west@sdcsla.UUCP (Larry West) (08/26/83)
ittvax!dipalma submitted a (justifiably) angry description of his/her experience with a truck rental firm known as ``Jartran Truck Rental'' in which she/he was unable to get a truck despite placing a deposit (of which the receipt did warn) and calling ahead. My comment is that this is not particularly unusual. I've called ahead at a U-Haul shortly before leaving to pick up the truck, been assured there was no problem, and then arrived there 1/2 hour later to find no truck. Since these places are generally run by independent operators, and since they DO warn you in advance, and since it is my impression that this is not an atypical situation, I think your [ittvax!dipalma] complaints are overly strong. The avoidance procedure is to get the vehicle a day before you really need it. Yes, this costs you an extra, and not inconsequential sum, but it's one of those precautions one should take if one wants to avoid more serious problems. Besides, it will almost undoubtably take longer than you think to pack the vehicle, and getting a few hours of packing done the evening before helps. In general, my feeling is that people should restrain themselves from making highly negative comments on businesses in cases like this; one experience, and apparently no comparison to performance at competing firms do not make a convincing case... if what Jartran did is in fact according to the ``industry standard'', and since they did warn you, they have done no great wrong (other than apparently overbooking, which is not unusual). Also, if you are going to make this sort of specific comment, please note what area of the country you're in. -- Larry West, UC San Diego -- sdcsvax!sdcsla!west
preece@uicsl.UUCP (08/30/83)
#R:mgweed:-296300:uicsl:5400014:000:1185 uicsl!preece Aug 29 13:45:00 1983 "... THat's good. It cost that Jartran weasel $0.00 to screw ittvax!dipalma out of his/her truck. Why shouldn't he/she have an equally costly opportunity to screw him right back?" ---------- The tone of this note seems to suggest that Jartran is in the business of not renting trucks. Maybe that's why they went into bankruptcy a while back. I very much doubt that they were happy about not having a truck available. I don't see what you expect them to do about it, call the police to go out and collect the truck that they thought was going to be brought back in time to be rented out? As for your comparison with Ryder, I'm curious why you think that the fact that they had a truck when you needed one implies they're better at this than Jartran. Surely the vast majority of the people who use Jartran also got their truck when they wanted it. I'm not saying Jartran may not be mismanaged, I have no knowledge of that or of their scheduling procedures and I have never used them myself. But I think the best way to get through life is to assume they're doing their best and that your experience was just bad luck. One observation is insufficient grounds for complaint.