One of the bigger powers of blogs is that I have a voice, however small, and may freely exercise it. So, when someone screws up, I feel like I can freely report it.

Take DHL for instance. I had a couple of presentations I gave over the last couple of days, and I really needed new business cards. I designed them then ordered them using Vistaprint and paid for three-day shipping. Vistaprint got it all done in time and got them into the mail, so it was up to DHL - who says they “deliver” - to get things here on time. I tracked my package and, on Friday, their system showed it was in their Dublin office and out for delivery. I waited at home for it and kept checking in. At about 1:30pm, the tracking system updated saying that they failed to deliver because no one was home. I called their customer support line - which, by the way, was fantastic once I got through voicemail hell - and learned, eventually, that my package had never even gotten on the truck. They promised to refund my $30 and attempt delivery the next day, a Saturday

So on Saturday, after waiting all day again, I called the customer support folks, only to find out that my package had, yet again, been left behind. So much for delivering. They pretty much screwed me on this one. I wound up having to drive out to Dublin - about a half hour away - to pick up my package because of their incompetence. Here’s a case where the customer service was right, but they couldn;t live up to their basic service of delivering. So, if you use DHL to ship your packages, count me out as a customer.

But, just as I have a right to complain online, I should also point out when a company does good. On Monday, I had to rent a car so that I could drive to the aforementioned presentations. The night before, I reserved my car on the Enterprise website and was all set up. One of the big things Enterprise offers is to come and pick you up, so I took advantage of it. I called them at 8am and asked for a 9am pickup if available. They told it would be no problem. By 9:15, they hadn’t arrived nor called, so I called to find out where they were. I got someone new on the phone - Stephanie - who apologized profusely, explained how busy they were and that someone would be out ASAP. Stephanie picked me up at about 10am and we went in and got my car.

I had already spent my annoyoance points on DHL, so I wasn’t too pissed. I chatted with Stephanie, got my car and hit the road. I returned it this morning. Upon checking in, the person behind the counter asked, “Was our service satisfactory?” I figured this was my chance, so I politely said, “Yeah, everything was great except that it took an hour to come pick me up the other day, but no worries.”

He immediately apologized and asked, “What can we do to make this up to you?” I wasn’t pissed, I even said something like “But I saw you were busy, so I understand.” Didn’t matter, he insisted on doing something. I said, “Well, I guess you could give me a discount.”

“How does ten percent sound?”

Hey, ten percent is ten percent. “Sure, thanks!”

He went into the system to add the discount, but it wouldn’t let him add a ten percent discount. It would let him add a 15 percent discount, though, so that’s what I got.

So, yeah, Enterprise screwed up, but they acknowledged their mistake and tried hard to make amends. I’ll definitely be using them again, especially my local Enterprise, because I know I’ll be taken care of.

See the differences in the stories? If DHL had delivered the next day as promised, I would have let things slide. I still would have asked for my refund - it still wouldn’t have been three-day service, so why pay for it - but I’d at least feel better about the experience. Instead, they inconvenienced me twice and, frankly, didn’t seem to care. Enterprise inconvenienced me just a little, but I understood seeing how busy they were. Regardless, they wanted to ensure they did right by me - they wanted me to be a repeat customer. And they’ll get that. I rent a car or truck about four times a year when I need to haul things long distances. And I’ll tell everyone I know to use Enterprise, and I know a lot of folks who travel and need to rent cars. And I posted it here on my website so that when you Google for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, you too will see my recommendation. It cost them about $10 for all of that. That’s one hell of a bargain.