In this episode of Adventures in Customer Service I feature the exciting ordeal we went through when the car rental agreement we signed with our travel agent went sour.
Wanting to try and save money, as well as shop locally, Maria and I decided to book our Honeymoon through a local travel agent when we went last year. We chose Goliger’s Travel, a little building just a few minutes away from where Maria was living at the time. At first, we had a good feeling about it. The agent who helped us out admitted that the kind of hiking/driving vacation that we wanted—staying at a bunch of different locations as we wound our way from Victoria to Vancouver—wasn’t exactly the kind of thing he could do, but he could certainly book our flight and car rental for us, and at a good rate too. Since we felt good about it, and wanted to book everything locally, we decided on a flight and car rental and went ahead.
It wouldn’t be until the day after our wedding, when we landed in Victoria and found ourselves in front of the Hertz rental kiosk that things began to get a bit grim.
Now as far as we knew, and were told—it was written in our contract—we had pay for all of our car rentals fee up front save the $50 fee for picking up the car in Victoria and dropping it off in Vancouver. The $50 was the only fee we should pay in B.C. We were told this several times and it was written, in black ink, on our copy of the contract we signed with our travel agent. So you can imagine my surprise, as a newly married gentleman (already a little surprised by life!), when I was told that I would have to pay an “age difference” fee which would total about $175 for the week. An age difference fee?
To my surprise, when quoting our car rental from Hertz, the staff at Goliger’s Travel in Waterloo had disclosed my age as 25, not 24 which I was at the time. This discrepancy in age resulted in my quote being much less than it was supposed to be, and the surprise age difference fee when we landed in Victoria. I was frustrated but like a good husband I took charge, paid the difference, and picked up our car. In reality, there was nothing that we could do. It was a Sunday, Goliger’s was closed, and we had already prepaid for most of the rental fee when we booked it. We didn’t really have a choice and even though I had my copy of the contract I signed with Goliger’s, the agent at Hertz had his hands tied: he had to charge me the fee, Goliger’s, he said, had made the mistake and I would have to take it up with them when we got back to Ontario.
Well, we had a great Honeymoon. The car served us well, especially in dropping us off at the head of a beautiful hiking trail upon which we got lost and nearly eaten by bears—only a few days into our married life, nonetheless. When we dropped the car off at Hertz in Vancouver I again inquired about the fee. The agent at the desk again explained that it was the fault of the travel agent, and it was with them that I’d have to take it up. She provided me with a detailed printout of the schedule of fees to help me and at this point I was even more surprised. In addition to the $175 age difference fee that was another $100+ in additional fees. A number of these fees were acronyms which I didn’t understand. One fee was a $60 “concierge” fee. According to Goliger’s Travel, and our written contract, all fees had been paid locally in Waterloo upon booking.
Once we returned to Kitchener and settled in I began to process of making things right with Goliger’s Travel. In my mind, we had been overcharged by $290 when all was said and done and it was money we never should’ve paid in the first place. We got our quote, we had our contract, and these charges were in breech of that. The mistake on Goliger’s part by misrepresenting my age was not a fault of my own, when Maria and I met with our agent I told him, “I’m 24. I’ll be 25 on Oct. 29th if that makes any difference.” He said it might, and that was the end of it. The quote, using my age as 25, was their mistake and I see no way around it. But they certainly did.
My first course of action was to call, which I did. I was told to come in and to show them all the paperwork and they’d see what they could do. I did that, too. I sat down and calmly explained the whole situation at which time they suggested that maybe Hertz would refund the money; after all, they said, I was only a couple of weeks shy of being 25. In my mind, this wasn’t the point, it wasn’t Hertz’ fault to begin with, but I let it be and let the travel agent work it out.
Over the course of twenty-two e-mails the situation went from bad, to worse, to unresolved in the end.
Their first instinct to blame the car rental company did not work. Hertz informed them that it was their policy and they couldn’t do anything about it. They in turn informed me of this. I know, I said, I know it’s their policy and I agree with that policy—my problem is that you gave them the wrong age. This back and forth continued for a while, me assuring Goliger’s that I had given them the right age, Goliger’s at times forgetting what I was complaining about, not writing back then assuring me it was my fault for not receiving their e-mails, and then mixing up the dollar amounts of my claim.
