We Try Harder
I was beginning to doubt it. Picture it: me at the Avis counter at Nashville International Airport yesterday around lunchtime, my lunch time, not Nashville lunch. I was hungry, feeling a little overheated in the uncommonly warm air and was about ready to throw in the towel when I am suddenly taken off hold and Heather, who has placed me on hold at my demand to speak with her supervisor, comes back on the line. I had been looking at the seductive red, yellow and blue logo of Dollar Rent-A-Car and my next action, should Heather keep me hanging for about another minute too long, would have been to thank Linda at the counter who had tried to be helpful and march on over to Dollar. At that point, I would have taken a Yugo from Dollar if it had been available, risking the eminent laughter that would surely flow from my sisters who were to arrive the next day.
But Heather came back! She greeted me somewhat more cheerily than she had earlier when I informed her that a $40 gift certificate toward a future rental was not going to cut it in terms of making this customer happy. If there was nothing she could do, I needed to speak to her supervisor. She told me she wasn’t sure if one was available but one could call me back. Where? At the rental counter? No way was I waiting around for that. I told her that I needed to speak to someone immediately. She frostily thanked me, cutting off my thanks by placing me on hold.
Essential back story: Just one week before, I had been promised by Monica in sales in the national office –calling to confirm my reservation and that I had been given double miles and a 25% discount by booking through a Delta link located at the end of my e-ticket –that my discount (approximately $40) would be taken at the counter when I picked up the car. Linda, of course, who is at the counter, knew nothing of this. Nor, as it happens did Heather who was in sales in the national office. Who/where was Monica?
When Heather finally took me off hold, she told me that while she didn’t have a supervisor to talk to me, she had been given permission to give me $10 off my rental per day (which was a four day rental) and this in essence, would save me the $40 I had been promised. This worked. I thanked her. Happy again, I waited until Linda filled out the new paperwork.
What’s the lesson? Hang in there and ask for what you want. If it cannot or (more likely) will not be responded to with a gesture that satisfies you, go elsewhere. I was perfectly prepared to head over to Dollar and write a scathing commentary on Avis in this blog, should they decide that, yes, I was okay to screw. But that didn’t happen and I’m glad. The other lesson? You have choice. We don’t live in a country where Avis has the monopoly on rental cars. I could have gone elsewhere. I could also have accepted less fair treatment than I had been promised. That wasn’t going to happen because I know that my confidence would have been lowered, that my authentic self would have suffered because of that and that my day, sadly, would have been soured. You have choice all over the place.
Where are you compromising and how does that compromise make you feel?
Oh, by the way precious reader, if this situation happens to you often and you always feel at a loss, disappointed or overwhelmed by “should have, would have, could have”. You are in luck. I have an opening for an individual client starting in October. Contact me for more details. Don’t accept less than what you deserve.