Hertz
reviews and complaints

I have called numerous times to speak to a representative regarding my problem with Hertz, and I was told to submit my complaint in writing to you. I appreciate your understanding and your cooperation with this matter.
Rental Agreement #[protected]
Date of invoice: 7/15/2009
Invoice #[protected]

Upon arrival with my family of Five, (3 of them children), I was told by hertz that they don't have the vehicle that I had reserved. They also told me that in order to fit 5 People I must rent a different type of car. My original reservation was for a volvo s80 or comparable to fit 5 passengers. How can they tell me that they dont have a vehicle to fit 5 passengers when our contract guarantees a vehicle to be comparable? I was stranded and was given no choice but to take the car that was offered. I was charged an additional $300 and other fees as well. I trusted hertz to stand by thier promise and follow the contract agreement.It was my impression that I was in good hands, especially traveling in a foriegn country, to choose a reputable company.

Please advise!

My complaint is a little different than the others that I have read about but it is just as bad if not worse. On wednesday July 15 I went to the airport in Greenville, Nc. I was not renting a car from Hertz because I had already made reservations to rent a car from Budget, which was located right beside Hertz. I was pressed for time because my son had basketball practice in Wilson and we were leaving the next morning for a very important basketball tournament. The car rental at Budget was exceptional. The employees were very nice and they explained everything in full detail. As I was leaving, one of the females from Budget told me to park my car where I was getting the rental car from so when I came back to get it, there would not be any problems. The rental cars were located in an area that only had grass and dirt. I was a little confused as to why the cars were there but I did as I was told. This was my first time ever renting from here so I felt like they knew what they knew talking about. She proceeded to tell me as long a I came to get my car that night that there would not be any problems, I said ok, thanked her, got in my car to drive to the area I was told. On one side of the grass there were 2 trucks and on the other side of the grass, there were about 10 cars. Remind you, there were no signs saying that these were rental cars. I proceeded to park where I was instructed, got the vehicle I was renting and drove off the lot. After leaving my son's basketball practice, which was about 2 hours later, I had someone ride with me so they coud drive my car home. I was still pressed for time because I work 3rd shift and it was about 9pm, maybe a little later but I had just planned on giving her the keys to my car so we could both leave. Well, I drove around the grassy area about 3 or 4 times looking for my car and I did not see it. To make sure I wasn't overlooking my car, we got out and walked the area, just to make sure. My car was gone. I went into the airport to find out what happened and a female stated that the manager from Hertz had my car towed. Im like "how in the world can she do that and I didn't rent from them", she just smiled and asked if I wanted to call her. We got her phone number and called the manager from Hertz. During the conversation, I am asking her questions, and she really had no answer. She told me that I parked onHertz side of the grass, not Budget. I asked her if there were any signs saying that and she said no. I then asked her why she got my car towed. All she could say was, "mam, you parked on Hertz side of the grass, not budget". Like I stated before there was nothing but dirt and grass in this area with no signs. How was I to know which side was which if there was nothing stating that in the area. I explained to her that if my car was out there for 2 or 3 days, then I would not have been mad that it was towed, but my car was only out there for 2 hours and I had intentions on getting my car that night. I called the tow company and he stated that it would be 125.00 to get my car. I had already spent 300.00 on the truck rental, 150.o0 on the deposit, and now an extra 125.00 to get my own personal vehicle back. WOW! Are we in a recession or what? I had to end up calling into work. I went and got my car the very next day and 30.00 extra dollars were added on. So I actually ended up spending 155.00, which was my money to take on the trip. This complaint is just the beginning for me. I plan on contacting her (Delphine) supervisor because I don't feel like she had the right to tow my vehicle. Especially, when she had no legitimate reason. Money is hard to come by but I don't mind spending under reasonable circumstances. This was definitely not one of those circumstances. I will go as far as I need to go to see if Hertz can reimburse me for their manager's mistake. I have never rented from Hertz, therefore besides this situation, I can not talk down on them. I would just like to be reimbursed for the tow fees. Sometimes people take thier manager positions and run with them, please remember that the same way you got it, you can lose it.

