Stranded by Fox Car Rental at the Seattle Washington Airport
As a professional travel writer, I travel all the time, and it is rare that I encounter problems. When I do encounter problems, they are normally easy to accomodate. However, most travel service providers are professionals and are happy to take care of problems that they create in order to take care of customers like myself.
Unfortunately, that was not the experience I faced on Monday June 1st when I was stranded in Seattle by the Fox Car Rental company near the Seattle Washington Airport.
When you face a problem, it is best to politely and calmly explain what you can and can not do, and most travel service providers will do everything that they can to find a way to accomodate the problem and get you taken care of. So the best solution is to openly and honestly explain the situation and work with the offending travel service provider for the best solution.
I arrived at the Seattle Washington Airport after a delightful flight on Alaska Air, caught the shuttle bus to the Fox Car Rental location (aka Fox Rent A Car). I've travelled here often enough that the Fox shuttle driver was sure he recognized me and even knew a little bit about my travel frequency - off to an EXCELLENT start!! It is nice when employees remember you; but of course, I always tip very well!!!!
At the Fox Car Rental counter, the experience was quite the opposite.
Traveling on business, our travel writers travel on corporate debit cards that are prefunded with the amount of employees car rentals, hotel costs, a daily per diem, and a 20% emergency premium. The Fox Car Rental amount was pre-reserved with a total price of approximately $97 (inclusive of taxes and fees) for a two day rental. In my case, meals and hotel rooms were provided complimentary by local tourism and educational organizations so there were no anticipated expenses for this trip other than car rental fees and gas costs.
However, the Fox Car Rental counter wanted to tack on an additional $250 charge on top of the $97 rental for the privillege of using a "debit card".
As a travel professional, I often encourage people to use a credit card because of the security protections that your credit card company provide. Most credit cards provides you protection against unauthorized charges as well a variety of travel insurance protections.
I politely told the reservation service agent that this card could not handle an additional undisclosed $250 charge, and that I had never been charged a $250 premium before. The agent looked up my reservation history and was able to tell me every city that I had reserved a car with them for the past 3+ years including the credit card type and number for each reservation. However, his goal was not to be helpful, but rather to "prove" to me that I had never used this particular debit card.
In the absence of a customer service agent "doing the right thing" to take care of a customer with a lengthy rental history, the only solution I could offer was to offer to have the front and back of one of my credit cards faxed so that he could process my reservation with a credit card rather than a debit card which he refused to do.
Thus I was stranded in Seattle by Fox Car Rental.
Stranded by Fox Car Rental (aka Fox Rent a Car)
Now for me, it was an easy problem to solve. When faced with a travel service provider that does not care about taking care of their long-time customers, I travel enough and simply called another car rental company which had the integrity and professionalism to provide the type of customer service and do the right thing to take care of the situation.
Dollar Car Rental to the Rescue!!!
Dollar Car Rentals rescued me from the ravages of Fox Car Rental Shame. Dollar Car Rentals has the exact same debit card policy that Fox Car Rentals has. However, Dollar simply looked at my car rental history and very quickly waived the $250 charge.
That is the difference between a car rental company with integrity and professionalism and a car rental company without. One looks at the value of a long term customer relationship and quickly takes action to solve the problem, the other strands their customer by the side of the road.
Now in fairness, I contacted Fox Car Rental's corporate office on Thursday June 4th and again on Friday June 12th and received no reply. I also contacted Joshua the local Seattle Washington Fox Car Rental manager on Friday June 5th (after not receiving a call on Thursday which I requested when leaving my business card). He said that he would research the issue and call me back on Friday, Monday, or Tuesday. To date, I have not heard back from him. If Fox Car Rental has the integrity and professionalism to follow up on my repeated efforts to contact them, I will report back here.
Dollar Car Rental's local manager did call me after I left my business card with his team when I returned my Dollar Car Rental.
