Hertz
reviews and complaints

This is just one of many complaints I have about the hertz agency at the duluth airport. I returned a car I had rented for an extended period of time under an "unlimited mileage" contract. The car was a few years old with many miles on it when I rented it. When I returned it, the location manager gave me a very hard time about the number of miles I had put on the vehicle. A few months later I received a letter saying I would be held responsible for "damages done to the vehicle". I had reported a rock chip in the windshield, but the bill was for damage to other parts of the car that did not occur while it was in my posession. I feel wholeheartedly that this damage claim was "punishment" for the number of miles I put on their car.

Needless to say I will no longer be renting vehicle from this location.

A friend and I both made car reservations through Hertz on Wednesday, January 23rd—for Tuesday, March 18-Monday, March 24, at the Merida International Airport in Merida, Mexico.

We both received confirmation e-mails and numbers (mine was D9023920862). My reservation was for a Chrysler Atos - Manual, with A/C or similar Manual Air. I believe my friend (Kathy Walton) made a similar reservation but requested an upgrade to an automatic transmission.

When we got to the Merida airport, we found out that our cars had been given away - even though we had called from the Houston airport earlier that day (3/18) to confirm the reservations -- because our flights were cancelled and delayed several times due to extreme weather conditions. (In fact, the Houston airport was actually closed for part of the day because of the severe storms moving through the state.)

Btw, when we called from Houston, we were told by customer service that our cars were indeed confirmed - and that they would be there when we got there. We even made a point of telling them we would be VERY late because of the flight cancellations/delays.

Again, when we arrived in Merida (at about 11:30 pm), we were told our cars were given away - and that there were none available.

Our group consisted of three women, a young man (college student) and a young woman (high school student).

We were left stranded - late at night - at a close-to-empty airport - in a foreign country. It can’t get much better than that.

The two representatives from Hertz turned us away without even an apology. Actually, they closed up shop and left. They didn't even offer to help us with a taxi or direct us to a hotel. They simply told us we would have to come back tomorrow and HOPE that there would be cars available.

So, we had to walk close to a mile (at midnight), hail two taxis, and find a hotel.
(We had already paid in advance to stay at a B&B for the week - but since we didn't have a car, we couldn't get there.)

When we arrived back at Hertz the next morning (at 8 am sharp), we were again told that there were no cars available.

Of course, there was an SUV parked right outside - but we were told we couldn't rent that because they were holding it for someone else. So...we couldn't take that vehicle but yet they had no problem giving our cars away to someone else the night before.

I can't even begin to tell you how unbelievably poor the customer service was.

After complaining for almost two hours, they finally rented us ONE small car (which we put in Kathy Walton's name). We had to cram five people and all our luggage into that one car.

The kicker is that a sixth member of our party was scheduled to arrive in Merida the next day. That meant we would not have room for her and her luggage in that one little car.

I called Hertz over and over and over again over the next TWO days - to get them to find us another car. At the end of the second day, they finally found us an SUV but told us we would have to pay for the upgrade. So, after we spent money we shouldn't have had to - on phone calls, several taxis, extra gas, and a hotel room - they refused to give us a free upgrade. We ended up driving around in that one little car, and then we had to pay for a van to take some of us back to the airport at the end of the week.

To top it all off, we ended up paying over $250 more than the price I was given on the original confirmation ticket.

I am completely appalled by the unbelievably poor customer service we received.

I worked as a vendor for Hertz Rental Car and was exposed to harrassing abuse for years. When I complained in a letter to the VP they supposedly fired the guy but would never re-instate my position as a vendor. I guess when you make a bad deed public, you are enemy No. 1. I was a very productive contractor who put up with a lot of verbal/degrading abuse at the hands of Hertz managers. These big corporations think they are not to be held accountable. I will never purchase a rental car from them nor will anyone I know. Be careful who gets your dollar...they may be an undesirable company with less than honorable working practices. Shameful.

