Between customers getting fined before even picking up their vehicles, charging customers who rent Teslas for failing to refill the gas, and sending innocent customers to jail it’s amazing they’re still in business. If you get hit with a $500 bill from their toll-tracking scam you’re lucky.
Hertz Tesla Model 3
Yet people keep renting cars from them. So here’s finally some advice on how to do so without ending up in jail as their next victim, or at least one way you may be able to see an early warning signal that this could happen to you.
Hertz developed a reputation for sending customers to prison for stealing cars that they actually returned.
One elite member chalked up 4 arrests spending 30 days in jail, where she suffered a miscarriage. And a father and daughter were held at gunpoint and arrested for renting from Hertz.
Usually what seemed to happen is,
- A customer changed vehicles or extended their rental
- The changes didn’t get reflected properly in Hertz’s systems
- So it looked like the customer didn’t return the vehicle when they were supposed to
- Hertz reported it to the police
- And stuck by their story even as they continued to rent out the vehicle to other customers. And sometimes it was those other customers getting arrested for driving a vehicle reported stolen.
Hertz Presidents Circle Pickup Line at Dallas – Fort Worth
In addition to not changing or extending a rental, which seems to be a common denominator in some (but not all) cases of people being wrongly arrested for stealing the cars they rented, another tip for renting from Hertz is to watch your credit card for charges after you’ve returned the vehicle.
One customer says that they returned a rental last week and Hertz kept charging their card every day after that. It turns out that Hertz didn’t mark the car as returned.
I rented a car from a hertz location on Friday, and returned it at another location the same day. I had a six hour rental window and returned it in 3. I parked it in the return queue at the airport (exact address they provided) and spoke to the hertz employee who said i was good to go.
When I picked up then rental, I was told I would get a charge for $306 on my card, $106 for the rental and $200 for the deposit which would be refunded when I returned the car. None of that has been resolved yet. Instead, each day since then, another $100 pending charge has been placed on my car.
This morning, I also received a call from […] telling me that I had an overdue rental.
If this happens to you – if you keep seeing pending credit card charges from Hertz after you’ve returned your rental car – it may be a frustrating time talking to the company about what happened. But at least you’ll know ahead of time that you’re going to need to battle their bureaucracy to correct their error.. and that you will want to do so before it’s too late.
(HT: @Neilennsphoto)
Be proactive. Dispute each new daily charge with your credit card company, keep writing Hertz and make copies of everything, threaten legal action if necessary (and be ready to follow through if the amounts and problems get big enough), inform your state’s attorney general of their harassment and send a copy of that to Hertz as well, and continue to be a pain to match what they are doing. Being nice can, as Gary says, get you a long way (and is the decent thing to do) but this company doesn’t seem to care how they treat their customers. So there is no reason for anyone to be patient or pleasant either. The flunkies caught at the bottom are getting all these messes and I’m sorry for them, but until the higher ups get their act together they will continue to cut the company’s throat.
Why on earth is anyone still renting from Hertz? They are not the least expensive and the risks involved are huge. Time to say forever no.
Unfortunately, I’ve also had two Budget rentals that were listed as never returned. I always make a before and after video, and if at all possible, find a human and have them physically give you a receipt (paper or email).
Was a loyal Hertz customer for years and finally gave up. Absolutely terrible company in a market with too many decent alternatives.
Used to rent from Hertz at the Marsielle airport every other month and get charged the fuel option upon return 100% of the time, even though I always declined it in the contract.
Made them change it on the spot otherwise say bye bye to your money via a fraudulent fuel surcharge of €150 Euros. Small time scam, but adds up quickly for the operator.
Be proactive. Avoid Hertz.
Does the same advice apply to Dollar and Thrifty car rentals since Hertz owns both of those companies? Or should I just avoid renting from all 3 companies to be safe?
I hit a deer with a Hertz vehicle in Nor Cal and no longer allowed to rent a car from them. Probably a blessing.
You just dont rent from Hertz, period.
