Fun with Hertz car rentals (or how to waste vacation time)

So, I decided to get myself a rather expensive treat this summer. For travelling the Peloponnes I rented a Mini Cooper convertible. These are really cute, and driving around in the sun with the roof open felt like a very nice idea. I'm a Hertz Gold Club customer, so why not go for Hertz again.

I picked up the car in Athens, all looked fine. The first day I had some longer driving to do, and also the manual was only in Greek, so I decided to drive to my first stop and check out the convertible roof there. OK, with some fiddling I found and read a German manual on the BMW website (now I know where to find the VIN number, if anyone asks :), opened the roof, enjoyed half a day in the mountains near Kalavrita.

Afterwards the passenger side window didn't close anymore.

It turns out something was already bent or damaged inside the door, so the window was sliding up on the wrong side of its rubber seal. At some point it can't move any further, so the electronics stops and disables the window. The effect is perfectly reproducible, and scratch marks on the rubber seal and door frame indicate it's been doing that already for a while. Oh well.

• Phoned the nearest Hertz office in Patras. After some complicated discussion in English they advised me to contact the office in Athens.
• Phoned the Hertz office in Athens. I managed to explain the problem there. They said I should contact their central technical service office, since maybe they know something easy to do. 
• Phoned the central technical service office. There the problem was quickly understood; a very helpful lady explained to me that most likely the car would have to be exchanged. Since it was Sunday afternoon, they couldn't do it now, but somebody would call me back on Monday morning 9-10.
• Waited Monday morning for the call. Nothing happened. 
• Phoned the central technical service office, Monday around 13:00. They asked me where I was. After telling them I'm going to Patras the next day, they told me I should come by their office there.
• Arrived at the Patras office tuesday around 17:30. I demonstrated the problem to the lady there. She acknowledged that something's broken, and told me she'd come to my hotel the next day between 11:00 and 12:00 to pick up the car and bring it to the BMW service for repair. 
• Now I'm sitting in the bar of the hotel, it's 12:30, no one has called or come by, and slowly I'm getting seriously annoyed.

Let's see how the story continues...

• Update: 13:00, friendly lady from Hertz picked up the car. Fingers crossed. Made clear it's a long rental, so delaying makes no sense. Wants to phone me either in the afternoon or tomorrow morning.
• Update 2: The drama continues in the next blog post.