I hate doing this. I don't have time to write Yelp reviews anymore, so I only do it when a service is exceptional, or quite bad. From the rating, you already know which this is.
We have been Zipcar members for four years, I believe. Over those years we've had the usual trouble-cars being late and we were not being notified, cars parked in a different spot and hunting them down in the California heat, etc. There was always more good than bad though, so even though we had frustrations, we just cut back on using Zipcar and instead used services such as HelloEnvoy and Amazon for groceries and household things.
Unfortunately the last incident just pushed me over the edge.
Memorial Day we rented the car to visit an amusement park. We were gone all day and arrived very early the next morning. I noticed dog hair in the car but forgot to call. The charge was put on our account, since I didn't call it in. I called and explained that we did not have our dogs in the car, because we went to an amusement park (and I could prove this,) and the rep took the charge off our account.
Then a few days later, I get a call from the local office. First, she didn't ask if it was even a good time-right in the middle of the day, I am working. Had she asked, I could have dealt with this later. But she didn't. Actually, she didn't ask anything at all. She immediately tells me the rep should not have taken the $50 charge off and proceeds to lecture me on how this has "been a problem for you guys a lot." If the rep took the charge off and wasn't supposed to, that's between the rep and Zipcar. If your rep made a mistake, you need to talk to him about that. The woman on the phone didn't ask what happened, she just proceeded to lecture me on and on about this being a problem for us in the past.
My dogs are in the car twice a year for their vet check up. And we use the crate twice a year. And you know what? Their breeds don't shed. They don't. They have to be groomed, but they don't shed. Come over to my house. Look at the floor, the bed, the couch, the rugs. You will not find dog hair. They do not shed. My mistake was not calling it in from a previous user-that is my fault, absolutely. I was tired, it was 1am and we'd been in the sun all day and I just drove two hours home. But she didn't listen, she kept talking over top of me insisting it was our dog's hair.
Finally she decided to take a different argument. "Well it only takes a minute to call and leave a voice mail." You're right, absolutely. I didn't say I didn't have time, I said I forgot. I'm human. I work 60 hours a week, I have a husband and two dogs and a house. I'm sorry, I can't be perfect all the time. I forgot. Okay? I forgot to call after we got home at 1am because the car was dark and I forgot there was dog hair in the car.
Then, it was-"Well you have a history of this."
-____-
So if we've been members for four years and there's been three times (the number she gave me) I forgot to call and report the previous user's state of condition with the car, doing the math, that's an average of a year and three months, give or take. So forgetting to report every 14-15 months means I have a "history." Sure.
Then I get a lecture of how I need to be considerate of other Zipcar members. My husband and I are very responsible people. If it was our fault, I would accept the charge, I have no problem with that. I hate having to defend myself with this default it-was-the-person-before-me philosophy. It's a flawed system. I was very upset and canceled the service. The rep didn't ask why at the time, they just asked why we became members originally.
Zipcar called my husband the day after I canceled our membership. He missed the call (again, middle of the day when we're working) and so he called back. "We would like you to rejoin Zipcar, but we need to talk with your wife since the account is under her name."
I receive a call from the local office again. It's Gaby. I will assume it was the same woman I spoke with before from the local office, because she was just as rude as the first call.
She says to me, "Your husband called about reactivating your account." And I said, "No, you guys called us."
"No he called us."
"No, you guys called him."
"Well I'm looking at our records and he called us at 10am."
Again, arguing.
"You'd like to discuss becoming members with us again?"
I said, "No, we would not, thank you."
My biggest disappointment is the lack of humanity. The humility with this rep, Gaby, was just incredible. Argumentative, rude, talked over me, assuming.
I know customer support is hard. It's really hard, I'm well aware. But there's no excuse for being a total bitch.
I hope your boss reads this. read more
