Hertz - Fiasco in BOS due to staff cutbacks -- 2 hour wait for cars

When I entered the Hertz bus at BOS last Monday evening 1/12, someone exiting warned me that there were no cars available and customers were lined up out the door. (This guy had decided to head to the BOS Logan Hilton, rather than wait for a car.)

When I arrived at the lot, there were only about a dozen cars under the canopy and only a dozen names on the board. As I wasn't one of the lucky few (despite being President's Circle), I went inside to join about 75 of my new Hertz friends in line waiting for one of 4 agents (2 in the Gold office, 2 at the regular counter).

When I finally got to the front of the line, I was told that while they had plenty of cars, they were all buried in snow. Apparently, the layoffs had cut staff to the point where they didn't have enough lot employees to shovel the cars out.

Arrival at the lot: 8:00 pm. Departure with car: 9:45 pm. Unbelievable!

The real irony: the bus that took me to the lot prominently displayed "CARS AVAILABLE," which, I guess, was technically correct. If this is an indication of things to come post-layoffs, it is not going to be pretty.

Agree that this is a poor way to run a business!

I guess this is a way of "right sizing" your staff so that customer demand will drop to match new staffing levels-- saving money with future reduced fleet acquisition costs to boot!

I'm also not keen on the lack of return staff at many locations now.

More troublesome is if there are severe staffing cutbacks, what corners are being cut in terms of car maintenance and safety checks?

It's hard to plan for labor requirements due to snowfall. While I can't be happy with a two-hour wait, in many business transactions with unexpected peaks or sudden disruptions to input, lines happen. Car services exist for people who think themselves too important ever to wait for a rental car.

I still have you beat. Once waited two hours in the Alamo line only to be told it was a minimum of another two hours for a car. And there was NO weather issue involved!

I absolutely despise any and all disruptions to my day due to weather. Unfortunately, such circumstances exist. I wouldn't think this is a Hertz-only issue, much like weather in the northeast causes airline delays regardless of carrier. Move to california, no snow-related rental delays that I'm aware of.

Snow on the cars was a pretty bogus excuse.

In BOS it did snow the morning of 11 Jan. Snow was over by noon. There was accumulation, though it was not a blizzard or even a major storm. Monday was a normal work day. If you run a rental car business, then you ought to be staffed to plow/shovel snow off your fleet in 24 hours. Am I missing something?

Nope, you are not missing a thing. Hertz, however, is missing about 4000 employees, including the ones that would have been clearing the snow off the cars in the lot.

If this is an indication of things to come, they may also be missing my business.

Snow on the cars was a pretty bogus excuse.

In BOS it did snow the morning of 11 Jan. Snow was over by noon. There was accumulation, though it was not a blizzard or even a major storm. Monday was a normal work day. If you run a rental car business, then you ought to be staffed to plow/shovel snow off your fleet in 24 hours. Am I missing something?

Actually you are missing something..maybe a weather report from that day.... the snow was between 6 and 8 inches...on an empty parking lot or yard not an issue....however on a lot full of cars it is an issue...a major airport location will usually hold more cars than it needs to to cut down on transporter costs...next time you go to a major airport location look around and see if there are a group of cars stacked up anywhere...there in lies the problem with this location on this night....the staff of people who clear snow off cars is usually management and the people who actually clean the cars, many Hertz locations are now running a thinly as possible. Without going into great detail on how to run an airport car rental operation that location in particular probably didn't have enough people to keep up with a busy monday (still a top rental day no matter what the economy is) cleaning and parking cars is hard enough without piles of snow around to slow people down. Add to that, that monday was the day of layoffs so it was probably slowed more than usual because of chatter among employees regarding lost colleagues.

I hope this provides some insight....thats all I care to share

Digging, prepping, and moving cars in a lot area in the snow is not fun.. It is quite difficult and time consuming. The only time it isn't an issue is if it is a dusting.

Actually you are missing something..maybe a weather report from that day.... the snow was between 6 and 8 inches...

