The Insanity Continues

Not sure which icon works best: despondent Danny or ‘ticked off’ Speed. Why, you ask? I’ll tell you why.

Back on April 11, my old car decided to finally give up the ghost and announce that fact by having the ‘O/D OFF’ light blink at me. When I got home I called my parents and got what amounts to a shoulder shrug and them telling me they don’t have any suggestions.

So I made the best decision for me, since neither one was willing to adjust their morning schedule even slightly to avoid me having to sit in the dark in the parking lot at work with absolutely no security, and decided to get a rental car. Only this wasn’t decided until after 7 because neither of them returned any of my calls until then. Because of this I had to rent at DFW Airport which means I had to pay a higher tax rate. Go here and here to refresh your memory of how that went.

Avis put a hold on $652.08 of my money and I was told that $250 of that was because it was a debit card (it’s actually a check card, but whatever) and that it would be refunded once the rental was returned.

I went to work Thursday in pretty good spirits because I was expecting my next check to be fabulous (read that in your best drag queen voice) due to five hours of overtime the week before and three and half from the previous Monday and Tuesday. Then I got an email from my manager telling me I had to get rid of that extra time. I was bummed but not completely because that meant I could take Friday off, sleep in and take my time dealing with the car issue.

Friday, KIA called and told me I need a new transmission. I authorized them to put a hold on/take $500 for the deposit on the new transmission so they could order it, apparently they don’t just have transmissions lying around the shop, again making what was in my opinion the best decision because I couldn’t get either of my parents on the phone. Here's how that went down.

Now that I knew that I’d have to wait until, well, today to get my car back, I went to Avis (at a different location) and (stupid, stupid me*) extended my rental. They put a hold on an additional $491.32 for the next ten days.

Fast forward to last Monday, KIA called back and told me that with all the things that need to be fixed, it’d be better if I just bought a new car. My parents agreed.

So, this past Saturday we went and bought me the KIA in this post. I returned the rental on Tuesday, go here to be reminded of why I had to wait.

Avis told me that it’ll take about three days for the funds to be released back into my account. At this point I still had between $100 and $300 available to use. I checked my account Wednesday and it showed I was negative. I was floored! I have been more than careful about that. I called Avis and they said that I shouldn’t get any NSF fees but that if I do to just call the bank and explain. Then yesterday I checked it and it still showed I was in the negative and that I have two NSF fees. I called the bank first and was told to have Avis fax over a letter on their letterhead explaining about the hold and requesting they (the bank) reimburse me for any fees assessed while the release of the hold was pending.

I called Avis and was basically told they don’t do that. I had the guy call my bank and we talked to them together. The agent at the bank told him the exact same thing I did in the exact same way and he was all, “Oh, yeah, we do that all the time!” So we hang up with the agreement that he was going to do that right away and that my account would be back in the positive today. When I checked it this morning it was still in the negative and I’ve assessed two more NSF fees.

ETA:Just checked, and everything's good now, except for the additional NSF fees but I don't think I'll worry about those, too much hassle in my opinion.

*What I should have done was get the rental for a day or two, or even taken Thursday off, then returned it to the location closer to my house and then re-rented it at the lower price. *shrug* Live and learn. Back to text