CJKatl

In the off chance someone from National reads this:

Every so often I have to call National for something. I call other companies sometimes, too, but with National, it's different. Their overseas operators are the worst. Not only don't the understand what the caller is asking, they are rude, rude, rude.

Yesterday, I called for an issue with using free rental days. I had a reservation done online for two days with free days, three days paid. I have several free days credit, but also have the one-two-free certs, which expire sooner. The online system took the regular ones, and I wanted to swap them out for the one-two-free.

The nasty, nasty man who answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about, and kept asking me to repeat myself. As someone who speaks for a living, and has done announcing in the past, I don't think the problem was my enunciation or volume. The man then started to ask my about the reservation, as though he wanted someone hearing him to think he was really helping a customer. I kept telling him what he was asking had nothing to do with my issue, but he kept on, as though he was making a reservation for me. I asked to speak to a supervisor, who needed to know how incompetent he is, but he put me on hold for ten minutes. I hung up and did what I was told to do the last time this happened: I called back and selected the option to extend my reservation. When I got an operator in Georgia, she immediately knew what I was talking about and was able to make a new reservation using the one-two-free credits and redeposit the others.

Does National not realize how much more it costs them to use the incompetent operators? While they might work for a quarter the price, when it takes five times longer for each call, it costs more. When irked customers hang up and call Hertz, it costs more. I debated whether to call National back or just call Hertz.

It's not even just the language barrier. My credit card company uses overseas operators who are awesome. It's that National's overseas operators are uniformly rude, nasty and arrogant, in addition to being incompetent.

Thanks for allowing me to rant.

dtremit

Normally I'm very skeptical of rants like this on FT, but nearly every interaction I have ever had with National over the telephone confirms most of this. I do not understand for the life of me how a company that gets so much right at the airport can be so completely impossible to communicate with via phone. Email isn't much better.

I've often thought that a dedicated "elite line" for Exec members would be a godsend, but I'm not certain they'd have enough helpful people to staff it.

aww3583

I've posted several times about this recently. Just be glad you actually talked to a live human being!

I've had to call the National HelpDesk. They're very nice to talk to, but there is ZERO follow up or feedback. I had an agent say "I agree, we owe you a refund for this incorrect charge. However, I can't issue the refund until we talk to the agent at the branch. Since we're unable to contact anyone at the branch, I've submitted an email to have them call us back in the next few days."

I left something in a vehicle once and called the branch. No answer. I called customer service who immediately, without my approval, forwarded me to the branch. No answer. I called customer service back and they immediately put me on hold to call the branch themselves. No answer. The customer service agent picked up the phone again and said "There must be no one at the branch." (they're open 24/7?????) She then said "I'll submit an email to the branch to notify them of the lost item."

I went to the branch 3 days later, and no one had any record of any calls or emails from the corporate customer service line.

The best service I've had is emailing the Customer Service inbox listed on the website. I've received thoughtful and actionable responses in less than 45 minutes on a Sunday.

I've learned my lesson. Unless it's an emergency, email National. Calling is worthless.

CJKatl

I have had two good customer interactions with National when cars were damaged.

In the first, the damage happened when I was driving. The insurance attached to my credit card paid, and the experience filing the claim was a little less than smooth, but both people I worked with, one at National and one at Mercury Insurance, were terrific.

In the second, National sent me a bill for damage that didn't happen when I had the car. Since I always take pictures when dropping a car off at a location with a human checking the cars in, I was able to call, email the pictures, and have the charges dropped. Again, this was easy.

Also, when I called back in the scenario in Post #1, the operator from Lilburn GA not only corrected the issue, but she walked me through how to use the 1-2-Free certs online, so that I can handle my next reservation. That's AWESOME customer service.

When I picked up a car this yesterday, there were only SUVs in the Emerald Club and Elite lots. I need a car with a trunk, and prefer one with satellite radio. The kid on duty asked if I could wait a couple minutes, disappeared and came back with a new Genesis.

The point: National knows how to execute good customer service. Obviously, they are choosing another option for reservations and customer inquiries.

YYZC2

I just realized I've never had to phone National. Never in three years and 200+ rentals.

I guess that's what can happen when the website works and my invoices always come in bang-on accurate with estimates.

Are you listening, Hertz?!??

IsleOfMan

My biggest complaint(s) with National is how hard it is to contact the individual stations. When you call the station's listed phone number, you're dumped into the overseas call pool... once someone answers, and you ask them explicitly if they are located at XYZ station they will LIE to you until you are able to trip them up and call them out on it. I guess that break's down to two complaints...

YYZC2

Trying to get in touch with someone on the ground at most major airports is hard with all the rental outfits... like getting caught in a spider's web of IVR menus.

The only airport branches I've reached successfully are usually in smaller cities and the phone actually rings when you call.

IsleOfMan

It's annoying that you can't get ahold of someone at a ground station. It's infuriating and very poor business practice when someone working at a foreign call center lies and tells you they are actually that ground station until you catch them in that lie.

piper28

LAN actually seems to go through to the local branch. I've actually had reaasonably decent luck getting ahold of them by calling it. (I had to call last week to extend a rental because I really wasn't going to try to make it to the airport in the snow storm here). Wife was on hold to the national number while I made that call, never got through before I was able to get things done.

I've had mixed luck on what they were willing to do though. I was trying to get them to process the drop off and pick up I was supposed to be doing and just let us keep the car we had. They wouldn't do that.

(And it was definitely the local branch I was getting, I recognized the person I was talking to.)

CJKatl

I get business cards when I'm at a station, scan them into my iPhone and have the name and contact information at various airports. If I'm arriving late, I sometimes call and ask for a car with a trunk to be held for my late arrival. Otherwise, it's a seventeen seat van sometimes.

pacman099

I agree, it's a painful process calling National. 99% of the time I use the online booking system to manage my itineraries. I dread the times I actually have to call over the phone. It seems that there is always some sort of connection problem with the phone or that their scripted responses do not meet my needs.

Regardless, I'm still a happy National EE. I'll live with the poor customer support.

Anaom

I agree with what everyone has said. They are brutal and it takes twice as long to get something done when you are connected overseas.

As for the OP. I had a question, why didn't you just modify your reservation online or cancel and rebook? I do it all the time and it works like a charm.

Maybe someday they will figure it out. Frankly, I just don't think they care. They probably lose more of the casual travelers who have to call when they have an issue or need to change. The rest of us business travelers keep coming back as they have a unique product with the emerald aisle. With the way they are advertising, they are making a ton of money so I can't see why they'd want to bring the call center back to the states.

-A

Orange County Commuter

Try canceling a reservation made with a free day... You will have to call. No idea WHY you can't change or cancel if you have used your free days, but...

dtremit

I've cancelled free day reservations plenty of times, and have never had to call...

CJKatl

I didn't know how to use the 1-2-Free Certificates online. The US agent walked me through how to do it, so now I know, but I couldn't figure it out on my own.