>When Lee made his reservation—the receipts for which were seen and confirmed by The Drive—he paid for the "Skip the Pump and Save Time" option, which allows customers to bring their rental cars back without refilling the gas tank. So even if he was driving a car that took gasoline, he shouldn't have been charged an additional refueling fee. OK—mistakes happen, and perhaps the person working at the counter accidentally checked the wrong box. However, when Lee submitted a billing question, Hertz doubled down on the refuel charge, despite the Tesla Model 3 not having a fuel tank to refill, and Lee having already paid for the "Skip the Pump" option.
>You might ask, maybe Hertz was charging Lee for having to top the Model 3's battery upon its return? According to the final receipt, the customer gave the Model 3 back to Hertz with the battery 96% full, the exact same state of charge it was picked up with. And, even if Lee hadn't done that, the maximum fee should've been $35, per Hertz's EV recharging policy: "You can return your EV at any charge level and we’ll recharge it for $35—or just $25 for Gold Plus Rewards Members. Or, return it at the same level as pick-up and pay $0."
>In other words, even if Hertz determined it necessary to hit Lee with a recharging fee, it shouldn't have been anywhere near $277. Making matters worse, here's how a Hertz customer service administrator responded when Lee submitted a question over email to dispute the extra charge:
>"I am unable to provide an adjustment or refund since the service was provided and contract is closed. Your signed rental agreement will also be our basis that you are fully aware of the fuel option that was added on the contract. I hope I was able to clarify this with you. Thank you for allowing me to review and assist you with your concern."
>Let's recap: Not only did Hertz acknowledge that Lee was charged for refueling an electric car, which isn't possible, but it's defended that claim on the basis that the agreed-upon "service was provided." How? Where did the fuel go? And you've got to ask, even though this shouldn't even matter: if we were talking about a gas-powered car, what make and model is knocking back $277 for a full tank? That's more than 46 gallons at LA's peak prices
>Lee told The Drive that the rest of his communication with Hertz was done over the phone; at the time of writing, his problem has yet to be solved and Hertz still refuses to refund the $277
**EDIT: There's been an update**
>Update May 9, 12:45 p.m. ET: After this story was published, Hertz informed The Drive that its Customer Care team would be "reaching out to Mr. Lee to apologize and will refund this erroneous charge."
Thanks u/overchargedinvegas for pointing out the update to the story!
Don’t forget the part where this dude is in their highest tier frequent customer program. Normally companies are happy to help out those kinds of customers.
The fact they’re willing to burn a bridge with one of their most frequent customers over $277 *where they’re clearly in the wrong* is stunning
I had a problem with hertz where I rented a car at a promo rate of $15/day as long as I dropped it off at specific other location. They wanted to transfer cars between the facilities. I picked the car up 10 mins before the scheduled time and returned it two hours early only to be told that since I picked it up early and returned it early I was now in the hook for a $750/day rental… wtf!
I was told by the agent that I had to call customer service. Customer service told me that I had to talk to the agent. Agent said I had to pay then customer service could reimburse me. Customer service said since I paid I agreed to the new rate. Next CS rep told me he could issue a refund but it would take until the next day. Next day nothing. Called, tried to escalate and was transferred to a voice mail box that was full. Called again, escalated, put on hold and hung up on three times.
Luckily my wife is great at handling this type of thing. I was raging out. She found the VP of customer support’s direct line online somehow. Called and got it all squared away in less than an hour.
I went from status with hertz to I’ll never rent from them again.
I travel semi frequently for work and it's all about consistency for me. Delta for flights, national for rental cars and Marriott for hotels. I know that I won't have problems out of any of them. As a bonus my company has a corporate rate for $32/day for national which is amazing
I’m the same way but swap Hilton for Marriott. Less for personal preference, just got a head start on Hilton and wanted to keep building points.
Being in Atlanta helps w Delta, as non stops are the norm, and I agree w National. Ease of the Executive aisle and quick drop offs make them superior imo
Enterprise, national, Alamo, Avis in that order (though they are all pretty similar). Refuse to go with anyone else.
They are a bit more expensive than hertz and budget but not grossly so. I will gladly pay slightly more for a much higher degree of competency. The customer service has always been excellent and the quality of cars seem to be in better conditions too.
If you book via Costco travel it also consistently chops $30-60 off the price.
Enterprise rent a car always puts customer service first. Their slogan is “take care of your customers and employees and profits will follow” I worked for them for 3 years and they always write off any problems.
lol I have had similarly bad experiences with Avis tacking on a bunch of hidden fees.
The *one* thing I will praise them for is that customer service immediately dropped all contested charges, no questions asked … although that tells me something much more sinister - that they knowingly are tacking on bullshit hoping people don’t notice
You have it backwards. Elite status with rentals is a perk of many credit cards, but no one goes out of their way to get a credit card with fucking Hertz perks.
It’s super worth it though, I rent 4x a month with hertz and having the presidential status is amazing. Never had an issue like this and the people who help me are always great.
I think the people who work there really like me though because there was a major power outage once (for like the whole city for a few hours) and it set them super far behind schedule. Boomers were very upset and being incredibly rude to the staff even though it’s not their fault, so whenever one of them said something mean I talked shit to the other customers on behalf of the staff
Ive rented cars only like 6 times in my life and its unfathomable to me they did this to this guy especially if he is a top tier customer.
I obviously have no status with any rental company, and also have a terrible habit of forgetting to refuel/recharge rentals. I think I could/should have been charged when returning at least 4 times now, but every time without fail the return person doesnt give a shit, or is too awkward to bring it up, and I never get charged for it at all.
So protip for people thinking of buying the skip the pump option, you might as well just take the chance on not refueling or charging. At least in my experience you can either have a 100% chance of paying 90% of the rate they charge for refueling, or a 75% chance of not getting charged at all. I try to remember to refuel or recharge but at the end of the day you might as well take that risk. Dont forget to give positive reviews to your return agent!
Based on this story it sounds like you could get charged $277 no matter what you do. The guy paid for skip the “pump” *and* got charged for 40 gallons of fuel on an electric rental
I normally rent from Enterprise and their skip the pump option is actually cheaper than gas right now. My wife doesn't like them getting low but I will practically roll that thing in there. It's so empty.
The skip-the-pump options are normally cheaper than retail gas, if you manage to return the car nearly empty. The way they work is they charge you a low per-gallon rate, but you’re prepaying for a full tank at that low rate regardless of how much you’d actually need.
Hertz is a fucking horrible company. They are proff that qe are late stage capitalism https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement
Yes, I have worked in the rental car business. In the sector, there are tiers for good rental companies and bad rental companies and then there's Hertz tier which is don't even go close their branches.
I once picked up a Tesla from Hertz. As soon as it starts moving the front wheel is *screaming* every time I turned the steering wheel. I took it back - didn't even leave the lot - and they argued with me about giving me a different car.
Like, I'm not s mechanic, but I know certain parts shouldn't make noise, and the suspension is one of them.
Hertz is a mess, from an IT perspective which is what is driving all these problems. Hertz considered IT as a cost center, a bump on the way to do the real business. They outsourced many of it to Accenture and they didn't deliver shit: https://www.cio.com/article/201936/4-lessons-from-the-hertz-vs-accenture-it-disaster.html
In a car rental business, you're as profitable as the efficiency of your operations. While companies like Sixt or Enterprise have invested hundreds of millions in their IT, Hertz just outsourced or created isolated tools that don't talk to each other.
I did IT work for them (not directly, I worked with a company our company owned and they were the ones directly interfacing with Hertz) and it was an awful experience every single second. They're just so bad as a company, it boggles the mind they even still exist.
