60 year old people can not read maps!!!

[avissucks]

This is my first post on this website so if it is lame or if I am not supposed to mention the company I work for, sorry. I will have better stories later.

I had a customer that I really wanted to feel sorry for but I also really wanted to slap her right in the face. This is going to sound bad, but she made my night hellish! This was a 60 year old woman from Europe that spoke with an asian accent. I got her call a total of 3 times! The first time I let her go on and on. She basically told me her life story and explained why they could not rent a car in Los Angeles if it did not have a GPS unit in it. The reason she was calling was that her GPS unit that she rented stopped working. Now, Avis would be more than willing to reimburse them for the time without the unit, but that is not her problem. What her problem is is that she has to go to the airport in the morning and without a working GPS unit she thinks she will never make it there. She is telling me all this in the most broken english imagineable. She has her own suggestions as well as to how Avis could right this wrong that they have done to her. She suggests that two agents could drive out to where they are, one agent take their car back to the airport and the other agent deliver this elderly couple to the airport in his car. The only problem with this is that they want it done at like 5 in the morning, on a Sunday no less. Sundays our locations are severely understaffed as it is and they generally do not do any pickups or deliveries from airport offices. This would not work. She then states that Avis could pay for a taxi to take them to the airport and we could then go out sometime later and retrieve her car from the hotel. Again, not going to happen. Avis considers the GPS unit a luxury, as do I, so they are not going to go out of their way for someone with one that is not functioning properly. She was pretty much in tears with the fear of having to drive to the airport without it. I was a second away from asking her how she ever got around just a year or two ago when she went someplace unfamiliar? Did these people just not travel? Or is 60 a magical age where you can no longer figure out the directions on a map? Maybe up until 60 they could figure out the lines and roads and such but at 60 the map suddenly just look like a bunch of squiggles. Then this woman had the nerve to say that if she were in Europe she would not be having this problem because the Avis's over there would have helped her at the drop of a hat. I ended up connecting her with someone at the Los Angeles airport in hopes they could do something for her. Just a little bit later she came on my line again stating the exact same thing she did at the start of the last call. I was not the bigger man on this one because I am ashamed to say I instantly hit the disconnect button because I just could not deal with that again! Then I got a call from one of the sales reps telling me she had this woman, and that this was the third time she had had her and I said I bet I knew who she was talking about. I was right. I agreed to take the call, but before I said anything to the customer this time I just placed her right back on hold and started dialing Los Angeles. As soon as I got a connection I sent her call right over.

[Pedersen]

I'm sorry, but I think you were in the wrong with much of how you handled this one.

The way you've phrased your post makes you sound racist and/or xenophobic, and ageist as well. For instance, wondering if maybe she just didn't travel before the GPS options became available? I can tell you that I've never traveled internationally. I wouldn't know the first thing about driving through a foreign country, and could easily get lost. For me, the GPS is not a luxury, but rather a necessity.

Add in the comments about how, once she hit age 60, the maps stopped making sense, and... In this story, at least, it makes you sound bad. Especially since you didn't mention details that would have shown that she was making an issue out of her age.

I don't doubt that she was difficult to deal with. But the actions you've shown here don't show you in a very positive light.

[unholypet]

I don't get where she was sucky, other than being a little hard to understand.

[blas]

Back in my day, we didn't have GPS. We read maps....on paper.

[Ree]

First of all, welcome to the site.

Secondly, paragraphs are your friend. Please use them. (Makes it much easier to read.)

Thirdly, while she was probably very frustrating to deal with, I just don't see the suckiness factor on this one.

I don't blame her for wanting the GPS system.
I travelled a few times this summer, and only one of those times we had a GPS.
On that trip, I kept thinking that I wish my brother had one installed in his truck when I travelled with him, and on the trips after the one with the GPS, all I could think was how much I missed driving without one in the car.

All of those times, I was travelling in my own country, too, and I have a few years to go before I hit 60.

I can read a map quite nicely, but the GPS was just so much handier.

[friendofjimmyk]

Well, sorry to say, you lost MAJOR points for immediately hitting disconnect on her. I mean, I don't really see the suckiness either, maybe a bit of difficulty in understanding her, but language barrier alone does not make a sucky customer.

