Did he say they'd take the bad Mazda 3 out of service and actually have it fixed?

Too bad it took contacting Consumerist before someone stepped up to resolve the issue.

@sickofthis: No, from what I understood he didn't mention anything about fixing the car

Ya know, I'd say that's smart at least on Joel's part, with the restaurant gift card thing as compensation. All too many times I hear "I hate this company and I'll never shop here again!" and their compensation is...yep, you guessed it, discounted services or a gift card to shop with them again.

The restaurant GC is a pretty classy move, IMHO.

@Wolzard: The discounted service is usually to try and make the customer happy and keep them a customer. I mean what the hell is the point of making a non cutomer happy?

Blockbuster at one point was able to settle a class action against them with gift cards from blockbuster. They must have had the best legal team ever.

@keepher: But that is some times the only way that these bigger people find out about it .. Aka higher than that location.

It only took massive public embarassment before Zipcar responded.

I'd prefer to do business with companies that make Consumerist for a before-the-fact proper treatment report, as when Apple replaced an out-of-warranty battery, not for Zipcar's desperate damage control by getting generous whilst the 'cameras are rolling.'

We'll hear more in future about Zipcar's crappy service. Guaranteed. You can't get such an indifferent and rude runaround, by more than one customer, without lax practices and accepted corner-cutting.

@Wolzard: I thought that was a nice touch too. The last thing I want to do is go back to a business that totally burned me. So when they offer 10% off future service as a "nice gesture", it's kind of a "thanks but no thanks" thing. At least this guy Joel kept things open with the possibility of opening a new account sans fees, and at the same time gave the gift card as a nice gesture in order to smooth things over a bit.

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: I agree with your point

@downwithmonstercable: I agree with your commenting handle!

@Hanshiro: Every day I come to Consumerist to make sure that a) my company isn't on it, and b) to study the stupidity of other companies to look for things that we should avoid.

@Hanshiro:
I don't think showing up on the Consumerist counts as a MASSIVE public embarrassment. This site isn't CNN or the NYTimes.

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: I wonder if anyone got late fees due to the Blockbuster gift cards...

@Esquire99: Companies are learning quickly that poor customer service reports have a far better chance of snowballing on the internet than they used to when the MSM were the gatekeepers. The internet allows the ugly truth to be revealed sans PR spin.

Consumerist isn't CNN, but they are an effective source where disenfranchised consumers can be heard almost immediately, and in their own words. In fact, neither CNN nor the NYTimes could do what Consumerist does. Their model does not allow for it.

What their model does allow for, however, is firing of consumer advocates for reporting on a major advertiser...

@Hanshiro:
My point wasn't that the internet and the Consumerist aren't effective tools for getting out stories of bad customer service. I simply take issue with your word choice in declaring that this was a "massive" public embarrassment.

@Hanshiro: Honestly, what are you talking about? This doesn't count as a "MASSIVE" public embarrassment for ZipCar because the Consumerist, unfortunately, doesn't have the kind of audience the NY Times or CNN does.

@amiableamy: They may not have the #'s that NY Times or CNN has, but they are more active and involved, more likely to tell a friend, or repeat it on another site. Also, in the case of zipcar, it would seem the average consumerist is more likely to know what they are/use them than your average cnn watcher.

Phew. I've been a heavy user of Zipcar for a few years and--though it hasn't always gone perfectly the first time--Zipcar has always been reasonable in the end. A few times they've gone beyond reasonable and been downright sweet.

In my experience, some Zipcar phone reps have seen overly junior at times, or under empowered to provide good service. Hopefully Jen's story will help make sure that department has good resources, well trained people and a strong customer service ethic.

Delighted to hear Zipcar stepped up and provided great customer service to Jen in the end. In 2ish years they've grown a ton, matured, and provided a great service to me at a good price.

@Esquire99: @amiableamy: Understand. This Zipcar experience is still circulating through the intertoobs.

Your interpretation and keying on the term 'massive' is not applicable in the same vein as some monolithic telecommunications pronouncement like 60 Minutes or CNN.