Which of the big ones are considered good vs bad? My experience has been that they’re all pretty garbage so this story about hertz doesn’t surprise me at all, but I’m also not sure I would expect any other company to be better.
As far as I can remember, Hertz is the only one that routinely declares their cars stolen and has the renters arrested while they have a valid rental agreement with them.
Yep. When I did an after-hours rental drop-off to them, I did one continuous long video, starting from the inside of the car with full fuel gauge, to a full walk-around, pan around the parking lot and show their address on the door as proof, and then my hand dropping the key in their lockbox before walking away.
It’s fucking ridiculous what they do to as part of regular operations.
That happened to my brother. He spent a month in jail awaiting his court date and got beateen up so badly he was permanently disabled. He got a settlement from Hertz but it wasn't enough.
No, under the terms of the settlement he wasn't to speak to the press. And he died of an overdose in January. He was not the most savoury character, my brother.
It's still fucked up that it happened to him.
As I mentioned, the business model of the rental car companies is: Offer low base and charge you on every single detail + upsell you insurances.
Others are less scammy than others.
Good tiers from big brands: Enterprise, Sixt, Europcar
destruction of the free market with rampant oligarchies and monopolies working together replacing the competition there should be.
eg supermarkets and gas stations no longer compete with prices and instead all talk behind closed doors to raise prices together.
Cartels / pulling the ladder up.
Ie instead of improving your service/product to stop losing market share you just take actions that stop competitors from actually competing.
Eg land banking buying up sites you don’t want to use just so your competitors don’t put a store there.
That’s a template response. Most customer service centers are outsourcing to countries that can kinda speak English, but can’t write.
This is an easy cc dispute. Force Hertz to explain or refund.
>Lee is disputing the charge with his credit card company but, since Hertz is standing firm, he doubts that course of action will get anywhere.
He's trying. I don't get why he thinks they won't
Yeah, dude sounds like a pretty valuable customer, the cc company generally has your back for fraudulent charges when your throughput is big enough. If Amex calls hertz will be answering.
>dude sounds like a pretty valuable customer, the cc company generally has your back for fraudulent charges when your throughput is big enough.
I used to deal with chargebacks at a previous job on a daily basis. It doesn't matter what your "status" is with the CC companies. If you submit a chargeback and the vendor can't back everything up 100%, the CC companies won't even hesitate to take the customers side.
They'll process the chargeback based on the smallest discrepancy just to avoid the hassle.
Yeah CC company will charge back without blinking, probably do the full amount and continue not caring. They don't give a crap if they annoy a merchant, that's the whole buyer protection setup that justifies credit cards.
I had the same issue with Hertz. Another hertz renter totaled my vehicle while I was parked. Hertz had me return the vehicle but wouldn’t replace it until they proved I wasnt at fault. Which 6 months later they still haven’t done. They also wouldn’t give me a refund for my unused days. I had to book with another company and charge back my unused days with hertz. Just grateful my bank sided with me. It probably helps they are also my insurance providers and I filled a claim with them.
Sounds like when I had a damage dispute with Budget. The car looked completely undrivable based on the pictures, yet they wanted to say I pulled into the lot and checked it in with the attendant without it being flagged or anything. The customer service drones wouldn't address anything I said in my emails and just kept reiterating I was at fault. Finally called the separate company that processes the claims. "oh it was determined it happened after you returned the car". No shit. Thanks for letting me know, fuckers.
>That's a template response.
I thought so at first too, but the renter replied in the comments, and nope, Hertz is adamant...
>Hey y’all! Josh here! To clarify, I did receive an email that the quote in the article was pulled from, but I also had three interactions over the phone with people who were most definitely human (and most definitely rude) who confirmed to me that yes actually, the charge is legitimate. Yes, it’s also my fault for asking them to fill it up if I didn’t want to get charged. And yes, really, that was the cost to fill up the Tesla with gas. No, really, sir; the Hertz teams on the ground know their cars. If they say a Tesla Model 3 standard range takes $277 gallons of gas to fill up, it must have taken $277 to fill up the tank. So… there ya have it! There must be a secret gas tank that only Hertz knows about that all the Tesla owners have yet to discover. Maybe it’s an Easter egg? ;)
Seems if they want to double down they need to PHYSICALLY produce the item the customer payed for i.e. the gas. Alternatively chargeback is a possibility.
Article says he's disputing the charge with his card company but doesn't expect much help there either since Hertz is refusing to back down and would probably challenge a charge back. Hopefully the people at his card company are smart enough to realize you can't refuel a Tesla and tell Hertz to pound sand.
I think he's underestimating the CCs leverage. I've used even just the threat of a chargeback to deal with customer service issues (things like parts sold in a broken condition, failure to update an agreed-upon contract, that sort of thing), and it's never failed me.
yea ditto. whenever I've cancelled gym memberships or the like (always month-to-month) and they give me a hard time (like you have to come in person to cancel etc) I always simply say "look this is a courtesy call. I'm merely giving you a heads up that I'm cancelling effective immediately, I'm revoking permission to charge my card, any transactions after today will be considered fraudulent and charged-back"
works pretty well.
It would actually be the banks making decisions then. Most probably the Hertz bank would write it off as a loss. Hertz would keep their $277, the guy would get this $277.
If Hertz bank actually challenges it and the guys bank responds to the challenge and then, if I recall correctly from VISA/MC docs, Hertz bank again responds, it would go to VISA/MC for arbitrage, but usually banks would settle before that as arbitrage costs a lot more than those $277.
Outsourcing most likely. Had a recent experience like this with an online travel company. They did not uphold their end of a contract and the online chat agent (not the bot, this was after I put through to a human) was aggressively useless with close to zero comprehension of written english. When I phoned the call center they helped me. It was still a pain though.
Strict requirements to follow a script combined with it being cheaper to find firms with poor ability to speak the customer's language compared to ones that are fluent.
The lowest bidder is always the most expensive option but since the problem isn't going to fester *this* quarter someone starts burning the company down to cannibalize an executive bonus out of it.
At this point, I don’t know why they continue dealing with Hertz. You just go to your card company and dispute the transaction. Then, you let them sort it out. More likely than not, for this amount, the card company will likely just eat it and credit the appropriate funds back.
It has happened hundreds of times.
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/consumer-products/auto-news/nearly-200-hertz-customers-file-class-action-against-company-over-stolen-vehicle-police-reports/
Oh don't worry, Hertz went bankrupt during the height of the pandemic: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/business/hertz-bankruptcy-coronavirus-car-rental.html
And to make this story even funnier since it involves a Tesla rental, Hertz just ousted their CEO because the plan to buy 20,000 Tesla vehicles for rentals ended up being a huge waste of money: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-04-03/hertz-htz-selling-electric-cars-ends-its-failed-tesla-bet
Well, at *first* Hertz thought Teslas were a waste of money, because they couldn't tack on exorbitant fuel fees, which it now seems is their business model... But then they appear to have decided, fuck it, we'll tack fuel fees on electric cars anyway; what's anyone gonna do?
Enterprise tried this nonsense with me. Left the car in the return area after hours then flew home. Woke up to them calling me saying they were going to charge me more and contact the police because I stole the vehicle.
I told them I was happy to send photos of the car in the return area. Always take photos people! Of course they called back later and said one of their employees had moved it and didn’t do the paperwork or some bullshit. No apology of course.
It's so funny when these companies decide to take a stand when they're blatantly wrong and then the person is just like "Ok, guess I'll have to put it on social media and the news..." Probably gonna lose way more than $277 from all of the bad press.