I have to feel sorry for her. She is in a foreign country and has lost her ability to navigate. Regardless of if she knows how to read a map or not. I can almost feel her anxiety over this situation. Foreign, broken english, strange country, no navigation.

When I was a call taker and would know agents that would disconnect as you have, there was serious hell to pay if the sups found out about it.

[myswtghst]

While I understand how this could be a frustrating situation for you (I work in a call center and have a few techs who are VERY hard to understand, either due to speech impediments or accents, or both), I also feel like you could have had more sympathy for this woman. I try to always remind myself that I'm being paid to listen to my customers, and to make them feel like they are important. Unless they are out and out rude to me, I continue to be polite and do my best to help them, even if I think the issue is trivial, or that they are being flat out stupid.

In a situation like that, it would have been good to try to come up with other solutions as well--suggesting this woman check with the hotel front desk to get good directions to the airport might have been a good solution, as would seeing if it would be possible to email or fax her MapQuest directions, or your company's version of the directions/map. I know sometimes it can be really frustrating, but for me, it makes it all the more satisfying when I find a good solution.

[bigjimaz]

Customer service isn't your field. You seriously dropped the ball on this one.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I fail to see where this lady was sucky either.

She's traveling in a foreign country, she's lost the GPS unit in her car and maps can be little help to somebody who's unfamiliar with the area.

Yes, she may have difficult to deal with, but she had a very legitimate complaint. And you hung up on her? People like you make it very easy for other people to dismiss people like us.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Well, giving avissucks the benefit of the doubt, it sounds like she was wanting the Avis people to drop everything, pick her up at 5am and drive her to the airport because a luxury item inside her car stopped working. And when he explained that it was not possible, she wanted them to pay for a taxi for her, and then go retrieve their own car (which is her responsibility to bring back to an Avis store) because she refused to drive without the luxury item. That may not be fair (for someone who is afraid to drive without the GPS), but according to the OP that is the company policy, and he is required to enforce it. She then resorted to crying on the phone and claiming that 'Avis in Europe would give in to my demands!' He did finally transfer her to the airport, thinking that perhaps some business there could help her. I'm sure LAX has airport shuttles and other such services she could employ, so it was a logical solution to the call. Apparently she couldn't get what she wanted from LAX, so she resorted to calling Avis twice more trying to get them to give her what she wanted.

I get the impression that the first call was very long and difficult not only because of the language barrier but also because she was wanting things avissucks did not have the authority to give her, and this is what frustrated him. However, that is no excuse for hanging up on her when he got her again. I agree with everyone else it was a very immature thing for him to do, but he did say that he was ashamed of having done it.

Honestly, I think the story hits the rest of us the way it does because it is not very well written. There are no concrete examples of exactly what sucky things she did---was she DEMANDING these things from you or just asking? Was she refusing to listen when you told her Avis could not do these things for her? How was her tone of voice, was it polite, or did it scream 'entitlement whore'? Was she trying to guilt trip you, or was she honestly panicking over the situation?

The race and age comments were unnecessary to the story, and this turned us off as well. Other people have done this on here before, and we always ask them not to list that kind of stuff unless it is necessary to understand the story (which sometimes it definitely is).

Anyway, please don't let us scare you off, but we do try to maintain high standards about the stuff we post, because these forums are available for reading not only to customers, but to the companies we work for as well. I encourage you to read some of the other stories with a critical eye and see how we tend to write our stories.

[Ducky Dew]

Very well said, PhoneGoddess, and IMO, on target with the OP. Sometimes those little details that make a sucky customer "suck" are easy to overlook in writing.

......... we do try to maintain high standards about the stuff we post........

And this is exactly why I like this board, at least one of the reasons.

(Yeah, yeah, you're all just awesomeness incarnate really, that's it, but I won't feed your egos any more )

Other boards I have checked out of the "retail is a pain" variety don't hold to the standards that people do here. In this place, I very much get a sense of people who are proud to do their jobs to the best of their ability. That makes a big difference, believe me. I may be a retail worker, but I'm also a consumer and seeing whining posts about how unfair it is they have to pull their shift when they want to go party just turns my stomach.

