Hertz Chicago O’Hare (ORD) staffer gives shitty service, threatens to sue
February 11th, 2009Last fall, when I was in Chicago, I was treated incredibly rudely at the Hertz location at O’Hare. (This is not the first time I’ve had a poor rental experience.)
As soon as I walked up to the counter, the agent said “Don’t give me any attitude.” Before I had said anything. He had taken off his nametag, so I had no idea who he was. I took his picture so I could identify him later. He threatened to sue me over this — twice.
Here’s the jerk who did this:
And here’s the letter I sent Hertz:
From: Paul Schreiber, San Francisco CA 94107
To:
- Hertz, Chicago O’Hare Airport, 10000 Bessie Coleman Drive, Chicago, IL 60666, (773) 686-7272
- I. David Logan, Hertz Corporation, 225 Brae Boulevard, Park Ridge, NJ 07656, (201) 307-2000
- Becky Robertson, Hertz Corporation, PO Box 26120, Oklahoma City, OK 73126
Re: Rental 543 600 131 (October 24, 2008)
To say my rental experience as unpleasant would be akin to describing the Atlantic Ocean as a small body of water.
Let’s start at the top. When I’m greeted at a business, I would expect the clerk to say “Hello,” “Hi,” “Welcome to Hertz,” “How may I help you?” or perhaps even a simple “Good evening.”
Certainly not “Don’t give me any attitude.” Not before I had said a single word.
The rental experience went downhill from there. By the time I had left, your agent had twice threatened to sue me. Add to this the understaffed counter, the half-hour-long wait to even reach someone, the staffer not wearing a nametag to avoid identification, the garage employees who grunted at me in broken English when I asked who the manager was (I never found out), being saddled with a Ford Fusion and I’m looking for the hidden camera, thinking I’m the victim of some sort of prank.
This is not how one conducts business. You should be ashamed of yourself.
I would like a personal apology, acknowledging the events of the day; the removal of the employee in question from his position at Hertz and steps taken to prevent this sort of behaviour from happening again.
Sincerely,
[signed]
Paul Schreiber
PS I’m not asking for compensation, but if you do send any sort, I’ll gladly donate it to my favourite charity, Engineers Without Borders Canada.