Jeff Toister — The Service Culture Guide

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Avis experiment: It's a shame about Ray

Yes, the title of this post is a reference to that Lemonheads song. Now it's stuck in your head too.

It's also a reference to the latest update with Ray, the person who contacted me because of my blog post on poor customer service at Avis. Ray had identified himself as an Avi customer service supervisor and offered to help me. At the time, I was excited to hear from Ray because I think it is a great way to respond to customers who are ranting about your company via social media. I was also guarded in my optimism since Ray represented Avis employee #6 to try handle this situation.

Here's what happened:

  1. I emailed Ray to give him the run-down on the situation and my proposal: I'll try Avis again if I can get a free weekend and I get the Preferred experience on that weekend with no hassles.
  2. He left me a voice message in response to my email and said he could help me out, but needed some more information so he could sort out the problem.
  3. I called and left him a voice message last Tuesday (September 21) with the requested info.

Then I waited. And waited. And probably heard that Lemonheads song on the radio today which reminded me it had been a week and I hadn't heard back from Ray. "It's a shame about Ray." So, I emailed him back to ask for an update.

Ray did email me back today to say everything should be all set and he had mailed out coupons for two free days (the equivalent to a weekend). Again, I'm cautiouly optimistic, but I've also heard promises like this before so I'll wait to see how it goes.

Background: I started this blog experiment after I had unsuccessfully tried four times to resolve a problem with Avis. I signed up for "Preferred" status so I could bypass the rental counter, but I've had to go to the rental counter anyway. Now, I'm using my blog to chronicle my attempts to see if Avis will finally resolve the issue or cause me to find a new "Preferred" rental car company.