Breaking News: Hertz Runs Out Of Cars At O'Hare, Doesn't Know Why, & Doesn't Manage The Situation Well
As of 1:00 PM CT Tuesday, January 16, Hertz at O'Hare is out of cars, but they don't know why. And they are irritated that you'd want to know.
I have rented with Hertz for over 30 years, and I have never known them to run out. Hertz O'Hare Manager Barabara Fitzgerald was clearly uncomfortable and pursed her lips as she tried, but failed, to explain why when I insisted on speaking to a manager:
"We don't KNOW why we have no cars," Barbara said. "We THINK it's because of the snow yesterday, but we don't know for sure."
"Well," I said, "There's less than an inch of snow on the ground and traffic is normal, so that seems unlikely. I have rented cars for decades from Hertz here at O'Hare in winter storms far worse than the paltry snow you had yesterday, and I have NEVER had a problem. Don't your computers tell you where the cars are that are supposed to be here?"
But Barbara just shrugged and said again they did not know why there are no cars.
Meanwhile, the line out the door at the Gold Booth was at least 50-60 people, and more were being dropped off by the busses all the time. The main rental building was crowded with scores of people waiting for cars.
"Minimum 1 hour, 45 minute wait," I heard the counter agents say over and over, but a fellow next to me grumbled that he'd already waited over two hours for them to call his name.
Barbara and the so-called "Hertz Customer Service Representatives" were not handling things proactively, either. They were refusing to say why or offer explanations, and they were defensive and snappy at any questions from long-time renters like us Gold and President's Circle members.
It is not Hertz's finest hour, and there seemed no end in sight for the poor folks left there as I drove away after my own delay.
As of 1:00 PM CT Tuesday, January 16, Hertz at O'Hare is out of cars, but they don't know why. And they are irritated that you'd want to know.
I have rented with Hertz for over 30 years, and I have never known them to run out. Hertz O'Hare Manager Barabara Fitzgerald was clearly uncomfortable and pursed her lips as she tried, but failed, to explain why when I insisted on speaking to a manager:
"We don't KNOW why we have no cars," Barbara said. "We THINK it's because of the snow yesterday, but we don't know for sure."
"Well," I said, "There's less than an inch of snow on the ground and traffic is normal, so that seems unlikely. I have rented cars for decades from Hertz here at O'Hare in winter storms far worse than the paltry snow you had yesterday, and I have NEVER had a problem. Don't your computers tell you where the cars are that are supposed to be here?"
But Barbara just shrugged and said again they did not know why there are no cars.
Meanwhile, the line out the door at the Gold Booth was at least 50-60 people, and more were being dropped off by the busses all the time. The main rental building was crowded with scores of people waiting for cars.
"Minimum 1 hour, 45 minute wait," I heard the counter agents say over and over, but a fellow next to me grumbled that he'd already waited over two hours for them to call his name.
Barbara and the so-called "Hertz Customer Service Representatives" were not handling things proactively, either. They were refusing to say why or offer explanations, and they were defensive and snappy at any questions from long-time renters like us Gold and President's Circle members.
It is not Hertz's finest hour, and there seemed no end in sight for the poor folks left there as I drove away after my own delay.
posted by William A. Allen III | 2:44 PM
6 Comments:
Does this surprise anyone? This has long been one of their worst stations in terms of service... and I'm a pc club member too!
Let's see, you have been renting cars for decades and never run into this problem either.
It could be that the Hertz staff was as perplexed about it as you are. It is not in Hertz's interest to have problems like this either, I'm sure that they will have an answer sometime about this. And I do hope you'll let us know. Maybe a programmer screwed up their software or something...
I expect that it won't happen again anytime soon.
To Bill: I received an answer from a source who confirmed that: (a) no, Hertz staff was not perplexed about it, because (b) they do have the software to predict it, but (c) they have decided not to hire and train customer service staff to deal with it because (d) it's cheaper not to.
I was told that Hertz's business model is designed to allow this kind of thing to happen occasionally because they don't want to commit the money to training better people to manage it.
The real irritant for me was not that it happened per se, but the indifferent way in which they mishandled it. They did not set expectations; they did not offer any explanations or apologies; they did not try to cheerfully manage the crowds by offering free coffee and soft drinks and having reps our talking to people. Nor did they try to segregate customers by annual volume of business to take care of their best customers first.
A little bit would have gone a long way in boosting morale in the situation, but Hertz actually made things worse by being defensive and offering no answers to anyone.
As for it being a one-time issue, I was told to the contrary, that I should expect it to happen again.
Will, funny (well, not funny, but timely) that you should bring this up. A week ago on a one-day rental out of Boston downtown my Hertz location was out of everything except a minivan, which I was forced to take (unless I wanted to wait an hour for my economy car). Now juxtapose that with what I saw in Brancatelli's site about Hertz's "Florida Drive Out" promotion. Seems that the schedulers at Hertz corporate has screwed up its deployment of inventory---thus the $1/day rates in Fla.
A flip side is that it's given me a great vacation idea: cheap flight to Fla in May, some beach time, then a leisurely drive back to Boston on Hertz's $1/day rental rate.
I have a horror story of my own to share. Arrived in Kahului airport in Maui (mercifully ending the 12-hour trip to) and hustled over to Hertz on January 13. Although I had rented a full-sized car, I was offered a mini-van, which I refused. As a PC member, I was probably entitled to some kind of upgrade, but I told them I didn't want an upgrade--I just wanted what I had reserved. I was told it would take 40 minutes to get a full size, but that they could have me on my way immediately if I would accept a nice Mustang convertible. Deal!
Well, sad to say, it took one hour and fifteen minutes for me to get my Mustang. This was definitely no upgrade. But it wasn't exactly a downgrade either. Was it a degrade? Or perhaps an F-Grade? Oh well, next time I fly into OGG, I'll be renting with Budget!
I have a horror story of my own to share. Arrived in Kahului airport in Maui (mercifully ending the 12-hour trip to) and hustled over to Hertz on January 13. Although I had rented a full-sized car, I was offered a mini-van, which I refused. As a PC member, I was probably entitled to some kind of upgrade, but I told them I didn't want an upgrade--I just wanted what I had reserved. I was told it would take 40 minutes to get a full size, but that they could have me on my way immediately if I would accept a nice Mustang convertible. Deal!
Well, sad to say, it took one hour and fifteen minutes for me to get my Mustang. This was definitely no upgrade. But it wasn't exactly a downgrade either. Was it a degrade? Or perhaps an F-Grade? Oh well, next time I fly into OGG, I'll be renting with Budget! Life's too short...
Post a Comment
<< Home