Category: Soap Box

Here is my letter to Andy Taylor, the CEO of Enterprise:

Mr Taylor,

I’ve been using Enterprise Rent-A-Car almost exclusively for over fifteen years; all the way from Highland Indiana to Oakland California. I’ve always been happy, until tonight. Oddly enough, it’s been over a month since I have rented a vehicle, but sometimes errors have a way of building up to a climax…

I rented a cargo van from the Enterprise Rent-A-Car at 3030 Broadway, Oakland, CA on 08-26-08. I did not notice until I was well on my way home with the vehicle that the rear driver’s turn signal was burned out. Not having the time to drive back to the rental location, I picked up a bulb and replaced it myself. $5 for a bulb and an hour of my time, since you have to disassemble the left light assembly to replace the bulb, per the owner’s manual. That was annoying, but not a complete turn-off to your company; though it does indicate that your company does not have a pre-rental checklist they run through.

I returned the vehicle in the early afternoon of 09-02-08. It was a simple one week rental. We went through the check-in process without hitch. The staff at the rental location offered to reimburse me for the $5 light bulbs (two to a pack, I left the spare in the glove box), but I declined. It wasn’t worth the hassle.

So, here we are, over a month later. What happened? I received a parking citation from the city of Oakland CA. The citation is for a white cargo van that was illegally parked at 3068 Broadway, Oakland, CA at 2:03AM on 09-03-08. This bothers me for several reasons. The van is not mine, therefore someone at Enterprise provided my information to the city of Oakland. I would not mind this, had the citation actually occurred during my rental period. Since it did not, it means that someone at Enterprise received this citation from the city of Oakland and failed to correlate the date/time of the ticket with the period under which the van was rented by me.

The light bulb incident cost me time, but not nearly as much time as this ticket is going to cost me. I have long since shredded the rental agreement, so now I must physically go to the Enterprise office in question and get a reprint of my contract so that I can dispute this ticket. Then I have to deal with disputing this ticket. I am a contract sysadmin, and I only get paid for the hours I work; every hour I spend dealing with this ticket during business hours is money out of my family’s pocket. I simply can’t afford this kind of hassle and lost wages when I rent a vehicle.

I have requested that the City of Oakland provide me with any written documentation provided by Enterprise claiming that this vehicle was rented to me at the time of the citation. I’ll send you any documentation that I receive if you would like.

If you have any questions regarding my complaint, please feel free to call me: [redacted]

-Chris

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I believe in Free Will. I believe people should have the right to choose not to perform acts that go against their conscience. I do not believe people have the right to force their choices on others.

I have turned down projects that I considered unethical. I believe, for the most part, that doctors should have the right to choose what procedures they will perform and that pharmacists should have the right to judge whether or not to service a prescription. My exception to this belief is in situations where the individual has a monopoly on a specific service. If there is only one doctor or pharmacy available to a community, than they should be able not use their position of power to force people to live out their fantasy of what is moral. Each person on this planet bears the sole responsibility for themselves, and their moral compass; and with that responsibility comes authority, but that also only applies to themselves. If someone feels the need, or that they have the right, to play god then they are not suited for their position and should have their license to practice revoked.

The article referenced below began by talking about a pharmacy in Virginia that has opened with a unique inventory selection: “No candy. No sodas. And no birth control.” I don’t have the slightest problem with that. It’s their business, and in a free market capitalistic society, they will draw some customers and chase some away.

What bothered me was a little further down in the article. Apparently there is a pharmacist in Wisconsin whose conscience forbid them from fulfilling a prescription for birth control, and then their god complex kicked in and they refused to transfer the prescription to another drug store. To me, that is holding the health and life of a patient hostage to personal morality. Arrogant bastard.

Va. pharmacy follows faith, no birth control sales
[…snip snip snip…]
Earlier this year in Wisconsin, a state appeals court upheld sanctions against a pharmacist who refused to dispense birth control pills to a woman and wouldn't transfer her prescription elsewhere. Elsewhere, at least seven states require pharmacies or pharmacists to fill contraceptive prescriptions, according to the National Women's Law Center. Four states explicitly give pharmacists the right to turn away any prescriptions, the group said.

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