Group 15 Customer Horror Stories

[noeracforme]

I got one...

This is not a particular story but I am sure being in Chicago, happens way too much.

It just snowed, a lot. Ice, snow, salt is everywhere. Oh yea, the temperature is 10 below zero outside. You rent a car to a customer, polite enough to keep the car running in the bay while you make the inside clean as a brand new car while you freeze because the bay door is open to you don't die by the fumes. You bring the car around to the front and the first thing the customer says is "Why is the car so dirty?" You explain, thinking the customer would know simple physics, that if we would wash the car, the water will freeze almost instantly because it is so cold outside. Not a good answer. I would hear such responses as, "Don't you have towels you can dry the car with?...I can't drive in a car that is dirty(even though you just saw their car they left in the shop and it is far worse than what you are giving them)...or my personal favorite, they take the car, go to a car wash, and sure enough, their door freezes and now it is our fault and ERAC needs to come to some remote location, switch cars and make it our problem. Oh, and the office has to reimburse the customer for the car wash.

I am looking outside right now, the temperature says 12 degrees wind chill and I am in my heated office, comfortable and warm and wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

[voice of truth]

These are all great stories. I'm glad I don't work in retail anymore.

[noeracforme]

Here is another one...

Customer calls asking to be picked up from a body shop first thing Monday morning because he needs to be at work ASAP. No problem. When asking what body shop he wanted to be picked up from, it was completely out of my territory, actually 45 minutes away.

I told him nicely that there is another ERAC closer to that shop and they would be more than happy to take care of him. He got upset. He says that he is aware of the ERAC I was speaking of but does not want them to pick him up. He says that he refuses to do business with that ERAC. He was threatening me to call my corporate office that I am refusing business to a customer and that I will lose my job if I don't pick him up that day.

After literally getting in a shouting match with him, it was revealed that the only reason why he wanted us to pick him up is because we were on his way to work and the other office was too far for him to drive and he hates to drive long to work.

I was going on vacation later that day, so I hung up and let someone else deal with him as I left the office.

[noeracforme]

Man I got a million of these stories...

Rented a car to a walk-in guy, was dropped off by what looked like his wife, or hooker, whatever.

Rented a full size car, got good rate, completely qualified and sold DW and PAI. A week passes by, doing call backs, down on his deposits, call his home, leave a message, update his deposit. No problem. Do this for a whole month. No call back from the customer but credit card is still charging.

6 weeks pass by and now we have to worry about re-writing his contract. Still no answer but deposits are still up to date. Now, a call comes through, it's my customer...starts yelling, using profanity about the messages he just listened to on his machine about his rental. He states that he only had the car for one day and parked the car in the airport parking lot and left the country for business. He never checked his messages until he got home. He assumed that since there was an ERAC at the airport that they would spot the car and return it for him, even though the ERAC is an off-site location and he parked in the lot next to the terminal which is like $20/day. He refused to pay for the rental and stopped payment with his AMEX saying it was our car, we should of taken care of it.

Long story short, my Regional manager decided to refund his money than for ERAC to go to court to fight for the money, saying in the end it would of cost more money and bad publicity than to collect. $1800 rental to $0, not to mention the fee of the parking at the airport which I do not remember the exact total.

I did everything by the book, nothing I did was wrong, but to the higher ups, $1800 is nothing to them in the overall scheme of things than principal. Translation, it didn't really dent their commission check so they chose the side of the customer. It did really dent the office numbers and I don't think my managers made anything in commission after that rental got deducted.

[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...

[JGATZ]

I've mentioned this once before in another thread, but I had a lady who rented a car earlier in the day only to call the office later with a problem. Apparently, something was wrong with the shifter as it would not come out of park. Luckily, she was close by, so I grabbed a screw driver in case I needed to depress the shift lock to get it in gear. I get to the parking lot where she is standing outside the car a bit annoyed at the whole situation. I tell her I am going to test it, so I start it up and put it in reverse, drive, neutral, etc. I do this several more times and tell her everything is all right. It turns out she was not stepping on the brake to get it out of park and was yanking at the shifter thinking it was stuck when all she had to do was depress the brake to release it. She was a little embarassed after I pointed this out to her to say the least. "Here's your sign."

I had another lady who insisted on being shown how to use every control on the car. Once she rented it, she wanted me to go with her to make sure she could drive it. I helped show her how to drive the car since was in her 80s, but I did feel like a DMV instructor, which would have been a better job.

I could go on, but you get the point. When dealing with the public, you are bound to run into people that make you question how they are able to function daily. You will also run into some very nice people as well as a LOT of jackasses. At ERAC, it pretty much goes with the territory.