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Comment by josephcsible | Hacker News Reader

To me, the worst part of this is the way they effectively remove the consumer protection that credit cards are supposed to give you for things like this, by banning you from renting cars for life if you do a chargeback, even if the credit card company agrees that they were the ones in the wrong.

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The last time I rented a car I was hit with two bogus extra charges, both of which I disputed successfully. I assume this got me put on a "no rent" list with the company, but dealing with the situation left such a bad taste in my mouth that I won't ever rent from them again regardless. I imagine it's the same for many if not most people in that situation.

The rental car market needs more regulation. I remember car rental companies erroneously calling the police on renters for stealing cars, and billing for "wear and tear." The fuel surcharges and everything else is just a continuation of the same anti-consumer practices.

Car rental agencies are King's when it comes to BS fees and practices.

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa...

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Dinged-for-normal-wear...

Now imagine living outside of the big cities and having approximately 2 possible rental companies total serving your area.

Coming from a perspective of the company believing its charges are legitimate, this doesn't seem like an unreasonable policy. If someone found a way to reverse a payment they made to me after the fact, I probably wouldn't do business with them again either.

The problem here was the company not having a reasonable way for the customer to reach someone with both common sense and the authority to reverse the charges.

Last I read my credit card company's policies, being charged for services not provided, if merchant refused to fix it or refund, was a valid reason to do a chargeback.

Getting that chargeback feels soooo good though. I have never wanted to go back to a business I got a successful chargeback from, so it's not a big price in my opinion.

At a certain point, if they muck about with chargebacks too much, they are going to be in trouble with Visa themselves. And I don't think any business fears being on anyone's bad side worse than Visa.

Being able to do a chargeback is more accurately described as banks offering to arbitrate individual transaction disputes, not offering to manage the whole business customer relationship.

If you have to do a chargeback you should avoid that company anyway. Luckily, Hertz does not have a monopoly.

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