Hertz, are you kidding me?

So, we traveled from Chicago to Minneapolis for a few days, to take care of some family business, and visit some friends. We're taking the train back down to Chicago, today. As we sit at the Amtrak station, waiting for the train to come in, I've been observing what goes on at the Hertz car rental desk here at the station. That's Hertz Local Edition, here at the Amtrak Station at 730 Transfer Road in St. Paul, Minnesota.

It seems like a good idea. Oh great, I thought to myself. Next time we come up here, we can just pick up a rental car at the station. I'm not the only one who has thought this would be a great idea; as I have sat here for the past hour, I have seen two people walk up and inquire along these lines.

Only to be told that one can only pick up a car between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm. Which is somewhat of a problem, because the only train from Chicago arrives at about 11:00 pm every evening.

So, here's the deal. There's a train station, where you can rent cars, but not when you actually arrive on the train station on a train. Does that strike anybody else as incredibly useless?

I overheard an employee say to one gentleman, "this isn't here for the train station. It's here for the neighborhood." Can you say "missed opportunities?" I knew you could!

1 comment:

The North Coast said...

You can readily see from this why Hertz has steadily lost market share over the years. It's a fuddy-duddy old company that charges too much and still thinks it's 1970.