Ah, but you're wrong there. I don't know about you, but I live within 10 miles of BOS (or KBOS, the official Boston weather station at Logan). There was some snow, about 6 inches worth, starting around 9 PM on Saturday 10 Jan. That snow was over by early morning on Sunday 11 Jan. The OP commented on 12 Jan evening. There was a very light snow between 8 and 9 AM on 12 Jan, nothing significant.

Wanna check the facts:
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KBOS/2009/1/12/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA

In particular, click on the "View Animated Radar Loop" to watch the bit of precip zip by. If you go back to the 10th and watch the radar you can see the 6 inch storm coming in late that evening.

And yes, I did check the above before my original post. I'm wondering where you got your info about significant snow on the 12th?

So, 6 inches of snow finishing by 9 AM on Sunday, then a dusting between 8 and 9 AM Monday, in Boston, and shame on Hertz for later saying their cars were snowed under. And that was before the layoffs, no? They were announced on Friday 16 Jan.

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/01/16/2009-01-16_hertz_to_lay_off_4000.html

While I do not really know the particulars of the Boston location, I have dealt with several years of snow conditions...

It does take a deal of time to get cars out of snow - the bigger the location, the more they would have to take care of.. Usually took us a good day to get back to "normalized" conditions..

lay offs were publicly disclosed on the 16th...happened throughout the week...starting monday

6 inches of snow...with no melting...actual freezing ontop with the dusting... with between 700 and 1000 cars to clear off..only prooves my point more

I hope this provides some insight....thats all I care to share

I do appreciate your explaination. What really tourqued me that night was that there was no special effort made to take care of Gold, 5*, or PC customers. It might not be as easy, but, as a PC, I would expect that my car would be one of the dozen or so that was waiting under the canopy, regardless of weather conditions.

I went to Hertz from Avis a few years back because I felt the service level was higher at Hertz. If that is no longer the case, I still have my Wizard card in the wallet.

6 inches of snow...with no melting...actual freezing ontop with the dusting... with between 700 and 1000 cars to clear off..only prooves my point more

Looking at your three posts to date, you're obviously an apologist and likely work for Hertz. Well good for Hertz for paying attention to its big rental customers. But please don't spread misinformation here. You challenged my description of the snow events that weekend with untruths, and when I gave you the real data you just tried to wave your hands around it.

Seems to me that if you are in the car rental business in New England you should be able to get your fleet operational 36 hours after a 6 inch snow storm. Hey, six inches ain't squat here!

As OldRoyal said, most of the reason I rent from Hertz is because as Gold I generally get a fast exit from the airport. For that, I pay a premium. If I don't get that as a matter of course, I'll end up shopping around. Enough said.

And, thanks to hearing the collective experience of FTers, I'll be able to sniff out such trends faster than relying only on my own experience.

Who I am or what i've done or did is really none of your business I offer insight and explainations if you don't like it... they just ignore what I write.

I didn't wave my hands at it I offered you a further explaination...like I said in my orignial post 6 inches of snow in an empty parking lot or a driveway is nothing...yes the snow that weekend wasn't anything a hardy new englander would have difficultly with....try moving 6 inches off of 700-1000 cars whiles its frozen...its difficult...but if you know how to do it better I reccommend you go to logan and offer it up they probably would love it

I do appreciate your explaination. What really tourqued me that night was that there was no special effort made to take care of Gold, 5*, or PC customers. It might not be as easy, but, as a PC, I would expect that my car would be one of the dozen or so that was waiting under the canopy, regardless of weather conditions.

I went to Hertz from Avis a few years back because I felt the service level was higher at Hertz. If that is no longer the case, I still have my Wizard card in the wallet.

Just a bit curious why you didn't use your Avis card on this rental day. What the Hertz advocates say seems logical.

I have had similar experiences in past. One night several of us were wandering the Hertz lot at MSP, muttering 'what is the point of being PC?' The counter agent finally agreed to our suggestion to pull cars assigned to later guests and give them to the PCs who were waiting for over an hour.

