What is the point of a reservation?

[WELOVEERAC]

Hi! I'm Marshall and I work at Random Rent-a-Car. The following was a letter written to my area manager because of the "horrendous" service given at my branch. The locations and names are changed for obvious reasons.

Horrendous experience in *my location*

Customer By Web Form - 07/23/2012 05:03 PM
July 11, 2012
To whom it may concern,
I have rented cars regularly from Random Rent-a-car in *anywhere*, US. Mark and Donna at the *anywhere* Randon Rent-a-car know me by name, ask about the job, the kids, etc. when I come in. These two are absolutely fabulous!

My rental needs initially stemmed from an auto repair. It seems there is one standard to treat rental customers who come from insurance agencies and a different standard for other customers. I was accustomed to receiving a call from the rental agency confirming I had a vehicle that day and requesting a time for pick up. When I would arrive at the rental office, the car would be waiting for me.

I reserved a car for personal needs. Unlike when I have a car from the insurance company, there was no phone call, no confirmation of time of pick up, no "warning." Unbeknownst to me, the cars are "given away" if you are not within 45 minutes of the time you put on the internet. This is COMPLETELY different than when I have a car reserved from the insurance company. So, Michelle in *Anywhere*, sent me to *other city* to pick up a car as she had given my vehicle away.

Here is where the trouble starts and escalates. During this weekend, NASCAR is in town. There is not a rental car to be found. Not having their finger on the pulse of local events, the *other city* store sends 12 cars to the local shop for service. Really? So - after waiting 4 hours for a car to complete an oil change, I call the *other city* office. Not having a vehicle is adversely impacting my vacation timelines. I was given excuses to pacify me. I was told "they were doing me a favor by giving me a car." I would get a car when the servicing was complete. I had already waited 4 hours for servicing to be completed. I took it upon myself to call the shop that was performing the oil change. The manager told me that he had requested Random provide him an order of priority for the cars they
needed - he never received any response, so he was doing the cars in order of arrival to his shop. None of the cars he was servicing met my needs as they were too small. So, I requested that he expedite a full size car as I was extremely late for vacation departure. He agreed he would help me and the car would be ready within 20 minutes. Armed with this information, I make the drive from *anywhere* (where I live) to *other city* (20 minute drive one way). Upon my arrival to the Ridgefield store, the one person working the counter and trying to clean cars at the same time, made the entirety of guests wait for an extended period of time. When it was finally reached my turn for service, this individual told me she could not take my debit card without either a car insurance statement, utility
bill, etc. This is NOT in alignment with my previous rental experiences as I have repeatedly used my debit card for renting from "Random". Nonetheless, I drive back to *anywhere* to get these statements. This is costing me dearly in time and gas expenses. I have a number of individuals waiting for me to let them into the cabin we rented in *Resort Town*. I have a house full of people from out of town in *anywhere* waiting to leave for Nantucket. As inconvenient as this is, I need the rental car, so I drive back to *anywhere* to get the statements. When I return, *other city* (Margaret, Jane and Bob) have given my car away. Oops - "so sorry" they say. Sorry? Sorry does NOT negate the trouble, inconvenience, and hassle they have caused. To add insult to injury, I was again reminded that they were
"doing me a favor" by giving me a car because I was late. *Margaret and Jane* even had the audacity to point to an 8.5X11 piece of paper full of text stating the rental policy that I should have read. These people were exceptionally rude, condescending and nasty. When I asked for my free upgrade card so that I could get out of their store, I was told "here, now get out."

Words cannot express the level of sheer nastiness I received from *Margaret, Jane and Bob*. I feel they deliberately gave my car away to spite me. Instead of providing excellent customer service as I had previously experienced in the *anywhere* store, these individuals made it clear that I should NOT give Random my money.

I ultimately wound up back in *anywhere* where Michelle gave me a rental car at 5 PM. (Donna made it a point to go over the vehicle with me, chat and ask about the family - she is great!!!) My vacation day was essentially wasted; I had people waiting outside the Nantucket rental for 4 hours. I had out of town guests asking "why were those people at the rental location in *other city* so rude to you?" I am EXCEPTIONALLY disgusted with the lack of customer service, rude and nasty behavior from your *other city* employees.