A word of warning about Hertz car rental at Charlotte NC Airport. On Sunday May 3 I arrived to return my car, with ample time to make my flight. I was flying to Europe, with a connection in Philadelphia.
The return process was unusually slow, as there was only one young man checking the cars, but I had it finished and was checked out a full one hour before my flight time which was 5.50. Just as I was walking to the bus stop, the bus left for the terminal, but knowing that the bus trip to the airport takes only about five minutes, I was not worried.
Little did I know, however, that the next bus would not arrive for another TWENTY-FIVE minutes. During this time, as I was getting increasingly worried, I complained to the counter staff. One woman was quite rude, and showed no interest in helping me. I asked her to call the bus drivers and see what was the delay, but she wouldn't. I suggested that a Hertz employee drive me and another passenger who was in a similar situation to the airport, but she refused.

In short, the next bus arrived, 25 minutes after the previous one had departed. This is in contrast to stated Hertz advertising, which promises regular bus availability from rental Return to Terminal. The bus driver told me that he was the ONLY ONE working that afternoon!

I missed my flight, costing me in excess of $300 in rebooking and hotel charges, not to mention really bad stress and tension.

I have asked Hertz to reimburse me, but a “Customer Service” representative (what a joke!) by the name of Sasha Thompson refuses to do so..

What should I do?

Dr David Barnwell
Murrells Inlet SC

Renting from Hertz in Germany was a complete nightmare. I reserved a car, one specifically with a navigation system for a two day driving tour around southern Germany with my 9 year old daughter. The system worked for all of 40 minutes and it shut off due to low batteries. I tried to call the numbers for service, but none of them were operational in Germany. When I finally contacted the rental desk at the Munich Hertz, the agent's advice was to drive to the nearest big German city and on my own, find a Hertz office to have them check the system to "make sure that it really wasn't working". Yah, right. The system was called "Never Lost". It should be called "Always Lost" because I spent a good part of my time making u turns on cobblestone roads throughout Germany. Then when I returned home and reported the incident, they said, they were sorry for an inconvenience I might have experienced and then proceded to charge me for full insurance which I had not requested (I had already purchased my own insurance), and tagged me with an expensive refueling charge which was also in error (I filled up the tank with expensive European gas before I returned the car). This was not my first bad experience with Hertz but it is my last. I told them that I will walk, skip or crawl to my next destination rather ever, ever rent a car, truck or donkey from Hertz again.

On 06/06/2009, I had a rental car transaction of total of 611.66 GBP
charged to my visa card at Hertz Car Rental office at London’s Heathrow
Airport. While I was told orally of the total charge of certain amount in
GBP, the charge was actually sneakily converted to US dollars based on
a ridiculous exchange rate they set that includes a currency conversion
charge without even notifying me.

After I got home, I noticed that. Emailed Hertz. They denied any wrong
doing even though I explained to them that my Capital One visa card
does not even charge a foreign currency transaction fee and that I had no
incentive for the dynamic currency conversion. I asked them to show my
signature approval on the converted charge, they have no response.

Be very careful with Hertz if you use them abroad. They took advantage
of you while you are tired on travel with this unethical and illegal business
conduct. For me, I will avoid Hertz anywhere in the future.

