Momma's Pissed!

I will forewarn you all that if you are not partial to foul language you better not read any further. I am mad and I am NOT holding back.

I am fucking livid. So far BEYOND pissed. Right now YOU are my therapy.

Back up....

We are heading up to camp on Wednesday. Camp is about 6 hours away (8 when you are traveling with children). Out of the vehicles that we have only one is reliable enough to make it that far and that one will not fit all of us and our stuff. What to do? Rent a car, of course.

I talked to my family and friends and they all recommended I go through Priceline.com to get my rental since I may be able to get it less expensive than the $500 I was going to pay through our local rental place.

So for the past 4 days I have been attempting to "bid" on my own rental car price. I started very low and slowly increased it. Finally today my bid was accepted. I was going to save about $100. I was psyched!

Now let me tell you, I do NOT use credit cards. I know myself and I refuse to get one. I don't believe in spending money you do not have and I am not interested in getting myself into a position I can't get out of.

I used my debit card. In fact, I checked the little box that said "check here if you will only have a debit card at the time of rental". I read the little line that said "you may be asked to show your round trip ticket if you are using your debit card" and I thought "I don't have an airline ticket, I already made that clear, no worries"....

I was wrong. SO fucking wrong!

As I was looking over my itinerary and reading over the "important information" from Alamo it says "renters with debit card will also be required to show proof of round trip airline travel in order to rent the vehicle". REQUIRED?! Now that is not what I understood from Priceline. They said they may ask to see it....

I called Alamo and was informed that it was REQUIRED. They don't give two shits if I am not flying. In order to rent a car from them with a debit card they require it. No, there is nothing she can do about it, I have to call Priceline. No, they will not make any exceptions. No, there is NOTHING she can (or will) do for me.

I called Priceline, I explain to Josie that I am not happy. She tells me she will cancel my order. Of course, cancelling my order could mean that they hold my money for UP TO 10 DAYS! I explain to Josie that this is NOT acceptable, that I will now need to rent a different car through a different rental company and that requires the MONEY THAT PRICELINE IS FUCKING HOLDING.

Josie transfers me to Alexandria who informs me that she needs to speak with my bank and ask them to release the hold. Alexandria then informs me that the bank will not authorize her to release the hold without my permission...could I please call them and call her back...well, not her because there is no way to get in touch with her but she has noted it on my account and I will be able to get right through....YEAH FUCKING RIGHT!

I call the bank, the woman on the other line laughs at me. She truly can't understand what the fuck I am talking about. It doesn't make any sense she tells me...they should have put it right through. She tells me to call my local branch.

I AM SO FUCKING PISSED OFF AT THIS POINT IN TIME. I HAVE BEEN ON THE FUCKING PHONE FOR OVER AN HOUR TRYING TO GET MY FUCKING MONEY BACK!

I call my bank and get another banker who laughs at me. Obviously this is funny. There is absolutely no reason for Priceline to hold my money for up to 10 days. Seriously, computers talk, it should take seconds. Essentially, she tells me that Priceline is screwing with me. Thankfully she tells me that she will be happy to deal with the motherfuckers and call me back.

90 minutes later I had not heard from her. So I call her and she informs me that she can't get through to them. She keeps trying but they won't let her talk to anyone. WHAT THE FUCK?! I tell her that I will contact them and see if I can get them to call her.

It takes me over 10 minutes to get through (sure, Alexandria, thanks for all your fucking help).30 minutes after that I have explained to yet ANOTHER person what my fucking problem is and ANOTHER fucking person has put me on hold AGAIN. Carl comes on the line - I don't know who the fuck Carl is but I WAS talking with Maria. Obviously Maria couldn't handle me so she transferred me to Carl unbeknownst to me. Carl who speaks with a foreign accent and doesn't understand how to use a headset properly so you can barely hear him. CARL FUCKING TELLS ME THERE IS NOTHING HE CAN DO!

Poor, poor Carl. I started the conversation with "I am really frustrated, I don't mean to take my frustration out on you...but that may happen". I ended the conversation with "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME THAT YOU CANNOT TRANSFER ME TO A MANAGER? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS THAT YOU ARE GOING TO HOLD MY FUCKING MONEY FOR 10 FUCKING DAYS? ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TELLING ME THAT THERE IS NO ONE ELSE IN THAT WHOLE GODDAMN BUSINESS THAT YOU CAN TRANSFER ME TO? ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS SHIT? HOW IS IT THAT JOSIE AND ALEXANDRIA AND MARIA ALL TOLD ME THEY WOULD HELP ME, ALL HAD THE ABILITY TO TRANSFER ME BUT YOU DON'T? HAVE A NICE FUCKING DAY". At which point in time I slammed the phone down.

My bank tells me there is nothing I can do. Priceline FUCKING SUCKS and there is nothing they WILL do. So, I will await my almost $400 for the next TEN FUCKING DAYS!

Saving for this trip has been a big deal. I do not have expendable income. $500 was a lot for me to spend.

Now I am rational enough to see that I made an error in judgement. I should have contacted someone first, BEFORE I allowed them to charge my debit card. I don't know who or how because there is no way to contact anyone on the Priceline website...and I allowed them to pick the rental company...but I should have thought about it.

But tell me, what the fuck happened to customer service? Since when do businesses tell you "there is nothing we can do"...since when do people not have managers you can talk to? Since when do people no longer care who they are helping or pissing off?

It has been proven that people who receive good customer service typically only tell one or two people. People who receive BAD customer service will tell up to 10 people. I tend to do things in extremes...so there you go. I have told (potentially) the world.

Now we will deal with the LOCAL rental company. We will TALK to the people who work right down the road and there is no question in my mind that we will receive the customer service that you SHOULD get from ANY business - small or large. So much for trying to save a few bucks....$100 isn't worth the frustration or the knots in my back and neck...

And on top of it all, I have lost faith in William Shatner....GODDAMN YOU PRICELINE!!