Jim Skamarakas

How is it possible for a Hertz customer to book online a car and show up and it not be there? Well it happens. But 4 weeks in a row? And to a Hertz Gold customer, no wait, Five Star, no wait, passed that mark also. I’m at Hertz #1 Gold Presidents Circle. If I could have any more title in that title I would need a bigger car to carry it around in.

And since the Minneapolis-St Paul Hertz team seems destined to not have a car ready for me, I can’t afford a bigger title.

Last week it was a long comedy of errors

1. Car not there
2. Go into booth, get a car, drive out
3. Find out Satellite radio not activated, turn around and go back to the airport
4. Get told how busy they are renting 1500 cars on Mondays
5. Not appreciate being told I am insignificant and should take my business elsewhere I no such terms
6. Get a new car, pull up to the check out gate
7. Hand the check out guy over $3.00 in change, and several handfuls of trash all from the center console. Not under the seat or hidden somewhere, just the center console
8. Drive the car during the week and find more change in the center console along with used band-aids
9. On Thursday turn the car in
10. On Friday call and get a manager who tells me he will make sure I am set on Monday
11. Then get a call on Friday explaining that when the person gave me the 3rd car, or 2nd if you don’t count the invisible car, had overcharged me.
12. Get miffed and fill out the online form to document this comedy
13. Arrive in MSP and find out that my name is not on the board
14. Walk to the booth and the nice rep asks a lady behind her where my car is. She says “He must not have filled in all his information”
15. She checks, and tells her “No, he is pretty good about that, reservation for 9AM and his flight number and airline” to which she replies “Well we are busy and ran out of stalls”
16. Ask for a manager, told she is at the counter so I walk back inside, err rather into the Hertz / Avis area. It is all inside the parking garage.
17. Ask a woman working the counter for the manager, told she is not there, but could I…the first rep walks in with the manager. She at least is always on the ball. Kudos to her.
18. Explain the problem to the manager, get told she will get me a car and an upgrade
19. I walk to AVIS
20. 4 minutes later I am out of the airport

Now, I expense my rentals at work. I book the cheapest I can use, work to be in the highest levels of frequent traveler programs, and take whatever upgrade I get with a smile and a thank you. Now when they upgraded me at MSP to a Suburban and an Escalade, I walk in and turned it town. That is too much car for one guy driving under 100 miles a week. I am sure someone with their family and luggage would have benefited more from it then me.

Now as I wrote this down, I called into Hertz and spoke to the assistant for Jim Lindsay 651-695-3300 ext 3322. Jim is the Minneapolis city manager for Hertz Corporation. I wonder what he will have to say this week. I prefer to rack up Hertz #1 club points for the flexibility rather then AVIS 2 day weekend coupons. but as I told him last Friday - the car has to be there. It is the core of our relationship. The car has to be there, with 4 tires, an engine, keys, etc… All the things that make it a car.

I have rented cars with manual windows and manual door locks. They still got me back and forth. That is way better then no car. 100% better.

If the Hertz at MSP can mess up my order several times in only a few short weeks, the odds are that they are messing up a lot of peoples orders. Since I was told I am an insignificant speck of one out of 1500, after 2 weeks, I am 1 out of 3000, then 1 out of 4500 then 1 out of 6000

The odds that I would be picked out of 1 out of 1500 in 4 separate drawings is large, in fact it is 1 in 5,062,500,000,000 given the independent sequence of events that make up for 1/1500 x 1/1500 x 1/1500 x 1/1500 In short, staggering odds. On a single week it is only 1 in 1500 chance of probability of my not getting my car, or 0.07%, a very small chance.

If they only rented 10 cars on Mondays, then on any given Monday, the probability is only 1:10 or 10%, but on 2 weeks it drops to 1%, on the third week 0.1% and on the 4th week 0.01%. Even given only 4 people renting cars on Mondays, the odds that the same person would have a problem even just 2 weeks in a row is shockingly small. Or they make a lot more errors then just 1.

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Categories: Soapbox
Tags: business, customer service