My astonishment continues to grow at the prevalence of bad customer service, especially in the beleaguered travel sector.

Here’s the story:

Rented a car from Hertz at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The car I was assigned was equipped with the Hertz NeverLost GPS system. I didn’t request it. Don’t need it. Didn’t use it. I had the NeverLost preference taken off my Hertz profile about 2 years ago, when I got my new Blackberry with built-in GPS.

This has happened on 80% of my Hertz rentals this year.

Each time, when returning the car, I have to get the charge taken off, usually with some hassle (never as much hassle as today). Each time, they tell me they’ll AGAIN take the thing off my profile, and I shouldn’t have a problem with it anymore.

You can see where this is going.

My request today was met with resistance, belligerence, and a remarkable disregard for helping a customer (a 20-year customer who rents a lot of Hertz cars) with a reasonable request. I had to keep barking up the food chain until I found one adult capable of doing what all the other adults told me they couldn’t do.  The final grown-up I talked to, the station manager did exactly the right thing, and more. Refunded the extra charge, promised me he took the preference out of my profile, and credited a free day to boot. Then he gave me his card and said that if it happens again, in any Hertz location, to call him on his cell phone. I will.

Here’s the thing: the travel sector is nowhere close to recovery yet. The Phoenix Hertz location had almost NO customers returning cars at noon today. LOTS of cars sitting on the lot.  There were at least a dozen competitors renting the same mediocre cars at the same airport. I asked the manager if business was really that good that they could afford to alienate any customer, let alone a high-volume one. He sheepishly acknowledged that it wasn’t.

Any manager whose business depends to any degree on the willing choices of customers with lots of options should stop right now and remind service workers that their attitudes, actions, words, and spirit of helpfulness can do more to dig them out of the current economic hole than almost anything else. People are still buying. They’re just getting more selective. Why? Because they can.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/rehadden) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill Catlette are the authors of Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.