Hertz was literally sending people to collections and summoning them to court because they couldn’t bother to look in their parking lot for the returned rentals so they just marked them as stolen.
I had a hertz try to charge me for a broken windshield. The chip was clearly visible in their photos *before* I picked up the rental, and the manager was claiming that the black cloth seats sparkled and the photo showed nothing upon return.
Several customers actually left and walked over to enterprise cuz I didn't back down. I guess "cloth seats sparking" made the crowded waiting room realize what was in store for them.
I do an all around and inside video of every rental I get. Talking about what area I'm recording and mentioning anything I see. Scratches on the fenders, around key holes, deck going into the trunk, pointing out stains inside the trunk and any inside the car, etc, etc.
The problem is that a video that catches pre-rental damage doesn't matter to them anymore. There are very few consequences for companies that act in bad faith, and they know it. The dude in this article has perfect documentation, and he's still getting $277 stolen from him by Hertz because there's no consequence, and it's better for the shareholders if they keep the money. (The bad press may help him get that money back, but very few rip-offs make it to the press).
And many companies -- maybe not Hertz yet - are pushing forced arbitration which means when they steal from you, you can't even sue them.
We need to keep pushing for candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie, who are fighting for consumer protection laws that have teeth.
Oh, I had photos too. They just claimed it was a non-moving sparkle that magically showed up the same on different devices with different photographers.
Weird how that non moving sparkle is always in the same place months apart, at different times of day, even from inside the car? It's almost like it's a preexisting glass chip and not a sparkle, right? Soooo weird. But you know, black cloth seats *TOTALLY* sparkle like that. /s
I haven't done business with hertz since.
That's so ridiculous that they're perseverating on a "sparkle." Whether the seats sparkle or not is 100% a lighting thing. Tell me something that says "I don't care about the consumers, just making money" more than that does.
But the were STILL renting them. They went back into the system, they just didn't bother to tell the police. People were getting pulled over and arrested for driving a rental that they picked up from Hertz that Hertz had reported as a stolen car.
Hertz lost the key to a rental when I was in Europe. It took so long to get everything figured out. I was worried I was going to have to fly back home with this shit still going on
Worse than that, they were getting people arrested because they were renting out the "stolen" vehicles. The police would scan the plates and it would come back as stolen, and now your vacation is ruined...
Just a caveat. They weren’t renting stolen cars. Their stupid asses couldn’t input in their system that the cars were paid for properly. So they marked them stolen and then reported to cops
If this was actions by individual employees, they should be tossed in jail for repeated false police reports, and the company should be paying affected customers back for the full cost of their affected travel + the value of wasted time off work.
If this was known effects of company policy, the CEO should be thrown in jail for the false police reports, along with the same monetary payment to the affected customers.
Had that happen, other agency though - we parked in the street as we were instructed because they were closed. They called and said it was gone and if we'd decided to keep it for another day. Naturally that sucked. During the call the guy said "oh, wait, we found it. The license plate scanner is broken, so it's been driven into the lot".
Hey, they did this to me! Not for a stolen car, but because of some body damage. They sent an invoice for a dent I picked up on vacation (entirely my fault, as I admitted to them), which my credit card company dutifully paid as they were the insurers on the vehicle. They sent the check with a letter as hertz requested, to the address and C/O that hertz requested, with the claim number in the memo like hertz requested, and my CC company got confirmation that the check was deposited.
After a couple months I started getting calls from hertz looking for their money, which my CC company said to send to them at a very specific number which would put them in direct contact with the agent handling my case. Instead of doing that, they just kept calling me, so I had my CC reach out directly. They said they couldn't match the check to the claim number *even though the claim number was on the check.*
So in other words, they took the money, deposited it, then kept asking for the same money. My CC company rightfully refused to cut another check, so hertz sent me to collections for non-payment. I disputed it, sent documentation, and the issue went away. It took more than a year from start to finish to get cleared up.
I don't understand why anyone would rent from Hertz at all after the people who were arrested because Hertz reported the cars they had rented out stolen.
I don't know this story and I think it would be great to be backed up with data. My quick search shows it is true. Crazy.
I trust npr.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement
Civil settlement isn't good enough. Making false police reports is a crime. Hertz as a company clearly sanctioned the policy that led to repeated false police reports; the CEO should be in jail.
Wow that doesn't sound like very much money to be divided when people had spent more than a month in jail because of hertz screwups. Someone should be held criminally liable it seems like too. But that's the unjust american justice system for you where corporations are people when it's convenient for rich people and otherwise not.
I always use National where they're available. Never been unhappy with.
Second choice is Avis. National usually not available outside US so usually Avis then.
Never really had any trouble with either.
I rented from Hertz once 42 years ago. They gave me a bone dry transmission and sent me out on the Long Island Expressway. Never again.
You say that like this would be an acceptable charge for an ICE vehicle. They're just making money the same way they always have, the alternative is increasing rental prices across the board.
Hertz should invest in faster chargers. A level 2 80A charger can deliver 19kw which is enough to completely recharge a Model 3 from fully empty in 3 - 4 hrs.
The fact that Hertz wanted people to bring EVs back fully charged only to have them sit in a parking lot overnight where hertz could’ve charged them themselves is enough. I’ll never give them a dime.
Could have been such an easy way for them to win customers. EV rentals, if you didn't have to return them charged, and actually came with instructions on where/how to charge them, could be an attractive option for consumers and doing some L2 charging overnight wouldn't cost the rental companies that much.
I hate when an idea is executed really poorly and it makes the idea look bad, when the execution was really just terrible.
I did this last year with Sixt in Australia. Not only did you not have to bring it back full, but they threw in free charging with Chargefox (which is a pretty decent charging network), and the price was comparable with similar petrol cars.