Long time President’s Circle member and loved Hertz in 80s and 90s. Switched to National in early 2000’s (company preferred account) and glad I did. Now all I ever rent is National with Executive Emerald Aisle or coordinate that with Enterprise (since under common ownership) if need to rent from a non-airport location. Not sure why anyone would ever rent from Hertz given the issues they have dealt with the last 5 years or so.
I’m a Presidental Elite. Last couple of rentals, every car was delivered dirty and in one case dangerous- 2 tires on a Tesla were bubbled.
The last straw for me was getting charged, weeks after the rental, for $542 in tolls. 10 hours on the phone and 5 representatives to get that resolved. The last guy had it cleared up in minutes by just actually looking at the charges. Took a week or two after that to receive a physical reimbursement check.
Breaking News…
Hertz announced today they are changing the name of the company to “Hurts”!
Picard
Michael Lissack, Bravo!! You said the truth and nothing more needs to be said. Bye bye, Hertz. Will never rent from them again, and haven’t since all the craziness started.
I had a problem with Hertz a few years ago when I tried to rent a car in Buffalo. But My flight was delayed And the office was closed By the time The plane landed.
Despite not picking up the car a few days later, I gotta email or voicemail from Hertz accusing me of not returning the car that, in fact ,that I never rented.
All of the rental companies are now understaffed. They seldom have an employee that acknowledges you returned the car, providing you with a receipt. In my most recent example, I returned my Budget 1-day rental well within the 24-hour window. Because nobody was there, I walked the keys into the rental center and handed them to an employee working the counter. However, Budget did not enter the car into their system as being returned for another 2 hours, then charged me for a 2nd rental day, and also charged a 3rd day’s worth of the other daily charges (airport fees, etc.). It took multiple phone calls and emails to get most of the charges removed.
I rented two cars at Newark (with two different names), brought them to Port Elizabeth and had them shipped to Murmansk for “resale”. Hertz pinged me a few week later about them being overdue, and I sent them the return checkin email (faked). They said I was good to go and would credit my card for the overdue days.
So be creative and stop whining – it works both ways.
With all the evidence written not only here, but on other sites, there are masochists who still choose to rent from Hertz. Natural Selection at work.
The real reason people keep renting from Hertz…
“Hertz announced a $168 million settlement covering 364 claims against them, at an average of just over $460,000 per customer.”
Your odds of collecting go up with each rental – but you do have to get arrested though.
I’m now a loyal Hertz customer.
I’m a former Hertz elite member. It seems to me that you overlooked the best possible advice: Stay away from Hertz!
What more needs to be said?
I always, always take a picture of the car in the return lot. And a pic of the fuel level too when I remember. Hertz or any other company.
Currently driving a beat-up 2022 Jeep with 61K miles on the odo from Budget. Hertz’s cars tend to be a bit newer…
Upon returning a car as of late, the agents don’t issue a receipt, they just blow you off stating all is OK. I’ll stand there and make them quote the final bill amount which closes the ticket. I’ll keep standing there till I get the email confirmation. Makes the agent feel uncomfortable, but I rather invest the extra few moments for piece of mind.
Depending on State law you may have a Fair Debt Collection Practoces Act claim (with a mandatory award of attorney’s fees). I am from CA and rented a car less than a day (Avis) in NYC and they billed me for a 5 day rental (I had video proof of the return including. Showing the date and time on my daughter’s mobile phone when I took the video). Avis reversed the charge when I called them and later paid $3,000 as they attempted to collect a debt that was not owed. 99% of customers do not know they can do this and as attorney fees to the consumer (must be personal rental for CA law) are mandatory it is easy to hire an attorney cost free (contingency fee)
I remember an argument with hertz… I scuffed a rim, no problem I thought, I had opted for the coverage they recommend, it was marketed as something like ‘zero worries, total peace of mind, 100% complete coverage’ and I read the fine print, major exclusions, excludes only criminal activity, and gross negligence as detailed losing the keys and wrongly filling the gas tank.