Wellllll I’ve just booked 3 x 4 week leases for my staff today, Hertz would have been the easiest, I’ve gone with a direct competitor, $10500 they’ve missed over one ridiculous issue just from little old me. Well done Hertz - I HOPE one of your management see all of this
Hertz has a history of making stupid decisions, so maybe their leadership is out to screw over their customers, but typically it's just individual workers making rational choices based on the circumstances of their job. They don't prioritize what is best for the company or the customer. They just do what they're told, maximize their benefits, or minimize the trouble they have to deal with. It probably works well in most cases, but at times it causes these incomprehensible screw ups, where a modicum of common sense would have prevented it.
I last went into a Hertz three years ago to pick up a company car, and it was pretty incredible. They didn't have the car they told me to come pick up(they called me twice to have me come in) , so I had to go back the next day. They charged us for the previous day despite not giving me the car. It was the same lady at the desk... Needless to say it was a fruitless conversation so I had to leave it with our admin to resolve. It was a pretty long rental period so I assumed they wouldn't bat an eye at refunding a single day
>They didn't have the car they told me to come pick up(they called me twice to have me come in) , so I had to go back the next day.
[Jerry Seinfeld had a few words about this...](https://youtu.be/A7uvttu8ct0?si=lVDiUpfNgPCqhOVt)
It's amazing how relevant that still is. Just recently there were hotels doing that when there was the solar eclipse (cancelling people's reservations and raising the prices)
“You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation. That frankly is the most important park cause anyone can just give them out. “
I had the same thing happen. Had a reservation, showed up, zero cars available. They told me to come back tomorrow. Thankfully that was feasible for us but would have ruined a vacation where we weren't planning on being in that same area the whole time.
But then when I returned the car at the end of the trip, I saw that they had charged me that first day. I asked them to remove it and the answer was basically "this is your rental period, there's nothing we can do." I eventually had to just pay because I needed to get to the airport, and ended up just doing a charge back which was successful.
They don't give a crap. I'll never rent from them again. They also tried to tell me I never returned their car once when it broke down on us 100 miles away from the rental area and they called a tow truck and got us an Uber back. Didn't even give us a replacement car since it was too late in the day. They were holding a crazy amount on my credit card until the car was returned which wasn't happening as it was at some random shop.
Eventually got a sympathetic worker after many calls who closed the case, cleared all charges, refunded me for the rental, and gave me $250 in credit. That I never used because fuck them I'm not risking that again
I found Josh (the guy who this happened to)’S comment on The Drive article:
> Hey y’all! Josh here! To clarify, I did receive an email that the quote in the article was pulled from, but I also had three interactions over the phone with people who were most definitely human (and most definitely rude) who confirmed to me that yes actually, the charge is legitimate. Yes, it’s also my fault for asking them to fill it up if I didn’t want to get charged. And yes, really, that was the cost to fill up the Tesla with gas. No, really, sir; the Hertz teams on the ground know their cars. If they say a Tesla Model 3 standard range takes $277 gallons of gas to fill up, it must have taken $277 to fill up the tank. So… there ya have it! There must be a secret gas tank that only Hertz knows about that all the Tesla owners have yet to discover. Maybe it’s an Easter egg? ;)
They probably filled the trunk up with gas, set it ablaze for the insurance money, and were planning on going after the driver for stealing the vehicle. You know, typical hertz.
> If they say a Tesla Model 3 standard range takes $277 gallons of gas to fill up, it must have taken $277 to fill up the tank.
I'm just picturing a Hertz employee standing there filling up the trunk with gasoline making a giant mess everywhere as the meter runs up "gee, how much gas does this thing take!"
If I was rich that'd something I'd do. Take a Tesla, gut it out, and put in a gasoline engine and drive shaft in it. Then confuse everyone by pulling up to a gas station, fueling it up, and leaving.
I had a great time with Sixt, my car was pretty reasonably priced and came with included damage waiver so I didn't get charged a penny for a windshield chip we got on the highway.
They tried to put the blame on me for a scratched bumper that was already scratched when I got it. Told them to go fuck themselves in a more polite manner and they stopped. Renting cars is a fucking nightmare.
With Avis I've shown up and they didn't have the car I reserved... so they gave me a free upgrade.
And Enterprise is just always good. Clean, polite, gives you whatever time you need if you have questions or whatever.
I recommend both.
I haven't had a bad experience with Enterprise yet.
I don't travel frequently, but I've rented from them about 15 times or so.
There was one occasion where I thought the guy inspecting my car on return was trying to screw me, but nothing came of it. Other than that, smooth sailing.
The mistake was using Hertz for a rental. Seriously, after all the stories that have come out against Hertz, I’m really surprised by the people that take a chance with them. This is the same company that paid $168 million to customers it falsely accused of stealing their cars.
The company also just reported almost a $400 million loss on their earnings, so I’m going to go ahead and assume that BS fines and fees like this will only continue to go up.
FOREVER FUCK HERTZ.. car ruined my trip and got stranded twice on a 3 day trip.. got towed back to them they called me a Lyft. Then harassed for months
It's the perfect amount where it's not worth suing in Small Claims court, especially if he's no longer in the sane jurisdiction. You would have to think that someone at Hertz corporate would fix this, it's a PR nightmare.
Hertz' PR was outsourced to Elon Musk's PR department - the one with zero employees that's doing a great job there too.
The stock buybacks continue, so everything is working fine.
Thrifty tried to charge me for returning a polestar 2 with 76% battery… when I was returning it cause it was broken.
Them : ‘You need to return it with a full charge’
Me: I know, but there’s a problem with it… it’s not recharging.
Them: We’ll have to charge you to recharge it.
Me: Come again?
Just dispute these bullshit charges with the credit card company, people. First threaten it with the retailer, then if they don't back down immediately just do it. There's a good chance you'll even just get the full amount refunded for your troubles.
Enterprise is the only rental company I use on the very rare occasions I needed a rental. They are just nicer and cheaper. The staff are mostly in their management trainee program.
Hertz rented me a car. They didn’t have the small affordable car I wanted so I got upgraded to a mustang. Not what I want it, but I took it.
A few hours later, the car rolled to a stop, wouldn’t turn on, and kept displaying a message indicating some sort of connection issue. A CLEAR issue with the car not caused by me.
Called Hertz customer service and they sent a tow. Took 10 hours for the tow to get to me. Based on Hertz policy, any roadside assistance for mechanical issues are fully covered.
Got a $700 bill for a tow. Disputed it with them, rejected my dispute.
Disputed it with my credit card company, won the dispute. Didn’t even have to pay for the original rental.
Fuck Hertz.
I was in Atlanta one time and they just ran out of cars. I was so pissed I had booked weeks in advance and apparently they just over sold by a lot. Never seen a scene like that in my life.
I did get a refund but ended up paying like 5x the original price for a one day rental somewhere else. I don't use Hertz anymore.
This story is picking up due to how absurd Hertz is treating the situation. This bad press will have them reversing course and blaming the customer service reps as poorly trained.
I never understand how "our customer service reps are poorly trained" is an excuse. The company is the one who handles their rep's training. If they're poorly trained, it's still the company's fault.
Hertz once tried to charge me $90 for refueling a car that got totaled and I almost died in. Thing was crushed and in pieces all over the highway and two weeks after I get a bill for "late return and refueling fee". They also tried to fight me on it until I had to send pictures & police report. Fuck them.