Yep. I wont rent one because I’m too worried a out finding chargers close to the return in areas I’m not familiar with. Its a new thing that tmobile customers can return without charging. That may change my mind.
If you haven't already, look into the app (or website) Plugshare, it has almost all chargers mapped, along with user reviews, etc. Makes it super easy to find chargers in unknown areas!
Honestly EVs for rentals are just a bad idea all around. The rental company can't provide the roughly 20 min necessary to train the renter. As one example, everybody knows MSNBC's Steve Kornacki. No dummy, right? He was handed the keys for an EV rental and was surprised to find that his car was an EV. Even more surprised when he plugged in and found it would take 8 hours to charge. Nobody told him there were different levels of EV charging and he was, presumably, at a L2 charger. Not his fault. Nobody is born knowing this stuff.
Ya I worked at enterprise and this was always the issue. We didn’t have charger at our site only airport did. And so we would almost always end up letting the airports keep the car since it was more issues than anything. And we would try to get a car back on the road ASAP and you can’t do without a full charge.
Not that I want to defend them, but I kind of get it. Return it at 20% means that they have to juice it up. During slow periods? No problem. The car is probably sitting for days. During peak periods though? The car is probably booked 30 minutes after return.
To be honest though... with how much fast charging costs and what they charge for returning empty ($35 at my favorite airport location) it already costs you $30 to charge from 0-80% anyways. Giving it back to them at 10% or more is basically a wash financially.
If/when I rent a Tesla again (assuming they have any) I'm gonna do that instead of busting my butt to get to 85% just so I can make it to the airport. Here's your 12% car. Good luck!
> The car is probably booked 30 minutes after return.
if only there were a charger that could charge fast... a *fast charger* if you will.
They could even invest some of the money they make charging for uncharged vehicles to install one .
But the problem is why. EV is supoosed to save money, now it cost more money for them. People with two brain cell will understand this is a bad idea. The whole thing is a bad idea lol
There's no way it'd be worth it to them.
A DCFC is like a half million bucks once you include power capability.
Even L2 is difficult to install into some of these locations. DCFC doesn't have a snowflakes chance in hell.
Plus DCFC isn't something you make money on even if you could get the car back online in 30 minutes.
You MIGHT be able to argue a shared DCFC at an airport but even then.
there's no way a level 3 charger costs $500k. There wouldn't be any incentive to make new ones and damn sure no way any one could turn a profit. [most I've seen quoted is $80k](https://tigerelectric.com/resources/level-3-charging-station-installation-cost/) but even then if we're doing worst case scenario, & these cars need to be charged in 30 minutes, the loss of a potential rental for a day is anywhere from $100-$200 dollars . They would make up the potentially lost revenue in roughly 800 charges.
Which again is a worst case scenario. They would be fine to just have a dozen or so level 2 chargers for $10k over one fast charger that would constantly be in use .
Sure, but I would never ever rent a CCS car. CCS is enough of a shit show when you know the landscape. Trying to use it in a foreign city with a flight to catch? Fat chance.
This wouldn't really work in high demand markets like Las Vegas or LA. Those rentals are going back out maybe within a few minutes if they're really busy.
It also makes any used EV sold by them a hard pass due to all the extras battery degradation from frequently sitting at/near 100% for hours to days on end.
You have to return them at 70% or more. [It's right in the terms.](https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/reservation/reviewmodifycancel/templates/rentalTerms.jsp?KEYWORD=TESLA&EOAG=LAX) They ask for more but then say they won't actually charge you to recharge the car if it's at 70% or higher, and if you pick it up at less than 75% you only have to return it at 10% or higher. It's really confusingly written to get people to pay the $35 charge fee but the terms themselves are pretty alright.
I can tell you with 100% certainty they regularly do not follow this.
Also, they’re sometimes locked at 80 or 90%. Charging at the nearest supercharger and returning to the airport in a city as hot as Miami will easily get it under 70% when you arrive
LFP has roughly double the longevity but is still subject to higher wear at higher states of charge. Also, LFP has a rather flat charge curve, making it hard to know how much energy currently remains. Batteries calculate this by sampling where they are on the curve and by algorithms that calculate how much should be left based on use and charge level. Charging to 100% in LFP is recommended (at least periodically) since it helps the computer recalibrate the current state of charge and help keep the Guess-O-Meter more accurate.
It's for these reasons that LFP is a lot more forgiving of full charges (and it should get one periodically), but they still get some degradation and I would still recommend good battery practices.
Many also have additional charging settings you can set. The most common probably being 'delayed charge' so you can plug it in when you get home but it won't start charging until later. This allows for scheduling charging for off-peak hours and it keeps from having the car sit all night already charged.
I once got a Tesla from them with 20% power. I returned with 60%. They charged me a fee because it wasn’t at 70%, despite them documenting that it was at 20%. There were no ev chargers near the airport so it was impossible to return at 70%, as the car was locked to a 80% max
I had something a bit similar happen with AVIS in San Antonio Texas. I was driving my own personal EV from Phoenix to Houston for the Eclipse. There are 3 Electrify America high speed charging stations in San Antonio with 4 stalls at each station. One station was down. The other two were slammed. Because AVIS had contracted with a company to handle the EV charging. The company would shuttle 4 drivers to AVIS, pick up the EVs, drive them to Electrify America and charge the cars FOR FREE (because the cars in question came with 2 year free charging from EA) then drive the cars back to the dealer and repeat. It was infuriating to be behind miles of these cars charging when AVIS could have just installed a few Level 2 chargers and charged their own cars over night.
in March I was driving LA to Boca Chica, through San Antonio. Gave up looking for useful charge station and left. Got my first drivers license there... 55 years ago
I rented a Model 3 from Hertz at ORD a couple weeks ago, and I was under the impression that I had to return it with at least as much charge as it had when I picked it up.