I find the complete, utter difference in customer service between your locations completely appalling. My experience in *other city* was horrendous enough for me to re-think using "Random" the next time I have rental needs. As the owner of a sports car, I have rental needs quite frequently when there are more than 2 passengers.
I am interested in your response to my experience.

Sincerely, Ms. Snooty Pants Customer


1. Why were you late in the first place if your vacation was so important? If you had a reservation at a restaurant and you were 45 minutes late, do you expect your table to held for you?
2. You are leaving out the part where you’re huffing and puffing, and disrespecting everyone.
3. Who cares if you have a sports car? Be on time!
4. Stop acting like the world revolves around you, others in the office where there on time for their reservation.
5. So you would rather us rent you a car that needs maintenance badly? I thought the general public would appreciate the fact that we service our cars at regular intervals?
6. And yes! We totally rented your car to spite you!! You deserved it.
7. Walk your late ass down to Hertz.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Side Note; I think you missed one of your editing out of the company names, when he is blathering on and whinging about the service NOT being in alignment (lawl at word choice) with previous rental experiences. If not, MAH BAD!

Middle Note:
Guy's a whinging twat. If he made the reservation himself, there's really no need for confirmation because there's an expectation that "Hey guy, you made the reservation yourself, you should remember it." If the insurance company made it, there kind of a requirement to inform the person getting the car that "Hey, you have a car ready via your insurance and you can get it at XX:XX time."

If he was going to be 45 minutes late, the least he could do was call the office and say "Hey, running a bit late, would it be possible for you to hold XX car from XXX invoice for a little longer? I am coming."

At nearly an hour later, it is not unreasonable to believe that the guy is just not coming in, and being late to a schedule time is rude and disrespectful. He got what he deserved.

[RealUnimportant]

If it's as busy a weekend as he's stating, of COURSE you're not going to hang onto a car just on the offchance he might eventually show up...

Having briefly worked in the rental field, I say screw him & the Pony he drove in.

[Catwoman2965]

He does sound like a whiny, brainless twit. Depending on the day and time of year, cars from that particular rental company go quickly! I rent from them frequently, so I know. If I have a reservation, I will always call if I'm not going to be able to pick up my car when I said i would. And they always hold it for me. But if you don't, or expect to just waltz in and have them have a car waiting for you, too bad, so sad.

[SkullBash]

Wow. As if they are the only customer you exist to serve. Too bad you couldn't have trotted out a cart hitched to a donkey and said, "here's what we reserve for customers like you."

[roxtar]

"sports cars" are ALWAYS second cars. if all you have is a sports car, you're doing it wrong. Why is this fool renting in the first place? the fact that the people working at another rental location know him on sight is proof enough that this dude has need of a second vehicle.

last time I rented locally, my daily was in the shop ('97 subaru outback) and my project car ('88 porsche 944) decided to crap out at the same time, so I couldn't drive that until I'd fixed it.

[Pixilated]

*large snip*
Sincerely, Ms. Snooty Pants Customer


1. Why were you late in the first place if your vacation was so important? If you had a reservation at a restaurant and you were 45 minutes late, do you expect your table to held for you?
1. What a silly question. Of course she does! She's SPESHUL!!
2. You are leaving out the part where you’re huffing and puffing, and disrespecting everyone.
2. She wouldn't have to do this if you'd just grovel appropriately.
3. Who cares if you have a sports car? Be on time!
3. Hey, c'mon, she's got an image to uphold!
4. Stop acting like the world revolves around you, others in the office where there on time for their reservation.
3. How dare you imply that it doesn't!!
5. So you would rather us rent you a car that needs maintenance badly? I thought the general public would appreciate the fact that we service our cars at regular intervals?
5. You should be doing the maintenance when people don't need the cars ... like, you know, at 3 a.m. or so.
6. And yes! We totally rented your car to spite you!! You deserved it.
7. Walk your late ass down to Hertz.

I like the idea of the donkey and the wagon, except ... what has the poor donkey ever done to deserve that ...

[wolfie]

The only thing I can see the rental car company doing wrong is, when sucktomer is told they need to bring in additional documentation, and they go to get it, the car is given away WHILE THEY ARE GOING TO GET THE DOCUMENTATION THEY WERE TOLD WAS NEEDED. Unlike a situation of "reservation made, customer not there 45 minutes after the time", where it would be reasonable to assume they've blown off the reservation without telling anyone, this person HAD SHOWN UP and had already waited 2 minutes at the counter (based on "Customer Standard Time" conversion factor - double the actual time and go to the next larger unit). After all, it takes time to go home, find the documentation, and bring it back.

