Awkward

So, the funniest--yet very awkward--moment happened yesterday. My beloved friend, Beth, had to take her car in to the shop. It turned out to be a bit more work (and money, of course) than she'd planned and they weren't able to get her car back to her until today. (Incidentally, they said it was the catallitic (sp?) converter, which is very close to my original diagnosis of it being "dirt in the transmission tube".)

So...Miss Beth needed to get a rental vehicular module and your's truly took her to get said rental. I asked if she needed me to wait (we were meeting up at a restaurant around the corner once she got her rental) and she told me to go on ahead and get a table while we still could and that she'd call if she needed me. About ten minutes went by, with me snacking away on chips and salsa, when that phone call came. "Um, Sweetie...can you please come back over here? There's an issue with my card." I said, "Can't I just give them my card number over the phone?" She replied, "They said you have to come in and sign." I said, "Hmmm...well, let me figure out a non-tacky way to tell the waiter that I'm not just here for free chips and salsa and that we'll return." The waiter didn't speak English very well, but he got what I was saying and even agreed to hold our table (even though the line to get in was literally running out the door and onto the sidewalk).

I got over to the rental place to find that they ended up not having the car she'd requested, so instead she was stuck with a mini-van. :) That was fun...I chuckled, as Beth is NOT a mini-van person. Well, once the rental agent got done making fun of my signature (a common occurence), we headed off to the restaurant, relieved to find that they had indeed saved our table...my napkin and cup were exactly where I left them. We had a most enjoyable lunch, but Beth did not enjoy her mini-van, not only because it's a mini-van, but it also wreaked of smoke and was filthy--inside and out.

Today, we went back over to return said mini-van and I let the agent know we were less than happy about the rental's condition. He apologized and said he hadn't had a chance to clean it before renting it out again. Unacceptable. So, I said, "What is it that you're going to do to take care of the situation?" He said, "Well, I can give you $10 off the rental cost and I'll make sure I don't ever rent out another vehicle again without cleaning it, even if another customer has to wait a moment." I told him that would work, but then he went even further on the bill and knocked $25 off. It was most kind of him. Beth was obviously very happy, but I dare say I made her a bit embarrassed when I posed my question to him. The thing is, I've learned that it's THE question to ask when something is not right. "What are you going to do to fix this situation?" has gotten hundreds knocked off of vet bills, restaurant tabs, etc. I heart it.

Anyway, the whole thing was a mess, but it worked out. Good times.