At MUC during World Cup I was told 'sorry, no cars, come back tomorrow.' While I understand peak demand periods, MUC and I often butt heads. I explained that 'home' was 2.5 hours drive away, and no way was I coming back the next day to get a car. The suggested solution was to catch up with a fellow Hertz would-be-renter (a stranger to me) and find a way to share a ride to Upper Bavaria. Uh, not viable!

While the situation of 'no cars' may occur every so often, I agree that there should be some prioritization for top tier elites to have at least some type of vehicle. Those of us who have been loyal to Hertz for years should be able to expect at least a token in return.


Looking at your three posts to date, you're obviously an apologist and likely work for Hertz. Well good for Hertz for paying attention to its big rental customers. But please don't spread misinformation here. You challenged my description of the snow events that weekend with untruths, and when I gave you the real data you just tried to wave your hands around it.
This would not be the first time a Hertz employee has joined to berate or dispute a poster, if indeed this is the case (happened to me here in past) I have said it before, but will say it again - the bitterness that some Hertz employees here have displayed to some of their most regular customers has left a bad taste in my mouth. At a time when Hertz really needs us to remain loyal, some of their employees appear to be doing their best to drive us away.

Just a bit curious why you didn't use your Avis card on this rental day. What the Hertz advocates say seems logical.

Once you get to the lot, you are basically captive. Even though Avis is just down the street from Hertz at BOS, in order to get there you'd have to ride the Hertz bus back to the terminal and then hop on the Avis bus. Too much hassle.

Once you get to the lot, you are basically captive. Even though Avis is just down the street from Hertz at BOS, in order to get there you'd have to ride the Hertz bus back to the terminal and then hop on the Avis bus. Too much hassle.

You can walk (if there is not a physical issue). I have actually walked between car rentals at BOS and ATL.

I've had a number of problems with Hertz at BOS (though no two-hour wait, thankfully). Below is an email I sent Hertz Customer Relations, and handed a hardcopy to a manager when I returned the car, at the end of week before last:

As a long-time, and loyal, Hertz customer, I've been surprised and disappointed by the recent quality of my five last rentals at Boston Logan. Four of my five last year rentals have had some kind of problem, either with the car or with the paperwork.

For example, at the moment I'm in the middle of the rental of a Honda Civic. On my drive to Amherst when clearing road spray from my windshield, the wipers malfunctioned, stopping either straight up, or diagonally across my field of vision. A call to Hertz roadside assistance confirmed a problem with the windshield wiper motor, one I assume that was there when I picked the car up an hour earlier. Because it would take an hour for me to drive to another Hertz location to exchange the car -- during business hours, when I'm supposed to be working -- and because no rain was forecast for the duration of the rental, I've decided to keep the car. But not happily.

And that's not the only problem. The only key I was given for this Honda Civic turns out to be the VALET key. There is no way to unlock the trunk without opening the door (manually; there is no remote keyless entry), finding and popping the trunk release, and opening the trunk. This is a twice-a-day hassle for my briefcase. Why no normal key? Why no remote keyless entry?

Two other cars in the past five rentals have had similar annoying problems. A Pontiac G6 had a remote keyless entry, but the button to open the doors didn't work. A Chrysler Sebring had so many minor problems (warning lights going on when there was no problem, etc.) it's not worth going into the litany of describing them. I dutifully have reported these every time I've returned a car, but the return agent didn't look extremely interested.

And then there's the paperwork. As a Five Star Gold, I expect the car to be there when I arrive at the Hertz lot, with the occasionally understandable exception. However, in two of the last five rentals, there was no car, and I had to wait in line to get one (even though they admitted they had my reservation and there should have been a car). In one of the five rentals, there was a car -- but no contract. I had to go back into the building and into line, and wait to get a contract before I could leave.

Three out of five of the last rentals with automative problems. Three out of five with paperwork problems. This does not strike me as the profile of a world-class car rental company, especially at the premium rates Hertz commands.

