04 Mar The Round-About Way
Dear Here to Help,
A family member hired a car from a well-known company. There was a minor incident and the car hire company sent us a bill for the damage. The bill was very high. I showed photos of the damage and the bill to the authorised dealer for the car brand, who provided me with another, substantially cheaper, quote.
I contacted my insurer, who was happy to cover the damage, but needed to talk to the car hire company directly. I rang and emailed the car hire company and asked them to deal with my insurer. Nearly eighteen months later, the car hire company is still refusing to speak to the insurer. They are ringing us day and night, threatening us if we don’t immediately pay their bill.
Sometimes bureaucracies are stuck in the same gear, spinning their wheels on the same road.
Trying to deal with the gear-spinners just does your head in. It can feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall.
That’s when it’s time to do an internet search of the company. You are looking for a customer advocate, any other channel to interact with the company, or even the CEO and/or their executive assistant.
In this case, we wrote a letter to the CEO who admitted the issue had been going on for far too long. He cancelled the bill. Perhaps he also looked at the way that section of the car hire company dealt with customers.
This article comes from my column entitled “Here to Help” in Hunter Local, April 2020. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to “Here to Help” and let’s see what we can achieve.
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation.
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