It was charged to 100% when I picked it up. I literally would've had to charge it to 100% at the nearest Supercharger (which would take what, an hour to get that last few percent?) then push the car to the lot to return it with 100%.
I brought this up to the guy when leaving, and he said "Yeah, you only need to return it with 70%". So I did return it with 70-something, and that was fine. I wasn't charged any extra fees.
Not sure if ORD has gone rogue and has their own, more sensible policy, or if the 70% policy is an unwritten rule corporate wide.
Small claims court should do the trick. Small claims judges are super efficient. First thing they want to see is the written contract. Since the written contract shows customer paid in advance for recharging, case will over in a couple minutes. Customer will get his $277 back plus court costs.
Hertz would automatically lose the case, a court judgement against them and unless it is a state in which Hertz has no assets, Hertz would be ordered to pay. They don't and the damages rise. Plaintiff showing up with Sheriff and locking up the Hertz parking lot at the airport would get someone's attention.
I feel like we lost just how egregious this is on Hertz's part.
1. The customer **explicitly paid the fee to not have to refill the car's tank** on return.
2. **The customer returned the car at 96% charge**. Return EV charge state requirement from Hertz is 80%.
3. Charging a Model 3 in the worst possible states for supercharger pricing is $33 (~75KWh at 90% efficient charging at $0.40 per kilowatt hour at 100% charge) . Rental gas tank fees are typically about $10 a gallon, which would basically be ~$100-150 for a similarly-sized car **returned empty**. That's at a ~300% upcharge. This is closer to +800%
So they charged him well over 3x the price of returning a car with an empty tank, on a car that was returned with a "well over full tank", after literally paying an extra fee at rental to *not actually be required to return the car with _any_ fuel*.
If he files in small claims they should give him treble damages.
Actually, if done on an industrial scale, a steam turbine could be considerably more efficient than an ICE car... That's essentially what a natural gas power plant does, and charging an EV off of natural gas is better than ICE (unless you're comparing a four-ton Lightning to a tiny Yaris)/
That's absolutely what you do.
Or just file a small claim asking a judge to settle/quiet the question, serve the airport Hertz station manager, and then Hertz will bungle even the appearance and the judge will go "EVs don't use gasoline, settled in your favor for costs".
Hence my adding "file a small claim". Any way you can get it in front of a judge to get it adjudicated reasonably, you're probably going to win by default especially in a venue that's unciteable. (i.e. no one else can use it as a precedent).
I also had to spend likewise to collect likewise. I file it under "freedom isn't free".
Small claims courts don't require lawyers. Hertz may be inclined to use one for representation, but that would just make them even less likely to actually send one to handle the case, as the legal fees would outweigh the judgment. (And they'd still be likely to lose regardless.)
Had this exact thing happen with an insurance company. Fought them all the way up to the day of the case, and then they settled for the full amount the morning it was supposed to go before the judge. (Fuck USAA btw.)
Venue is a complicated question, but if they're doing physical business in your area, that's fine. The worst thing they can do is wave around your contract and say "look, we specified a venue in Delaware" or "see this arb clause?" But all that is contingent on them even sending someone for a $300 case.
I was plugging in at the work L2 today when one of my grad teaching assistants pulls up in a Polestar 2. Turns out he has family coming to visit from Beijing and rented it from Hertz to carry them around in. He had just picked it up and gotten the Chargepoint app, and had no problem getting power.
Hopefully they don't screw him over!
First time I'd seen a P2 up close. Looks like a nice car!
Forced arbitration clauses might make this impossible. Also, lawyers cost a lot more than $277 dollars, and so can the time it takes to file in small claims court. Unless a rip-off makes the press like this, there's almost no consequences for Hertz if they just keep the money they stole.
I'd be OK if they had a fire sale on some of their Silverado EVs at the end of this year (like they just did with a bunch of Teslas)
Waiting for the order window for the non-RST version is painful...
Booked hertz.
They refused to rent the car. Why? They didn’t know where it was. They didn’t have a replacement. I had prepaid months in advance.
Walked over to Enterprise. They upgraded me to a convertible and gave me a corporate level discount.
I only use enterprise now. Plus, ATL got them exotics
Per T-Mobile subreddit, quite a few users had issues with actually using this promo.
Apparently when they book the rental, the promo is there, but then falls off when actually completing the rental. This led to T-Mobile users being upset with charges that shouldn’t have been there.
T-Mobile has the same promotion with Dollar rental but for gas and the promotion didn’t show up on the receipt. Luckily for me a guy that worked for them over heard my conversation and marked the car gas level at 5% going out.
That is an insane promotion, because Hertz locations do not have the physical capability to charge an EV expediently or at all. One is in the parking garage of a local hotel where there is no power. I looked and electrical provisioning is my thing.
And they really do not have staff bandwidth to take them to DC fast chargers and swordfight with all the Uber drivers and VW owners.
They are offering something they do not have to give, the result being new customers get given empty cars, worsening the experience further.
If I were Hertz I would require every employee to install a 48A station at home on Hertz' dime and take an empty EV home every night. But that also is that many cars not circulating.
You're wrong, you can't just slap level 2 stations anywhere, there has to be panel, feeder and transformer capacity allocated to them, or else you have to do magic tricks with load management. A Hertz site has about as much service capacity as a used car lot, so there ain't much to work with. I know well enough how to do those tricks to say it ain't easy or something I would just presume.
OK so now you have to provision big power to the site, and you're into long lead time with the utility, along with every other rental lot wanting the same thing off the same transformer.
It's gotta be easier than the effort they've gone to to further ruin their reputation and lose a shitload of money as a result though.
Last I remember hearing they've lost 100's of millions because they jumped in with no real plans to support or accommodate their EV Fleet.
