ZipCar Credit Crunched

I really enjoy the concept of ZipCar, and similarly was quite satisfied with the sign-up experience, their payment methods, etc.

It's all quite easy to understand, simple to borrow a car, and so on...

But then I ran into my very first issue after borrowing one of their cars once to do a quick furniture move (a great experience overall with the exception of having to fill one tire with air that was under 10psi).

The ZipCar deal I signed up for is $30 annually with $50 driving credit, but during that last rental they billed my credit card.

So I call Zipcar: What’s up with the no-credit situation?

ZipCar Customer Service: Doesn’t seem like it was applied to your account. What’s the promo code you used?

Never did. I went to www.ZipCar.com/ConcordCityPlace and it just processed it all for me.

I need the code.

There is no code! No area on this page that mentions or allows me to insert a code. Can’t you look it up?

We don’t have access to codes. But if you come across it within 30 days of signing up we can apply it.

But how would I come across it? I came across this, and it doesn’t have a number. Plus IT’S ON YOUR WEBSITE.

Lemme check with supervisor… Sorry we need the code.

Ummm ok there is no number anywhere on this page – no number or code or anything like that.

It could be letters.

There’s no letters either! No code at all!

Well if you come across it within 30 days… or try calling your local office.


Update...

So Sean from my local ZipCar office left me an email, and called me the following morning to apologize for the inconvenience of the situation, and credited me $65 on the account - essentially twice the value of the rental period.

Thanks a lot, Sean!

Still funny how as cool and fun as the ZipCar company seems to be, they obviously haven't polished their customer service skills at the main 1-866 customer service number. I've learned of another situation where customer service told my friend to take a bag of random stuff another 'Zipster' left in the car, go home and list it in a Lost & Found section of their forum - but definitely don't leave it in the car. Umm what? How about you handle it since it's your business and all.

Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts

Seeing all of these pictures on the web, and video on the news of these people suffering in Haiti - their homes ravaged, friends and family dead or severely wounded - it is just so sad.

I'm still jobless since taking my leave of absence last year to do some backpacking, and maybe the freedom of this makes me just crazy enough to look into going to Haiti and helping out myself.

So I deeply considered flights to Haiti despite my significantly limited monetary resources. Flights to Port Au Prince, and anywhere else in Haiti are suspended. So instead, relief workers are landing in the neighbouring Dominican Republic (DR).

Through Orbitz.com I found flights to Peurto Plata, DR: USD$200 total for a one-way, or USD$383 total for a return ticket - both with Continental Airlines, and both leaving from Pearson Airport in Toronto (YYZ).

At that point though I am learning about various logistical issues even getting to the Haitian border from DR (audio report - Washington Post). And if you are not part of a relief organization, and just there to help out, what then? Will they actually let you in the country?

Another problem is that I can't survive much longer without a job, as I need to pay off this travel debt, combined with auto-debit payments for my student loan, before these creditors start sending hired goons to knock down my front door.

Yes, I suppose I could start immediately selling all my camera stuff, TV, monitor and any other extraneous things I don't absolutely need, to raise money for a ticket or two. But my second more rational thought is that these aid organizations would be calling for relief workers if that is actually what they needed.

They don't. They have aid workers. What they need is money.

It would make me feel immensely more useful actually being there to assist in some way, but on the other hand there is the law of diminishing returns too - sometimes it's just worse, the more untrained people there are around. More people to explain what to do, more people that could really just get in the way, unless they have a specific set of tasks they can accomplish without supervision.

If I was a doctor, paramedic, nurse - then sure, I could be of use. But another guy to carry boxes of bottled water, tell people where to go, or just stand there to watch the action unfold? They have enough of these people.

I regretfully dismiss myself then - for now anyway - and instead look to gain meaningful employment, so I can have the available resources to put to these causes, which would make more of an impact.

Rant: The Job Hunt

You know what bugs me about online job application websites? They're all different.

And I don't mean different in the way that the 'submit' button is on the left instead of the right, but in the way that they are so varying in terms of their ability to understand the input of the end user.

In short: they're poor.

This website accepts 30 types of documents, but another only understands Microsoft Word. After all, who uses anything else but Microsoft Word? Has anyone heard of Adobe PDF documents, perhaps? They're only everywhere on the internet where standardization is of any interest. Certainly don't inform me in any way which file types you do accept, given it is this limited.

Some websites do not accept attachments at all. So that cover letter and resume you spent hours carefully crafting and agonizing over? The nice tables you used to get that perfect alignment? Forget it. Just copy and paste them into these basic text boxes here that are no larger than a sticky note.

As an alternative, why not let the iResume system make you stand out more? It will take your resume and process it using the latest analytic and querying algorithms, then automatically populate the required fields... all to save you time. Sounds great!

If only it worked.

My job as an IT Analyst for ABC Inc., from February 2003 to June 2009, has now been translated into a job at Mississauga, Ontario, with unknown job title, from September 2001 to September 2001.

So, tell me: what does your tool populate, exactly?

Inconveniently, iResume also picks out your most applicable job skills, by searching for the most random strings of text in your resume, and letting you select them as a skill, like "bank", "analyst" or "Ms" - whatever that is (I still don't know where that came from). Who thought this was a good idea?

It reminds me of older job application software five years ago, where you could select from a hundred words, like "Microsoft" or "security" or "eCommerce". Do those words mean anything by themselves? Would you hire me because I put "security" down as a skill? What does that even mean?

Even better, if two companies you are applying for use the same vendor's job application software, rest assured that your resume is not stored in a central location; instead, and predictably, it exists only on the servers of each individual company.

So though the login screen and questions are identical to that last job you just applied for, because the same company wrote that code, this one will not know the username and password you used for the last one, as it is a completely disparate system.

How 1990.

This makes sense when companies have their own team of HR staff to sift through resumes - why would you store your data elsewhere? But if you hire an external company to build software to save your recruiters' time, why not save the applicant's time, also? Because "why bother?", that's why. "Who cares?" is another good reason.

What is also ironic, is that many of the jobs I am applying for lately are asking for detail-oriented people with excellent written communication, yet many of the job postings demonstrate that nobody like this was involved.

Well, I suppose that's why they need them.