A Hertz Presidents Circle customer was charged a fee of $277.39 for not filling up the gas on a Tesla model 3 in Los Angeles. This is an obvious, impossible claim because it’s a Tesla that doesn’t run on gas. But Hertz customer service is so bad, that they kept doubling down saying that there’s ‘nothing they can do’ about the charge.
- The customer even has the ‘skip the pump and save time’ prepaid fuel option selected for rentals. This is almost never a good idea, unless you’re literally returning a gas vehicle empty.
- But that fee on a gas vehicle would be less than what Hertz charged.
- And there is no fuel tank to fill on a Tesla EV. Prepaid fuel is based on the capacity of the gas tank being filled, and that amount here should be zero.
Here’s what Hertz customer service had to say though,
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.
Hertz charged for refueling of the Tesla. They doubled down that the refueling “service was provided.” Follow up phone calls couldn’t get Hertz to reverse these charges.
When I rented a Hertz Tesla, it had 50,000 miles on it and I picked it up with a 98% charge. Best practice is charging to 80% for everyday driving and 90% before long drives.
Hertz policy solved a key pain point where they were requiring customers to spend 25 minutes charging, after finding a charging station, on the way to the airport when they lowered fees for not charging prior to drop off – $35, or $25 for rewards members. This customer actually returned the car with a 96% charge, the same as they’d picked it up at.
Even at $9.99 per gallon, the charge would have represented more than a 27 gallon fill up. That would largely be possible only in a pickup truck or large SUV even if the rented vehicle had an internal combustion engine.
The driver is disputing the charge with his credit card company, however that is likely to get his descendants placed on the company’s No Rent list. It’s probably just a good idea to take not being arrested at gunpoint for renting from Hertz as a W and move on.
(HT: Paul H)
I heard of a female who purchased an EV , because her gas car once ran out of gas , and she did not want to run out of gas again .
Hertz prices are always bro high plus you add the arrest factor and now this.
In 30 plus years only rented from them once in Europe
I guess at some point they should change the name to Hurtz.
Someone at Hertz decided they hadn’t received enough bad press lately and decided to do this.
I’ve said it before, how is it that Hertz is still in business?
It’s interesting to see how much more sloppy car rental companies have become with charging customers than it used to be when things were more paper-oriented. And the sloppiness is generally working to the financial benefit of the car rental companies and at the expense of the rental car customers, the insurance companies and maybe even the bank card companies used for the rental car payments.
Another case of just how absurd customer service has become. Is there not one person at Hertz with a reasonable IQ that can remove the idiotic charge? Anyone still renting from Hertz is just asking for trouble.
I am not surprised, the last time I rented at Tuscon airport, when I returned everything seemed fine, but later I received a bill with an extra day. Writing to Customer Service was a pain in the (PITA) and I had to escalate the issue to BBB in order to finally settle the issue. It was not about the $$ but the principle.
I am not sure what Hertz wants to gain from such horrible Customer Service recovery situation. The only reason I am still loyal to Hertz is because at least in Europe they are still decent, but in the US, it can be quite a headache.
Cheers!
I rent from Hertz exclusively in Europe Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France and about 90% in the states. The only serious issue I ever had was when they charged me $12919.33 EUR for a cracked windshield. They later lowered it but I still disputed even though I had AmEx coverage. Then they wanted to charge for lost rental days, Amex wanted proof, heart would not provide, AmEx insurance would not cover. I refused to pay because I had AmEx coverage. The card side of AmEx finally decided to absorb the cost. Otherwise Hertz has been great.
Commercial blacklists are not the only thing that seem to get expanded.
There is also an effort to massively expand the aviation-related blacklist to hit travelers.
Here is the entertaining Faux News spin on this situation:
https://us.yahoo.com/news/hamas-sympathizers-could-added-list-170939471.html
I used to exclusively rent from Hertz. The past few years have been brutal and I stopped. Articles like this don’t make me miss them one bit!
Hertz fell to the bottom of the car rental chain more than a few years ago with the false charges of auto theft and the arrests. Even more so, their Customer Service is the worst in the industry. The last time I rented from them I had to wait well over an hour for the car to be delivered to the rental location and then they tried to charge me for an extra day saying I returned the car the day after I actually did. I said goodbye 6 years ago to Hertz.
Sue them. When a Judge sees this ridiculous charge for gas on an all-electric vehicle they’re going to award the Plaintiff the money and depending on the State it might be triple damages.
This is right up there with the dead parrot routine on Monty Python. Maybe somebody at Hertz has a wicked sense of humor and enjoys creating ridiculous situations. It’s usually big clumsy organizations like national governments that fall on their faces, and even then there are decent people trying to do what’s right. But I guess any company can lose track of what makes sense…until they lose their customers and go under.
