Hertz rental car problem - advice please

[Chucklehead]

Their fleet is making headlines in the US at the moment...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-09/hertz-see...

Edited by Chucklehead on Sunday 21st September 22:30

[Campo]

There's a lot of truth in that article.

We waited in a queue for almost an hour to pick up our car at LAX. There were 26 desks and only 3 were open with the people serving pissed off and dog slow. There were also a load of phone booths where you could check in over the phone, talking to a few people on those they'd been waiting on hold for 45 minutes before getting served.

I won't use Hertz again in the US although the car did turn out to be okish if not very tired and battered.

The drop off was quick and easy but they don't check the cars at all which probably explains why they end up dinged and dented.

[Sheepshanks]

Campo said:

We waited in a queue for almost an hour to pick up our car at LAX. There were 26 desks and only 3 were open with the people serving pissed off and dog slow.

Join Hertz Gold. It's free and you can go straight to the garage to pick up the car. Your name should be on a board so you can go straight to the car, but even if that doesn't work there are staff there, and usually no queue, to deal with you.

However after being wrongly charged for the last 3 Hertz rentals (which they did promptly sort out) I've used Alamo the last couple of times. Even better with them - at some airports you can choose your own car. Although you need to be good at making decisions.

[boxst]

Just call them and they will swap it over. No issues. And in fact should give you an upgrade for the inconvenience.

I had mine broken into in San Francisco a few weeks ago with rear windows smashed and I just returned it (at midnight!) and they swapped it over. That was National, not Hertz but I would of thought Hertz was even better.

[jimmyt1202]

Well I'm back home now! But I did ring Hertz and they seriously couldn't care less. Told me to just keep driving it and it would probably go off if I undo and re-do the fuel cap (which it did). I won't be using Hertz again as there fleet does seem a bit aged. I work in the trade and know Hertz UK very rarely keep there cars more than a year. In the US I was offered either a 2012MY Rav 4 or a 2013MY CX-5 which I opted for

[Burrow01]

Chucklehead said:

Their fleet is making headlines in the US at the moment...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-09/hertz-see...

Edited by Chucklehead on Sunday 21st September 22:30

Interesting, I assume this is the same situation in Canada - I went to pick up a pre-booked SUV at Calgary in August from the Hertz Gold counter and had to wait ages as there was not one actually available.

They offered me an MPV, which I turned down, this was then given to a family who had just arrived, and had booked an MPV - not sure what they would have been offered if I'd taken the MPV!

When a Jeep Compass finally arrived and was handed over it had done 70,000+ km and obviously had not been prepared - was still dirty from the previous rental

[JulianHJ]

Chucklehead said:

Their fleet is making headlines in the US at the moment...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-09/hertz-see...

Jeez, I've always been pretty happy with Hertz, and have another rental with them lined up in a few weeks. Not looking forward to it after that article!

[thehawk]

JulianHJ said:

Jeez, I've always been pretty happy with Hertz, and have another rental with them lined up in a few weeks. Not looking forward to it after that article!

The article reflects my experiences with Hertz and why I've moved to Alamo/National.

But for my work were our policy is to use Hertz and to have Group C or lower cars, I've had some horrible things over the last 2-3 years. And I was a Presidents Circle member. Like arriving in Houston and being given a Chevrolet Aveo with 60,000 miles on it. 2 classes lower than what was booked, but was all they had at the time. Most other rentals have been 50,000+ miles. The exception has been the rental of things like a Mustang GT at LAX, but that is only because I wondered around the carpark and chose the cars I wanted. (I mean they still even had Ford Crown Victorias in the luxury category which I was once offered and refused)

Or the 6 month advance booking of a Camaro, guaranteed model. Arrived in Dallas and told that it was sold out. After a lot of arguing they brought out a severely hail-damaged car with 40,000 miles on it.

[Sheepshanks]

thehawk said:

But for my work were our policy is to use Hertz ...

Can I ask if the corporate rate gives you massive discounts with Hertz?

I don't do a lot of foreign travel but was in the US a few weeks ago and the Hertz rates (booking about a month before travel) were insane. I've rented from them in the past, but usually only where there's been a "glitch" rate (had a mega one a couple of years and ended up with an Escalade or 30% off sales which bring them back to there or thereabouts everyone else's normal price.

[thehawk]

Sheepshanks said:

Can I ask if the corporate rate gives you massive discounts with Hertz?

Not really, the rate is all inclusive so no excess at all, also can drop the car off without refueling and the fuel charged at a normal rate. I've usually found cheaper rates for personal use by making use of specials or the use of codes from the net. Our corporate hotel rates are a different story, some amazing discounts on those.

[ViperDave]

thehawk said:

JulianHJ said:

Jeez, I've always been pretty happy with Hertz, and have another rental with them lined up in a few weeks. Not looking forward to it after that article!

The article reflects my experiences with Hertz and why I've moved to Alamo/National.

But for my work were our policy is to use Hertz and to have Group C or lower cars, I've had some horrible things over the last 2-3 years. And I was a Presidents Circle member. Like arriving in Houston and being given a Chevrolet Aveo with 60,000 miles on it. 2 classes lower than what was booked, but was all they had at the time. Most other rentals have been 50,000+ miles. The exception has been the rental of things like a Mustang GT at LAX, but that is only because I wondered around the carpark and chose the cars I wanted. (I mean they still even had Ford Crown Victorias in the luxury category which I was once offered and refused)

Or the 6 month advance booking of a Camaro, guaranteed model. Arrived in Dallas and told that it was sold out. After a lot of arguing they brought out a severely hail-damaged car with 40,000 miles on it.

That's kind of funny because your experience is pretty similar for why we left national and went to hertz, A luxury car that was far from what was advertised, replaced by a lower class sebring that turned out to have knackered brakes, an hour of us searching the SFO lot to find the only 4x4 they had, being palmed off with a dodge journey on a trip we really needed the space of the 7 seat SUV we booked and be told "well it has 7 seats", just didn't have the capacity for 4 adults 2 weeks of luggage each and 10 days of food, bev, TP etc to stock a houseboat on lake powel, where we couldn't pop back to the supermarket.

Final straw was 45 minuets to check out an emerald exec aisle car, 15 mins queuing then 30 mins to process us, something that should have taken (and usually did) 60 seconds. Then on return arguing the guaranteed base rate could change, as it had, and lying that the reason was exchange rate fluctuations despite the guaranteed rate that had changed being in USD and the billing currency of USD, but they latched onto an estimated price in GBP on our reservation we had little interest in. So with the inevitable loss of executive status, we moved our business to Hertz who so far (ok its only a matter of time) have been easy to deal with, even when things don't go as well as we like.

Granted though I cant deny that article, the cars are getting older and the last one was a mess, but changing it was pretty much no questions asked and apologetic. I hope they address that and dont have to go back to being the most expensive, as for us with our amex discount they have by fat been the most competitive too of late, almost the reverse of national again.

Edited by ViperDave on Wednesday 24th September 11:00