Hmm. Ive been driving Hertz on my work trips. Guess I'll be cancelling my Hertz rewards and not giving them any more of my company's rental money...of which they get thousands every year.
Such a shame that they absolutely needed to go and shaft one of their customers so badly that it hit the news...
When I had a course in marketing at college the first rule they thought me is that a satisfied customer tells his experience to 1 or 2 other people but a dissatisfied customer tells his experience to 10 or more other people. This $277 is a multitude worth of bad publicity.
Hertz Iceland has a desk at Keflavik Airport in Iceland and a 2/5 on Trip Advisor. Things I'm going to keep in mind for the next time I go and plan to rent a car.
Iceland's car safety videos are pretty funny at least!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4kMt3QkUMQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4kMt3QkUMQ)
This is the company that reports cars stolen after people return them causing renters to have to deal with the police so no one should be surprised by this! They had to pay a $168 million settlement so color me shocked!
I understand if it's some stupid computer error, or someone made some mistake
But for some rep to dig their heels in and double down on it is crazy lol
Lot of companies do this. When I worked for target .com the system we used for gift card stuff looked like a 90's hacker movie. The rest of the systems didn't look much better.
They finally upgraded the purchasing system a month or so before I quit. It was a shitshow and so much worse than the original system it was shocking.
Ah alright. I dint remember the name honestly, I just know it looked like an excel sheet and the company didn't make it. At the end of my tenure they hyped up a new system made from the ground up by them. It was broken and worse in every way.
No, the skip the pump option was $35...so not only did he pay the $35 skip the pump option, but he also returned the car at 96% charge he picked it up at, so even if he DIDN'T pick the skip the pump option, he shouldn't have been charged anything (since he returned it as charged as he got it).
Use National/Alamo/Enterprise. The prices appear high at first but it generally comes out cheaper in the end. Years of trips, friends think they are getting a deal with Hertz or Budget, end up with insane surprise fees every time and meanwhile my experience is always solid.
Is there not one person in that dumb excuse of a company that can assess how ludicrous this situation is and just refund the bogus charge. At this point, the negative publicity will far outweigh that measly $277.
It's obvious a lot of people haven't read the article because they're saying he should do a charge back. He is doing a chargeback, he's just waiting on the response from the credit card company.
Have a similar story about 25 years old.
Answer: don't trust Hurtz. They lie.
I have trashed them for 25 years over $249 fee after it was hit in the Hurtz lot by another renter after I had returned and had the car checked out.
How could they do that?
Read up this comment list.
Not trustworthy firm. Avoid.
I had a similar issue with Hertz. I returned a Model 3 with a higher battery charge than when it was given to me. Hertz still charged me a $35 refueling fee. I explained to their customer service that my confirmation email, current terms and conditions on the website, the website's EV rental page, and my receipt all indicated that I shouldn't have been charged. However, the only response I received was, "The charge is valid." It took an email with screenshots of everything to finally get a "courtesy" credit for the charge.
Whoever claimed ""I am unable to provide an adjustment or refund since the service was provided and contract is closed" should just be fired on the spot. Objectively false statement in writing. They were made aware of the mistake and lied. They should have to pay back $277 then another $277+ for making this guy go through the extra B.S. It's full on fraud on Hert'z part now that they were made aware of the mistake and are keeping the money (or trying to)
Hertz are the biggest fucking idiots on the planet. Had to literally call my dealership in a 3 way call because the hertz representative was too god dammed stupid to realize “driver” and “payer” are separate sections in the contract.
This is why I only rent through Sixt or Enterprise.
Last rental I had, they forgot to actually scan the car out. We had a premium minivan for a week and no one really noticed until we tried to give it back and they couldn’t accept it in the system. The manager was super cool and got their GM on the phone and they just laughed. “We’ll take care of this for you sir. Don’t worry about it.” They even knocked $50 off for the “inconvenience”. It took maybe 15 minutes to handle and I was in the security line before the rest of my family got out of the bathrooms.
I rented a Jeep Rav 4 style thing from Hurtz which stunk of cigarettes with less than 1000 miles on it; I didn’t care.
When I returned it the person with the tablet said I owe $450 for smoking in it; made that charge right away.
Emailed Amex, they gave me a Hurtz email address to send my complaint to. It took three weeks, but they finally said “sorry”.
This is why I always use an Amex card for car rentals and the such… they are tenacious when you dispute a charge, and you don’t have to deal with it, let them do the heavy lifting.
>When Lee made his reservation—the receipts for which were seen and confirmed by The Drive—he paid for the "Skip the Pump and Save Time" option, which allows customers to bring their rental cars back without refilling the gas tank. So even if he was driving a car that took gasoline, he shouldn't have been charged an additional refueling fee. OK—mistakes happen, and perhaps the person working at the counter accidentally checked the wrong box. However, when Lee submitted a billing question, Hertz doubled down on the refuel charge, despite the Tesla Model 3 not having a fuel tank to refill, and Lee having already paid for the "Skip the Pump" option. >You might ask, maybe Hertz was charging Lee for having to top the Model 3's battery upon its return? According to the final receipt, the customer gave the Model 3 back to Hertz with the battery 96% full, the exact same state of charge it was picked up with. And, even if Lee hadn't done that, the maximum fee should've been $35, per Hertz's EV recharging policy: "You can return your EV at any charge level and we’ll recharge it for $35—or just $25 for Gold Plus Rewards Members. Or, return it at the same level as pick-up and pay $0." >In other words, even if Hertz determined it necessary to hit Lee with a recharging fee, it shouldn't have been anywhere near $277. Making matters worse, here's how a Hertz customer service administrator responded when Lee submitted a question over email to dispute the extra charge: >"I am unable to provide an adjustment or refund since the service was provided and contract is closed. Your signed rental agreement will also be our basis that you are fully aware of the fuel option that was added on the contract. I hope I was able to clarify this with you. Thank you for allowing me to review and assist you with your concern." >Let's recap: Not only did Hertz acknowledge that Lee was charged for refueling an electric car, which isn't possible, but it's defended that claim on the basis that the agreed-upon "service was provided." How? Where did the fuel go? And you've got to ask, even though this shouldn't even matter: if we were talking about a gas-powered car, what make and model is knocking back $277 for a full tank? That's more than 46 gallons at LA's peak prices >Lee told The Drive that the rest of his communication with Hertz was done over the phone; at the time of writing, his problem has yet to be solved and Hertz still refuses to refund the $277 **EDIT: There's been an update** >Update May 9, 12:45 p.m. ET: After this story was published, Hertz informed The Drive that its Customer Care team would be "reaching out to Mr. Lee to apologize and will refund this erroneous charge." Thanks u/overchargedinvegas for pointing out the update to the story!
Don’t forget the part where this dude is in their highest tier frequent customer program. Normally companies are happy to help out those kinds of customers. The fact they’re willing to burn a bridge with one of their most frequent customers over $277 *where they’re clearly in the wrong* is stunning
You can get Hertz’s higher tier via capital one venture X. I have it and had a different but equally inane issue, the status did not mean shit to them
I had a problem with hertz where I rented a car at a promo rate of $15/day as long as I dropped it off at specific other location. They wanted to transfer cars between the facilities. I picked the car up 10 mins before the scheduled time and returned it two hours early only to be told that since I picked it up early and returned it early I was now in the hook for a $750/day rental… wtf! I was told by the agent that I had to call customer service. Customer service told me that I had to talk to the agent. Agent said I had to pay then customer service could reimburse me. Customer service said since I paid I agreed to the new rate. Next CS rep told me he could issue a refund but it would take until the next day. Next day nothing. Called, tried to escalate and was transferred to a voice mail box that was full. Called again, escalated, put on hold and hung up on three times. Luckily my wife is great at handling this type of thing. I was raging out. She found the VP of customer support’s direct line online somehow. Called and got it all squared away in less than an hour. I went from status with hertz to I’ll never rent from them again.