In our area the choices are Hertz with almost no customer service, or Enterprise who almost never has cars, but will call you one hour before you pick up a car for something important like an international flight.
Anymore if traveling in America, I prefer not even to deal with American companies.
When possible.
Why anyone uses Hertz and/or flies American Airlines I will never comprehend. How many times must one literally eat shit before they realize it is shit?
lol things like this why probably better that the Hertz “perk” was dropped from the Venture X
Pivoting towards Teslas themselves, great point about bringing up the optimal charge levels. I always leave mine at 80 except on long road trips per recommendation, so it’s interesting how rental companies are handling it and potentially lowering the battery life long term
First, having customers arrested for theft of cars, which they had turned in. Now charging customers for not gassing up electric vehicles and refusing to reverse the charge. Seems Hertz should be the one on the do not rent list. It surely is on mine.
I hit a deer last fall driving a Hertz car. After letting them know to handle the claim through my insurance carrier, which they did and were paid in full, I was put on the naughty list and no longer can rent a Hertz vehicle (and affiliated companies).
Great way to do business.
I have never seen or heard anything about a hybrid Tesla and if they are talking about battery charge is it that much of an issue they can charge the battery just by plugging it so why are they being asses about it only thing they need is electricity which they have anyway if they are so much worried about the price of the electricity get some solar
Hertz try to pull that shenanigans on me. An email to the CEO and customer service director got that corrected within 15 minutes. First time and last time I ever used Hertz.
I would never rent from Hertz. Dishonest company. Just dispute the charge and all is good.
Always take pictures of every surface of car. They will get you if you dont.
And this is why they ate selling their EV fleet.
Hertz Hurts. They are a Scamming company. They even accused people of Stealing the rented car and have them arrested by the police.
Something is missing in this article. So he brought it back charged and they still want to charge him? So what the “refill” for?
I can get leisure travelers still booking Hertz, but how does any corporate travel department or independent business traveler still book Hertz? It’s downright irresponsible at this point. And why doesn’t a state attorney general step in and go after Hertz?
“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.”
This happened to me the other day – I rented a Model 3 at SNA and they first charged me for the fuel purchase option, then charged me $12/gal to “refuel”. Ultimately got them to refund that but what a headache.
Well the customer has a Federal and California Fair Debt Collection claim. When Avis charged me for 5 extra days on a returned one day rental (with photographic evidence of the time and date of return they ended up removing the charge and paying $3,000 on a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act demand (no lawsuit filed). I wonder if I am now banned from renting from Avis…
Hertz Hurts. Stay away from the company.
So the customer selected the prepaid option for fuel and then complains afterwards about the charge.
Always use Hertz and when I get an issue I get it sorted before returning the car.
The only person to blame is the customer.
Hertz (Thrifty) is the worst. The people at the counter flat out lie, and try to pressure you to upgrade, quite aggressively too. I needed to drive up to Leadville, and the man that I was dealing with basically said I wouldn’t make it up there in a car. He’s either a moron, or he’s instructed to do this to customers. I ignored him, and drove around just fine.
When I got home, I was surprised to have a bill for driving in the express lane, that didn’t happen. And there was a nearly $300 charge for additional insurance that they insisted I requested and signed for. Again, that is completely false.
I booked through Amex travel. My CSR contacted them directly to see what the hell was happening since I had paid in full at the time of booking. He said they insisted they had a signed document for the upgrade. He removed the charge. Months later, a bill arrived outside of Amex’s system, so I could not ask them for help. I spent hours trying to speak with someone about this false charge. The people that work for Thrifty are aggressive, rude, and arrogant. More than one acted like this, so I think it was intentional. They said a manager would get back to me. That never happened.
More months go by. The keep sending fake bills. Eventually they sent me the infamous you are forever banned letter. Yeah, like I would ever rent from them again. I hope they banned my children and future grandchildren as well.
I had a similar issue.. contract closed can’t do anything. But I lucky and rented the same car from the same Hertz location and drive the same miles.
Upon return I ask for a manager to deal with the first rental problems and he saw the obvious faulty charges..
The best solution was he discounted my new rental that I had just returned to make up for the previous rental extra charges.
Seems there is no good solution but if you have a new rental and a good manager maybe you can get done proper resolution
I avoid Hertz at all costs and this latest episode of terrible customer service is the reason I’ll never rent from them again. There should be some kind of class action lawsuit against Hertz for all the crap they do to customers.
Hey @GUWonder: Posting the Fox News link to the story about the No Flights for Terrorists Act (which would put individuals on the Transportation Security Administration’s no-fly list if they have encouraged violence against Jews, pledged support for terrorist groups, or have been disciplined by higher education institutions for such conduct) was legitimate travel news. Calling Fox News the slur Faux News and taking your usual cheap shot at the Right was not. Is this kindergarten conduct really necessary ?
