Software Soapbox

Hertz reads blogs - and fixes problems!

Just a few days after I posted this about my mother's mistreatment at the hands of local Hertz rental agents here in Vegas, Becky from Hertz customer relations contacted me, looked in to the matter, and resolved all the issues we had. 

Kudos to Hertz on a job well done.  Not only do they read blogs, but they're willing to fix tings when a mistake is made.  Great work!  Very impressive.

Hertz Rental Review – How not to treat new customers (updated)

Update - A few days after posting this Hertz contacted me and resolved this, update here!

I’ve been a long term Hertz customer, and only rarely been unhappy with their products and services.  In fact, due to my recent travel schedule, I estimate that I spent about 1 day out of 4 in a Hertz rental car in 2007, which gives me pretty good status with the company, which means the occasional car upgrade, which is nice…..

However, my recent experience renting a car for my mother in Las Vegas was a real eye-opener. 

On Christmas day I went to hertz.com and booked a midsize car for her for 8 days, at what seemed like a good deal – about $160 including all charges, with a AAA discount.  I emailed her the reservation code, and thought all was well.  Unfortunately I screwed up.  I got the arrival date wrong, which neither of us discovered until she arrived at the Vegas hertz location (I was out of town at the time).

So no problem, right?  Just change the arrival date and keep the same rate code, right? 

Wrong.  Apparently, she got the rental agent from hell….. 

First, he informed her that they were sold out of cars.  Dubious.  Las Vegas has one of the largest Hertz rental fleets in the world.  The pickup date was December 28, one of the least busy days in Vegas.

According to my mother, he “did her a favor” and “called his manager”, who “released” a compact car.  Full walk-up price, no discount.  No consideration was made for the rates or discounts in the previous reservation.

Next, he kind of bullied her into the additional insurance.  My mother had confirmed that her car insurance at home covered rental cars, but the reservation agent implied that without a printed copy of that insurance she “could get in trouble” in the case of an accident, and should get the additional coverage “just to be safe”.

Unlike myself, this is the second time ever that my mother has rented a car in her life.  She’s not stupid, just inexperienced, and took the car without knowing exactly how much she had been taken advantage of.  It was bad.  The $160 had now ballooned to almost $600 for a compact car for 9 days.  Insurance alone was $35 per day.

When I arrived back in Vegas (my home town) she related the story to me, and I was pretty annoyed.  She was already 4 days into the rental, but I convinced her that it was not a good deal and that we should return the car ASAP.

To add insult to injury, because the rental was booked as a walk-up, an early return automatically ballooned the rate to more for the 4 days than it would have been for the full 9 days.  Wow.  After some negotiating, and verification of my Hertz status, we got them to drop the price, to a little over $400, double what it should have been in the first place.

So what did hertz get?  $200.  And the loss of my mother as a customer - for life.

2 things for Hertz to take away from this:
-Treat new customers the same as you would old customers, or you’ll get no new customers.
-Implement some sort of system like the ones I build that tells you who is who and who knows who.  That way you will know when, for example, that elderly lady at the desk is the mother of one of your highest level of renters…..

Riding the Cabriolet at Mont Tremblant, Quebec

Part of the fun of a December visit to Montreal is a visit to nearby Mont Tremblant.  This is the ride from the parking lot to the village....

Aruba pictures are up

What a life...Skiing in Australia, then 2 weeks later on the beach in Aruba.....

Greetings from Aruba! In the path of Hurricane Dean....

Had a great couple of weeks....We're heading back to Vegas on Sunday morning, the same time that Hurricane Dean is expected to make Landfall in Aruba.  Hopefully we make it out!  Wish is luck!

Back over "The Ditch" today

I'm in the Canberra Airport.  Yes, it's small, but that has some advantages:
-Arrive at Airport: 8AM
-Car Rental return, check in all the way to Vegas, through security, sitting with a coffee in the Qantas lounge: 8:15 AM

Kind of reminds me of the airport in Dayton, Ohio.  I was going through there weekly back in 2001 on a project for Lexis-Nexis.  More of a human scale, and not so busy....

I really like air travel in Australia, very uncrowded and civilized....Must have something to do with the fact that there is only 10% of the population of the USA here...Whatever the reason, it's great just the same.  I'm reminded how great Oz air travel is whenever I arrive at LAX.....Which is more like a Turkish bus terminal, but with more people and less charm....