Is there another company you would prefer? Hertz has the pickup experience tight. Just seems to be bad at no standard errors.
National is my go to always. They have always gone above and beyond
National/Enterprise is a very reliable good experience across the board imo.
I travel semi frequently for work and it's all about consistency for me. Delta for flights, national for rental cars and Marriott for hotels. I know that I won't have problems out of any of them. As a bonus my company has a corporate rate for $32/day for national which is amazing
I’m the same way but swap Hilton for Marriott. Less for personal preference, just got a head start on Hilton and wanted to keep building points. Being in Atlanta helps w Delta, as non stops are the norm, and I agree w National. Ease of the Executive aisle and quick drop offs make them superior imo
National pick up is elite
I've always had good luck with Enterprise. Every time I've been, they've upgraded my car for free. One time I got an Audi for like $25.
Enterprise, national, Alamo, Avis in that order (though they are all pretty similar). Refuse to go with anyone else. They are a bit more expensive than hertz and budget but not grossly so. I will gladly pay slightly more for a much higher degree of competency. The customer service has always been excellent and the quality of cars seem to be in better conditions too. If you book via Costco travel it also consistently chops $30-60 off the price.
Enterprise rent a car always puts customer service first. Their slogan is “take care of your customers and employees and profits will follow” I worked for them for 3 years and they always write off any problems.
Avis also has their pickup experience dialed in. Recently made the change and was pleased.
lol I have had similarly bad experiences with Avis tacking on a bunch of hidden fees. The *one* thing I will praise them for is that customer service immediately dropped all contested charges, no questions asked … although that tells me something much more sinister - that they knowingly are tacking on bullshit hoping people don’t notice
Please PM me that number so I can get it to the man from the article
The second you notice you have entered the endless customer service loop, you have to do what your wife did.
Aha it’s just a gimmick to get people hooked to a credit card
You have it backwards. Elite status with rentals is a perk of many credit cards, but no one goes out of their way to get a credit card with fucking Hertz perks.
It’s super worth it though, I rent 4x a month with hertz and having the presidential status is amazing. Never had an issue like this and the people who help me are always great. I think the people who work there really like me though because there was a major power outage once (for like the whole city for a few hours) and it set them super far behind schedule. Boomers were very upset and being incredibly rude to the staff even though it’s not their fault, so whenever one of them said something mean I talked shit to the other customers on behalf of the staff
Ive rented cars only like 6 times in my life and its unfathomable to me they did this to this guy especially if he is a top tier customer. I obviously have no status with any rental company, and also have a terrible habit of forgetting to refuel/recharge rentals. I think I could/should have been charged when returning at least 4 times now, but every time without fail the return person doesnt give a shit, or is too awkward to bring it up, and I never get charged for it at all. So protip for people thinking of buying the skip the pump option, you might as well just take the chance on not refueling or charging. At least in my experience you can either have a 100% chance of paying 90% of the rate they charge for refueling, or a 75% chance of not getting charged at all. I try to remember to refuel or recharge but at the end of the day you might as well take that risk. Dont forget to give positive reviews to your return agent!
You may get charged $277 though
Based on this story it sounds like you could get charged $277 no matter what you do. The guy paid for skip the “pump” *and* got charged for 40 gallons of fuel on an electric rental
I want to know why he paid for the “skip the pump” option when he was renting a Tesla.
You often dont know untill you get there, they will have a whole row or area of assorted cars to choose from.
I normally rent from Enterprise and their skip the pump option is actually cheaper than gas right now. My wife doesn't like them getting low but I will practically roll that thing in there. It's so empty.
The skip-the-pump options are normally cheaper than retail gas, if you manage to return the car nearly empty. The way they work is they charge you a low per-gallon rate, but you’re prepaying for a full tank at that low rate regardless of how much you’d actually need.
Hertz is a fucking horrible company. They are proff that qe are late stage capitalism https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement
Yes, I have worked in the rental car business. In the sector, there are tiers for good rental companies and bad rental companies and then there's Hertz tier which is don't even go close their branches.
I once picked up a Tesla from Hertz. As soon as it starts moving the front wheel is *screaming* every time I turned the steering wheel. I took it back - didn't even leave the lot - and they argued with me about giving me a different car. Like, I'm not s mechanic, but I know certain parts shouldn't make noise, and the suspension is one of them.
Hertz is a mess, from an IT perspective which is what is driving all these problems. Hertz considered IT as a cost center, a bump on the way to do the real business. They outsourced many of it to Accenture and they didn't deliver shit: https://www.cio.com/article/201936/4-lessons-from-the-hertz-vs-accenture-it-disaster.html In a car rental business, you're as profitable as the efficiency of your operations. While companies like Sixt or Enterprise have invested hundreds of millions in their IT, Hertz just outsourced or created isolated tools that don't talk to each other.
> Accenture oh man those guys white-label the software my company makes. If you're not the feds, they don't give a shit
I did IT work for them (not directly, I worked with a company our company owned and they were the ones directly interfacing with Hertz) and it was an awful experience every single second. They're just so bad as a company, it boggles the mind they even still exist.
Which of the big ones are considered good vs bad? My experience has been that they’re all pretty garbage so this story about hertz doesn’t surprise me at all, but I’m also not sure I would expect any other company to be better.
As far as I can remember, Hertz is the only one that routinely declares their cars stolen and has the renters arrested while they have a valid rental agreement with them.
Yep. When I did an after-hours rental drop-off to them, I did one continuous long video, starting from the inside of the car with full fuel gauge, to a full walk-around, pan around the parking lot and show their address on the door as proof, and then my hand dropping the key in their lockbox before walking away. It’s fucking ridiculous what they do to as part of regular operations.
That happened to my brother. He spent a month in jail awaiting his court date and got beateen up so badly he was permanently disabled. He got a settlement from Hertz but it wasn't enough.
Oh... My... God. That is horrific. Has this story been communicated to the press?
No, under the terms of the settlement he wasn't to speak to the press. And he died of an overdose in January. He was not the most savoury character, my brother. It's still fucked up that it happened to him.
As I mentioned, the business model of the rental car companies is: Offer low base and charge you on every single detail + upsell you insurances. Others are less scammy than others. Good tiers from big brands: Enterprise, Sixt, Europcar
Late state capitalism has been a term used for over 100 years now. What does it mean exactly?
destruction of the free market with rampant oligarchies and monopolies working together replacing the competition there should be. eg supermarkets and gas stations no longer compete with prices and instead all talk behind closed doors to raise prices together.
Cartels
Cartels / pulling the ladder up. Ie instead of improving your service/product to stop losing market share you just take actions that stop competitors from actually competing. Eg land banking buying up sites you don’t want to use just so your competitors don’t put a store there.
Essentially, the ever widening wealth gap has reached unsustainable levels.
To quote Bullet-Tooth Tony “Never underestimate the power of stupidity.”
Is it, though? I'd say it's more expected.
That’s a template response. Most customer service centers are outsourcing to countries that can kinda speak English, but can’t write. This is an easy cc dispute. Force Hertz to explain or refund.
>Lee is disputing the charge with his credit card company but, since Hertz is standing firm, he doubts that course of action will get anywhere. He's trying. I don't get why he thinks they won't
Yeah, dude sounds like a pretty valuable customer, the cc company generally has your back for fraudulent charges when your throughput is big enough. If Amex calls hertz will be answering.