In summary,
- Stranded in Seattle Washington by Fox Rent a Car
- Rescued in Seattle Washington by Dollar Rent a Car
- No Contact from Fox Car Rental
- Timely follow up contact by Dollar Car Rental
Dollar looked up my customer rental history and used it to solve a problem and take care of a customer. To me, ethics and integrity are everything and the Dollar team have proven by their actions and words that they are an excellent team.
For the traveller, Washington is a beautiful state with warm and friendly people. I look forward to my next trip to Washington in August where I will be spending quite a bit of time traveling extensively to visit and write about attractions for your next family vacation. And I am quite confident that I will not risk being stranded by Fox Car Rental while on my next trip to Washington!
I find your experience interesting as I am from Seattle and go there often and usually rent from Dollar. I've been using them yearly since 2003, last Novevmber I was home for vacation traveling with two kids. The counter rep for Dollar would not accept my CA. drivers license because it has a chiped (broken) corner. I'm literally talking the very bottom right corner where there is absolutly nothing front or back where that TINY chip is. Their claim was that it could be suspended.
I was furious… especially after renting from them so often. I wasn't about to give that clerk a break either I rode him pretty hard. I looked to the next counter where the Hertz staff was chuckling, and I asked them "Do you have such an ignorant policy? the Herts clerk said "no" i got out of line at Dollar and went over to Hertz where they began to process my paperwork… and I was still so adjatated that I told Hertz thanks but this isn't sitting well with me I picked up the courtesey phone and called the off-site lot where you actually get your car and the manager told me to board the shuttle, come over and he'd take care of it.
When I got there he looked at my history, apologized and pointed me to my car… All things considered it worked out but I find the level of customer service provided by damn near anyone under 40 is a joke! These people are back there making $8 an hour and absolutly void of the fact that they are dealing with someone who is on vacation, made proper reservations, and what have you.. My position on that is, as a coprpration, if you are going to adapt such a policy then its their obligation to find out what a given state does (physically) to license when it's suspended… CA doesn't cut a corner off a license if its suspended the punch a big hole in it. I still have the very same license and I have never been asked by anyone in any state about that chip. If you were a remotely accountiable corporation I'd like to think that you'd research that before throwing out such stupidity at a long time customer.
I've have rented twice since then with Dollar and i pormise you, the only reason I continue to do so is because of that off-site manager's actions in doing the right thing.
Thank you,
John S.
I, too, recently got stranded by Fox Rent a Car. Their online reservation system quoted me $46 for a one day rental. After waiting forever in line I was presented with a contract for $77 for a day. quite a difference. For the first 15 mins I was pleasant with them - after that I stated that I dont understand the large difference in price - she just continued to try to push what a great deal this was. great deal: false advertising, poor customer service. Hertz got our money that day. I normally root for the underdog. not again with fox. more like "sly fox".
I too was stranded by Fox in Las Vegas, unfortunately I had just flown in from the Midwest and the Fox shuttle failed to pick me up at the designated location. Apparently the crew decided to close early that evening, so my circumstance left me stranded in Vegas @ 12:30 in the morning. There were 2 other reservations who were stranded as well. Completed their request for my feedback which was "never received"… Have called and have gotten no offer to resolve my disappointment. Won't be working with them ever again.
FOX NON-CAR RENTAL (LAX 2/14/10 12AM) STRANDED SEVERAL PEOPLE. THEN TO TOP THEIR PISS-POOR SERVICE OR CARE, THEY TYPED UP A RENTAL AGREEMENT FOR A RENTAL DOWN THE STREET AND SAID THEY WOULD PAY THE DIFFERENCE, WOULD USUALLY MAKE YOU AT LEAST A LITTLE LESS ANGRY. HOWEVER, FOX ALREADY KNEW THAT THE OTHER COMPANY DIDN'T HAVE ANY CARS AS THERE WERE PEOPLE IN LINE IN FRONT AND BEHIND ME FROM THE OTHER COMPANY - NO CARS THERE EITHER. WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO FILE A "CLASS ACTION" ON THEIR BUTT!