked if I could get the three day rental, but return the car a day early, but that was evidently too complicated for the Enterprise rental system.
Finally, after being put on hold a few more times, I was offered a price for a two-day rental that was roughly in the middle of the two other quoted prices, so I figured, fine, I'll take it. I still had to pay the extra $40 to return the car at the airport. They also told me that Fridays were a busy time for them, and that I could expect perhaps a 20-minute delay in getting the car on Friday.
My plan on Friday was to get the car, go to lunch with two friends, then take one of them to the airport to catch a flight. At 12:23pm on Friday, I called Enterprise to check on when the car might be available, and they told me they didn't have any cars yet, but they should very soon. Over an hour later, I hadn't heard anything, so I called again at 1:38pm and learned that they still didn't have any cars, but said that they should have something "in 5 or 10 minutes." I got a call from another person at 2:06pm saying that they should have something very soon. Still nothing when I called at 2:56pm. When I called again at 3:06pm and reminded them that my reservation was two hours ago, they offered to come pick me up right away.
The person from Enterprise came and picked up my friends and me, took us to the office, and rented me a car. The time on the invoice is 3:23pm, nearly two and a half hours later than my reservation. The woman who picked us up revealed that part of the delay was due to the fact that she had gone to lunch. That was really annoying, considering that my friends and I had been waiting to have lunch ourselves since 1:00. We tried to make it to the restaurant, but didn't have enough time, so, still hungry, we decided to go to the airport so that my friend could make her flight. She barely made it.
The rest of the rental period was uneventful. The car performed adequately. I flew out of San Diego and came home on Sunday night.
On Tuesday evening, one of the clerks from the Enterprise office called to see if the returning of the car had gone smoothly. I told him that it had, but that I was dissatisfied with the delay I had experienced on Friday. The car was two and a half hours late, and because of this I did not get to have lunch with friends as planned. Instead we sat around waiting and hungry, and then had to rush to the airport instead of having our planned lunch together. Because of this complaint, the clerk I spoke with offered to lower the airport drop-off fee from $40 to $15. I thanked him for this gesture, and he asked if I was now completely satisfied with the level of service I had received. I said that no, even though I appreciated the discount, that I was not satisfied due to the waiting on Friday which had messed up my plans.
He then offered to send me a coupon for 50% off of a future car rental, and I said, sure, that would be nice. Then he asked again, now am I fully satisfied with the rental experience? I said again, that while I appreciate the offer of the coupon, I was dissatisfied with the service that I had received, and that in the future, I would have to weigh all my options when choosing a rental car company.
So then this clerk tells me, well, if you can't say you're satisfied with our service, then I'm not going to be able to send you the coupon. What the hell? I thought he was trying to make a gesture of apology for his company's screw-up, but it turns out that he's trying to extort some kind of lie out of me, and that if I don't play along and pretend that their bad service was satisfactory, then he's going to retract his offer of the coupon. What kind of backwards customer service is this? It's like somebody selling you a meal that makes you sick, and then offering a coupon for a future meal, but only if you say that the meal was delicious.
This retraction of his apology made me angry at the disrespectful attitude I was getting from Enterprise. They screwed up, and now I'm being made to feel like I owe them something. Sorry, Enterprise, there are other car rental places. I told the clerk that now, I would definitely not rent from Enterprise in the future. Instead, I decided to post the story of this experience on my blog, and send it to all my friends, and make as much noise as I can about the lousy service that I got from Enterprise car rentals.
This last paragraph is written in the hopes that it gets picked up by search engines: Enterprise Rent-a-car rude inconsiderate Enterprise Rent-a-car bad service Enterprise Rent-a-car apathetic unprofessional Enterprise Rent-a-car Nazi party Enterprise Rent-a-car Satan worship Enterprise Rent-a-car child molestation Enterprise Rent-a-car rape murder Enterprise Rent-a-car dishonesty swindle Enterprise Rent-a-car Nancy Grace Enterprise Rent-a-car diarrhea vomit Enterprise Rent-a-car disrespect smelly cars Enterprise Rent-a-car high prices
Labels: cars, complaints
posted by swatkins at 8:25 PM
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