Leaving Albuquerque and Customer Service

We left Albuquerque with only about an hour's worth of glitches. Communication is such a problem sometimes. I called and requested a bellman to help with our luggage, and confirmed that the hotel van would take us to the car rental place. "No problem, I'll send someone up right away."

I'm one of those who thinks 20 minutes isn't 'right away' so I called again. "Sorry, I'll get a bellman right to your room."

Ten minutes and one more call later, a bellman arrives and asks if we're parked out front. I tell him the hotel is giving us a ride to the car rental place (2 miles away according to Avis), and he says, "We don't do that."

"I'll talk to the front desk," I say, and the clerk assures me there will be no problem. Not sure how happy the bellman is, because it took him short of forever to pull the van around and load the luggage. He said he wasn't sure where the Avis place was, unless it was in the Hilton, and I told him that sounded right, since the rental information said "Avis Hilton" on it. He also had a brochure stuck in the console with "Avis Locations" in bright red letters. I suggested he could confirm it on that list. He said, "That's for Enterprise." I work with an Adult Literacy Program, and perhaps this man could avail himself of some local services, although I didn't mention it to him.

OK, so we're in the right place. My husband waits in the lobby with the luggage and I wend my way through the hotel to find the Avis desk. The attendant says there will be a short wait because he sent my car back to the airport by mistake. The other attendant is on break, and she will know. I ask why he can't just give me another car, but apparently there are only select few cars allowed to go one way out of state. After a bit, the woman comes back and says, "It's here," and gets on the phone, ignoring the obvious fact that the other guy doesn't know what he's doing and I'm standing right there. Eventually, we get everything straightened out and he says he'll bring the car to the lobby.

Ten minutes and no car later, I go back, and the woman tells me he's on his way and goes back to making phone calls.

When the car does arrive at last, he apologizes and says he had to re-clean it, and if we're ever back this way, he owes us a free day. I ask why he doesn't just take it off our rental, and he says he would if he could but since we're returning it in Colorado, he can't do that. Seems to me that Avis is a pretty big company, and a phone call or email to the Colorado Springs Airport would be simple enough.

More another time on the trip to Pagosa Springs through breathtaking scenery.