I’ve figured out why it’s so hard for so many hard-working people to get a job. It’s because there are so many incompetent business models that are making that impossible.

The car rental and credit card industries are prime examples of how big companies lose sight of customer service and as a result can’t afford to hire more employees, on this side of the Atlantic anyway.

Over an hour of my winter break was spent wondering how Budget Car Rental stayed in business. We had to stand in line for an hour just to hand the rep our reservation, we had to listen to her talk to her friend on her cell phone as we waited for the car to be “detailed” and then pulled around. If they just washed the cars as they were returned and took reservation confirmations upon arrival, they could budget their time better and possibly hire more people. I’m going to try Hertz next time.

I’m also trying out a new credit card company, since Chase clearly didn’t invest my $40 late fees in customer service. If anybody knows a credit card company that still offers zero percent interest when you threaten to cancel, let me know. It’s management 101; there’s no point in having a customer service department if the people working in it have no authority to serve the customers.

In a time where every customer makes a difference and people like me will go to the grocery store with cleaner bottle machines (sorry Farmer Jack, but you pink-slipped me for refusing to work Labor Day ’99), companies seem to have no interest in customer satisfaction.

They are losing customers and laying off good people because of their back-assward priorities. And instead of evaluating the problem, the new trend is to have their estranged customers bail them out.