All, I can say is that my credit card was charged already before they informed me. Since my car got totaled and they had provided me rental after discussing with the insurance company, I confirmed with them they should not charge me anything on the rental since insurance company will be paying for the totaled car. I even asked them to verify with the insurance company regarding the basic charges which the insurance company would pay so that I am not charged anything more on that.. They confirmed and then only I took the car rental from them. They made me sign some documents which is the usual procedure for them while giving car rental and since I had just come out of a car accident, I abided by everything they said. Little did I realize that later on, when they had a dispute with the insurance company and could not recover the full charge, they went ahead and deducted the amount from my credit card which they already have it in their possession. I filed a complaint and argued with them for sometime, but it seems they had a clear cut statement that, in their small print on the signed car rental document, it is written that if they cannot recover from insurance company they will charge the customer.
I was really vexed with their attitude in the way they treated the customer complaint as well as the customer during such a tiring time when I was going through such a rough patch of my car getting totaled. It was a harrowing experience dealing with them and the whole saga taught me one thing. One should not deal with such companies who don't have customer interest as their first priority and try to squeeze out money in any way possible with their samll prints in the documents which they hold it loudly on customer's face when they get down to their lowest level of charging customers wrongly..
I have not recovered my dues from them and have decided that in my life I will never again take a rental from Hertz. Thought of sharing this saga with you all so that you don't get caught in their trap the way I did.. Such companies should not allow to flourish. We individuals who have no collective voice can make a difference by joining hands and sharing our saga so that no other customer faces such a situation again and these type of companies are forced to change their ways of dealing with the customer.

Back in 2004 I had rented a car from Hertz while my car was undergoing repairs. After returning the car and hearing nothing back from the rental car company - I received a letter from Purco Fleet Services with a bill for damages to the rental car - over $1000 in damages that I apparently was responsible for.

The rental car company never contacted me to talk about damages that had happened during the time I had the car; and I found the people at Purco were less that nice to work with on this matter unless you're willing to hand over a fist full of cash.

Why bring this up now? It has come back to haunt me in the form of credit reports time and time again. It's beyond frustrating to deal with companies that spend all their time finger pointing instead of listening -- and trying to find a workable solution.

Welcome to my Hertz nightmare!

Presented my E-confirmation ' Guaranteed Rate' from Hertz upon check in for an automatic Compact vehicle. Quoted rate was $15.00 USD plus taxes, fees etc totaled ' Guaranteed Rate' of $20.46 USD, unlimited Kms, plus selected Loss Damage Waiver at $38.95 plus 10% tax= total of $63.30 USD.

Hertz Tulum stated no Automatic available so I accepted a Standard/ Intermediate vehicle as there was 10 people waiting for an unclaimed vehicle. Hetz explained that the rate would be calculated in Mexican Pesos, when I asked what rate, they would not answer.

Having been to Mexico many times I sensed a rip off in the works but decided to leave the argument until return of vehicle. Returned the vehicle next day and the final bill ended up being totally inflated compared to the ' guaranteed rate'.

They had used 15 MXP to the dollar and had significantly over charged each tax, local service charge, Vehicle Licensing cost and Service charge so the bill ended up at nearly $100 USD!

When I challenged them on the MXP Rate and all the ridiculous rates they refised to deal with me and said' call Hertz when you get home!

' big mistake' on my part!

After waiting on the 'Customer Service' phone line for 30 minutes I was told that they do not deal with 'foreign franchise' problems and instructed to send an email.

Sent email off, finally got a template response 17 days later stating that the charges were correct? I challenged that response with their ' guaranteed rate' and was told that, firstly the Franchise verified exchange rates daily ( USD has NEVER traded at 15 MXP) and that the calculations were correct!

The long and short of it is Hertz refuses to accept any responsibility for their ' guaranteed rate' from their Franchisee.

I am still fighting with them and have filed a dispute with my Credit Card company. Bottom line is that this is the worst Customer Service I have ever experienced and will never rent from Hertz again!

Lessons learned: If the daily conversion rate is not posted at the counter establish the rate before renting.

I will never walk away from the counter accepting ' call Hertz when you get home'. I will stand my ground and hold up their line all day if I have to, until I have my charges adjusted on site!

Never rent from Hertz in a foreign country, they will not go to bat for you when you return home!

