What Does Hertz Have Against Grandma?

Last week, my wife’s grandmother passed away at 98 years of age. She was a special lady who remained alert and curious until her last days. She was active on Facebook, keeping up with her great-grandchildren’s lives.

So my family and I made the trip back to the Midwest for the funeral. Landing at the airport 5 hours before the visitation and with a 2-hour drive ahead of us, we went to the Hertz® rental car counter to pick up the keys to our car.

It quickly became apparent that Hertz was having some type of issue because there were unhappy customers milling around the counter. Hertz didn’t have any cars, and the unhappy customers were waiting for cars to be returned before they could head on their way. In speaking with the Hertz representative, I learned that despite my reservation, they didn’t have a car for me, and the fact that I needed to accommodate five passengers was going to make my wait longer. And, of course, there was no way for Hertz to tell me when a car might become available. This wasn’t the first time I’ve had an unpleasant surprise with Hertz.

With our 3-hour cushion now down to two and a half hours, we discussed our alternatives. Others in line ahead of us had already been there 90 minutes and counting. Waiting to see if Hertz would get a car that would meet our needs became too much of a gamble, so we took action.

My wife checked all the other car rental companies to see if they had anything available. Nothing doing there because any excess inventory they might have had had been taken up by other Hertz customers without cars. What was left was already booked for incoming customers.

I jumped on the phone with Hertz to see what I could do. As a regular customer and Hertz Gold Rewards member, I thought they might find a way around my dilemma. I called their 800 number, and after listening to a commercial about the availability of Hertz rental cars for sale, I moved through the menu until I got to a selection that I thought met my needs. I made the selection and got to listen to the same commercial again before I found a way to get a live person on the line. You can imagine how frustrating it is to listen to a commercial—not once but twice—when you’re racing against the clock to make it to Grandma’s service.

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But I finally had a live person on the line. And like the man behind the counter, she seemed very willing to help. I asked if other Hertz locations in the area might have some cars available. She checked and confirmed that one nearby location did indeed have cars available—and one large enough to accommodate five people. Now we’re cooking on the front burner.

My next question was whether they would pick us up or deliver the car to us. The customer service representative confirmed that they would pick us up. We’re on a roll! Things were really looking up when she threw me the first curveball. The customer service representative had to check how much extra it would cost to rent the car from this location and return it to the airport. I couldn’t believe it. You don’t have a car, but you can get me one—and it’s going to cost me more? I was starting to lose my patience and shared my displeasure.

But lo and behold, the representative checked “the system,” and there wasn’t an extra charge for returning the car to the airport. So, she canceled my existing reservation at the airport and rebooked me with the Hertz location across town. She provided me with my new confirmation number and the phone number for that location. I quickly placed the call to arrange for the airport pickup. That’s when things turned again.

The representative at the second Hertz location told me they weren’t allowed to pick up passengers or deliver a car to the airport. When I began to argue my case, I was informed that it didn’t matter anyway because they didn’t have any cars!

Wait!

Our margin time was down to 2 hours; Hertz didn’t have cars at the second location; and my Hertz airport reservation had been canceled. I quickly approached the Hertz rental counter and got my original reservation reinstated, but we were running out of time. My wife made another run through the other rental agencies and discovered that Avis had cars available. We quickly snatched up our ride and headed on our way!

I remember the Avis ads from my youth, “We’re #2, so we try harder.” I understand they dropped that tag line a number of years ago, but for me, Avis definitely tried harder that day. And Hertz provided a lesson in what not to do:

1. Don’t promise a customer something you can’t deliver.
2. Don’t rely on “systems” that don’t accurately reflect the reality of your operations.
3. Don’t underestimate the damage you can do to your brand by providing a terrible customer experience.

Avis saved the day! We made it to Grandma’s service with time to spare. That doesn’t change the fact that Hertz couldn’t get out of its own way. Look, I don’t think Hertz is going to miss me. I’m just one customer, and Hertz is a big company. And if this had been my first bad experience with Hertz, I might have let it go as one mistake. But I’ve had a number of experiences like this over the past couple of years. You know the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Well, shame on me for not giving up on Hertz earlier!