Okay, backstory on this one.
I help my dad out in his body shop, essentially making sure he's doing what he needs, copying estimates, ensuring invoices on parts are posted, things of that nature.
I have to answer the phone, the whole deal being my dad works out in the shop repairing cars and such, and that I only drag him away from his work if it's important.
Also, because my dad is the business owner, he acts like an owner, so sometimes he isn't always in, so I leave messages for him to prioritize later, because I know how my dad thinks.
Now, at one point when I worked in insurance, I was licensed in 38 states to help people out with their policies. Now, most policies for customers include a clause wherein the insurance company will pay for the duration of a rental while their primary car is being repaired.
On top of this, to my knowledge, rental car companies primarily earn their profit by renting cars out to customers, so a customer being in a rental for longer than expected is good for the rental car company, financially speaking.
Final piece to this puzzle is that due to various factors, it's been a
nightmare getting OEM and aftermarket parts for customers' cars. We've been waiting on parts since January in some cases, namely Chrysler is the worst to my knowledge right now. Other places are a bit faster, but there's been massive delays on parts across the board. Hint hint: take my advice and don't get in a wreck right now. Drive safe, y'all!
Anyhow, normally I don't have a problem with Enterprise, speaking strictly as one business doing business with another. Normally, they're nice people to deal with.
But, in one of the offices here where I live, there's a
massive f*cking douche working for them, who can't handle when things don't go
precisely as the insurance's estimate says, or our estimate says.
Rather than accept that sometimes **** happens, he starts pointing the finger, and he points it at us 100% of the time when a customer is in a rental longer than expected.
Anyhow, this is all setup for what happened today.
I answered the phone, and Enterprise was calling about an update on a customer's car. Sure enough, it was the jackass who gets huffy when he gets told things he doesn't want to hear.
Now in this specific situation, all I knew was that we were still waiting on a customer's OEM grille that Chrysler has been telling us for 3 months now is two weeks out. So I explained this to the guy, that the car's pretty much done, but we're still waiting on the grille, because without it, the customer's dash would light up like a Christmas tree. So it's not
quite done.
He asks how much longer, and I say I really can't say, because consider what Chrysler has been telling us.
So he starts getting huffy saying that we're paying for the rental.
My bull**** meter instantly went off, considering my experience in insurance, so I told him that insurance typically pays for a rental, and if he has a complaint about it, call the customer's insurance company.
He starts trying to argue with me until I had enough and said, "Dude, we're an
AUTO BODY SHOP, not an
INSURANCE COMPANY. If you have an issue with this, take it up with the customer's insurance company."
I then ended the call, and that should be that. I don't have time trying to explain how insurance works for someone who's only experience is working at a rental car company.
Well, Enterprise calls back, and this time, it's their corporate office, apparently complaining to my dad that I told someone that they're full of ****, and if they have a problem, might want to direct it to someone else.
Sorry I don't have a magic wand to wave around and pull car parts out of my ass to appease people. Suck it up, dude, life sometimes hands you the short straw, and in this situation, it's best to remember the wisdom of the Dalai Lama, that patience is a sign of strength.
Anyhow, rant done. Other than that, I had a good day, and hope you all had a good one too!