The customer isn’t always right…

I always hate people who vent spleen on customer service representatives. Particularly at airports – always a high stress place – I’ve stepped in on a few occasions to tell irate passengers to back off – and probably in the process pumping up the stress levels by a good few notches. Like adding freshly chopped serano chilis into the mix. Diffuse the situation – not.

So I probably needed someone to tell me to take a chill pill whilst at the Hertz car rental place the other day. I’d come to pick up a car and was annoyed that they would charge me an extra day as they were closed at 5PM and I couldn’t drop the car off. Sometime it’s hard to not associate the person with company. 

“Well why don’t you have a key drop off facility so I can leave the car after then? Every other place has that? It’s no good, it’s just a tactic to get another days dollar out of me,” I said.

The manager at this point was nervously looking over, aware of a potential situation unfolding. I said a few other things in a stern voice. Whilst it wasn’t a complete meltdown – I didn’t throw a massive wobbly with the threat of physical violence – I still made them very aware of my disquiet.

After I left I felt bad about it. It was a case of they don’t make the rules. I had had a stressful day which doesn’t help so little triggers like that don’t help. But thats no excuse. The poor guy on the front desk probably also had had a stressy day. I contemplated calling back and apologising. I didn’t.