Complaint: Rent a Car, We’ll Come Pick You Up

Not exactly.

They will come and pick you up if it’s not a Saturday in Tucson.

My car broke down. I think it had something to do with the diagnostic I had yesterday. I have never had a problem with the alarm before today. But somehow and some way I thought I had a dead battery because the car wouldn’t start.

Backtracking… I was taking my renter to lunch because he’s leaving the country. He’s such a great person and renter/roommate that I offered to take him to lunch. Before we got to the restaurant, I want to show him an artful oddity so we made a pit stop on the way. When we got back into the car, the battery wouldn’t turn over.

I called AAA and they came in record time. The mechanic said it was not the battery as it was fully juiced. It’s an AAA battery. He said it was the alarm. I didn’t even know I had alarm. I just know when I accidentally push that red button, the horn starts beeping but now the horn wouldn’t stop and the mechanic said the alarm needed to be dis-alarmed.

I called my friend who lives near where my car stop working and she graciously came to pick us up. She had the bright idea that I should rent a car. She drove me to the Enterprise rent-a-car on Speedway near Country Club. We were about two hours too late, it closed at noon.

I called the 1 800 Rent-a-Car number and of all the satellite Enterprise rent-a-car places around Tucson, none were open according to the customer service agent. Customer service told me I would have to go to the airport. I was nowhere near the airport. I asked them to come pick me up just like the commercials say.

Guess what?

They only pick up on weekdays or business days. I would think renting a car would be a 24/7 type of business. Every day is a business day.

Certainly their ads make it seem like that, don’t you think?

Stranded soccer mom and Enterprise comes to pick her up. Dad building a tree house and Enterprise delivers a truck to his door so he can go to the big box store for supplies. Do you think Dad built the tree house during a weekday?

So I came home and tried to call some other nearby places like Budget and Avis but their numbers were disconnected or didn’t answer.

No worries. My car is parked on a side street in another part of town. I called the place that did the diagnostic yesterday but, of course, they’re closed. I opted not to be driven to the airport to rent a car. And if I ever rent a car again – it won’t be from Enterprise.

Nothing galls me more than false advertising.

At least with pharmaceutical drug commercials, they tell you how the drug will help with your pain, heartburn, dangerously high cholesterol but in the fade out they also tell you how while the drug may help with your Rx, they lower the voiceover to explain how said drug can also cause you other serious problems that will require you to call your doctor immediately.

I think Enterprise Rent-a-Car has to change their advertising to:

Enterprise – We’ll pick you up! But only if your car breaks down on a weekday…

Oh, and tomorrow is my birthday. Yeah, I know I’m feeling sorry for myself.

Am I the only person complaining about Enterprise?? Hell, no!

Tucson is under scrutiny by the national media, again. Or should I say, still?

Hours after the horrific shootings on Saturday, the media swooped down on Tucson. Our local media, on numerous occasions since then, has credited national newspapers for new information about the Tucson tragedy. The Tragedy in Tucson, so named by the media, has dominated national headlines for the last few days.

Endless speculation by the media has also dominated headlines regarding motives of the alleged shooter. Our so-called political climate has been scrutinized. Today, the headlines are asking if the “pep rally” atmosphere at the memorial service was “appropriate”. .

The Associated Press has chimed in with their perspective: “Some question pep rally atmosphere at Obama speech.”

May I point out the name of the event, according to this AP headline? “Obama speech”

CBS News headline: “Obama’s Tucson Speech: Pep Rally or Memorial Service”.

The media started calling it that, some variation of “Obama’s Speech”, soon after President Obama accepted the invitation to attend what was once billed as a memorial.

As a result, the event somehow morphed into something else. A theme for the event emerged, called: “Together We Thrive:Tucson and America.” The theme doesn’t include anything about it that evokes a memorial. There’s nothing about remembrance, either.

The theme sounds like, well, like a political rally.

The Washington Post released an article prior to the event, describing the atmosphere outside the McKale stadium, like people “camped out” prior to a rock concert. “Camped out” became a common phrase used by many members of the national media to describe those who arrived early to “hear Obama speak”.

Please read a snippet from that article from The Washington Post. (They refer to the Pima County Assessor’s Office as “Pima County tax accessor’s office” by the way.)

“At an entrance to the stadium, people waited in a packed crowd in the warm afternoon sun. Many had been camped out there since mid morning and said the mood was exciting and generous. Sandra Kimmelman, 53, said she took the day off from her job at the Pima County tax accessor’s office to come hear Obama. She said people in line had given her candy, water and shared their pizza with her.

“There’s a sense of community,” she said. “I came because I want to hear Obama say we as a nation are all mourning and that we need to fight violence with love and peace. We need to be unified. 9-11 was the most horrific thing that happened to our nation. This comes close.”

Nicole Siegel, a freshman at the University of Arizona who is from Columbia, Md., said she was excited to hear Obama speak.

“I am happy to see he’s taking this seriously and isn’t just staying in the White House,” she said, wearing a light blue T-shirt with a picture of Obama on it.”

Full article here

They came to hear Obama. Would a T-shirt with Obama on it be appropriate for a memorial service? Is that why The Washington Post pointed out what she was wearing? Is that why they pointed out the pizza and candy?