This does involve a fail on the customer's part also. Why didn't the person they brought with them stay near the counter to make sure the second car didn't get given away while they were off getting the documentation? How do I know that there was a second person involved? Simple - sucktomer showed up in a sports car, and was renting a larger vehicle. Once they get the larger vehicle, how are they supposed to get the sports car back home, or are they expecting to leave it at the rental agency while on vacation, tying up a parking space, and being at risk for damage, or other sucktomers demanding to rent the sports car that's "obviously in stock"?

[PepperElf]

Not having their finger on the pulse of local events, the *other city* store sends 12 cars to the local shop for service.

yeah because all companies are suppose to plan everything around nascar.

1. Why were you late in the first place if your vacation was so important? If you had a reservation at a restaurant and you were 45 minutes late, do you expect your table to held for you?

Cos people like her think the world pauses for their own special needs and that other PAYING customers don't exist.

2. You are leaving out the part where you’re huffing and puffing, and disrespecting everyone.

Of course. It makes her look better. Just like the people who say things like "I had choice words with the employee" to downplay the fact that their potty mouths would make sailors blush and take offense.

3. Who cares if you have a sports car? Be on time!
4. Stop acting like the world revolves around you, others in the office where there on time for their reservation.

Same reason customers boast about how much money they spend - they think it means they're entitled to have the world stop to wait for them. Actually that goes for both 3 and 4. We call them "Entitlement whores" for a reason.

5. So you would rather us rent you a car that needs maintenance badly? I thought the general public would appreciate the fact that we service our cars at regular intervals?

Of course. Maintenance is magically supplied by unicorns that can stop cars from breaking down because Ms Special Cunt is the one renting.

6. And yes! We totally rented your car to spite you!! You deserved it.

Although I know you didn't... This does amuse me

7. Walk your late ass down to Hertz.

Now that's not nice. I mean ... not nice to do to HERTZ that is.

[kpzra]

I would love for someone to pull that here. You have 2 choices, one of which is on the Navy base outside town. The next closest, Reno or Carson city roughly an hour away.

[Zoom]

Let's see... NASCAR's in town... all the cars are rented out...

...is that what NASCAR's been driving all this time? No wonder they need maintenance.

[Jester]

"sports cars" are ALWAYS second cars. if all you have is a sports car, you're doing it wrong. Why is this fool renting in the first place? the fact that the people working at another rental location know him on sight is proof enough that this dude has need of a second vehicle.

I respectfully disagree.

Some people will just own a sports car. And it may be all they need in their daily lives, especially if they have no children, or sometimes even if they do. But for vacations, especially if many people are going, the group may need something larger than the sports car, larger than anything anyone in the group owns. Even if the renter is a married guy with a wife and 2 kids, the sports car (say a Ford Mustang) may be perfectly fine for daily life, but just not have the room for a vacation. And so from time to time, for vacations, they will rent something larger.

Yes, he needs a second vehicle, FOR VACATION. Doesn't mean he needs it all the time.

Another possibility is that he and his wife do have a second, larger vehicle, and while it is great for around town, it is not quite reliable enough to take on a long road trip. Doesn't mean they need to replace said larger vehicle, but merely that they need an alternative to what they own for the vacation.

Just offering some alternative possibilities.

[bainsidhe]

I'm confused, what type of insurance company? Th LW claims they rent often and normally receive excellent service when renting from an insurance agency. All I could think was how bad of a driver must the LW be to constantly be renting for insurance reasons?

[MoonCat]

So, NASCAR is a big event that weekend and....the customer didn't take into account that rental cars would be going like the proverbial hotcakes?

The customer has rented cars before and yet has no idea what documentation might be needed? And did not bother to find out?

And yet it's still somehow the agency's fault. EW reasoning to the max.

[Ironclad Alibi]

My vacation day was essentially wasted; I had people waiting outside the Nantucket rental for 4 hours.

That reminds me, we haven't heard from vacation rentals suck lately. Fortunately he is not in Nantucket (I think) and doesn't have to deal with Ms. Snooty Pants Customer. At least not this time.