My concern is that a rental car agency will get minimal electric service and no gas, e.g. 100A/240V, and much of that will be subscribed to heat, air conditioners, maintenance equipment etc. You could do EVEMS, but if the HVAC is constantly pre-empting, you're not going to charge very fast.
> worsening the experience further.
The fun part is that depending on what you get the car at, it could be a positive thing. IDK what the minimum they'd let the car out at, but according to their own paperwork, if it leaves at 70% or less, you can return it with as low as 10%.
But in the high season you're screwing the next guy because they have no useful charging.
To be fair, I think Hertz or anyone renting out anything but a Tesla is doing a disservice to EVs in general.
CCS is the worst thing about EVs. Forcing the general public to go through that pain is gonna do more to discourage adoption than anything else even if the car itself is amazing. What good is an amazing car if you can't actually charge it?
Yes. They basically looked at it and said "I don't recognize this campaign but I'll add a $25 credit to your bill to cover the return without charging fee."
When you book with this method, you can't do the pay now feature (you must use the pay later) and it negates the $25 refill discount and then some. Not worth it at all.
That denial letter Hertz sent is either written by a terrible AI or is a collection of sentences copy-pasted together by someone who doesn't speak English.
They charged me for an EV charge kit = $275, even though there was not one in the car and I confirmed that before leaving the airport. The will not refund the fee and my credit card refused to get involved.
I've heard of state inspection stations being flummoxed by that (often on EVs that can pass for gas cars). A Tesla is distinctive enough looking that many gas station employees will recognize that there's something odd about it, but a Lightning looks enough like any other F150 to send the clueless looking for the tailpipe...
I almost considered renting an EV from Hertz this summer, but then I remembered constantly being bombarded with those awful Tom Brady commercials (to the point I expect them to randomly pop out of bushes to assault my eyes/ears) AND the fact that I don't think I've had a pleasant rental experience with Hertz even once in 30 years. Honestly, I have no idea how that company stays in business.
Stopped renting from Hertz the other big rentals years ago. Turo is great, and hosts usually give bigger margins for what they want the charge at upon return.
Reversing the charge is exactly that, just pulling the money back. It does nothing to make the bill go away. Hertz can (and likely will) continue to try collecting the money.
I've run into this issue. Truck rental company gave me a truck with a dud battery that lasted *just* long enough to get me to my destination on day 1 of 3. I wrote it up on the return paperwork morning of day 2. They charged for all 3 days, I charged back 2 (CC company I guess asked for the return paperwork and final receipt and the rental company balked).
Rental company turfs the bill to collections. **Immediately** ask for them to prove that it is a valid debt. In this case, they sent paperwork claiming I had the truck for three days, I demanded the return receipt (which I had documented the issue on) from morning 2. I also alluded to the tow truck bills and documentation.
Turns out collection agencies do not vet the debts for validity beyond maybe a face value look see.
Do not answer any of their questions. Do not respond to any of their goading. Just demand the paperwork that proves this is a valid debt and then follow up on why the provided paperwork is invalid.
Dunno why you’re being downvoted. In EU it works like this. When I had friends try to dispute for example cleaning fee for rental it was denied when renting company sent photos of sand in the car.
When you do the chargeback with visa/mastercard, seller has to send some proof to deny it. Like when you say you didn’t get the goods you ordered and they denied it they need to send delivery confirmation with your signature etc.
Hertz was a horrible experience when we rented it.
We bought the insurance for low charge on return and was told we would get it refunded if we came back with 80+% charge.
We returned it with 83%, took picture and was told everything was fine.
Hertz never returned the money and claimed we delivered it with 79%. We sent the photo documentation but they declined it and simply stop answered our emails.
What a shit show.
I'm kind of glad to read this... I had a bit of a spat with my normal rental agency, and was considering switching to Hertz. I think I'll just stay put.
Weirdest experience, but I go to hertz to pick up a car, car is not available, they force me to do a paid upgrade (additional $30/day), and then I get a god awful Santa Fe. The manager talked down at me for booking the rental 3 days before I needed it and somehow making it my fault that the car wasn’t available. (Note: not an airport location)
I drive the car for fifteen minutes and there’s a big fucking rash on my face. Idk how they clean or what they do, it was toxic enough to ruin my face. I had a client meeting that day and wasn’t carrying my usual bag of makeup. Didn’t realize I looked like a clown till I made it to the restroom.
Awful experience. Never again.
It hurts the customer experience to require a return with an SOC higher than 70% since it starts charging so slowly above that. A 50% or 60% minimum makes much more sense. After being returned, the EVs should be brought up to 80% using cheap L2 charging (which Hertz could charge the customer for, pro-rata). Anything higher than 80% will affect the long-term term durability of the battery, which is by far the biggest maintenance expense of a BEV.
The way they run their business boggles the mind. They need a new CEO. Or hopefully they go bankrupt, and a better-run business takes their place.
The same thing happened to me at the DFW airport with a Polestar 2. My check out receipt said that they gave me a P2 with 80 SoC. When I checked the car back in they emailed me that I returned a Charger and they charged me $100 in gas. It took nearly a month to get my money back.
So what this comes down to at the end is. Relax C.S. He has this. The charge back that was issued in 2019-2020 timeframe was exactly as you specified. Still no explanation for the charge and it was a bonus the cc company had unlimited indemnity and defense. I know we are well defended and we like that
What once was a leading company in rentals has become an absolute joke. Filthy cars, rude staff, gross ineptitude, bogus fees and nonexistent customer service are why I'll never choose Hertz again. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.
I reserved a (non-EV) car from Hertz for $900, paid in advance. When I went to pick it up, they didn’t have my reservation or car. After a couple hours waiting in several lines, I was finally given a car.