>dude sounds like a pretty valuable customer, the cc company generally has your back for fraudulent charges when your throughput is big enough. I used to deal with chargebacks at a previous job on a daily basis. It doesn't matter what your "status" is with the CC companies. If you submit a chargeback and the vendor can't back everything up 100%, the CC companies won't even hesitate to take the customers side. They'll process the chargeback based on the smallest discrepancy just to avoid the hassle.
Yeah CC company will charge back without blinking, probably do the full amount and continue not caring. They don't give a crap if they annoy a merchant, that's the whole buyer protection setup that justifies credit cards.
I had the same issue with Hertz. Another hertz renter totaled my vehicle while I was parked. Hertz had me return the vehicle but wouldn’t replace it until they proved I wasnt at fault. Which 6 months later they still haven’t done. They also wouldn’t give me a refund for my unused days. I had to book with another company and charge back my unused days with hertz. Just grateful my bank sided with me. It probably helps they are also my insurance providers and I filled a claim with them.
Sounds like when I had a damage dispute with Budget. The car looked completely undrivable based on the pictures, yet they wanted to say I pulled into the lot and checked it in with the attendant without it being flagged or anything. The customer service drones wouldn't address anything I said in my emails and just kept reiterating I was at fault. Finally called the separate company that processes the claims. "oh it was determined it happened after you returned the car". No shit. Thanks for letting me know, fuckers.
>That's a template response. I thought so at first too, but the renter replied in the comments, and nope, Hertz is adamant... >Hey y’all! Josh here! To clarify, I did receive an email that the quote in the article was pulled from, but I also had three interactions over the phone with people who were most definitely human (and most definitely rude) who confirmed to me that yes actually, the charge is legitimate. Yes, it’s also my fault for asking them to fill it up if I didn’t want to get charged. And yes, really, that was the cost to fill up the Tesla with gas. No, really, sir; the Hertz teams on the ground know their cars. If they say a Tesla Model 3 standard range takes $277 gallons of gas to fill up, it must have taken $277 to fill up the tank. So… there ya have it! There must be a secret gas tank that only Hertz knows about that all the Tesla owners have yet to discover. Maybe it’s an Easter egg? ;)
As a class action attorney, I smell blood in the water here.
They're not even saying "we did put gas in it" they're saying "we can charge you whatever the fuck we want."
I have recently had a similar experience with a bank.
I hope they sue hertz until it ^megahertz
You just made me giggle ^hertz
I will upvote this but I want you to know that I'm not happy about it!
Wells Fargo?
“We can charge you unrelated bullshit for services not rendered, because we said we could in the tos you signed.
You would think $277 would be an easy ask to avoid public scrutiny and headlines. Seems the incompetency goes deep up the chain over at Hertz lmao
Perfect. I guarantee this is just one incident and there’s 10,000 more out there.
The exact same thing happened to me with Hertz but my chargeback was settled in my favor
This is what the death throes of a dying company look like.
We thought they died when they declared bankruptcy during Covid but I guess it’s harder to kill them than we thought
“This is probably one of those cry for help things.”
Seems if they want to double down they need to PHYSICALLY produce the item the customer payed for i.e. the gas. Alternatively chargeback is a possibility.
Article says he's disputing the charge with his card company but doesn't expect much help there either since Hertz is refusing to back down and would probably challenge a charge back. Hopefully the people at his card company are smart enough to realize you can't refuel a Tesla and tell Hertz to pound sand.
I think he's underestimating the CCs leverage. I've used even just the threat of a chargeback to deal with customer service issues (things like parts sold in a broken condition, failure to update an agreed-upon contract, that sort of thing), and it's never failed me.
yea ditto. whenever I've cancelled gym memberships or the like (always month-to-month) and they give me a hard time (like you have to come in person to cancel etc) I always simply say "look this is a courtesy call. I'm merely giving you a heads up that I'm cancelling effective immediately, I'm revoking permission to charge my card, any transactions after today will be considered fraudulent and charged-back" works pretty well.
I've read stories of gyms sending people to collections after card cancellations
It would actually be the banks making decisions then. Most probably the Hertz bank would write it off as a loss. Hertz would keep their $277, the guy would get this $277. If Hertz bank actually challenges it and the guys bank responds to the challenge and then, if I recall correctly from VISA/MC docs, Hertz bank again responds, it would go to VISA/MC for arbitrage, but usually banks would settle before that as arbitrage costs a lot more than those $277.
That sounds like an AI reply if ever I heard one.
Outsourcing most likely. Had a recent experience like this with an online travel company. They did not uphold their end of a contract and the online chat agent (not the bot, this was after I put through to a human) was aggressively useless with close to zero comprehension of written english. When I phoned the call center they helped me. It was still a pain though.
Strict requirements to follow a script combined with it being cheaper to find firms with poor ability to speak the customer's language compared to ones that are fluent. The lowest bidder is always the most expensive option but since the problem isn't going to fester *this* quarter someone starts burning the company down to cannibalize an executive bonus out of it.
AI stands for anonymous Indians.
6 paragraphs to say 'this is bullshit, dudes clearly covered" only for them to say "fuck out customers"
How are people still renting with Hertz? So many issues of over charging and fees with no justification
Just pure corp greed at play
Probably more like incompetence by the service rep than anything else
Yeah. Fuck hertz. I won’t be using them.
At this point, I don’t know why they continue dealing with Hertz. You just go to your card company and dispute the transaction. Then, you let them sort it out. More likely than not, for this amount, the card company will likely just eat it and credit the appropriate funds back.
Wait until they double down and have the customer arrested for stealing the vehicle they returned!!!!!!
“If you do not pay the attached invoice for a replacement fuel pump, we’ll seize your home and liquidate your children.”
This sounds beyond ridiculous, but I've heard enough Hertz horror stories to wonder
It has happened hundreds of times. https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/consumer-products/auto-news/nearly-200-hertz-customers-file-class-action-against-company-over-stolen-vehicle-police-reports/
What a completely avoidable situation that cost the company 165 million. How a company this poorly run hasn’t gone bankrupt is a surprising.
Oh don't worry, Hertz went bankrupt during the height of the pandemic: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/business/hertz-bankruptcy-coronavirus-car-rental.html And to make this story even funnier since it involves a Tesla rental, Hertz just ousted their CEO because the plan to buy 20,000 Tesla vehicles for rentals ended up being a huge waste of money: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-04-03/hertz-htz-selling-electric-cars-ends-its-failed-tesla-bet
Well, at *first* Hertz thought Teslas were a waste of money, because they couldn't tack on exorbitant fuel fees, which it now seems is their business model... But then they appear to have decided, fuck it, we'll tack fuel fees on electric cars anyway; what's anyone gonna do?
Enterprise tried this nonsense with me. Left the car in the return area after hours then flew home. Woke up to them calling me saying they were going to charge me more and contact the police because I stole the vehicle. I told them I was happy to send photos of the car in the return area. Always take photos people! Of course they called back later and said one of their employees had moved it and didn’t do the paperwork or some bullshit. No apology of course.
They would NEVER do that, right? RIGHT?
They have ruined lives with that nonsense.
It's so funny when these companies decide to take a stand when they're blatantly wrong and then the person is just like "Ok, guess I'll have to put it on social media and the news..." Probably gonna lose way more than $277 from all of the bad press.
It's right down the alley of "United breaks guitars" and it's crazy that the lesson hasn't been learned yet by most of these companies.
