Saturday, October 15, 2011
Of fairness and unfairness
I have been critical of car hire firm Europcar in past years. This year, for us, they did much to make amends for past misdeeds. We came to Bastia two weeks ago on Easyjet’s last flight of the season, so of course we have had to come back another way. We chose to sail with Corsica Ferries from Calvi today, and will board a Flybe flight from Nice to Southampton tomorrow.
Which is fine – except that Europcar’s Calvi Port office has now closed for the season and we had to deliver the hire car back to the airport this morning. So how did we get to Calvi port from Santa Catalina Airport (about 8km) with our luggage? When we explained our problem to the team at Europcar, someone leapt into the car we had just returned and kindly took us to the port at no cost to us, saving us an exorbitant taxi fare. This seems to me to be more than could be expected, and we are grateful to Europcar for their corporate thoughtfulness.
Contrast this with the behaviour of a group of four young girls on the boat to Nice this morning. Having been amongst the first to arrive in the passenger lounge, they promptly sprawled across several comfy sofas, occupying around 12 seats between them. When some older people (not us – we are far too British) arrived and suggested they limit themselves to one seat each, they refused to budge.
Eventually they were shamed into moving up, and I felt justice had been done. I thought the obnoxious culture of getting your towels on the best deckchairs first thing in the morning was long gone – but it seems to have re-emerged in a different form!
<< Home