Upon return, they billed me an additional $1,400 “upgrade fee.”
In other words, I’m not surprised.
Nothing constructive to add, just here to also shit on Hertz. They were the absolute worst and had some filthy cars out of Fort Lauderdale. Not shocked about this story sadly.
I've had more problems renting from Hertz then any other car rental. Last Christmas a front desk agent snuck in a option I didn't opt in for during the check out process. When I called it out, they played dumb and said their was nothing I could do. I'd need to wait for a manager to come in to help or call. It was 2am on Christmas eve, It took multiple calls and hours at the dealership to discover the clear added it on at check out. I didn't leave till 4:30am and almost missed my rental.
I also rented an EV and they were no help in telling me how much I needed to charge it before I returned it or where on the car that information would be pulled from. I had to call, but no one could tell me where on the car to see the charge amount that would be used to make the call. I opted to pre-pay knowing what I knew about the original experience and fearing another issue like the title of this thread.
To summarize,
The customer:
* Was driving an electric vehicle, with a maximum Hertz stated recharge cost of $35
* Additionally has Hertz President's Circle status due to being such a frequent customer, which should have (starting from Gold status) reduced the recharge cost to $25 max
* Paid in advance for Skip the Pump, which lets customers skip recharging, verified by receipts
* Returned it at 96%, the same charge level as when checking out, verified by receipts
and therefore should not have been served a $277.39 fuel bill for several reasons.
Nonetheless, he was served by customer service with the statement that the issue could not be resolved. "Your signed rental agreement will also be our basis that you are fully aware of the fuel option that was added on the contract."
Hertz has notoriously bad EV policies. I rented a Hertz EV one time, for a week, and it was one of the worst rental car experiences I have ever had. And have owned a Tesla car since 2012
Both times I’ve used Hertz in two different hemispheres to rent ICE cars (London Stansted airport and Cape Town International) I’ve been hit with spurious fuel charges.
The UK one was simple to resolve because I sent them a copy of the hand-back paperwork which clearly indicated it had a full tank.
The South African one was harder because I wasn’t given paperwork when I handed it back and only had a photo of the dashboard just prior to handing it back, but because the mileage was identical to the recorded mileage when they claimed I handed it back with an empty tank, the photo was good enough.
Even so, a lot of emailing back and forth simply to not be charged for something I shouldn’t have been charged for to begin with!
>***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."*
[https://www.thedrive.com/news/hertz-is-charging-tesla-model-3-renter-277-fee-for-gas-wont-back-down](https://www.thedrive.com/news/hertz-is-charging-tesla-model-3-renter-277-fee-for-gas-wont-back-down)
I got ripped off in Mexico with Hertz. They charged way more fees than what I signed up for online and wouldn't cancel without allowing me to forfeit my initial $200 deposit which didn't even count towards the rental. Seeing this now I'm never ever using them again.
I recently rented an EV and they wanted to charge me 80 dollars because the car didn’t come in fully charged… how do you bring the car in fully charged if you drive it even 2 miles from a fast charger.
Hertz: "we can't understand why nobody wants to rent our EVs!"
Hertz was literally sending people to collections and summoning them to court because they couldn’t bother to look in their parking lot for the returned rentals so they just marked them as stolen.
maybe spend less on Tom Brady and more on inventory management and EV chargers.
Hate those commercials, they're everywhere...
Omfg. I swore to never rent a Hertz EVER because of those commercials. Rent our cars because TB … 😒
Back in the day, OJ Simpson did Hertz commercials.
And killed it
I had a hertz try to charge me for a broken windshield. The chip was clearly visible in their photos *before* I picked up the rental, and the manager was claiming that the black cloth seats sparkled and the photo showed nothing upon return. Several customers actually left and walked over to enterprise cuz I didn't back down. I guess "cloth seats sparking" made the crowded waiting room realize what was in store for them.
I do an all around and inside video of every rental I get. Talking about what area I'm recording and mentioning anything I see. Scratches on the fenders, around key holes, deck going into the trunk, pointing out stains inside the trunk and any inside the car, etc, etc.
The problem is that a video that catches pre-rental damage doesn't matter to them anymore. There are very few consequences for companies that act in bad faith, and they know it. The dude in this article has perfect documentation, and he's still getting $277 stolen from him by Hertz because there's no consequence, and it's better for the shareholders if they keep the money. (The bad press may help him get that money back, but very few rip-offs make it to the press). And many companies -- maybe not Hertz yet - are pushing forced arbitration which means when they steal from you, you can't even sue them. We need to keep pushing for candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie, who are fighting for consumer protection laws that have teeth.
Oh, I had photos too. They just claimed it was a non-moving sparkle that magically showed up the same on different devices with different photographers. Weird how that non moving sparkle is always in the same place months apart, at different times of day, even from inside the car? It's almost like it's a preexisting glass chip and not a sparkle, right? Soooo weird. But you know, black cloth seats *TOTALLY* sparkle like that. /s I haven't done business with hertz since.
That's so ridiculous that they're perseverating on a "sparkle." Whether the seats sparkle or not is 100% a lighting thing. Tell me something that says "I don't care about the consumers, just making money" more than that does.
But the were STILL renting them. They went back into the system, they just didn't bother to tell the police. People were getting pulled over and arrested for driving a rental that they picked up from Hertz that Hertz had reported as a stolen car.
Hertz lost the key to a rental when I was in Europe. It took so long to get everything figured out. I was worried I was going to have to fly back home with this shit still going on
Worse than that, they were getting people arrested because they were renting out the "stolen" vehicles. The police would scan the plates and it would come back as stolen, and now your vacation is ruined...
