Benjamin lives in a major city, so he rents cars when he needs one rather than owning one. This system works well for him, and he’s a loyal customer of Hertz. What he’d really like is to become a customer of Hertz On Demand, a Zipcar-like service that lets customers rent cars by the hour rather than by the day. At least it would if the location nearest Benjamin ever had any cars available.

He sent us the letter he’s been working on to send to the Hertz CEO.

First of all I’d love to say that I’ve recently become a Hertz Gold Member and love the service I receive at your [redacted] for my car rentals. The manager [G] has done a great job representing your brand and offered exceptional service. One thing he recommended, is I try out your Hertz On Demand service for my jaunts around town at least 3-6 times a month since I live in the same neighborhood as your one Hertz On Demand location within [redacted] city limits ([the other location] is a 20 minute drive south outside of city limits). My frustration is coming from the fact
I haven’t yet been able to rent a car from this location since I joined on May 15th. That is five plus weeks I haven’t been able to rent during normal business hours on any given day that I’ve tried. I have sent one email and placed 3 phone calls and been told 3 different things:

1.CSR #1 – The cars were vandalized and should be working soon. (week one)

2.CSR #2 – They need 14hours to charge and that’s why none have been available and I “have bad timing” when it comes to trying to book the cars. (during regular daytime hours midweek) This same CSR also told me there wasn’t enough demand for more cars. I beg to differ.

3.Corp/CSR #3 – The cars cannot hold a charge and are under maintenance. (I was also told that I’m “not listening” and that her and CSR #2 have both told me the same thing. The way I read it is
having a bad charging rotation and having cars that need repair are two very different answers.)

Any one of those answers is almost acceptable alone. However the last two times I’ve called I’ve been told that the best that can be done is to “note” my account. I was also told there is no one at the company [who can] resolve this situation nor are there any supervisors or customer service supervisors I could speak with. My call to Customer Support to Hertz Corporate (3rd call) went as follows: I explained my frustration with the service, I was then told that it wasn’t “her department to handle Hertz On Demand.”, I asked to speak with Hertz regular Customer Service Supervisor since no one was above a CSR at Hertz On Demand and was greeted by a transfer to a 3rd caller at…. Hertz on Demand….. after I specifically requested not to go back there since there was no one above the CSR at Hertz On Demand. I have now been assured that there is no one in charge of Customer Service for Hertz.

I’m hoping that this letter can fall on someone either in customer support, maintenance, or Hertz On Demand that can actually affect change. According to everyone I talked to there is not one person
accountable for Hertz On Demand. This service sounds like a win for both of us but I feel it’s unacceptable to have no one to hold accountable for this service not actually being available. And I’m not sure Hertz fully understands the reasoning for on-demand vehicles if no car is ever available. So far I have become a spokesperson for Hertz Car Rental ever since [G] and his crew at [redacted] have converted me from Enterprise… I’d love to do the same for Hertz On Demand. Can you help?

This is a great letter: it explains the problems with the service clearly, and emphasizes Benjamin’s overall loyalty to the brand. Maybe Hertz will listen: it is is a rather advanced business concept that you can’t rent out cars if there are no cars available to rent.

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