Venting my spleen

I am just going to complain for a minute. Yesterday was a disappointing and expensive day. Here's what happened:

Husband won an auction for some real library bookshelves that a university was getting rid of. I was so excited to turn the living room into a library, and the extra shelves would go into the garage to be used for storage purposes. We got the shelves at such a good price that it was worth it to rent a truck to pick them up, as they were in a town about 25 miles away. With Husband at work during the day, I had to arrange for the truck rental and for picking up the shelves.

You know that these truck rental companies are running a bait-and-switch operation. I was still surprised by how much MORE they charge than the advertised price for a day. After they added on the insurance and gas fees and all the other little bits and pieces, I was paying nearly $100 just to drive the truck off the lot. Fine, I thought. At least we're getting the shelves for a bargain. Those same shelves new would probably cost several hundred dollars apiece.

When by brother and dad showed up at the university to pick up the shelves, the jerk in charge unapologetically informed them that they wouldn't be able to get the shelves. Even when Brother explained that we had just shelled out a lot of money to rent the truck for that one specific purpose, Jerk In Charge calmly informed him that he couldn't spare the manpower to send someone over to the library to unlock it. He said this while three of his guys were sitting there doing nothing in plain sight. Even when Brother called Husband and had Husband talk to Jerk, Jerk didn't bend in the slightest. He wouldn't let them go, even though the website didn't say anything about not being able to pick up the shelves on a Friday. A heated argument ensued and Husband cancelled the auction. No shelves for us.

When I took the truck back I had to refill the gas tank to 3/4 level (which is another clever little tactic. Why not get the truck full and then refill it? Instead you have to guess when you've put in enough gas to hit the 3/4 level and the company specifically states they will not reimburse you for putting in extra gas but they will charge you $30 plus $5 per gallon if you don't put in enough gas), which cost money, and then the truck company charged me more money (79 cents a mile) for the 40 extra miles they hadn't already charged me for. All in all, the useless errand cost about $150. That's a few cents over their advertised price of $29.95 for a day. And I'm also angry with the Jerk In Charge and will make whatever complaints I need to to get heard.

I'm not usually obsessed about money. I like getting things at a bargain value -- who doesn't?-- but it really hurts the budget to spend that much money for nothing. I'm just mad about it.

Thanks for listening. This ends the venting session.