I rented a car on August 22, 2008 at 8:30am from the above location. My daily rate according to the contract was 169.89 plus tax and a $200.00 deposit which would be credited back to my credit card upon the return of the vehicle. The vehicle was returned per the contract on the same day at the Flint, MI location on Bristol Rd at 11:36pm.
After reviwing charges to my credit card I found that Hertz charged me $923.94. I immediately contacted the location in SC where the car was rented and spoke to a supervisor by the name of Jessica (not sure about the name but will get confirmed). She was extremely rude and explained that we were charged for 3 days of rental. I explained that we dropped the car off the same day and only rented the car for 1 day. She argued with me and stated that we did not drop the car off or we wouldn't have been charged for the additional days. Sherefused to research or help me. She placed me on hold and came back on the line to tell she contacted the location we dropped the car off and they confirmed that the car was not dropped off until Monday which was untrue. I then contacted the location where we dropped the car off and they confirmed we did infact return the vehicle the same day at 11:36pm. They provided me with a billing contact number at Hertz to call in the morning. I have now pulled my recipt to find not only were we over charged for additional days but an upgrade charge and other misc fees that I have yet to get an answer on. I am dusgusted with the lack of customer service and will never use this company again. The credit card is linked directly to my personal checking account, if my account is overdrawn because of this I will expect Hertz to assume full responsibility for this error and cover any overdraft fees. I can not believe Hertz gets away with this. This is only my 1st complaint I plan on taking this as far as I can.

I joined the Hertz #1 Club Gold membership for its discounts and fast service. I was making car reservations for a 2 week vacation in Hawaii. Before using my Club Gold "passport to savings", i decided to see what my old Alamo had to offer. Full size car for 2 weeks..$469.00. Well I knew my new Club Gold could do a lot better than that! Then I thought lets see what my Delta Sky Miles membership could do. Full size car x 2weeks, Hertz, 34.50, = $482.95. Old Alamo, 20.71, = $289.00 (tax and fees included). Heck, Old Alamo looks pretty good but I know my new membership with Club Gold would do better...Who was I kidding, even with the PC# they gave me which would give a additional $10. off per day...$147.50 per day! PER DAY! Well you can do what you want with it. Me, I'm going back to Old Alamo.

We hired a car in Toulouse online, and seeing as it was only a short 4-day holiday, we agreed to upgrading to an Opel convertible when we checked in, for an additional daily rate.

In Mirepoix for two days, south of Toulouse, and some little criminal put a scratch along the door, while we were parked overnight. The next night, the car was scratched again, along the boot, most likely by the same little worthless criminal. Both times the car was parked legally, under a street light, and (of course) while we were away, sleeping.

The result? On return, we were charged 440 euros by Hertz, i.e. 220 per panel. To make things worse, we were told that due to Hertz policy, it was cheaper to claim the scratches as our fault -- if we insisted on declaring the scratches for what they were, vandalism, we would have to pay the full excess of 660 euros. Go figure.

This is criminal in more ways than one. Basically, we would have needed to stand guard on the car day and night, without sleeping the entire rental period, to have avoided this. Thanks to some vandal, we are now over £400 poorer, with no recourse.

The result? I am NEVER using Hertz again. It is quite clear to me that they do not make their money from rentals, but from everything else they can screw the poor customer for. And I intend to tell everyone (you too, reader) to avoid Hertz like the plague.

I had initially signed up for a plan, because there was a Hertz Rental center down the street from my home, making it very convenient to do business with. Unbeknownst to me, this same site had gone out of business. I immediately contacted the Center with in 2 days and spoke with a women who stated she understands and will cancel the plan since I had never used it. The strange thing is this charge did not appear on my card until months later.

I rented a car from Hertz Bordeaux. I returned the car with a full tank and produced a receipt to prove car had been filled completely only minutes before returning the vehicle. I got an invoice the following week for refilling the car with 51 liters of diesel - this is utterly impossible and Hertz has failed to respond to any of my emails. Looking at the web it appears many other Hertz customers experience the same.

***DO NOT USE HERTZ. THEY ARE THIEVING CRIMINALS AND SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO ACCOUNT.***

On May 15 2008 at approx 3pm I showed my reservation to the only teller at Hertz Car Rental desk inside the Cody Wyoming Airport.I told him I had Allstate car ins, and I did not think I needed the extra car insurance he was pushing on me to accept.He told me he had Geico and they would not cover him if he rented the same nissan quest he reserved for me.I was charged 21.95 a day for five days.The 15 thru the 19 of may.The five day rental was 199.00.This is a ripp off of the cunsumer.I want a reinbursement of 105.00 dollars.Folks if your reading this You might want to rent from dollar rental.

