In general I thought retirement would mean doing what I
want when I want . Not quite true at the moment as I have a schedule and
deadlines for future travels so I cant just grab a deal and go ,thus far.
Arrival in Tasmania is when and where we have no plans and will freefall ,
however on the off chance and with only hours before departure I checked out
cheap car hire.
I got a good deal through Doyouspain.com , smallest class
which is all I want and 23 days at £282 , grabbed it. Normally I don’t pay till
I collect, it means if anything goes wrong I don’t have to frig around trying
to get my money back and I can if I see
a better offer grab it. In this case the website only offered the option to
book it if you paid (maybe because of the timescale to be fair). I didn’t take
out the insurance. Its cheaper than the car hire company charge but the car
hire company’s don’t like it and wont on some occasion accept it. If you argue
they often suddenly cant speak English.
At the airport I got the transit van to the car hire
depot where there was a he queue. There were a lot of exasperated people a lot
of mumbling and raised voices, arms being waved in exasperation and threats
followed by demands for refunds. English being, whatever anyone says , the common
language the conversations were being carried out in accented English. I could
not make out what the problem was but nobody was moving. When people rent a car
the driver normally does the paperwork and the rest of the company stand around
checking watches and complaing about the time its taking. people were throwing keys in the office saying I will miss
my flight I am going., the sign said drop off takes 30 minutes, nobody was moving. 90 minutes I waited. A French party were arguing
with all the passion the French keep for such occasions . The women in the
party who had been pacing out side suddenly pushed her way through the queue
inserted herself between her companions and demanded to know what was going on?
She then demanded a refund promising to
go the airport and hire a car there ‘from a decent company’. Her refund came up
short. She demanded all her money back. The car hire rep apologised. He did not
have it. She had booked through a broker and she had paid insurance at the same
time. He could not give back the insurance as the broker had it. All became
clear, either the company wanted them to take out their own insurance and did
not accept the insurance they had ,or, they wanted an indemnity, a further
problem appeared to be that the people having all the problems and there were
three parties involved were French and none (Non)of their cards were
acceptable. “But I paid with diss!” exclaimed the women in a heavy French
accent “Yes” replied the car hire rep in a heavy Spanish accent , “the broker ,
they take it , we do not!” Mind you they both shrugged in the same language.
When I finally got there I paid the extra insurance , got
the keys and left leaving them still arguing , “this is bloody stupid “ seems to
be a standard phrase no matter what the nationality.
One further thing I never get the car I hire. The car
that is on the website is always the most desirable in the class, the car I get
is always something else , the car advertised was a Fiat 500, I rather kike
them , I can hear derisory snorts of “Its a ladies car”. I being content in my
masculinity rather like them they being stylish and the only retro car (apart
from the Beetle) where the manufacture has captured the spirit of the original
whilst updating it to produce the next generation. Evolution not revolution. . Suffice to say I din’t get the 500 I got the
‘or similar’ a Toyota Picanto.
boardwalks protect endangered areas
b
seagrass conservation
a member of the sideways hat club
the resy of the club
the café at the end of the walk
police bikes
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