I'm hoping this note will be shared with the manager of the Boston Logan airport location in the hope that quality control can be improved -- especially since I have four more rentals there over the next two months. Thank you.

Ten days later, no response yet.

Ten days later, no response yet.

Try tgraham@hertz.com. Terry Graham is responsible for Hertz Customer Service worldwide. That got me a VERY prompt response to one of my problems. You should also cc customerservice@hertz.com.

Good letter. I fly into BOS 1-2 times/month and my experience at Hertz there has been pretty good over the years. Biggest issue for me was standing in line for PlatePass and they have fixed that problem.

Now, with the new staffing level, who knows?

Try tgraham@hertz.com. Terry Graham is responsible for Hertz Customer Service worldwide. That got me a VERY prompt response to one of my problems. You should also cc customerservice@hertz.com.

Good letter. I fly into BOS 1-2 times/month and my experience at Hertz there has been pretty good over the years. Biggest issue for me was standing in line for PlatePass and they have fixed that problem.

Now, with the new staffing level, who knows?

Unfortunately, customerservice@hertz.com bounces. It generates the following error:

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

customerservice@hertz.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 554 554 5.7.1 Invalid recipient list (state 15).

That's what I first tried, before calling Customer Relations and being told to send it to customerrelations@hertz.com. That resulted in an auto response saying not to contact them until nine business days had gone by, if no one contacts me.

Let's see ... by my math, that should be tomorrow. So I think Terry Graham will be getting a note tomorrow. Thanks for the pointer.^

Unfortunately, customerservice@hertz.com bounces...


...Terry Graham will be getting a note tomorrow. Thanks for the pointer.^

Sorry....it is customerrelations@hertz.com. How did you make out with your complaint?

Sorry....it is customerrelations@hertz.com. How did you make out with your complaint?

Customerrelations@hertz.com never responded, other than the standard autoresponse. So I did drop Terrence Graham a note, as had been recommended here on FT.

He responded immediately, kindly took my detailed feedback, and arranged that my next rental at Logan to be on time, with the right paperwork, in a fully functioning, low mileage car.

Unfortunately, it was a one-time occurrance. I started a subsequent rental period this Monday at Logan. It appears I'm back to what appears to be typical practice at this location: a high-mileage (45,000 miles+) Pontiac G6 with another non-functioning remote keyless entry (and an odd rhythmic thumping noise by the front tire).

It is the useless remote keyless entry that is the biggest hassle in sub-freezing temperatures. I'm a bit amazed that no one at Logan seems to care if these work.

I am starting to look for alternatives to Hertz at Logan, as I have several more rentals coming up. I may change, depending on the hassle factor. After all, rental cars are commodities. It is the details that matter and separate one company from another.

Thanks for the update. If I were you, I'd write again to your new friend TGraham, telling him about your continued issues and your possible decision to move to the competition. Keep the pressure on.

Just to follow up: Back in January, what prompted my letter to Hertz was getting a Honda Civic with malfunctioning windshield wipers, no keyless entry and only a valet key that wouldn't open the trunk.

I wrote the detailed letter about my Logan rental experiences, gave a copy to the local manager, and emailed it to customer relations, TGraham, and posted it here.

Last Monday, I arrived at Hertz Logan, walked to my car, only to find ... the exact same Honda Civic. Still only a valet key. The windshield wipers I was not about to try.

When I went to the Gold desk to ask for another car and mentioned the key, I was told by a very disinterested staffer it was probably all they had. At least I got a nice Hyundai Sonata with only (yes, "only") 28K miles on it.

I seem to be alternating between good and bad rentals at this location, still. But at least there are some good ones. And they seem to have fixed staffing issues for rental return, even at peak times (late Friday afternoons). It moves quickly.

With the now older cars, I've seen increased key fob death too. They probably just need a battery, but you never test it as you leave the lot, because of course the car is unlocked.

Maybe I will remember to test it next time.

Also used to get both keys but again with age they seem to often lose one...