FRIDAY!!!

Happy Friday! Today is Friday, which brings me to a story from last Friday. I just said to Jon, don't say you're bored today! Last Friday we said that and then it was balls to the wall! Jon worked until 9:30 and I didn't get home until 8:45. It sucked! All I wanted to do was sit down and drink a beer. Around 5:00 I knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Of course we had the usual, people that needed cars out of the blue, but last Friday was something special.

About 5:00 I got a call from Parkersburg and there was a customer that was broke down on the interstate directly in the middle of us. Neither one us had a car so he decided to send her my way and send a full size truck down to take care of this 90 pound girl. The girl got here and of course the vehicle wasn't. So while she was waiting, she decided to have a nervous breakdown. I just let her sit there and cry being the sympathetic person that I am.
My dealership called earlier that day and said they needed a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I got one from 45 minutes away and had it here for awhile. When we called them, they said they did not need it anymore. Great, another 4 wheel drive vehicle sitting on my lot over the weekend that I can't make money on!
I got a call from the Kenna fire station, about 20 minutes away. They had two elderly ladies there that needed a rental car. Perfect, we will rent them the 4 wheel drive vehicle that I thought I wasn't going to be able to rent. Rick goes to get these women around 5:20.
5:21: Tom Peden calls back. "We need that 4 wheel drive vehicle!" I said, "OK, we'll be down" because we cannot tell a dealership no.
Jon went to get the customers and we explained to them that there vehicle should be back in about 20 minutes. They were waiting to go to Ponderosa for dinner, but they said that would be ok.
20, 30, 40 minutes passed and Rick was not back yet. Where was he? Oh yeah and the truck from Parkersburg had just pulled up about 20 minutes after close. The Tom Peden customers being the rednecks that they are, wanted that full size Chevy and they didn't want to wait anymore. I didn't care, I had to get the train wreck girl out of my office and on the road.
About 10 minutes later, Rick pulls up with the elderly women and a bed full of shit. How these women got all of this stuff in there 2000 Mercury Sable is beyond me, but they insisted that it all went with them, including their rocking chair! Wait a minute aren't these the ladies that wanted to switch out into a small car? Yes, they were, but now they insisted on having the truck. I simply told that it was not going to happen. I got a vehicle for them, but it was in Marietta (45 minutes away) and that is all I could do for them at this time because we had been closed for 30 minutes. The ladies argued with me as the customers impatiently waiting outside needed to get to Ponderosa.
I finally convinced them that we would get them a car and all their stuff should fit if we left the ricking chair behind. That was ok just enough time for us to unload the truck into a car. We got the other customers going and they were off to Ponderosa, which is also where Rick was going to eat (will be important later).
Finally, we can get these ladies on the road and I can go home! Wrong! She hasn't even filed her insurance claim yet. Are you kidding me? That's all I could think of! She's filing the claim and in the middle of her conversation she asks the lady that has been driving her car, "What is your name?" What the hell? How do you not know the name of the lady that has been driving your car at least since Cleveland? Way beyond me!
Anyway, she gets her claim # and I think it's about over. Wrong again! They don't understand why they can't have the truck that another customer is already in. We convinced them once again that they would be fine in the car that we had to take them to. Finally, we were explaining the contract and I let her know that she needed to bring our vehicle back to us. Great, something else to confuse the poor lady. She was pissed by this point, because she was pretty much clueless about the whole process.
I told her that we would deal with that later. I was done by this point and had already started beating my head on the window. Jon tried to explain to them that they needed to leave their rocking chair at our office and come back for it the next day on their way through. They were originally headed to Beckley, but canceled their reservation there and made one for Marietta. Once they spent the night in Marietta, they needed to come back through. Simple solution to the "rocking chair problem". The older lady insisted that it would work and she would just sit under the chair. I said, "whatever works for you is fine!"
Oh, I forgot to mention when asking the customer for her cell phone number, she couldn't find it. She asked her nameless friend where it was and she said, "I told you to put it in the door of the truck." Well, she did, which meant it was still in there. I tried to call that customer and they were not home yet. There was not a cell phone number listed so Jon said, "They were going to Ponderosa to eat. Maybe we can page Rick and have him look for the customers." Yeah, I know, very ridiculous! The ladies wanted the customer's phone number, which I was not about to give to them. When I told them I couldn't they insisted that we called Ponderosa and paged them. We called Ponderosa and they couldn't find Rick, so the ladies were screwed.
OK, back to when we left the office. Jon is trying to situate them and all of their shit so he can get them to Marietta and transfer everything once again to another vehicle. About 5 minutes down the road I got a phone call. It was Jon and the women wanted to stay in Ripley for the night and come back the next day for a vehicle. I said, "Are you kidding me?" This was unbelievable!
I told Jon just to take them to a hotel and deal with them in the morning. Before he could do that, they made Jon take them to Ponderosa where they found the customers and they found their phone on the floor of truck.
Before he could take them to the hotel they wanted us to unload all of their stuff and put it in the office. Jon did so and then took them to the hotel. They made him wait while they registered. They couldn't get one on the first floor so Jon had to help the older lady up the stairs. You would think this was the end at least until the last day. Nope! Marietta had put the keys in the gas cap so Jon had to go get that car anyway so it wouldn't get stolen.
Meanwhile, I had to go to the mall in Charleston because Jon had special ordered some stuff for his girlfriend who would be in town that night. There was no way for him to get to Charleston by the time the mall closed so I told him I would go get the stuff and he could meet me in Elkview later on.
I got his stuff and headed over to Pork Chop's house. Usually the door is unlocked when I am coming over, but it was locked and there was no response when I knocked. I called him to let him know I was waiting outside and all I heard was, "Fuck!" He hobbled down the hall, let me in and then went straight back to bed. He wasn't even going to stay up with me until Jon called for me to meet him. So I cracked open a beer and watched "When Harry Met Sally." A couple of beers later Jon called and went to pee before I had to meet him. On my way down the hall, I realized that PC had closed his door. Apparently I was disturbing him!
Anyway, I met Jon and he said, "If we can get through these two ladies, we can get through anything," which has led me to believe so.
These two women had every problem ever possible wrapped up into one rental. They are still in a car and it is not over yet. In fact, they called Jon the other day on his cell phone. He said they got the number because they had to call his to get their own number.
These women have also led me to worry about the people that are out on the road.
Signs that you should worry include:
Not knowing the name of your friend driving your car.
Not being able to make it through the night without the rocking chair.
Leaving your cell phone, which you don't know the number to, in someone else's vehicle.
Making someone track down a complete stranger at the Ripley Ponderosa for their phone. They could have been shot!
Insisting to take the truck that they originally refused to rent.
The lists goes on and on...
This is an extreme example, but I do deal with this kind of crap on a daily basis. So the next time my Uncle Will tells me that I don't know what work is, I am going to direct towards my blog and ask him, "Have you EVER had to deal with something like this?"

Hopefully today will be a lot better than last Friday. I don't know if it can be worse!
Have a good Friday everyone! I will be in Huntington tomorrow and I can't wait!!!