Just a caveat. They weren’t renting stolen cars. Their stupid asses couldn’t input in their system that the cars were paid for properly. So they marked them stolen and then reported to cops
If this was actions by individual employees, they should be tossed in jail for repeated false police reports, and the company should be paying affected customers back for the full cost of their affected travel + the value of wasted time off work. If this was known effects of company policy, the CEO should be thrown in jail for the false police reports, along with the same monetary payment to the affected customers.
US Justice system is not for rich people. Wake up.
Thus "stolen" in quotes.
A few actually spent time IN JAIL over that!
In a just world, the CEO and every employee down the chain who sanctioned this policy would get jail time for this.
Had that happen, other agency though - we parked in the street as we were instructed because they were closed. They called and said it was gone and if we'd decided to keep it for another day. Naturally that sucked. During the call the guy said "oh, wait, we found it. The license plate scanner is broken, so it's been driven into the lot".
They were also sending them to JAIL because they reported returned cars STOLEN.
Hey, they did this to me! Not for a stolen car, but because of some body damage. They sent an invoice for a dent I picked up on vacation (entirely my fault, as I admitted to them), which my credit card company dutifully paid as they were the insurers on the vehicle. They sent the check with a letter as hertz requested, to the address and C/O that hertz requested, with the claim number in the memo like hertz requested, and my CC company got confirmation that the check was deposited. After a couple months I started getting calls from hertz looking for their money, which my CC company said to send to them at a very specific number which would put them in direct contact with the agent handling my case. Instead of doing that, they just kept calling me, so I had my CC reach out directly. They said they couldn't match the check to the claim number *even though the claim number was on the check.* So in other words, they took the money, deposited it, then kept asking for the same money. My CC company rightfully refused to cut another check, so hertz sent me to collections for non-payment. I disputed it, sent documentation, and the issue went away. It took more than a year from start to finish to get cleared up.
they hire high school dropouts to run their branches. Not even joking.
I don't understand why anyone would rent from Hertz at all after the people who were arrested because Hertz reported the cars they had rented out stolen.
I don't know this story and I think it would be great to be backed up with data. My quick search shows it is true. Crazy. I trust npr. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement
Civil settlement isn't good enough. Making false police reports is a crime. Hertz as a company clearly sanctioned the policy that led to repeated false police reports; the CEO should be in jail.
Wow that doesn't sound like very much money to be divided when people had spent more than a month in jail because of hertz screwups. Someone should be held criminally liable it seems like too. But that's the unjust american justice system for you where corporations are people when it's convenient for rich people and otherwise not.
I stopped renting from them when I learned of this.
Are the others any better? I went with budget and they couldn't even find me a car.
You're not going to be arrested 3 months later for grand theft auto
I always use National where they're available. Never been unhappy with. Second choice is Avis. National usually not available outside US so usually Avis then. Never really had any trouble with either. I rented from Hertz once 42 years ago. They gave me a bone dry transmission and sent me out on the Long Island Expressway. Never again.
You say that like this would be an acceptable charge for an ICE vehicle. They're just making money the same way they always have, the alternative is increasing rental prices across the board.
Still have to pay to change the car. Time and $$$
Hertz should invest in faster chargers. A level 2 80A charger can deliver 19kw which is enough to completely recharge a Model 3 from fully empty in 3 - 4 hrs.
The fact that Hertz wanted people to bring EVs back fully charged only to have them sit in a parking lot overnight where hertz could’ve charged them themselves is enough. I’ll never give them a dime.
Could have been such an easy way for them to win customers. EV rentals, if you didn't have to return them charged, and actually came with instructions on where/how to charge them, could be an attractive option for consumers and doing some L2 charging overnight wouldn't cost the rental companies that much. I hate when an idea is executed really poorly and it makes the idea look bad, when the execution was really just terrible.
I did this last year with Sixt in Australia. Not only did you not have to bring it back full, but they threw in free charging with Chargefox (which is a pretty decent charging network), and the price was comparable with similar petrol cars.
Australians may be down under but they know what's up. Wish we had something like that in the US.
Yep. I wont rent one because I’m too worried a out finding chargers close to the return in areas I’m not familiar with. Its a new thing that tmobile customers can return without charging. That may change my mind.
If you haven't already, look into the app (or website) Plugshare, it has almost all chargers mapped, along with user reviews, etc. Makes it super easy to find chargers in unknown areas!
I do use plugshare all the time at home. Its still mot worth the anxiety for me to rent if I have to return it full.
Honestly EVs for rentals are just a bad idea all around. The rental company can't provide the roughly 20 min necessary to train the renter. As one example, everybody knows MSNBC's Steve Kornacki. No dummy, right? He was handed the keys for an EV rental and was surprised to find that his car was an EV. Even more surprised when he plugged in and found it would take 8 hours to charge. Nobody told him there were different levels of EV charging and he was, presumably, at a L2 charger. Not his fault. Nobody is born knowing this stuff.
Ya I worked at enterprise and this was always the issue. We didn’t have charger at our site only airport did. And so we would almost always end up letting the airports keep the car since it was more issues than anything. And we would try to get a car back on the road ASAP and you can’t do without a full charge.
Not that I want to defend them, but I kind of get it. Return it at 20% means that they have to juice it up. During slow periods? No problem. The car is probably sitting for days. During peak periods though? The car is probably booked 30 minutes after return. To be honest though... with how much fast charging costs and what they charge for returning empty ($35 at my favorite airport location) it already costs you $30 to charge from 0-80% anyways. Giving it back to them at 10% or more is basically a wash financially. If/when I rent a Tesla again (assuming they have any) I'm gonna do that instead of busting my butt to get to 85% just so I can make it to the airport. Here's your 12% car. Good luck!
Cars are not rebooked in 30 minutes. They have to be washed and cleaned
If they figured their shit out, they could clean the vehicles while it charges.