I do everything I can to avoid renting cars but I was recently given president club status on Avis and I was taking a family vacation which might call for some driving. Got a nice upgrade to a compact SUV with great gas mileage, Android auto, etc. Day 3 it has check engine light, oil change light, and tire is down to 20 psi. They tell me to take it to another location I am near. I get a shitty sedan that smelled of cigarette smoke and urine with cigarette burn marks. I went back in and said I hate to be “that guy” but I can’t take this car. Took them 15 mins to find another vehicle and they gave me a giant Dodge Ram with no Android Auto or Apple Car Play. As they handed me the keys, they told me this was the last exchange they were allowed to do.
I think having electric cars in a rental pool is ridiculous to begin with. I ran into this issue in San Antonio. Guess what, I don’t know if my hotel has a charging station, I don’t want to park blocks away and I have no idea where I’ll be going or what I’ll be seeing, I’m on VACATION. To make mattwrs worse, I hadn’t reserved electric, they forced me to take it as they had nothing else. Just plain stupid, there should be an option to opt out of electric cars on your profile.
Why would anyone NOT rent from Hertz? I rent every day in the hope they will have me arrested. Multiple times…. The average payout from lawsuits against the, was pretty high!
$277 certainly buys a good bit of bad press, no? Seems like a bargain for Hurtz.
Reach out to your State’s Attorney’s office and file a fraud and deceptive practices claim. You “refueled” the vehicle to its fuel type (charging). Hertz is committing fraud and theft by deception in charging you for petroleum refueling abuse. A comparable would be a hospital charging your insurance company for a services of the Intensive Care Unit when you were never in ICU.
Hertz was given multiple opportunities to rectify their “error”. Now they must be held accountable.
Mind you, most if not all, car rental companies run on ‘Mafia policies’ so be careful.
BS – Just had a similar issue (and am also Presidents Circle). Wait on the phone was too long so I filled out a form on the site. Took a couple of weeks but they eventually responded before I was about to call them again and notified me via email that the gas portion would be refunded and post in 7-10 days. Issue is that the folks who close out the contracts are not properly trained .. been happening for a couple of years now.
@Rich Rinchich sounds like good plan that will work but sure way to get into Hertz blacklist
@Lee so your justifying a fuel charge for a EV with customer at fault? With no basis for how the charge came to $270 there should be a receipt of what constitutes it
I rented from hertz a while back and that would be my first and last time every renting from them. Customer service is a poop show. Their on my do-not-rent-from list
This same exact thing happened to me. I disputed the charge, successfully, but ended up on the “do not rent” list. The annoying thing about being on that list is they will still let you book a reservation, and only at the exit gate do they inform you that you’re unable to rent from Hertz.
Why is anybody still using Hertz anyway? Things like this are the norm with them instead of it being the exception. This is the type of thing where if an audit was being done 3 years later and they found that they charge someone a gas fee for an electric car, they would refund it automatically. Not Hertz. They double down and say there’s nothing they can do. I’d be the farm that if they realized that he owed them $50 10 years later they’d take him to court to collect. Hertz is a horrible company with even worse customer service.
So my experience is slightly different. I rolled into a hertz return location right at the end of the hour – where another hour would be charged ( low on charge).
Was willing to take a fuel charge. Nobody informed me Tesla charging was not available at that particular and smaller hertz location, they wanted to charge me $500. I laughed when realizing it is less than road side pick up and tried to reach a charger ( but the Tesla stopped dead .After the drive out, had road service pick it up, then called to explain and asked for addtl points . Which hertz added to their credit.
I expensed the road charge pick up. And providing my company a free rental in upcoming trip once the points post ( nobody wins) or loses ; the experience dissuaded me from buying an electric car, til I see a charger everywhere. I was mapping and on way saw just not many available and one that was occupied, as it often is.
Also often at early hours some Tesla chargers are mapped at locations behind gates – guarded by apt or hotel gates ( installed for safety – I get it).
Hertz managed to get me more excited about electric and then let me down with one experience that changed my attitude to buy electric. Total disaster of a program not to mention the time that the adapter was not in the trunk, during a rental. I love the concept of saving on gas or bettering the environment; but won’t bear unexpected events outside of my control, poorly managed by hertz
(President circle member – )
And this is why I rent through Turo… I don’t have time…smh
I rented a Tesla in Waikiki. I spent 20 minutes in line to charge it before returning it to the airport. They still charged me the charging fee. I put in a complaint and they ignored it. My next rental with Hertz was a replacement rental and I had mechanical issues with it and wasn’t able to use it for two days. Customer service would do nothing to compensate me, not even offering a free day on my next rental. Their customer service is the worst in the industry. It basically is nonexistent. They ignore every customer complaint.