Dear Europcar
Ich wollen ein automiete.
Do you know about the internet? It is a global network of billions of computers that connects people and business around the world and you can use search to find what you want.
One of the useful things about the Internet is that you can use it for shopping. Customers can choose between products to find the one that best meets their needs for price, availability, size etc. and buy online. The customer doesn’t have to contact lots of companies branches and the companies customer service people can get on with providing good service to their customers rather than waiting around to answer questions and taking orders. This is really useful for selling stuff where you don’t have to send the products, like rental car reservations.
So you can see how all this Internet stuff is relevant to you?
Lets look at a specific example then:
I want to hire a car in Munich during the Octoberfest for tomorrow. I search on the internet to find prices and size of cars that might be available then I go to Europcar website (yes, very relevant to you!) to make the reservation and pay in advance.
At this point your customer is happy.
You then send me a “Confirmation email” which says “Your reservation is not confirmed as some items are pending confirmation by email within 48 hours”.
At this point your customer is anxious – and a little bit confused: I’m picking up the car in 16 hours. Will it be missing a steering wheel or something?
2.5 hours before the time of the reservation you send me another email: “The car group HCMR you requested under reservation mentioned in object is not available. Please let us know if you want to amend your booking. Without any notice from you within 48h, your reservation will be automatically cancelled.”
At this point your customer is worried and a little bit angry. As you did not say how to contact you, I go the the rental office to amend my booking.
“Your reservation has failed” I am told (as if it is my fault). What car can you provide me with instead? “We do not have any cars available.”
At this point your customer is very angry.
However you then stop using the Internet, and things then get much better. You phone around other branches in Munich and find me a car. You order me a taxi by phone and I arrive at the branch to find a VW beetle cabrio.
So if you can refund my taxi fare (I can provide you with the details) I’m prepared to leave it at that.
However you do need to get this Internet stuff sorted out, because there is one other thing about the Internet. Bad news spreads ten times as fast as good news.
#Europcar #Epicfail