My wife was involved in a hit and run accident. she got the license plate number of the car and it turned it into the police and it turns out to be a hertz rental car. I called hertz and they are acting as if nothing ever happened and they can't get a hold of the person that was driving the car. This is by far the worst customer service ever. Now i'm stuck with a wrecked vehicle thanks to Hertz!

I recently rented a car from Hertz car company; it was a one-way rental from New Mexico to California. I drove 12-hours straight in order to return the vehicle in 1-day; it cost $153.00 a day. I was in such a rush that I did not check the van throughly when I returned it. I called Hertz to inform them of my error and to inquire if my item had been found. I received no phone call. I went back to the airport site and remembered that I said hello to a you man there, when I had initially check the car in. I asked him if he remembered me and he informed me that he had. I asked if anyone had turned in the DVD.VHS player. This young man was able to describe my item. Long story short. Nobody seem to know where my item was everyone became stoned faced and the lost and found manager stated that no one had turned in the item. When I asked her if she had spoken to the young man, she informed me that she instructed him to not admit that he saw the item unless it was in his hand. So, I have not received a phone call or any follow-up from this company, good service turned out to be bad because of the people who cleaned the cars.

A great month long trip through five European countries ended on a very sour note. Returning a rental car from Hertz's European division at the Frankfurt airport in Germany, a small nick of about an inch was found low on a front piece of plastic. Had I known about it at the time, I would have fixed the problem myself with some sandpaper, filler and matching color (black). The materials would have cost me maybe 50 Euros and the work would likely have taken me a couple of hours. Instead, Hertz in Germany billed me almost 675 Euros without tax. This figure was "justified" with 85 Euros for labor, 338+ Euros for painting and paint and 248+ Euros for replacement parts. The total conveniently stayed under the deductible limit of 750 Euros for the insurance. But there is another culprit in this sorry saga. Hertz had information on my Regions debit card, which purposely only had $222+ in the account without overdraft protection to prevent a big financial loss in case of theft. I didn't realize that thievery can also have a corporate face that can override any protections I myself devised. The day after I got back to the States from my trip, Hertz had already gotten the entire sum of money they felt they were owed from Regions - an almost $700 overdraft. The bank never asked me if I agreed. I was only notified after the fact. To sweeten the pot, all overdraft fees were dropped. But any leverage I would have had with Hertz's European division was now also gone. It was as if two corporate giants had conspired to give me a nice fleecing. It took weeks with the help of my AAA booking agent (one organization wouldn't even deal with me personally) to get to Hertz headquarters, which referred me to their European division. My letters of complaint got friendly responses and kept referring me to yet another address, until I had enough and decided to write this post (I had warned Hertz's European division that I would do so). As for Regions Bank, there was no way of getting a hold of headquarters after getting "we're sorry" from the nice ladies at the regional office. A message I posted at Regions website remained unanswered. Bottom line: Buyer beware! Be careful what cards you use (credit, debit) and with whom, what cars you rent and with whom and in what shape they're in at all times.

An Hertz employee by the name of Nick was extremely rude to me when I asked for his assistance. I had a question to ask this gentleman and requested that he approach me because I was traveling alone with a small child, 4 bags of luggage and plus a stroller. This individual informed me that he would not assist me because he believed that way that I waved for him to approach me was how you summoned a dog! To make a long story short, I got his immediate supervisor name Bob Shelby and the general manager name John Cherry and tried to complain. They will not return any phone calls. The issue was never address. I would not recommend this company to anyone!