Now back OT, I understand why you were frustrated, OP, but afraid I have to agree that the disconnect wasn't cool. However the next call you were trying to find help for her, and you know it wasn't the best thing to do so hey, in my book, we all make mistakes. Thing is to learn from them. Maybe look for another way to handle it when it gets that bad? Don't know your office set up, but is there a way to escalate calls when you're this frustrated, or to perhaps hand off to a co-worker so that you can "share the pain"?


And last, but certainly not least, welcome aboard! Hope we hear more from you soon!

[Brightglaive]

You know, when customers start whining at me it upsets me too. But, to pull that and then the, " If I was in _____________(insert location here), the people at _______________(insert company name here) would help me." card out!?!? I don't care if they are age 18, age 20, age 30, 40....80 that's just plain whining.

The answer wasn't no because AS was being mean. It was no because the amount of staffing does not allow for people to come pick up the car. That doesn't change because a GPS is out and it doesn't change because the person whines at the CSR/the sales manager/the LA airport office etc. When nobody is available to help, there's nobody available to help. It's an unfortunate fact of life. They usually hand you some kind of paper map and if worst came to worst the lady could've called for directions or stopped and asked for directions at her hotel/the gas station/just about anywhere that was open. Who knows? Maybe the hotel had an airport shuttle. Maybe she could've called Avis for instructions. It's nice to have someone telling you "turn left on to (x-street) in 0.4 miles" but not necessary. If you have good written instructions and take a little extra time you can get to your destination easily. There are soooo many ways around a broken GPS issue.

Probably the best way to handle this woman would've been to explain that the GPS is a luxury item and (rental car company) does not have enough staff to pick her up at 5AM on sunday morning. A good solution would be to (insert solution here). If she continued to whine express some empathy. Feel/felt/found technique works great.


Here's how I would do it with the FFF technique.

"I understand how you feel being in an unfamiliar place and trying to find the airport. I've felt that way myself and I hate getting lost in an unfamiliar city, but I have found that people are willing to help you if you ask. I am certain that the hotel staff could direct you and write down directions for you to get to the airport."

If the lady was truly worried about it she could've purchased her own GPS unit and brought it on the trip. (Probably at a local walmart)

Yes there were some bad decisions made on the part of Avissucks, including the hangup and the blind transfer. Those were uncalled for (ba-dump-TSCHH) (pun fully intended). But, I think Avissucks might downplaying how whiny the customer truly was. Next time AS, take control and ownership of the call. If you do I guarantee they won't call back unless they are truly, truly, stupid, sucky customers. Then I'll expect a really good story with lots of juicy details

[BaristaTrav]

Ok.. I'm going to have to play a little devil's advocate here. Yes, the OP really just threw his hands up and quit way to soon on this client, but, there is definitely a suckiness factor here..

- If this client is so bewildered, bad with directions, and afraid of getting lost, why in the world rent a car and try to drive yourself around a foreign country? Are taxis really going to cost that much more than renting a car with a GPS?

[Pedersen]

- If this client is so bewildered, bad with directions, and afraid of getting lost, why in the world rent a car and try to drive yourself around a foreign country? Are taxis really going to cost that much more than renting a car with a GPS?

I can do fairly well with directions, right until something unexpected happens (for instance, a detour due to accident, construction, etc). I can read a map, but really need to have something to act as a baseline. I need some passing familiarity with the area before the map becomes genuinely useful.

In other words, I sound a lot like the customer in question.

Personally, I have my own GPS device/mapping software. It was beyond invaluable when I went to Alaska a little over a year ago. We used it constantly. It was part of our "get the car moving" ritual. Care to guess how much money we saved versus a taxi? Since we drove 2400 miles over two weeks, even a very very cheap taxi would have cost us about $1,200.

Add in the "Alaska tax", where everything costs about 1/3 more, and suddenly the cost is around $1,800. The car was about $1,200 for that time. We saved $600. Yeah, the GPS was a god send to us, make no mistake. We didn't get lost, we always got to where we wanted to get, and saved money. It really can make a big deal.

[Jacen]

I don't get where she was sucky, other than being a little hard to understand.

She was sucky by insisting that they do something they could not. I mean, a gps isn't required to get you from point a to point b. 99% of people do that all the time without one (and the success rate of gps systems is low anyway). So it was sucky to ask (he didn't mention demanding) them to bend over backwards and drive out there at 5 in the morning on a sunday.