AVIS: THREE STRIKES, YOU'RE OUT! (and HERTZ IS IN)

I flew to Wisconsin a few months ago. I picked up a car from Avis at the airport when I arrived late in the evening and drove to my hotel. When I went to start the car the next morning, the battery was dead. I had to go to a board meeting, but fortunately there was somebody else staying at the hotel who was also going to the meeting. He said he'd take me.

I called Avis and told them to pick up the car because the battery was dead. Avis said, "Well, Mr. Gallegos, we'll bring you another car." I didn't have time for that, so I told them no and that I was leaving the keys at the hotel's front desk.

So I left, went to my board meeting, and at the end of the day I got to the airport. I did not expect to be billed anything, because my car wouldn't start, but, to my surprise, at the Avis desk they gave me a bill. Because my plane was leaving in 15 minutes, I didn't have time to argue.

I called the Avis customer service 800 line when I got back home. The customer service person said to me, "Well, Mr. Gallegos, you had that car overnight."

I responded, "Sure, I had it overnight. I had to go to bed. I drove that car exactly six miles and the battery died."

She said, "You drove it and you had it overnight."

I asked, "That's why you're charging me?"

And she said, "Of course."

I asked for the president's number.

I knew there was no way I would actually get the president. As expected, I got his secretary who proceeded to tell me I needed to call customer service. I said I already did that. The secretary told me that is where this type of complaint is handled.

So I decided to send an email to the president of Avis to express my concerns. I wrote that I couldn't understand why Avis was charging me for renting a car with a dead battery that I wasn't able to drive. Of course, the person who opened the email (not the president) has instructions to take care of such complaints. How stupid.

When I was president of a large supermarket chain and a customer ONLY wanted to talk to me, I took the call. You know why? Because if I got on the phone with an irate customer, I've already won because the customer is surprised to be actually talking to the president of the company.

The Avis customer service office eventually responded. It took about six weeks. The email said, "I apologize for the time it took to get back to your email regarding the condition of the vehicle. Providing good service is a major factor separating Avis from the competition. To learn that you were not provided the level of service you should expect from Avis was perhaps as disappointing to us as it was to you."

The last paragraph said they were sending my letter to the Quality Assurance Department. The letter concluded, "We thank you for taking the time to bring this to our attention, but also to provide us an opportunity to show you the quality of our service. As a gesture of good will, we are enclosing two $50 gift certificates, which we hope you will use on a forthcoming Avis rental."

How arrogant! What makes them think I'm renting from them again? I wrote them a letter back and enclosed their two $50 gift certificates and told them I never wanted to rent from them again.

HERE'S THE POINT:

In my opinion, Avis made at least three major customer service mistakes:

Strike 1: The first person who took care of me at the airport should have had the power to say, "Mr. Gallegos, we apologize that your car didn't start, and there is no charge for the car." And that person should also have given me a gift certificate. It would have been over and I would have been satisfied.

Strike 2: The Avis 800 number. Instead of insisting the charge was correct because I had the car overnight, they should have credited me the amount of the charge. And they should have given me a gift certificate. Wasn't it obvious that I couldn't drive a car with a dead battery?

Strike 3: The third mistake was the way Avis handled my email to the president - six weeks to respond?! They offered two gift certificates to bribe me to come back. But by then they had lost me as a customer.

This problem could have been averted if Avis employees at the counter and in customer service had more training in how to treat customers properly. In this case they had a customer who was upset because a car wasn't working properly. Instead of trying to make me happy, they insisted I had to pay for a car that didn't start. And that's why I am now renting cars from Hertz.