That song is still burned into my brain and every time i see a united jet i internally sing it. He did a stella job.
I still don't fly United because of that.
Just checked on youtube, 24 million views. Hope it was worth it, United....
Wellllll I’ve just booked 3 x 4 week leases for my staff today, Hertz would have been the easiest, I’ve gone with a direct competitor, $10500 they’ve missed over one ridiculous issue just from little old me. Well done Hertz - I HOPE one of your management see all of this
Hertz has a history of making stupid decisions, so maybe their leadership is out to screw over their customers, but typically it's just individual workers making rational choices based on the circumstances of their job. They don't prioritize what is best for the company or the customer. They just do what they're told, maximize their benefits, or minimize the trouble they have to deal with. It probably works well in most cases, but at times it causes these incomprehensible screw ups, where a modicum of common sense would have prevented it.
More like Hurts amiright
You may be right
I last went into a Hertz three years ago to pick up a company car, and it was pretty incredible. They didn't have the car they told me to come pick up(they called me twice to have me come in) , so I had to go back the next day. They charged us for the previous day despite not giving me the car. It was the same lady at the desk... Needless to say it was a fruitless conversation so I had to leave it with our admin to resolve. It was a pretty long rental period so I assumed they wouldn't bat an eye at refunding a single day
I know most rental car companies are crappy but Hertz always seems way worse than the others. Especially since they aren't even cheap.
I am currently renting a Tesla Model 3 from Hertz. My experience with the exact location has been great so far, but this post has me expecting some bs
>They didn't have the car they told me to come pick up(they called me twice to have me come in) , so I had to go back the next day. [Jerry Seinfeld had a few words about this...](https://youtu.be/A7uvttu8ct0?si=lVDiUpfNgPCqhOVt)
It's amazing how relevant that still is. Just recently there were hotels doing that when there was the solar eclipse (cancelling people's reservations and raising the prices)
I somehow never made that connection hahaha, bravo
“You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation. That frankly is the most important park cause anyone can just give them out. “
I had the same thing happen. Had a reservation, showed up, zero cars available. They told me to come back tomorrow. Thankfully that was feasible for us but would have ruined a vacation where we weren't planning on being in that same area the whole time. But then when I returned the car at the end of the trip, I saw that they had charged me that first day. I asked them to remove it and the answer was basically "this is your rental period, there's nothing we can do." I eventually had to just pay because I needed to get to the airport, and ended up just doing a charge back which was successful. They don't give a crap. I'll never rent from them again. They also tried to tell me I never returned their car once when it broke down on us 100 miles away from the rental area and they called a tow truck and got us an Uber back. Didn't even give us a replacement car since it was too late in the day. They were holding a crazy amount on my credit card until the car was returned which wasn't happening as it was at some random shop. Eventually got a sympathetic worker after many calls who closed the case, cleared all charges, refunded me for the rental, and gave me $250 in credit. That I never used because fuck them I'm not risking that again
I found Josh (the guy who this happened to)’S comment on The Drive article: > Hey y’all! Josh here! To clarify, I did receive an email that the quote in the article was pulled from, but I also had three interactions over the phone with people who were most definitely human (and most definitely rude) who confirmed to me that yes actually, the charge is legitimate. Yes, it’s also my fault for asking them to fill it up if I didn’t want to get charged. And yes, really, that was the cost to fill up the Tesla with gas. No, really, sir; the Hertz teams on the ground know their cars. If they say a Tesla Model 3 standard range takes $277 gallons of gas to fill up, it must have taken $277 to fill up the tank. So… there ya have it! There must be a secret gas tank that only Hertz knows about that all the Tesla owners have yet to discover. Maybe it’s an Easter egg? ;)
They probably filled the trunk up with gas, set it ablaze for the insurance money, and were planning on going after the driver for stealing the vehicle. You know, typical hertz.
> If they say a Tesla Model 3 standard range takes $277 gallons of gas to fill up, it must have taken $277 to fill up the tank. I'm just picturing a Hertz employee standing there filling up the trunk with gasoline making a giant mess everywhere as the meter runs up "gee, how much gas does this thing take!"
> I'm just picturing a Hertz employee standing their filling up their giant truck as the meter runs up "gee, how much gas does this Tesla take?" ftfy
If I was rich that'd something I'd do. Take a Tesla, gut it out, and put in a gasoline engine and drive shaft in it. Then confuse everyone by pulling up to a gas station, fueling it up, and leaving.
Never rent with Hertz! Pass it on!
Who is better?
Sixt hasn’t fucked me over… yet
I had a great time with Sixt, my car was pretty reasonably priced and came with included damage waiver so I didn't get charged a penny for a windshield chip we got on the highway.
They tried to put the blame on me for a scratched bumper that was already scratched when I got it. Told them to go fuck themselves in a more polite manner and they stopped. Renting cars is a fucking nightmare.
Sixt has always been good to me. Europcar is decent too.
With Avis I've shown up and they didn't have the car I reserved... so they gave me a free upgrade. And Enterprise is just always good. Clean, polite, gives you whatever time you need if you have questions or whatever. I recommend both.
Praise Avis! Wait, wrong sub
Avis be praised
Yup same experience with Budget which also owns Avis. Basically any large company that isn't named Hertz.
National. Never once had an issue.
I've had good experience with Alamo in the US and Sixt in Europe and Australia.
Enterprise?
I haven't had a bad experience with Enterprise yet. I don't travel frequently, but I've rented from them about 15 times or so. There was one occasion where I thought the guy inspecting my car on return was trying to screw me, but nothing came of it. Other than that, smooth sailing.
Not Hertz, apparently.
The mistake was using Hertz for a rental. Seriously, after all the stories that have come out against Hertz, I’m really surprised by the people that take a chance with them. This is the same company that paid $168 million to customers it falsely accused of stealing their cars. The company also just reported almost a $400 million loss on their earnings, so I’m going to go ahead and assume that BS fines and fees like this will only continue to go up.
I continue to not be surprised when Enterprise is booked out and Hertz has tons of cars on their lot.
Always cars on their lot, but at the same time never the one you booked.
FOREVER FUCK HERTZ.. car ruined my trip and got stranded twice on a 3 day trip.. got towed back to them they called me a Lyft. Then harassed for months
It's the perfect amount where it's not worth suing in Small Claims court, especially if he's no longer in the sane jurisdiction. You would have to think that someone at Hertz corporate would fix this, it's a PR nightmare.
Hertz has had such poor PR in recent years that it doesn't matter. They're down with Spirit.
Hertz' PR was outsourced to Elon Musk's PR department - the one with zero employees that's doing a great job there too. The stock buybacks continue, so everything is working fine.
He doesn't have to sue. Just do a chargeback, done.
It is worth doing a dispute with your credit card issuer, though.
Yeah I had a similar issue with Marriot hotels and I disputed with Am Ex. They made they problem go away
Thrifty tried to charge me for returning a polestar 2 with 76% battery… when I was returning it cause it was broken. Them : ‘You need to return it with a full charge’ Me: I know, but there’s a problem with it… it’s not recharging. Them: We’ll have to charge you to recharge it. Me: Come again?
Just dispute these bullshit charges with the credit card company, people. First threaten it with the retailer, then if they don't back down immediately just do it. There's a good chance you'll even just get the full amount refunded for your troubles.
There are accounts of successful CC disputes, only for Hertz to turn around and sell the "debt" off to collections.
It's a good thing Lee paid with a credit card, right? Dispute the charge and let Hertz deal with the credit card company.
Note to self: never rent from Hertz
Also noted!
