Am I the only person who actually liked Hertz?
Never had a bad experience with them.
Tried a cheaper car rental place ONE time, and the brakes failed on the car...
Never had a bad experience with them.
Tried a cheaper car rental place ONE time, and the brakes failed on the car...
The bad: charged for a full tank of gas and a filling fee despite me filling it immediately before returning it. I didn’t keep the receipt or take a photo, mea culpa. Worked out as something crazy like £4 a litre, with the fee.
The terrible: prepaid rental, pick up at one airport, return to another - paid the fee for the one-way up front. Was slightly bemused when the car they gave me had clearly come from where I was going, so I was paying €160 to do them a favour. Where it got terrible: the office at the airport I dropped the car at was unattended. It was meant to be open, but wasn’t - so I used the key drop and caught my flight.
They then charged me €4500 for extensive bodywork damage - two new doors, new mirror, new panels, new glass, etc. - the car was immaculate when I’d left it, and from the photo it looked like someone had t-boned it in their lot - broken glass on the ground around it, etc.
I had a walkaround video from when I dropped it off, showing no damage - but they pointed me at the section of the rental agreement that says that if I use the key drop I accept all responsibility for damage to the vehicle between me dropping the keys and them inspecting it. I didn’t have a leg to stand on.
To add insult to injury, they also charged me the one-way fee, again.
Needless to say, I never used them again after that.
It was an endless headache and run around to try to get them to cancel out the charge. That kind of run around should be illegal.
I normally used National (because you can pick any car on their 'aisle') and never had that issue with them.
I had a rental company claim I "totalled the right front side of the vehicle" and had $3000+ in damages. I asked for dated photos of the damage and all of a sudden the claim of damage went away. I always take a dozen or so photos of the car before and after I drop it off. Takes 2 minutes but can save a ton of time and money down the road.
For some reason all the contracts I've seen want a written description of damage. That just isn't enough. Take photos of everything you find before you move in and include them in the statement of the state of the house.
Of course, you have to ask for a refund first, but after doing so, skip the hassle and just charge it back.
They'll have to pay additional penalties, which discourages this kind of behavior in the first place.
I vowed off Hertz 6 years ago. It was around midnight after a long flight, my phone was dead and I had a rental booked from another company.
I was thrilled to see that the Hertz rental counter had a large box of car chargers with a label "$8.99" or something reasonable. So I walk up and ask to please buy one.
The person behind the counter looks at me in disbelief "No, these are for customers only. We're not a convenience store. Go find a Seven Eleven if you need a car charger."
Six years and $10,000+ in business rentals later, I've still never rented Hertz again. Customer service matters.
I left a Canadian National Park Pass in a rental car once ($120/yr, covers admission to park). I went to the rental counter and asked if they had it. The attendant asked me what month it expired and he pulled out a box with probably 500 park passes and found one with the month. I suspect many people fly into my city (Calgary), rent a car to visit Banff and the annual pass is cheaper than the daily rate for vacation. When they fly home (to another country) they have no use for the pass anymore so they just leave it in the car.
I will never go anywhere near a Hertz again. The prices were about the same and every single aspect of the Enterprise experience is better. If you damage a Hertz vehicle, even with insurance, god help you. With Enterprise it's no hassle at all.
I once had Hertz try to change the price on a pre-paid rental at the counter. When I tried to show the counter guy my existing receipt with a different price he turned his eyes up to the ceiling and said "I'm not looking at that." Like a child.
I'm really disappointed in Hertz going bankrupt. Hopefully their operation can continue, I really enjoyed using them.
Check out was easy, about 2 mins at the gate. Check in was parking the car and walking off from the garage to the Airport terminal. No need to do anything.
What's the program they ran that had an annual fee?
They really catered to the business traveler market and if your membership was paid for by a corporate account then their unstated, unofficial policy was that if you could return a car under its own power you'd never be charged for damage.
My wife was a consultant for a construction company many many years ago and had at least 3 cars totaled from being parked near construction sites. She once drove a car with a flat tire for nearly 20 miles to avoid missing a flight. Hertz never batted an eye.