Be Money Smart: A Practical Guide for Starting Out, Starting Over, and Staying on Track (Eiji Yamane's Library) by Farnoosh Torabi

Author:Farnoosh Torabi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: FT Press
Published: 2012-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

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My Story: What Being an Advocate Looks Like

My parents recently rented a van from Enterprise Rent-a-Car to help move my brother to college (from San Francisco to Irvine, California, about 400 miles away). About an hour before they arrived in Irvine, the van broke down on a Los Angeles freeway (in the middle of the night!). A tow truck took them and the broken-down vehicle to the nearest Enterprise office at LAX airport. Enterprise employees at that facility told my family that because they had rented the car from an independently owned and operate Enterprise location in San Francisco, their rental records were not showing up in the system at LAX. Contractually, this LAX office was not obligated to help my parents get a new van free of charge or help them in any other way.

Here is how you get to the bottom line: So, let me see whether I understand this correctly (say this with a smile, always): I rented a car from a company bearing your same name (even though it is not the same operator), the car dies on us in the middle of the freeway where we could have gotten run over, and now you are telling me that there’s nothing, absolutely nothing you can do? Believe me, we would go back and deal with this problem in San Francisco, but that’s about 400 miles away. It’s midnight, and my son needs to check into his dorm tomorrow. What’s our alternative?

Suddenly, common sense kicks in and the attendant realizes the company’s rules are not humanely applicable in this situation. Apparently, there was something she could do, and at that moment she was convinced enough to take action. She handed my parents the keys to a new van and booked them a hotel room at the nearby Marriot where they could rest overnight and continue their drive in the morning. As for the old broken-down van? “We’ll send that up to San Francisco in the morning for an inspection; no worries,” she told my parents.

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