Oh but Sir, wheels aren’t part of the car.
Luckily the customer behind me had a four year old child who was able to correctly answer the question ‘how many wheels does a car have’
Even better advice, don’t rent from Hertz.
I have my own version of a problem with what I regard as a Hertz scam. After waiting almost forever to speak to somebody in customer service to rent a car, I was assured that the rental was not a prepaid rental. However, as I later discovered, they were charging it as a prepaid. Fortunately, my plans did not change and I was able to make use of the prepaid rental. But it really galls me that Hertz did this, and then made it so incredibly difficult to talk to somebody in customer service who did nothing more than reconfirm that it was already a charged rental. It’s going to be quite a while before I ever went from Hertz again.
Contact the Elliot Advocacy group… Christopher Elliot. He takes on a lot of these cases
@Michael Lissack…the same reason ppl still fly Frontier
I keep reading about Hertz having people jailed over car rentals, and I find it difficult to understand. I own a company that rents cars in a small town, though our operation was once much larger. My question is: how does Hertz involve the police in what seems like a civil matter? In the past, when a customer failed to return a car, we contacted the police but were told it wasn’t theft—it was a civil issue because we had willingly handed over the vehicle. End of story.
How about simply not using them, they’re bad business
I don’t really see any advice in the article. I rented from Hertz one time in Chicago. The counter was jammed, the people unhelpful, the car OK. The only bright spot was the shuttle driver when we dropped off, he was a gem.
I usually rent from Alamo. Generally lowest price from Costco Travel.
I don’t leave without a receipt, paper or email.
OJ said they are number 1
And we can all trust OJ RIP
Make Hertz Great Again!
You would think this only happens in a third-world, poor, scam-related country. Its amazing that Hurts-Hertz is still in business with so many Lawyers in America. and scams like this still keep happening.
I rented from Hertz out of desperation after getting screwed by National. Hertz gave me a printout of the estimated charges at 138.33 per day for two days. I returned the vehicle and was billed $965. Hertz claims the contract said $240 per day was on the contract and would not honor the printed quote. I have gotten them to agree not to charge the extra day, but they will not budge on the rate. Scam of a company and I may file legal action.
I rented a car at Frankfurt-am-Main airport, — when I returned it the clerk at the office told me she was going to charge me a cleaning fee for dog fur in the car. I told her I have never owned a dog, do not like dogs, and wouldn’t have brought one to Germany to drive around Hesse Land with him. And then I pointed out that there are no restrictions anyway to carrying pets, and furthermore I want to see the dog fur in the car. Sorry, it’s been taken away already.
Rented an electric car in Palm Springs to catch a flight in San Diego. Was told to return it at least 75% charge. Went to three charging stations, first two refused to connect to car’s computer, third was charging so slowly (added 1% in 45″) that we had to leave to catch our flight. Told return clerk about the issue and he promised there would be no charge, yet of course got a rebill from Hertz for an additional $161 — $10/KwH! Disputed it, of course.
They are really just bandits.
Returned car a day early guy in garage at DFW said couldn’t get me a receipt. They billed my 5 more days said I never returned car. 3 months of emails calls even going to the location in home town, with boarding pass, hotel checkout and even parking garage receipt from destination. Never got any response from Hertz except form letter. AMEx request information per my dispute just got form letter. Joke how are they still in business
Didn’t OJ say “They’re not number 1, But they try harder”? Keep it up and they won’t be around either!
Worst company ever. I am Pres Circle which is why I have rented. Boston – got a FILTHY car with trash in it. Yep…old cups with straws and it reeked of cigarette smoke. Nasty. Had to wait an hour. Thieves, basically. Can’t understand how they are still in business or there is not a giant law suit against them for the false arrests. Horrible.
Thanks for the article – somehow I missed all these stories in the past. Guess it’s time to follow up on my 8 hour rental 6 weeks ago that still hasn’t hit my credit card…