These complaints, as companies are realizing, are viral. Yes, this is a massive embarrassment as thousands more people are or will be aware of Zipcar's indifference than just a one-shot report on CNN.

Google 'Zipcar complaints,New York' (as any prospective New York customer might do) and you have something CNN and NYTimes cannot do in their wildest dreams: an accessible and customer-voiced catalogue of repeated indifference and poor customer service for a long time to come.

Yes, I'd call that massive, because it stays there and discourages companies from poor habits and standards while alerting prospective customers to be more savvy.

@hypochondriac: I think this is a nice gesture on Joel's part, BUT it's stuff like that car with noted electrical problems kept active in their fleet for weeks or months that keeps me from signing up.

Zipcar is damn lucky that everyone that car quit on managed to survive. That, especially the last story about the car quitting on a highway, could have easily been fatal.

Gift cards vs. gross negligence.

@Wolzard: Does she need a Zipcar to get to the restaurant?

And with nary a "taking this seriously"! Just for that, I'm impressed.

I've had the odd problem with Zipcar here in Toronto as well, and so have a bunch of friends who use it. If you can get high enough up the chain of command, they're not too bad, but their call centre reps need to be retrained. One or two aren't bad, but as a whole they're slipping.

Promptly?
Well, yeah. They promptly responded after being publicly humiliated. They did not respond promptly after being originally notified of the incident.

@backbroken: I don't think they were humiliated based on a single vehicle in their fleet of cars. Maybe them maintaining their vehicles isn't up to par but that's the nature of their business...if they aren't notified of a problem they won't get to it for a while.

@nstonep: They were humiliated because a popular blog posted a story discussing a giant, avoidable, customer service snafu that put them in a very bad light.

Nobody blames Zipcar for having a car breakdown. Everybody blames Zipcar for putting a broken car repeatedly back in service and then callously dismissing or screwing up the refund for the customer.

@Wolzard: yes, i sent feedback when Tang changed to only carrying formulas that included artificial sweeteners and i got a coupon for more Tang.
which i promptly followed with less pleasant feedback.
fortunately [2 or so years later] i discovered the other day that they have a "new!" formula... without artificial sweeteners.
too bad i no longer respect them for being idiots

@kateblack: Also, how about the fact that a lot of the "success stories" on Consumerist seem to the the RESULT of having been on Consumerist in the first place. While it's great that the GM offered up a nice little gift basket, it's difficult for me to believe that ANY of this would have occured without the publicity.

@nstonep: RTFA. They were notified many times about that specific vehicle.

People take vehicle maintenance too lightly. This is not like someone's videogame console dying or their cell phone company overcharging -- people's LIVES are at stake.

This endears me to Joel and to Zipcar just a tiny bit. A tiny amount. Not enough to open an account because I don't really need one, but enough that I would consider them if I really needed to rent a car for a few hours or a day.

@sickofthis: I own an auto repair shop and I might be able to give some insight as to why the car in question hasn't been fixed yet.

I had a Mazda 3 in my shop with similar symptoms about half a year ago. We checked everything by procedure and could not find anything wrong with it mechanically. Upon doing further research we found a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) from Mazda that required the vehicle computer to be updated. The car was under warranty so my customer was informed to try to take to dealer to see if they would take care of the update without charging her. They performed the update and the car ran normal again. Procedures like this are becoming more and more common in vehicles as they become more complex.I can't say this car has the same solution but its something to think about. Also there are several TSBs out there for Mazda 3s about its electrical system.

Its easy to blame a battery because people understand batteries. When I used to work for an auto parts company the first thing people blamed was the battery when something went wrong with their cars. Some people would go through 3 or 4 batteries in a couple of months or even weeks sometimes and they couldn't figure out if the car has the same problems it did before you replaced the battery, maybe the battery isn't causing your problem.

I live in Chicago, we have igocars which is a not for profit, I've contacted them to ask if they have ever screwed up like this, they replied that they did not, however should a vehicle ever *ever* be reported as having issues, it is not available to reserve until repaired!