[JGATZ]

I'll never forget the first difficult customer I dealt with. It was within my first few weeks of working there. I go to pick up this lady at a brake repair shop nearby. She is a shorter well dressed heavy set woman with glasses and poofy hair. Immediately, I can tell she is less than happy to see me. We begin driving back to the branch and she begins complaining about her day as an accountant and the fact that her brakes went out on her Jeep Liberty. Basically, she was having a bad day. I mention that we do rent Jeep Libertys and thought we might have one on the lot. I then mention I will get her the rate for the brake repair shop where I picked her up. Once we get to the branch, she begins complaining about the long line, so I push her up to the front. I believe at this point she starts questioning why the repair shop was not paying for her rental as well as why she needs to provide a credit card. We then get into the circular conversation of why we need a credit card. She finally provides all the necessary documentation and I proceed to tell her the rate of her Jeep Liberty. She basically has a cow that it is so expensive and wants the cheapest thing we have. I tell her a Nissan Sentra, so I ask if I can go clean it up. She says she is in a hurry and does not want to wait. I decide to just take her out to the car to get her out of the office. The car is pretty clean with the exception of a few grass clippings from getting in and out. She begins to complain about the floor mats being dirty to which I ask if I should clean them for her. No, she does not want to wait. However, she apparently has an extra five minutes where she insists I explain how every single button works on the car. She glares at me as I tell her about the damage waiver and says that she doesn't want it. I don't bother to ask again. Finally, she pulls away.

A few days later she comes back ready to pay the bill. Once she hears what it is, she makes a big scene questioning why the tax is so much. She says that she is an accountant and has never seen tax that high. She begins making a scene. Aopparently, she didn't understand the rate did not include tax. To shut her up, I adjust the rate to a flat $25.00 with tax included to which she pays without a thank you. I then drive her back to the brake shop where she asks me how I can do this job. She points out that I must deal with a lot of angry people all day and chuckles. No, she was not married. I checked her left ring finger. (No surprise.)

I get back to the branch and then get reprimanded for adjusting the rate to try to make the customer happy. I thought they told me in training that I had the autonomy to do what I thought would make the customer completely satisfied. I guess that wasn't the only thing they lied about...