This trip will be interesting.  Last week I was skiing in the Midwinter Australian mountains, this week I'll be baking in Midsummer American Desert....Take that, body!

A perfect July day skiing at Perisher Blue, Australia

A perfect July day skiing at Perisher Blue, Australia
Originally uploaded by Brian Benz.

While everyone I know in the USA is baking in record summer temperatures, I took advantage of the Australian Winter with a visit to the local ski hills.   What an incredible day!  Perisher Blue is a ski resort that sits just above a tenuous snowline at about 6000 feet (2000 meters), about a 2.5 hour drive from Canberra. 

My buddies Pete and Frank made it down Friday evening from Sydney, and we made the obligatory trip to my two favorite places in Canberra, the Uni pub for a grill-it-yourself steak, then to the Wig and Pen for a fine selection of homemade ales.  Then it was early to bed.

The next morning we started at a punishing 5:30AM so we could get a full day in.  We had chosen an all-inclusive bus/ski rental/lift ticket package run by transborder express as none of us had up-to-date equipment…It’s been at least 10 years since any of us had been on the hills…..Luckily enough, the bus was comfortable enough to sleep on.  We all woke up as the sun rose, around Jindabyne, 20 minutes from our stop at Bullocks flat.

Bullocks Flat is where we picked up the rental equipment and lift pass and caught the skitube to Perisher Blue.  The skitube itself is interesting – it’s the only alpine rail in Australia, and goes right through the center of a mountain, which isolates the ski resort from the car park and shaves an hour or two off the drive.

When we got to the hill at around 9AM we knew we were going to have a great day.  The fog at the top of the hill was clearing and there were no clouds.  The snowfall is the best it’s been in 20 years, at a base of about 1.5 metres.  Temperature: just above freezing.  No wind.  Beautiful.

We all were a little apprehensive as we put on our gear, as it had been a while since any of us were on skis.  But it came back fast, and the perfect conditions helped.  We really didn’t need to bundle up (or rug up, as the Australians say) against the cold, in fact we were all sweating as we got to the bottom of the first run. 

After that, we moved farther away from the main hill, which is crowded with beginners.  The rest of the day was spent taking slow runs around the back bowls of Perisher and Blue Cow, the two main resort hills that make up Perisher Blue.  It truly was an amazing day, sun, snow, crowds, everything cooperated and this will be a memory for a lifetime!

One of the amazing things for me was the alpine gum (eucalyptus) trees – there are no pine trees here in Australia, but these things look beautiful in the winter, with green leaves and multi-color bark, covered in snow with the high-altitude blue sky as a background…..

We were all getting a little rubber-legged around 3pm, so we called it a day and headed back down to the bus a little early, stopping for fresh, hot mini-donuts at the skitube station on the way out.  Nice end to a fantastic day.  Caught the bus at 5pm, and as a bonus, just in case I forgot we were in Australia, we passed a herd of about 10 large kangaroos, grazing in a field by the side of the road in the evening sun near crackenback resort.  Incredible.
Back in Canberra at 7:30PM, we had a Sauna at the Novotel to soothe our aged bones…then another steak at the Uni Pub and ales at the Wig & Pen…..

What an amazing day!  All the pictures are here, and video is here.

 

Top of Mount Perisher, Australia

An absolutely perfect day Skiing at Mount Perisher, Australia

An Australian Classic

Last weekend, late evening at the Hero of Waterloo, the local band plays an Australian Classic.  You may nto recognize it at first, but listen to the end.....That's my buddy Ed in the foreground.

Where I'll be this weekend

Peter, Ed, Frank, Bob, I, Mt. Perisher,  Australia, 1989
Originally uploaded by Brian Benz.

That's Peter, Ed, Frank, Bob, I, at Mt. Perisher,  Australia, in July of 1989.  Now, almost 20 years later, we're going back!  Yes, while my friends and family are enjoying long, hot summer days, I'm going to damage my aging body on the ski slopes this Saturday.....

I'm looking forward to it, actually.  The weather and snow conditions are the best in many years.  Should be just around freezing and sunny.  And the best snow in about 10 years.....I just hope that the mountain takes pity on me - I haven't been skiing in about 10 years!  Wish me luck!