hertz hurtz

I posted over on nerdytales that I was going to get a rental car. I called up last night and had one booked in cleveland and was going to pick it up last night, but our group decided to pick it up this morning. we were able to find a hertz place online that was closer so I transfered my reservaction there and said I wanted the car there at 8am to be ready for pickup in the morning.

We went by work, the power is still out so we headed out to breakfast. we had a good breakfast, took our time and then headed out to find the rental car agency. after many wrong turns, and my terrible directions we were finally able to locate it.

we walked in and I asked for my car. he knew right away who I was because the office was very small and it looked like they didn't get much business so i'm sure there wasn't very many people listed in the system for pickups today. he appolgized and said he tried to call me (at the condo) but was unable to get throuhg so he rented my car to somoene else. now i'm only 2 hours late. and I never said I'd be there at exactly 8am (when they opened) to pick it up.

so I said.. no big deal. just bump me a class and get me a car. he said they couldn't do that. no more cars. well.. what about the 20 cars in the lot? those are all customer cars, they dn't have any rental cars. they have to get the cars they rent form the airport (45 min away, one way). so they had NOTHING.

well... no big deal. really, kinda irritating but we can come back later. so how about you just give me a map so I can find my way around your city? nope.. no map.

how about you give me a computer printout of my reservation so I have something to reference. sorry. cant do that.

how about you book me a neverlost GPS system to come with my car. sorry... no never losts are avialable.

then the people I'm traveling with decided we needed ANOTHER car (lots of people coming and going) so they want to book a mustang... nope.. sorry, not available at this location. but you get them from the airport, so just pick one up!.. nope.. sorry. can't rent from this location.

so basically, what do you always tell the customer?! well, if your hurtz its NO.

so we setup a new reservation for two cars to be ready no later than 5pm. we say repeatedly hold our cars. don't rent them out, we will be back. we are assured the cars will be here ontime.

we dink around for a few hours and come back at 4:30. yeah.. a tad early but since they screwed us so bad in the morning we figure they'd be ready. well.. not too surprisng was the fact they had NOTHING. the few cars they did get in during the day were not held. so we had to wait.

first car shows up, a mazda 3. an ok car. no big deal. my car is late, so out of respect i'm upgraded from bottom of the line to a ford focus. now i'm not one to complain but I asked what class the focus was and how it differed from a bottom of the line car and how exactly that was an upgrade of any kind. I was assured it was an upgrade (a much nicer car). and was like RIGHT.............. uh-huh

so the focus shows up. dirty as all get out and a smoker car. one of the guys I was with asked the girl if she could bump me to a pontiac that had just come in and they agreed.

I asked at the desk if they got me a map with my car (all rental cars come with maps) and the guy at the desk again explained how there were no maps. so I asked why he didn't get some from the rental car agency at the airport where they picked the car up and he said it was because they had no maps (right..... they rent 100's of cars and have no maps)

so he agreed to have one of the girls pick me up a map (for free I presume) from the gastation when they are topping the car off before they bring it in.. so good to his word he did get me a map.

bottom line. ended up with a midsize car, and a map (which they owed me for getting lost on the way any way) for around 155$ a week. not bad but i will NEVER be suprised when I get crap from hurtz again. my expectations are sub-teranian for this business and their is no way they can sink any lower. at least I hope not. i'll let you know how the return goes if there is problems in a week.