The Tow Files: Home-Dumbing

[eltf177]

Ben_Who, could I get the name of that book? I'd love to read it!

[Argabarga]

For the Altima story the person said the regional manager was the one who wouldn't allow them to stop renting to the guy. It sounds like just one person has his head up his keister. Maybe a call to actual corporate will get something done. Sometimes individuals get stuck on a specific thing but corporate has a whole Army of bean counters that might see things differently. Or maybe they could just save the stinking car and only rent that one to the gentleman who can't control his dogs

From the corporate viewpoint, it really isn't as big a loss as a layperson would think. WHen you consider the attrition rate by vandalism/accidents/theft to a national rental car chain's fleet in a single year, they probably expect to lose a certain % of those cars, have those losses factored into the budget, and don't really care how it happens, just that the rate is about where they planned for it to be.

But, that doesn't mean you should rent to a known bad driver or other person who totals them, just because you can absorb the loss doesn't mean you're smart to take it.... in the hopes it will somehow lead to a profit That's where the dissonance occurs and drives front line employees nuts.

[Ben_Who]

Ben_Who, could I get the name of that book? I'd love to read it!

It's been out of print for about twenty years, I'm afraid; the fact that even I don't know that much about it indicates that it wasn't really a career priority of his. But I'll ask him the next time I see him and see if he still has a few copies floating around somewhere. I don't remember the title off the top of my head.

If I can't find the book, I can probably find some articles he wrote along the same lines. (Crates of magazines in the basement, I'm telling you.) He left the biz in the mid-1990s, which was almost but not quite pre-Internet. He has a couple of articles online, but that's it.

[XCashier]

Complete idiots work in their every corporate office.

FTFY. They're not the only company that insists on placating asshole customers who cost the company money. Corporate suits tend to prove the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

[CaptainThrifty]

I will note, after years in the Navy, there are those who will call all colas "cokes" and others who will call all colas "pepsis". Not that it makes any difference as far as not remembering the rest of your lunch, but I would never hold the sofa name against them unless they tried to call a lemon lime type by a cola name.

[Antares]

Argabarga, it was great to see your post! Always makes a morning better.

[EricKei]

Captain - I grew up in New Orleans, where the "all sodas are Cokes" thing is overwhelmingly popular. We even refer to Pepsis as "Cokes" (including Sprite and 7UP -- *sometimes* -- Sorry) -- Just keep in mind that Pepsi can be hard to find in restaurants there; unless it's a franchise of a company that has an exclusivity deal with PepsiCo, there's a 99% chance that they'll only stock Coke products; the other 1% will have both of them on one soda fountain, which can look surreal, at best. Even at grocery stores, you can typically expect Coke to have 3-5 times as much shelf space as Pepsi.

[ladydyani]

And so begins the great soda/pop/coke/pepsi debate of 2016.

[Ironclad Alibi]

It's been out of print for about twenty years, I'm afraid; the fact that even I don't know that much about it indicates that it wasn't really a career priority of his. But I'll ask him the next time I see him and see if he still has a few copies floating around somewhere. I don't remember the title off the top of my head.

If I can't find the book, I can probably find some articles he wrote along the same lines. (Crates of magazines in the basement, I'm telling you.) He left the biz in the mid-1990s, which was almost but not quite pre-Internet. He has a couple of articles online, but that's it.

Type his name into Amazon and see what comes up.

I recently bought a little known book published in the mid-80s from Amazon, and had the author autograph it. I'm taking a class with her.

[paxillated]

so much of the fun times, now gone by the wayside, never to come again, like a Cleveland Browns starting quarterback.

Nooooo! No picking on RGIII! (Paxillated looks sadly at her #10 Redskins jersey*)

Racket_Man quoth:

and yes (as he types this with dripping sarcasm) this is the modern corp. reality and you and I and all of the other (so-called) retail slaves have to deal with -- KEEP the customer at all costs even IF it looses you money in the long (or short) run.

It should be a requirement for an MBA to get a retail job at one of the national chains, and keep it for the entire time they're working on the degree - no quitting or getting fired. Or at least, write a research paper on "Bad Corporate Policies."


*I left DC in 1971, and I've been living in Colorado for 28 years...
And I've lived long enough to know that both the Minnesota Twins and the Texas Rangers were once known as the Washington Senators...

[Argabarga]

At least you weren't a fan of the 1992 - 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates like I was... twenty straight losing seasons, that still gives me cold sweats.

And my first game was Pirates and MONTREAL EXPOS at Three Rivers.... so I'm no bandwagon jumper.

[protege]

At least you weren't a fan of the 1992 - 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates like I was... twenty straight losing seasons, that still gives me cold sweats.

I was a Pirates fan for years. But after seeing them lose for 20 years, I've written them off. No bandwagon fan either--first game I went to was in '84, when my second-grade class sang the national anthem at the season opener.

[Becks]

And so begins the great soda/pop/coke/pepsi debate of 2016.

It's soda, and for drinking purposes, I drink Pepsi™.

[dalesys]

It's soda, and for drinking purposes, I drink Pepsi™.

As a 33% infusion in your rum?

[Becks]

As a 33% infusion in your rum?

Maaaaaaaaybe...