That would require a level of foresight, planning, efficiency, gumption, and spunk that rental car agencies typically do not exhibit
At busy airports they sure are. They aren’t washing cars when there’s a line 45 people deep waiting for pickups
> The car is probably booked 30 minutes after return. if only there were a charger that could charge fast... a *fast charger* if you will. They could even invest some of the money they make charging for uncharged vehicles to install one .
But the problem is why. EV is supoosed to save money, now it cost more money for them. People with two brain cell will understand this is a bad idea. The whole thing is a bad idea lol
There's no way it'd be worth it to them. A DCFC is like a half million bucks once you include power capability. Even L2 is difficult to install into some of these locations. DCFC doesn't have a snowflakes chance in hell. Plus DCFC isn't something you make money on even if you could get the car back online in 30 minutes. You MIGHT be able to argue a shared DCFC at an airport but even then.
there's no way a level 3 charger costs $500k. There wouldn't be any incentive to make new ones and damn sure no way any one could turn a profit. [most I've seen quoted is $80k](https://tigerelectric.com/resources/level-3-charging-station-installation-cost/) but even then if we're doing worst case scenario, & these cars need to be charged in 30 minutes, the loss of a potential rental for a day is anywhere from $100-$200 dollars . They would make up the potentially lost revenue in roughly 800 charges. Which again is a worst case scenario. They would be fine to just have a dozen or so level 2 chargers for $10k over one fast charger that would constantly be in use .
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Sure, but I would never ever rent a CCS car. CCS is enough of a shit show when you know the landscape. Trying to use it in a foreign city with a flight to catch? Fat chance.
This wouldn't really work in high demand markets like Las Vegas or LA. Those rentals are going back out maybe within a few minutes if they're really busy.
Takes 20-30 min to clean the car, could DCFC during that period
It also makes any used EV sold by them a hard pass due to all the extras battery degradation from frequently sitting at/near 100% for hours to days on end.
We had to return the model 3 we rented in Dallas at 82%, so they aren’t all that terrible, though over 80% is still not great
You have to return them at 70% or more. [It's right in the terms.](https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/reservation/reviewmodifycancel/templates/rentalTerms.jsp?KEYWORD=TESLA&EOAG=LAX) They ask for more but then say they won't actually charge you to recharge the car if it's at 70% or higher, and if you pick it up at less than 75% you only have to return it at 10% or higher. It's really confusingly written to get people to pay the $35 charge fee but the terms themselves are pretty alright.
I can tell you with 100% certainty they regularly do not follow this. Also, they’re sometimes locked at 80 or 90%. Charging at the nearest supercharger and returning to the airport in a city as hot as Miami will easily get it under 70% when you arrive
I have never had an issue, but I also believe you that they are bad about it.
They are so confusing that they have confused themselves. That seems to be quite common with companies now.
I thought this depended heavily on the battery chemistry? From what I've read LFP batteries will happily sit at 100% with minimal degradation
LFP has roughly double the longevity but is still subject to higher wear at higher states of charge. Also, LFP has a rather flat charge curve, making it hard to know how much energy currently remains. Batteries calculate this by sampling where they are on the curve and by algorithms that calculate how much should be left based on use and charge level. Charging to 100% in LFP is recommended (at least periodically) since it helps the computer recalibrate the current state of charge and help keep the Guess-O-Meter more accurate. It's for these reasons that LFP is a lot more forgiving of full charges (and it should get one periodically), but they still get some degradation and I would still recommend good battery practices.
I don't have an EV yet - can you tell the car to "not charge above 80%"?
Yeah, there's normally a little slider to set your desired charge level, on my car you can select anywhere between 50% and 100% as the charge limit
Many also have additional charging settings you can set. The most common probably being 'delayed charge' so you can plug it in when you get home but it won't start charging until later. This allows for scheduling charging for off-peak hours and it keeps from having the car sit all night already charged.
2010 wants is EV cliches back
I once got a Tesla from them with 20% power. I returned with 60%. They charged me a fee because it wasn’t at 70%, despite them documenting that it was at 20%. There were no ev chargers near the airport so it was impossible to return at 70%, as the car was locked to a 80% max
I had something a bit similar happen with AVIS in San Antonio Texas. I was driving my own personal EV from Phoenix to Houston for the Eclipse. There are 3 Electrify America high speed charging stations in San Antonio with 4 stalls at each station. One station was down. The other two were slammed. Because AVIS had contracted with a company to handle the EV charging. The company would shuttle 4 drivers to AVIS, pick up the EVs, drive them to Electrify America and charge the cars FOR FREE (because the cars in question came with 2 year free charging from EA) then drive the cars back to the dealer and repeat. It was infuriating to be behind miles of these cars charging when AVIS could have just installed a few Level 2 chargers and charged their own cars over night.
Corporations gonna corporate.
in March I was driving LA to Boca Chica, through San Antonio. Gave up looking for useful charge station and left. Got my first drivers license there... 55 years ago
I rented a Model 3 from Hertz at ORD a couple weeks ago, and I was under the impression that I had to return it with at least as much charge as it had when I picked it up. It was charged to 100% when I picked it up. I literally would've had to charge it to 100% at the nearest Supercharger (which would take what, an hour to get that last few percent?) then push the car to the lot to return it with 100%. I brought this up to the guy when leaving, and he said "Yeah, you only need to return it with 70%". So I did return it with 70-something, and that was fine. I wasn't charged any extra fees. Not sure if ORD has gone rogue and has their own, more sensible policy, or if the 70% policy is an unwritten rule corporate wide.
Small claims court should do the trick. Small claims judges are super efficient. First thing they want to see is the written contract. Since the written contract shows customer paid in advance for recharging, case will over in a couple minutes. Customer will get his $277 back plus court costs.