On 02/16/08 thru 02/18/08 per Geico's permission (Geico claim) I rented a car from Hertz. When I arrived at the Hertz's office I spoke with Matt who went over the information regarding the rental car and asked me for my driver's license & debit card. When Matt asked for my debit card I hesitated because I knew I did not have any money in my account. I stated to Matt that I did not want to give him my debit card because it was a claim and I did not have any money in my account. Matt stated " Oh No madam, we are not going to use your debit card we need the card number on file to let you use the car. I gave Matt the card number and left. On 02/28/08 $24.48 was taken off my debit card by Hertz, Hampton Virginia. Because I did not have any funds in my account it caused a domino effect that caused my account to be overdrawn $89.13. I do have a copy of my bank account records. Matt did not contact me to ask permission or to acknowledge that money was taken from my account. On 03/05/08 I spoke with a representative in the Hertz office who assured me I would hear back from Hertz in 5 to 7 business days, by email, at no avail. On 03/19/08 I called Hertz in Hampton and spoke to Teri(she stated she was the assistance Manager) who argued in regards to MATT working with her (performance) every day. Teri kept insisting that I was raising my voice to the point of hanging the phone up on me. She was very unprofessional. Teri had no concern that my rights had been violated. She did not take into consideration that Matt said nothing to me at pick-up or return about any monies being deducted from my account. Also I have called Butch (Hertz Manager, Mercury Blvd) to inquire about this situation since approx. 03/04/08 and still have not received a call. Please assist me because I feel very violated. I feel I was not given the complete details of the car rental. I feel if any monies was taken from my account it should have been clearly explained. Of course I am very upset, I have been dealing with this ordeal since the first of March 2008.

On monday 11th february 2008 i rented a car from Hertz at newquay airport cornwall. I had a small accident which resulted with the front plastic bumper being dented. On returning the car i informed the staff and showed them the damage. They told me not to worry and they would inform me of any payment due. I then found Hertz had taken from my account £550 without my knowledge. I phoned Hetz to ask why and they said that was their policy. I had a verbal quote for damage to car and was told it would have cost no more than £300 to fix. I therefore feel that Hertz has taken more money than needed to repair the car, so effectively have stolen from me. I would like this matter looked into and dealt with. Also the manager was very rude to me and he put the phone down on me whilst i was still talking,

My reservations with Hertz at the Atlanta airport have been changed from the time I made the reservation to the time I picked up the car 3 times out of the last 4 times I rented with them. I made a reservation for a 4 day stint and got a rate of $201 for the week on the reservation with my clear arrival time in the reservation, tied to my arriving flight. I arrived on time, went to pick up the car, but it wouldn't start so I picked up the rental agreement to go to the office to get another car. To my amazement the rental agreement hanging on my mirror waiting for me was for $155 per day for my economy car reservation!

Since I"d found previously that they'd increased rates without notice to $144 and several other times over $120 a day, for ecomony cars, I should have checked and complained before driving off. However, I thought the point of being a Gold customer was that you got quick and accurate in and out!?
MY conclusion is that at least the Atlanta Hertz is screwing around with the rates and using bogus upgrades and other bait and switch techniques to increase their profits and that you can't trust Hertz to deliver what they promised in the reservation.

Their Customer Support people gave me a bogus response saying that the reservation was based on a 4 day rental and the time of arrival made it a 3 day rental, even though I arrived when I said I would, and that they adjusted the rate accordingly. Of course they didn't tell me of their action, and my reservation was for their cheapest car, and economy car, and they NEVER, NEVER rent for anything close to $155 per day.

I refused the rental and walked across the street to Budget and got a car for $45 a day as a walk in.
DON'T TRUST HERTZ! They will HURT you.

We had rented a car from Hertz at Tampa airport to return to Orlando -- were advised to return to Orlando Airport. Had previously rented from Hertz for several years as business customer -- boy are things different for "average consumer". Returned car to general car rental return at Orlando International Airport, because we could not find the off site Hertz return. We placed several calls to Hertz national office and Hertz Orlando office, and left several urgent messages asking for directions. Nearly missed our flight. Hertz has never returned the calls asking for direction, nor have they returned the MANY messages left. We spoke to Michael at Hertz orlando office, who assured us he would notify us if they could not check the car in, finally, as we were going through airport security on January 29. As of February 6, I started getting calls saying the car had not been returned, and tried to call the Orlando Hertz office to check on the status. On several occasions, the CSR hung up on me, often without even speaking (just picked up the phone and slammed it down). They refused to give me the contract information, or even check into the car. Georgy simply said "we don't deal with attitude" and hung up before I could explain the situation. Michael recommended we report the car stolen but refused to give me the license number, phone number for Orland Police, or the contract information. Supervisor Lisa took the details and promised to help and then went on vacation for several days and never followed up. On several calls, the Orlando office did not answer, and I was re-rerouted to Emergency Roadside Assistance. They took the information each time, and said they would follow up, but only one woman actually called back to say the car had in fact been collected on January 29 as requested. However, until February 12, I continued to receive several automated calls a day, and Hertz only today (Feb 13) checked in the car that was returned on January 29, charging me even after Hertz admitted the car was returned. The staff at Orlando were the rudest I had ever encountered, often refusing to take any information. The supervisor Toni hung up after saying “ it is not our business to help you, you tourists deserve to pay and should not expect service or courtesy.”

