Rental Car Mayhem

A few months back, my husband and I planned a trip to see my grandmother, dear younger brother, and Uncle Troy in Missouri. Our plan was to meet at Kentucky Lake since that is where they LOVE to fish! They have a camper right next to the water. We planned to rent a cabin, take the baby, fish, swim, and eat to our heart's content.

I invited my mom and dad along. They needed to get out of the house as well. That prompted our need for a larger vehicle. We have a GMC Yukon, but it is the smaller SUV sized vehicle. We needed a large suburban style vehicle to haul all family members comfortably on our 11 hour drive to the lake...the meeting up place.

So, back in early June, I called my local Enterprise Rent-A-Car place to reserve a large SUV. The nice man said, "We don't rent those sized vehicles here. Will a mini-van do?'" I responded, "Over my husband's dead body will he drive a mini-van." The nice man replied, "You will need to call the Lufkin store and reserve the extra large SUV." I quirked, "That is an hour drive...so I will need to drive myself and another person all the way to Lufkin to pick up the car and then drive it all the way back to Jasper and then drive it all the way back to Lufkin and then back to Jasper when I need to return it?" He responded, "Yes, that's how I would do it."

With a sigh, I called the Lufkin store and made the reservation. Oh well...that's what I get for living in a Mayberry.

The DAY BEFORE we were to leave on our vacation of sun, fishing, and eating, the nice man calls me from Lufkin.  He tells me he does not have an extra large SUV to rent to me. He doesn't even have a grotesque mini-van to rent to me. He doesn't even have a pick-up truck. To sum up the conversation, I will borrow the dialogue from one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes...

JERRY: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?



RENTAL CAR AGENT: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.


JERRY: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.


RENTAL CAR AGENT: I know why we have reservations.


JERRY: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.

I won't lie and say I kept my cool. I was not rude. I still maintained my Christian qualities, but I made my dissatisfaction very clear.

People, let me tell you that I called EVERY ENTERPRISE RENTAL place in the Ark-La-Tex area. I called friends, loved ones, posted a desperate plea for help on face book, offered people money for their family cars, bribed young mothers, asked to rent a suburban that someone had for sale, cried, screamed, ranted, raved, and then called the Enterprise people every 43 minutes.

Without a vehicle, there would be no trip. My grandmother was desperately looking forward to seeing Sydney. My uncle has never seen her in person. My brother hasn't seen her since she was 6 months old. My family was going to SEE MY BABY, no matter what I had to do. We were going to KENTUCKY LAKE and we were going to have a good time if it killed me. I was not going to be denied.

My pastor's wife told me at church the night before we left, "Well, God's got something better for you. I can't wait to see what kind of car he's going to give ya! You better call me with a praise report when you find out."

The next day, (the day we were supposed to leave) we still had no vehicle. Hours ticked by, hundred of phone calls were made. I was beginning to lose hope...and then...at 3:30 Wednesday afternoon, my nice little man from Enterprise called to say: "We have a car for you. It is a brand new 2011 GMC Yukon XL and it is being delivered to your LOCAL Enterprise location. It should be there by 5:30."

Not only did we get the vehicle I had originally asked for, but it was BRAND spanking new and was delivered to my local rental place. It had 150 miles on it when we picked it up...with all the bells and whistles...loaded to the brim. Wow.

So, I called my pastor's wife and told her what happened and she said confidently, "God always has our best interests in mind. Everything happens for a reason, now go enjoy your trip!"

And we did...we had a ball and enjoyed seeing family. It was very special for all of us!

And I received 2 additional discounts for my rental due to pain & suffering...cha-ching!