National - Car Rental With Real Customer Service!
Written: Feb 07 '02 (Updated Feb 08 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quality Customer Service, Good rates, Emerald Club is worthwhile!
Cons: Never had a bad experience with this company.
The Bottom Line: The customer service at National is to be commended in these times of less than courteous counter personnel elsewhere. You won’t be disappointed, at least I never have been!
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| navmaster's Full Review: National |
Ok, here’s my National Car Rental tale… After September 11th my wife got word that she was expected at conventions in Atlanta and Chicago during consecutive weekends in early January,2002. No problem, except that she is still breast-feeding our daughter, and… The HIGHEST building in the country is in CHICAGO! (SEARS TOWER) So flying was not an option in my book. We compromised; we would drive this trip north from Florida.
Being Floridians and having a healthy respect for the blizzards we see on T.V., we had an inkling that our present two wheel drive vehicles may not be up to the task of navigating through Indiana and Illinois to the windy city without a mishap. (All I saw in my mind was our beautiful 2000 Avalon driving behind a salt truck and then later being caught on ice and sliding helplessly down a hill into a junkyard.) So the decision was to rent a 4x4 SUV for our trip to the frozen tundra of the great white world above the Mason Dixon Line!
It took some research and use of my Emerald Club card at National Rent A Car, but we got a good deal on a 4x4 and reserved it 3 weeks in advance. We didn’t quite know what we would get until arriving at the rental counter but I was hoping for a Chevrolet. I have extensive experience with GM cars and find that I am most comfortable in them, don’t get me wrong, Ford makes fine trucks, if your hauling rock or something, but if you want a smooth ride, GM is the way to go!
We rented get a 2002 blazer 4x4 the night before we were to leave Clearwater for Atlanta, but as it turned out, we were not very comfortable with it. The Blazer had undergone a design change in 1995, so it wasn’t the same vehicle I had remembered my beloved 1992 Blazer to be. It was smaller, had less room inside, had more road noise, and rode like a bucking bronco on the highway!
Our trip had us arriving the next day in Atlanta, staying there for three days, then off to Chicago. Thank goodness we had that stop in Atlanta! The rental Blazer apparently had a weak battery; it became hard to start in the chilly air (38 degrees) of Atlanta. I knew the problem would not cure itself in Chicago. So… I called National Rental Car and they directed me to bring the car to their facility at Hartsfield International Airport.
What a Facility it is, huge! The attendants there knew who I was among the 20 or so their people checking in cars, before I even got out of the vehicle. I explained that I had trouble with the battery in the Blazer, and the attendant said “Jump in, I will drive you out back and you can pick out what you want”. Somehow that seemed to be an incredibly customer friendly way to take care of my situation, could it be true? Yes, it was true, not only did this nice employee of National drive me back to the SUV’s, she let me pick out a brand new 2002 Trailblazer and even helped me transfer my belongings (not to mention, my 6 month old in her carseat)from one car to another! Start to finish; I was out of there in less than 15 minutes! No extra charge, no hassle, no waiting in endless lines. I was very impressed!
Not ½ as impressed as I was with the 2002 Trailblazer!
Immediately, I noticed that this was an entirely different vehicle than the one I had just left behind. Both are considered mid-sized SUV’s and both were four-wheel drive, but they did not drive or ride anything alike! The Trailblazer has a command of the road like not other SUV that I have driven, including Isuzu’s, Explorers and Highlanders. This was a very well built mid-size SUV! It hugged the road and was very smooth on both city streets and interstate highways. The six-cylinder engine has more than enough horsepower to get up the on ramp and get out of the way of any marauding 18-wheeler! The interior was comfortable and every control for the driver was accessible and well organized. I was very pleased with my trade up!
In 2000 miles of mostly highway driving our experience was that this vehicle is more refined than the older style Blazer and really cannot be put in the same class. I suppose an appropriate analogy would be to compare a Cadillac with a Chevette. The smooth character on the highway was matched by its much-refined suspension in city driving. Neither Atlanta, nor Chicago is known for their smooth roads, but the Trailblazer handled both with the aplomb of a fine sedan.
My wife pronounced the rear seat to be much better than the Blazer’s and she and our daughter camped out in the back during our long day’s of driving. Overall we were a much happier and well rested family at the end of the driving day, having spent it in the Trailblazer over what we would have been in the Blazer. After 2000 miles of driving I was just as pleased with this car as I was the first day, you can't say that about most rental cars.
The kicker in the end was that the National Car Rental Clerk in the Clearwater Airport saw that I had trouble during my trip and had to exchange cars… So, he gave me a 25-dollar discount on my rental for my time and trouble... Without my saying a word about it! National has always been easy to deal with, but this takes the cake, what an outstanding experience! If you don’t believe me, go rent a car from National yourself!
Great phone contact, great counter personnel, problems handled with class and style. Become a National Car Rental Emerald Club member, you will be glad you did!
P.S.
You have read my story but I have another short tale to submit for your consideration... This was during an entirely different car rental situation more than a year ago. A National Car Rental agent drove over 25 miles from the Lake Charles, Louisiana Airport in her own car, to bring me a key to a rental car. She had the key made by the GM dealer in Lake Charles to replace the original that I had dropped overboard from a Tugboat! The agent did this on her own time, and wouldn’t even accept a tip!
Unbelievable!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
navmaster
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Location: Clearwater Florida
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
38 Year Old Male US Merchant Marine Officer.
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