Dear Sir/Madam,

I must complain the first time to rent the car in Hertz company about French contact and the desk clerk’s suggestion let me pay double cost, additional assistant cost and nobody can explain it.

On Dec.27,2007, I had reserved a car Pergeut 207 or similar car and been prepaid eruo 286.00 for 7 days family travel in the Hertz website. And at same time, I chose the navigation(never lost) system(euro 60 for one week). The total cost was approximate euro 357.76(include security and tax or TTC) by the confirmation letter(the confirmation number is D8760784675). I don’t choose the green car, because the car is not enough power by my experience and there are few types of car which used diesel in China market.

When we pick up the car by the hertz office, the desk clerk(woman, Linda M) of Grad du Nord office(18 Rue De Dnkerque, tel:[protected] fax:[protected]) suggested us we can change another car(Opel) because the car is bigger and comfortable and the renting price is similar(only euro 20.00 per day, my reservation car cost is about euro 18.00 per day). My wife and I confirm the price per day and total cost of the car with Linda, she told us the cost was same. So we decided to change her suggested Opel car-HOWEVER when we returned the car on Gare de Lyon Hertz office(different office with pick up the car), the officer asked us to pay additional cost 20 euro for upgrading car per day not renting car. I want to somebody to explain it, Hertz company give its 24 hour call. Is it Hertz’s standard operation procedure? And Hertz company can only sign in French contract, this is the reason why I sign the contact and I can not understand the terms of the contract.

After we changed the type of car, Linda asked us to buy the new security. We told her the price of the internet included the security system, but she told us the internet security was only basic one and asked us to pay another security system and it was compulsory(at least for the car). So we had to pay eruo 24.00 per day. And she did not say that the price of any one was not included the 19.6% tax. So we must pay the euro 683.63 for the opel car in 7 days (only about euro 420.00 with same type car in the website), but the total cost is only euro 357.76-This is the reason why the desk clerk of Hertz company suggest us to change another car.

When we rent the car, Linda told us we must add gasoline oil because the oil tank was short and nobody told us the car use diesel. After we picked up the car, we think the car used gasoline and added it(in fact, the car use the diesel). So we had to stand up 3 hours with my only 4-year-old daughter for 24 hour help in the cold climate and pay euro 295.00(not include tax) for assistant 24/24 HT. We had to taxi home by ourselves and took half a day journey to get another car.

This is the first time to rent car in Hertz Company. We make wrong decision to choose Hertz brand from many renting car companies.

Best regards,

Jinlong Yang

United Airlines O' Hare airport, Chicago Ilinois, Hertz renta car. My 4:55 flight was cancelled on 7-29-07. Then my 8:00 PM. was cancelled. I spent 24 hours at O'Hare before leaving I finally left on 7-30-07 at 8:00 am. They told us it was weather related. There was nothing wrong with the weather. It turns out that pilots had a sickout on Northwest airlines and it probably was the same reason at United. I also rented a car at Hertz and because my flight was cancelled, I brought the car back three hours and they charged me an additional $114. as an extra day. It seems that consumers get ripped off in this country without any recourse. Then I had to spend an additional $30. for parking at La Quardia airport.Then my wife was docked a days pay for not showing up for work on Monday. The total expense for the flight delay was over $350. for my family, and you can determine that this happened to others as well.

Thanks for letting me use your website to show my anger.