The “event” was advertised as “first-come, first-served”, by the way. Like a rock concert. The “event” that drew media coverage to be broadcast around the world, was covered extensively for “Obama’s speech”.

So, now the media speculates over “appropriateness”.

Had Obama not been in attendance, would it have been covered to such an extent, or just broadcast locally with some members of the press present?

I’m grateful that Obama did attend. I watched the coverage from home. The President’s speech is what we needed to hear.

As far as criticism from the media, I’d like to remind you that you have created a media circus atmosphere in Tucson since you arrived Saturday.

Who is being disrespectful? Tucsonans or members of the national media?

I’ll have to go with the national media.

When the news of the mass shooting in Tucson began to circulate on Saturday, a memory from two years ago emerged in my mind. Gabrielle Giffords was in attendance at the Western-themed Empire Ranch Round-Up in Sonoita, Arizona.

Giffords kept a smile on her face the entire time at that outdoor event. Her eyes scanned the crowd constantly to find  people to engage with in conversation. There was no security entourage that could be seen surrounding her. A steady stream of people approached her to say hello.

Wild horses cannot keep Gabby from an event, from engaging with the public. That’s what we expect. It is just Gabby being Gabby. She is accessible to people, just like she was on Saturday.

Saturday.

Gabrielle Giffords, a supporter of gun rights, was among the casualties shot at Safeway. Safeway, a busy neighborhood grocery store where one normally feels…safe. A stark contradiction of how things were expected to go on that day.

As I watched news coverage on Saturday morning, trying to make sense of what had happened, memories of September 11th emerged in my mind. That day started normally, too, except that many people were late to work, exercising their right to vote. They died in Shanksville, the Pentagon, and inside the World Trade Center.

Those of us far away from New York, Washington and Pennsylvania could only watch the coverage on television, while trying to make sense in our minds of what was happening.

The words ‘Al Qaeda’ weren’t known to us yet. We could only speculate at that point about who would do something like that. Who would kill innocent people who didn’t do anything wrong?

My thoughts turned back to the news of what was happening in Tucson on Saturday. The national media reported Gabrielle Giffords dead, contrary to what local Tucson media reported. What were we supposed to believe? National media eventually retracted their version of events and apologized that they did not have their facts correct.

Within minutes, Twitter and Facebook immediately began buzzing with speculation about who could have shot Gabrielle Giffords and her constituents. It had to be a ‘right-winger’, a ‘Tea Partier’, the messages said. Contradictory news emerged from the friends and acquaintances of the shooter, Jared Loughner. They said that Loughner was ‘a leftist’. Those on the left cried, “he’s not one of us”, “he doesn’t share our values”. It was Sarah Palin, it was Glenn Beck, it was the Tea Party, they said. Somehow, they are responsible. All of the speculation based on short, nonsensical videos on Loughner’s YouTube page, and from who they expect to be blamed.

Then, due to Sheriff Clarence Dupnik’s speculation that the ‘rhetoric of violence’ was responsible for the massacre, those words continue to circulate. Still, based on a lack of evidence. Speculation from a Sheriff, no less. At time when we are supposed to come together in a tragedy, not be ripped apart as a result of one. A glaring contradiction from the facts that a Sheriff is supposed to provide to the public in an emergency. All law enforcement has to go on is physical evidence at this point. Yet, our own Sheriff spews speculation, adding fuel to a fire that should have never started.

Loughner is not cooperating, not talking.

Now, a campaign has started against talk show host Jon Justice for speaking out against Sheriff Dupnik’s words. Isn’t it free speech that the left is now trying to silence?

All of this while the voices of the dead will never again be heard. Gabby Giffords clings to life at the center of the tragedy, unable to speak.

If Gabby could speak, what would she say? It’s not our place to speculate. Instead, we’ll have to wait – and hope that she can someday voice her own thoughts to us.

What are the facts? We now know that his massacre was planned, based on physical evidence found at the Loughner home. It was planned for a long time. Loughner is ‘mentally unstable’ and there’s no proof that Palin, Beck or others influenced his killing spree. There’s only speculation. That is a fact.

Evidence has emerged that Pima Community College thought Loughner to be potentially mentally unstable several months ago.

Loughner’s profile on YouTube is presented with words used in the past tense. We can take from that evidence that he thought he was going to die on Saturday, shot by law enforcement or die by his own hand. Loughner didn’t expect to be subdued by bystanders. Loughner didn’t expect Giffords to survive his attack. A contradiction to well-laid plans.

Among the dead that Loughner did not plan to kill, except for the fact that they just happened to be there, was Judge John Roll. Judge Roll made an unplanned stop at the Safeway. For a while, it was unknown if Roll was the intended target. We now know that he was not. Christina Taylor Green was there, and we now know that she planned to meet Gabrielle Giffords.

We also now know that Christina Taylor Green, 9, was born on September 11, 2001, only to die in another massacre. She was featured in the book, “Faces of Hope”, showcasing babies born on 9/11. This child’s death should serve as a reminder that speculation only stirs up hatred and does not reflect the facts.

As evidenced so far, the lesson has not been learned.