Would like to shout out to a few staff:
- Marzini from Pike Place Seattle Branch
- Jess from Customer Service Hotline
- Jose from Vancouver, BC Airport Branch and his manager, and colleague who’s name I can’t remember
- Ruby from Portland Airport Branch
Brief summary of incident(s):
- Booked BMW 5 series category, pick up at Pike @ Seattle
- They ran out of that category at the branch. Ruby brought me out to the garage to have a look at the cars to better decide which to pick. She was very patient and accommodative. Chose a BMW X4.
- Drove to Vancouver, car prompted me to check tires. There was a screw in one of the tires.
- Called customer service, spoke to Jess, who created a complaint ticket and made swift arrangements for Vancouver airport branch to call me back. Sixt USA and Sixt Canada are different entities and they could not arrange a vehicle exchange as the car rented in USA had to be returned to USA.
- One of the staff at Vancouver called me back within the hour (it was a Sunday!) and told me they would make an exception to give me a replacement car while they replaced my tires, but I had to collect the X4 before I leave Canada and drive it back to the US. I was fine with this arrangement and they arranged a 530i Xdrive as a temporary replacement in Canada (which I enjoyed driving the most during this trip). When I reached the branch to collect the 5 series, Jose was there and everything was smooth - in and out within 15 minutes. I had the same smooth experience when collecting the X4.
- Drove down to Portland Oregon. Along the way, the car prompted me that engine service was due. Decided to head to Portland airport since I was heading near the area. Ruby helped me with the car exchange, initially setting me up with another X4. Before driving off, I had the same check tire pressure message, and quickly found another screw in the tire. So she upgraded me to the brand new X5 which had only 500miles on it as they did not have any X4 category left. Overall at Portland airport, the exchange was also very quick and efficient. Very good experience with minimal downtime. Something I would expect from a large car rental company like Sixt.
- The screw in tire is something out of their control. However, I think the servicing of engine should be better monitored and reset ensured once service is done to minimise inconvenience to customers. However, I’m not going to let the screw up (no pun intended) affect the entire experience and my holiday. Hey, I paid for 1 car (5 series), and got to experience the drive of 3 totally different BMWs.
- Overall, still a positive experience from Sixt. Thank you and your staff for handling the situation so well and efficiently.