GREAT Hertz Experience in Colorado Springs

Old Jan 21, 2010, 11:32 pm
  #1  
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Redondo Beach, CA USA
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GREAT Hertz Experience in Colorado Springs

I was on a late flight from LAX to COS this past Monday evening. The scheduled arrival time was 11:39 PM, so I called Avis (the agency I was forced to use by my employer) to make sure they would still be open. A rather surly rep told me that he was closing promptly at midnight. I asked if any other agencies stayed open later and he told me no, but that I could take a cab to my hotel and they would hold my reservation for 24 hours. Gee, thanks.

So in what turned out to be a moment of prescience, I went online and booked a Hertz reservation as a backup. I figured that if I got in after midnight maybe I'd get lucky and ONE of them would still be processing a line of customers or something.

Due to bad weather, we were delayed about two hours, meaning we didn't land in COS until after 1:30 AM. I made haste to the rental car desks, and was initially dismayed to see them all dark and empty. But then a gentleman walked out of the Hertz door and asked, "Are you Mr. DJ Iceman?" Shocked, I told him I was. He said he'd been waiting for me, as he'd called United to verify I was on the flight and didn't want me to be stranded overnight (it was so late that even the cab stand was empty).

His selflessness and dedication to customer service meant that I and four of my coworkers (who all had reservations from different agencies) were able to get to our hotels and get a reasonable night's sleep. I asked how I could best make sure that he was recognized by his management for what he'd done, and he simply told me that he was only doing his job. Without keeping him there too much longer (he should have left for home almost two hours before, by all rights), I told him that his kind of dedication is far from the norm in today's service industries.

I did submit online feedback via Hertz.com, calling him out by name and relating this same story. I've also been telling everyone who cares (like in this thread) that Hertz really did right by me in this case. Like others, I'd become disillusioned by the decline in service quality shown by Hertz over the past few years. But I definitely have to give credit where it's due, and it's to Mike who works the late shift at the COS airport location!
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Old Jan 21, 2010, 11:44 pm
  #2  
 
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I love a happy ending. Thanks for posting.
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Old Jan 22, 2010, 1:44 am
  #3  
 
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Well, while admirable, he was following policy. Someone is required to stay until the last flight arrives and another reason why it is important to submit your flight information with a reservation.
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Old Jan 22, 2010, 7:01 am
  #4  
 
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Policy or not, it's still impressive when it all works out properly with such an extreme example (2-hour flight delay). I'm sure there have been reports where such things didn't go as well, even with the proper flight info.
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Old Jan 22, 2010, 10:55 am
  #5  
 
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Originally Posted by CrazyOne
Policy or not, it's still impressive when it all works out properly with such an extreme example (2-hour flight delay). I'm sure there have been reports where such things didn't go as well, even with the proper flight info.
Exactly.
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Old Jan 22, 2010, 12:33 pm
  #6  
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
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Originally Posted by spades097
Well, while admirable, he was following policy. Someone is required to stay until the last flight arrives and another reason why it is important to submit your flight information with a reservation.

Yes but it's a ....... when you wait two hours and the client picks up his original res from Avis because they're still there too.
hertzisthe devil is offline  
Old Jan 22, 2010, 8:28 pm
  #7  
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Wow, HITD, I hadn't thought of that. If both counters had still been open I would have gone to Avis (fewer problems when submitting my travel voucher at work). And if the poor guy at the Hertz desk had stayed that long just for me, I wouldn't have even known. Yikes!
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