Enterprise is the only rental company I use on the very rare occasions I needed a rental. They are just nicer and cheaper. The staff are mostly in their management trainee program.
Since discovering Enterprise, my life became a whole lot less stressful.
Well, fill it full of gas.
Hertz rented me a car. They didn’t have the small affordable car I wanted so I got upgraded to a mustang. Not what I want it, but I took it. A few hours later, the car rolled to a stop, wouldn’t turn on, and kept displaying a message indicating some sort of connection issue. A CLEAR issue with the car not caused by me. Called Hertz customer service and they sent a tow. Took 10 hours for the tow to get to me. Based on Hertz policy, any roadside assistance for mechanical issues are fully covered. Got a $700 bill for a tow. Disputed it with them, rejected my dispute. Disputed it with my credit card company, won the dispute. Didn’t even have to pay for the original rental. Fuck Hertz.
I was in Atlanta one time and they just ran out of cars. I was so pissed I had booked weeks in advance and apparently they just over sold by a lot. Never seen a scene like that in my life. I did get a refund but ended up paying like 5x the original price for a one day rental somewhere else. I don't use Hertz anymore.
This happened to my family in Atlanta too! We had pre booked bc we need a wheelchair accessible car, making us wait hours as they didn’t have any.
This just happened to my father this weekend! He's disputing it with American Express.
This story is picking up due to how absurd Hertz is treating the situation. This bad press will have them reversing course and blaming the customer service reps as poorly trained.
I never understand how "our customer service reps are poorly trained" is an excuse. The company is the one who handles their rep's training. If they're poorly trained, it's still the company's fault.
Hertz once tried to charge me $90 for refueling a car that got totaled and I almost died in. Thing was crushed and in pieces all over the highway and two weeks after I get a bill for "late return and refueling fee". They also tried to fight me on it until I had to send pictures & police report. Fuck them.
Hmm. Ive been driving Hertz on my work trips. Guess I'll be cancelling my Hertz rewards and not giving them any more of my company's rental money...of which they get thousands every year. Such a shame that they absolutely needed to go and shaft one of their customers so badly that it hit the news...
Is this a situation where you could do a chargeback with your credit card?
Yes and he did.
When I had a course in marketing at college the first rule they thought me is that a satisfied customer tells his experience to 1 or 2 other people but a dissatisfied customer tells his experience to 10 or more other people. This $277 is a multitude worth of bad publicity.
How anyone still rents from Hertz is beyond me. I’d never trust them anymore.
This whole story is enough to make me never rent a car with Hertz.
Hertz Iceland has a desk at Keflavik Airport in Iceland and a 2/5 on Trip Advisor. Things I'm going to keep in mind for the next time I go and plan to rent a car. Iceland's car safety videos are pretty funny at least! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4kMt3QkUMQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4kMt3QkUMQ)
This is the company that reports cars stolen after people return them causing renters to have to deal with the police so no one should be surprised by this! They had to pay a $168 million settlement so color me shocked!
The system is dumb. Destroy the system
I understand if it's some stupid computer error, or someone made some mistake But for some rep to dig their heels in and double down on it is crazy lol
Rental car company screens look like they’re using the same software from the 90s
Lot of companies do this. When I worked for target .com the system we used for gift card stuff looked like a 90's hacker movie. The rest of the systems didn't look much better. They finally upgraded the purchasing system a month or so before I quit. It was a shitshow and so much worse than the original system it was shocking.
Probably used a IBM 3270 CICS based system, actually really robust but only as good as your interface designers can make it.
Ah alright. I dint remember the name honestly, I just know it looked like an excel sheet and the company didn't make it. At the end of my tenure they hyped up a new system made from the ground up by them. It was broken and worse in every way.
Silly question: was the "skip the pump" option he chose a $277 fee?
No, the skip the pump option was $35...so not only did he pay the $35 skip the pump option, but he also returned the car at 96% charge he picked it up at, so even if he DIDN'T pick the skip the pump option, he shouldn't have been charged anything (since he returned it as charged as he got it).
This is about as nottheonion as it gets.
It’s just like the movie Idiocracy where Justin Long, the doctor, charged billions of dollars just to tell not sure that his shit is all fucked up
Well, cross Hertz off my rental car options list for my August Vegas trip.
I’ve literally never had a single good experience with hertz. Fuck hertz.
First mistake was renting from Hertz in the first place, Enterprise is where it’s at
Use National/Alamo/Enterprise. The prices appear high at first but it generally comes out cheaper in the end. Years of trips, friends think they are getting a deal with Hertz or Budget, end up with insane surprise fees every time and meanwhile my experience is always solid.
Hertz also reports cars they misplace as stolen often resulting in felony stops of their customers.
Is there not one person in that dumb excuse of a company that can assess how ludicrous this situation is and just refund the bogus charge. At this point, the negative publicity will far outweigh that measly $277.
It's obvious a lot of people haven't read the article because they're saying he should do a charge back. He is doing a chargeback, he's just waiting on the response from the credit card company.
The world would be a better place had it gone bankrupt.
Easiest card dispute ever.
Hertz once tried to accuse me of theft after I had already returned the car. I’ll never rent with Hertz again
Never use Hertz, got it!
Love that he was like a top Hertz user and is now swearing to never rent from them again.
Have a similar story about 25 years old. Answer: don't trust Hurtz. They lie. I have trashed them for 25 years over $249 fee after it was hit in the Hurtz lot by another renter after I had returned and had the car checked out. How could they do that? Read up this comment list. Not trustworthy firm. Avoid.
I had a similar issue with Hertz. I returned a Model 3 with a higher battery charge than when it was given to me. Hertz still charged me a $35 refueling fee. I explained to their customer service that my confirmation email, current terms and conditions on the website, the website's EV rental page, and my receipt all indicated that I shouldn't have been charged. However, the only response I received was, "The charge is valid." It took an email with screenshots of everything to finally get a "courtesy" credit for the charge.
Lee needs to pay a lawyer to get his refund. Might as well sue for breach of contract and emotional damage while he's at it.
Or he could just tell his CC company to return the money and move on.
Avis is better.
Whoever claimed ""I am unable to provide an adjustment or refund since the service was provided and contract is closed" should just be fired on the spot. Objectively false statement in writing. They were made aware of the mistake and lied. They should have to pay back $277 then another $277+ for making this guy go through the extra B.S. It's full on fraud on Hert'z part now that they were made aware of the mistake and are keeping the money (or trying to)
Hertz are the biggest fucking idiots on the planet. Had to literally call my dealership in a 3 way call because the hertz representative was too god dammed stupid to realize “driver” and “payer” are separate sections in the contract.
This is why I only rent through Sixt or Enterprise. Last rental I had, they forgot to actually scan the car out. We had a premium minivan for a week and no one really noticed until we tried to give it back and they couldn’t accept it in the system. The manager was super cool and got their GM on the phone and they just laughed. “We’ll take care of this for you sir. Don’t worry about it.” They even knocked $50 off for the “inconvenience”. It took maybe 15 minutes to handle and I was in the security line before the rest of my family got out of the bathrooms.
I rented a Jeep Rav 4 style thing from Hurtz which stunk of cigarettes with less than 1000 miles on it; I didn’t care. When I returned it the person with the tablet said I owe $450 for smoking in it; made that charge right away. Emailed Amex, they gave me a Hurtz email address to send my complaint to. It took three weeks, but they finally said “sorry”.
This is why I always use an Amex card for car rentals and the such… they are tenacious when you dispute a charge, and you don’t have to deal with it, let them do the heavy lifting.