I reserved a car with a estimated quote of $37.49/day for 2 days. When I picked up the car, the cost was going to be $385. When I questioned the amount I was told by the agent that it included $200 which would be credited to my card when I returned the vehicle. When I returned the car and got my receipt, the receiving agent told me that the $200 would be credited directly to my card. Needless to say, I never received the credit and when I contacted Hertz, they claimed my car rental rate was $150.49 a day! It is a complete misrepresentation and a rip off.

I was charged on june 10-08. On my capital one credit car $28.01 and it was for a traffic ticket in italy. It was credited on july 2-08. I was rebilled on july 8-08 the amount of $28.35. And i'am told that this is the way they handle citations. I than recieved a letter from the italy traffic division that I owe $100.27. Please advise me what to do.

Absolutely ridiculous story. My wife got rearended and took our car in to get fixed. The hertz people tell me on the phone " Absolutely NO charge, only a deposit, the other persons' insurance is paying for it". When my wife got there, the agent tells her she has to get this isurance, so she called me at work to ask me about it. I said we don't need it but the guy says in the backround " It's only $38.00, and the insurance company fixing your car wont cover this so you need to." So I said whatever, no sence in arguing over $38.00. Our car took quite a while to fix, like 25 days quite a while, so my wife takes it back in and gets everything squared away and done, so she thinks. Later that day they call and say ' You owe use nine hundred and some odd dollars, ' ALMOST $1000.00! He mensioned nothing of this while she was there, he called her right before they closed for the day. He did not, I repeat did NOT tell my wife it was PER DAY! This is absolutely unethical and disgusting business. I am a business man myself and am appalled beyond belief!

I had an accident over a year ago and the other party had a Hertz insurance. The accident gave me and my husband a soft tissue injury and we stacked up on bills like rented car while our car was being fixed, and other expenses we would never have incurred if we have not been in tha accident. There were witnesses and the police report stated that we are not at fault. Until now one year later we have not yet settled with Hertz. They have adjusters who are liars and have no regards for the law. The Hertz adjuster I spoke to, spoke poorly about the officers of the law who did our police report, and this I found disturbing. The company refused to pay our rented car, stating that there was no agreement that they will pay for those other expenses. What angered me about all this incident is that we never asked for this accident to happen. On my part, as an injured party, I only wanted to get what I felt was taken from me. My time, stress, physical pain, mental anguished and personal injury, and property damamge. My point in all this experience is that whenever you decide to get a rented car or even get an insurance make sure it isn't from Hertz or you'll only get harassed and a very long and disappointing wait.

Car that I picked up at the airport from No. 1 Gold area was not cleaned, not prepped. Nobody working outside, only option was to stand in a long line.

Drove to the exit gate and discovered that they also hadn't put a contract in the car, which they're supposed to do for gold members
(we pay a yearly fee for this convenience).

Had to wait a long time at exit gate to get the contract. On returning the car, again nobody working there, long line of customers. Had to abandon the car in their returns paddock just to catch my flight on time.

Are Hertz laying off workers? I telephoned Customer Relations and somebody promised that someone would get back to me, but nobody did. Should I stop using Hertz and encourage my colleagues to do the same?

My husband and I rented a car with Hertz in November while we were at home to see my Sister's wedding. We had the rental car for 3 days. Our Flight was supposed to leave St. Louis for Savannah to come back home on the 3rd day. We found out that we couldn't make our flight because of the time of the wedding, so we asked the clerk in St. Louis how much money it would cost to drop off the car out of state in Georgia. She quoted us an amount based on the mileage and number of days from her computer and said it would be about 150-200 fee to drop it that many miles away from the original destination. However, when we dropped the car off in Savannah, they charged us a 600 dollar "drop fee" for taking the car to any other city other than the one we got the car from. This is outrageous! If you are going to charge someone this much for your services, it needs to be printed somewhere we can readily access. It would have been cheaper to just fly at a later time. I will NEVER use Hertz again! NEVER!

