"Worst vacation ever" LOLOLOL Your vacation sounds amazing compared to mine. I do hear you that you're frustrated, but you were safe on a ship being entertained. I would have gladly exchange places with you at that time. Here's the worst vacation I was on at that exact same time and honestly mine could have been way worse.
We started our drive to Friday morning and all was going well when my car shuddered and died on interstate 24 just north of Clarksville. Unfortunately we were in a construction zone that was down to one lane when it happened, but I was able to maneuver us into the ditch. We called 911 because we were not in a safe location (it was very narrow and semis were barely able to pass us) and a tow truck. The towing company fortunately brought an additional off duty driver so that all 4 of us would have a ride to a safe location, but the extra driver was only able to take us as far as the next exit.
The kiddos and I waited for a Lyft to take us to Hertz while Matt rode with the towing company to drop off our car. Once at Hertz I was told that they didn't have a car big enough for us but, while she was showing me a smaller car to see if everything would fit someone returned the right size vehicle! Unfortunately, that's where our luck ran out. After picking my husband up at the dealership he noticed that the tires on the vehicle we rented were in very poor shape and there was a gouge in the sidewall of one of the tires. They put in a work order to have the tires replaced at Discount Tires down the street. After waiting for 3 hours to get an approval for the tires Hertz declined replacement and left us stranded.
The manager at the Hertz in Clarksville wasn't giving up on getting us home safely and went above and beyond for us. We headed to a hotel and he started the roadside assistance process to tow our rented vehicle to Nashville and have a replacement vehicle delivered to us from Nashville. Unfortunately they wouldn't deliver the vehicle, but I was able to ride with the driver to the Nashville Airport to get a replacement. Once arriving at the airport I waited in line for an hour for them to tell me that they wouldn't do the exchange without me filling out an incident report admitting to being at fault for the damages. There was absolutely no way I was doing that, so I called the manager back at the Clarksville location. There was a notation on our rental agreement stating what had happened and I had a case number that they were supposed to look at, but they refused to help me. The manager at Clarksville then called the General Manager of Nashville at home on a Saturday. Three minutes later the process to exchange our vehicle began. Ten minutes later I was back on the road to pick up my family at the hotel in Clarksville and we were on our way home.
We all arrived safely at home We have no idea how long it will be before our car is diagnosed and fixed. It could be months according the the dealership. They're down to 2 engine techs and have 4 other cars sitting there with the same problem. I'm hopeful that it'll be covered under our warranty, but who knows. The most important thing is were all safe and we have a second vehicle for transportation.