In the midst of all of this, sometime in the middle of November, an even more hilarious thing happened which served to me to illustrate just how backward this organization was to begin with. My credit card account was charged for the entire cost of our Honeymoon—the cost of our Honeymoon which we’d already paid for. Calls to Goliger’s and more e-mails, this time about a new issue, resulted in their realization that they’d charged me twice, by accident, and my card was refunded.
My pursuit to get back our rental overcharge finally came to a head sometime in December. With an e-mailed that ended in a cheery “Have a Happy Holidays!” I was informed by our travel agent that the mistake in age wasn’t their fault, but mine. I had given them the wrong age, she said, and it was my fault, they couldn’t do anything about it. I had had enough. I wrote back—using on e-mail at this point so as to leave a paper trail—and told them their response was inadequate and I was prepared to take additional steps if necessary to resolve the dispute. Ibegan looking into my options.
Unfortunately, my options were limited. A Small Claims case would cost more to put through the courts than I would end up receiving back if I won. A claim to the Better Business Bureau was impossible, as far as I could tell, because they weren’t registered. And the Travel Industry Council of Ontario, a body set up to protect against these kinds of things, was powerless because they couldn’t do anything in the face of “agent error”.
But Goliger’s wrote back, this time informing me that I needed to put my complaint in written form—a letter because e-mail wasn’t written enough—and send it to their “Complaints Department” which I assumed might just be a waste paper basket for all I knew.
In March, ending a saga which began in November, I finally received an e-mail from someone at Goliger’s Travel who had some answers. Sadly, the response was barely better than I’d received before. The travel agents involved, I was told, did everything that they could to attempt to resolve my complaint but unfortunately the car rental agency has their policies and I was charged the right amount according to my age at the time. Good grief, I thought, I knew that—that wasn’t my complaint! As an “act of goodwill” though, I was told that I would be sent a cheque for $100, a third of what I was claiming to be entitled too. I responded, told them that I was still not satisfied with them not taking ownership for their mistake, but would gladly take the $100. Better than nothing, I thought.
I did receive the $100 cheque in the mail. My hands were tied, so I cashed it. If I had other avenues to pursue, I would’ve, but my options were exhausted at this point. We’d been ripped off by a travel agency who refused to acknowledge their mistake and there wasn’t anything else that we could do about it. Except write about it, here.
Like my experience with Cambridge Toyota, the ordeal we went through with Goliger’s Travel illustrates some really simple things that a business could do—but in this case chose not to—to satisfy its customers. Have a little understanding and demonstrate some service. Here we are, a newly married couple, surrounded by lots of young friends who will all undoubtedly go on lots of trips in their lives. We are the target market for a local place like Goliger’s. Treated well, we would surely recommend their business to our friends, our families, and our colleagues—word of mouth is powerful. Instead, we’re soured by our experience. If I hear someone asking about a good travel agent I go out of my way to tell them to avoid Goliger’s. And we’ll certainly never go back. Instead of securing a patronage that could’ve lasted beyond 60 years—we’re young!—Goliger’s has compromised their market share and driven away potential customers in substantial numbers. No one we know, and no one that hears our story, will travel with Goliger’s, that’s for sure.
Again, I come back to this: How much would it have cost Goliger’s to make things right? To admit that the mistake was theirs and to take ownership? $287.12. How much have their lost in potential revenue as a result of their poor customer service? As a result of customers being driven away, and others not even giving them consideration? Well, we’ve booked at least one vacation since and not used Goliger’s, that was about $900 worth of potential revenue—and counting. It’s simple, common sense stuff, but it seems like no one in the service industry is paying attention to that. With all the choices out there—for mechanics, for travel agents, for coffee—my business, my patronage, is important and sometimes, when things go wrong, a company has to work to earn it. I feel like very few companies are putting in the effort these days, but maybe that’s just me.
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