Love Hertz

[Lou Girardin]

We went to see the out-laws in Nelson last weekend, we thought we'd fly and rent a cage down there. So my wife booked a rental with Hertz. We had to change the pick-up time, so a couple of calls were needed and some debate about picking it up at the airport. BUT ONLY RELATING TO THE TIME OF PICK-UP. (This is important)
So on Sat morning I pick up the Ford, I'm in a hurry, so I grab the paperwork, give them my card and head off.
We had a great weekend, as you do down there, and returned the car on Monday. So I'm surprised to see an 'airport location' fee of $25 on the contract. No-one was at the counter, so I spoke to a Hertz staff member by phone and arranged to call the manager.
So, a couple of days later I phoned and a pleasant discussion ensued. I was told that the fee is normal practice to cover the airport costs. So I suggested that if I had been told that I would have picked up the car from elswhere. He said, "I'm sorry, the airport is our only depot". So why is there an additional levy? Surely it should be built into the rental and not disguised as something beyond their control, with the inference that there is an alternative.
I was advised to contact customer service. After this suggestion was made a couple of times I had to be blunt and say that I wasn't interested in that and I would prefer a refund - now.
He rang back after 15 minutes and said that 'as a gesture of goodwill' they would refund the $25. I was SO happy, until he went on to say how thoroughly trained their customer service people were that they couldn't possibly make an error like that and it was my wife's misunderstanding.
My wife, the Financial Accountant and Treasury Manager for a major multi-national corporation who, like most accountants, checks every household bill and keeps records of quotes etc, including this one, was in error.
This is customer service 101, give them their money back and at the same time piss them off so that they'll never return.
He would have done better to hang on to the $25.

[Devil]

Bahahaha, Wankers.

ps: Stop annoying the herald about SUV's!

[The_Dover]

You do like a good moan don't you Lou?

Have you got some pom in you?

[Deviant Esq]

Speaking of Poms, it's stupidly difficult hiring a car over here if you're under 25. At least half of them won't let you hire one at all, and the rest usually charge big "under 25" fees. Doesn't matter if you're only a couple of months under 25, you get marginalised in a big way over here. I know it's only to do with insurance and they're only protecting their own interests, but I hate it being implied I'm a bad driver just because I'm under 25. Fuck that. Gotta be the English... I've never had to claim on car / bike insurance before.

Sorry to hear about that Lou. Clearly that man wouldn't know diplomacy if it came up, bit his head off and shat down his neck. Doesn't any man in customer service know never to imply a man's wife is wrong when he's pissed off at you? We all know women are always right, and the customer is always right. Moron.

[Motu]

I guess you know a fair bit about the hire industry Lou,I've worked on that side of the counter too.But you are in a niche area,you don't have to compete with the big boys...nor did we.They like to have a bare bones price....and then ''add'' on to that.I used to get halfway through our pricing speil and have the customer interupt with how Hetz etc are much cheaper and they're not....blah,blah,blah.Then I would try and explain that our prices included GST,fuel and all other costs,just a daily and mileage charge.
$10 a day,yeah right....

Shifting cars around is a time waster,but it just has to be figured into the cost of a hire.When I worked at Percy Honda the hire car workers would walk into the workshop and shout - ''Who wants to go for a drive to the airport?'' If you had enough time we would pile into a van or cars and either run cars down to the airport,or back to the yard,an hours break to the tedium of the day.But they were paying mechanics wages to do minions work....but what to do with half a dozen minions when you only need them for an hour every 3 days?