The Company that WON’T pick you up:

Tourist is stranded almost 3 hours in a mountain snowfall while
Hertz Rental Car Company does nothing

Complaints were filed with the FTC, the BBB, and the Colorado State Attorney General’s Office to investigate Hertz Rental Car due to their negligence and breach of contract so egregious it puts the public in danger.

On Sunday December 14th Pelshaw and his group of five friends were returning from a ski trip in Keystone Colorado when the 2009 Chrysler Aspen SUV they rented developed transmission problems and stalled on Interstate 70 in the mountains near Idaho Springs CO during a mountain snow fall and Arctic temperatures. “I called Roadside Assistance to tell them I was broken down and that we need replacement transportation or picked up. The representative spent all of his time trying to confirm the condition of the car, even after being told him that ‘the transmission is not working in any gear and there is a puddle of transmission fluid on the ground.’ ” The representative’s only response was to say to call a taxi, or go to shelter, even after being informed that the travelers were not in a town, didn’t know where to call for a taxi or go for shelter, and that it was snowing and the temperature was 6’ F. The Hertz Representative then said they would call back. During subsequent calls Hertz was repeatedly asked “What is your plan to rescue us? We are in the elements in the boonies, we could be in serious danger unless you honor your contract and come and pick us up.” In the course of 2.5 hours after numerous conversations with various people at Hertz “24 Hour Roadside Assistance” never dispatched a replacement vehicle or a ride to pick up the stranded tourists. Thankfully a Good Samaritan came that took them to the McDonald’s in Idaho Springs.

During the first 2.5 hours of the ordeal Hertz Roadside Assistance never offered anything more than for the travelers to call a taxi at their expense, even after being repeatedly informed that being in Idaho Springs and being from out of town the travelers did not know where to find a taxi; even after the Hertz representative was asked since they were in an office and had access to the internet and a phone book, why couldn’t they honor their rental agreement and at least call replacement transportation? It was only after more than 2.5 hours did Hertz offer to send a taxi at their expense. Sensing that Hertz 24 Hour Roadside Assistance was an oxymoron the stranded travelers were able to find a shuttle service to which they paid $350 to transport them to the airport. Needless to say they missed the scheduled time of their flight. Do you think Hertz is picking up those costs? Absolutely not, despite numerous requests. Allen from Hertz DIA (303.342.3800) then called, over 2.5 hours after first calling Hertz, to let them know that Hertz could hire a taxi service for pick up at no charge, despite previously stating that the travelers would have to pay the cost. Allen was then asked “when was the taxi dispatched?’ The only answer was to say that the car could be there in an hour. Allen was then asked “Why did you wait over 2.5 hours to order a car for us? I since contacted my own rental service, will you reimburse for that?” The representative from Hertz continually refused to reimburse this expense, despite pleas for help.

What is so frightening and angering about how Hertz handled this situation is their lack of prudent action proves they dangerously have no regard for the safety of the public. What if the break down was at night, outside in a snowstorm and 6’ weather? What if there was no Good Samaritan to rescue them from the side of the interstate? What if the traveler didn’t have the resources to hire their own transport?

Clearly this is a case of Breach of Contract, Misrepresentation that they have an emergency roadside service, and Negligence so egregious that action must be taken by the State to protect its citizens and to help protect the tourist economy that is so vital in Colorado.

I hired a car from Hertz UK for two days. When I returned the car the agent looked at it, said it was OK and told me I could go.

Two months later Hertz charged my credit card for 220 euro.

I phoned them and asked why. They said they were charging me for damage I had caused to the car.

After my phone call they put internal record sheets in the post to me showing that some of the damage they had charged me for was already noted on the pre rental form.

For three months I tried to get clarification. In the end they referred me to the small print which says they can charge what they like.

They said my only choice was to refuse to pay the credit card payment in which case they would pursue me with a debt collection agency.

So the summarise the service Hertz offers:

They charge your card without giving you notice or warning
They don't tell you what they charge you for
They threaten you with debt collectors if you don't agree with them

I would advise people not to use Hertz unless they are willing to have their credit card abused.

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.