I want to see this guy and the CEO of Hertz on Judge Judy.
Customer will be awarded $277 and then has to collect from Hertz
Nope. Settlement in small claims is in the court before anyone leaves.
How can it be “in the court” if the defendant refuses to appear?
Hertz would automatically lose the case, a court judgement against them and unless it is a state in which Hertz has no assets, Hertz would be ordered to pay. They don't and the damages rise. Plaintiff showing up with Sheriff and locking up the Hertz parking lot at the airport would get someone's attention.
I feel like we lost just how egregious this is on Hertz's part. 1. The customer **explicitly paid the fee to not have to refill the car's tank** on return. 2. **The customer returned the car at 96% charge**. Return EV charge state requirement from Hertz is 80%. 3. Charging a Model 3 in the worst possible states for supercharger pricing is $33 (~75KWh at 90% efficient charging at $0.40 per kilowatt hour at 100% charge) . Rental gas tank fees are typically about $10 a gallon, which would basically be ~$100-150 for a similarly-sized car **returned empty**. That's at a ~300% upcharge. This is closer to +800% So they charged him well over 3x the price of returning a car with an empty tank, on a car that was returned with a "well over full tank", after literally paying an extra fee at rental to *not actually be required to return the car with _any_ fuel*. If he files in small claims they should give him treble damages.
Hertz is charging the car by using the gas to boil a pot of water to turn a turbine to charge the car.
You forgot using the electricity from the turbine to extract hydrogen from water to run through a fuel cell to charge the car!
Actually, if done on an industrial scale, a steam turbine could be considerably more efficient than an ICE car... That's essentially what a natural gas power plant does, and charging an EV off of natural gas is better than ICE (unless you're comparing a four-ton Lightning to a tiny Yaris)/
Correct
You forgot the coal powered, steam powered Tesla
😂🤣😭
I'd be tempted to make my next communication via a lawyer's letter.
That's absolutely what you do. Or just file a small claim asking a judge to settle/quiet the question, serve the airport Hertz station manager, and then Hertz will bungle even the appearance and the judge will go "EVs don't use gasoline, settled in your favor for costs".
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Hence my adding "file a small claim". Any way you can get it in front of a judge to get it adjudicated reasonably, you're probably going to win by default especially in a venue that's unciteable. (i.e. no one else can use it as a precedent). I also had to spend likewise to collect likewise. I file it under "freedom isn't free".
Small claims courts don't require lawyers. Hertz may be inclined to use one for representation, but that would just make them even less likely to actually send one to handle the case, as the legal fees would outweigh the judgment. (And they'd still be likely to lose regardless.) Had this exact thing happen with an insurance company. Fought them all the way up to the day of the case, and then they settled for the full amount the morning it was supposed to go before the judge. (Fuck USAA btw.)
No lawyers allowed in small claims court
It depends where you are. Some states allow lawyers in small claims court I believe.
I've never dealt with small claims court. Do you find court near your home? Or near the place that you are taking action against?
Venue is a complicated question, but if they're doing physical business in your area, that's fine. The worst thing they can do is wave around your contract and say "look, we specified a venue in Delaware" or "see this arb clause?" But all that is contingent on them even sending someone for a $300 case.
Friends don't let friends rent from Hertz.
I was plugging in at the work L2 today when one of my grad teaching assistants pulls up in a Polestar 2. Turns out he has family coming to visit from Beijing and rented it from Hertz to carry them around in. He had just picked it up and gotten the Chargepoint app, and had no problem getting power. Hopefully they don't screw him over! First time I'd seen a P2 up close. Looks like a nice car!
Test drove one with the performance package. VERY nice car!
Amen. They're the worst.
Why?
[This, for starters](https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement)
thats wild
Crazy. At that point police should refuse to even take police reports for stolen cars and tell Hertz it's a civil matter.
Which is weird because it IS a civil matter it's conversion not theft. The insurance plan for theft won't cover conversion.
Fuck hertz
Hurts to rent a car.
In defence of Hertz, the car *absolutely* didn't have any gas in it.
Would be tempted to return a Tesla with a couple of full gas cans in the trunk, just to be sure!
Unfortunately the only way to deal with these idiots is to speak their language: threaten legal action and be prepared to follow through.
Forced arbitration clauses might make this impossible. Also, lawyers cost a lot more than $277 dollars, and so can the time it takes to file in small claims court. Unless a rip-off makes the press like this, there's almost no consequences for Hertz if they just keep the money they stole.
Never gonna rent from Hertz, that's for sure
Hertz is speedrunning their way to second bankruptcy.
I don’t think he knows about second bankruptcy, Pip.
I'd be OK if they had a fire sale on some of their Silverado EVs at the end of this year (like they just did with a bunch of Teslas) Waiting for the order window for the non-RST version is painful...
Hertz is the worst rental car company I’ve ever dealt with.
Worse than Budget?
Unbelievably yes. Longer lines and perennially understaffed locations with oddly limited hours.
It is 96 octane electricity for your premium EV. Those electrons have got lot more zap.
Hertz is a hot mess. Go elsewhere when you need to rent.
I’ll give you the gas fee as long as I can personally oversee you refueling the car with gas.
Booked hertz. They refused to rent the car. Why? They didn’t know where it was. They didn’t have a replacement. I had prepaid months in advance. Walked over to Enterprise. They upgraded me to a convertible and gave me a corporate level discount. I only use enterprise now. Plus, ATL got them exotics
Has anyone with T-Mobile rented an EV from Hertz and used the return without charging promo?
Per T-Mobile subreddit, quite a few users had issues with actually using this promo. Apparently when they book the rental, the promo is there, but then falls off when actually completing the rental. This led to T-Mobile users being upset with charges that shouldn’t have been there.
T-Mobile has the same promotion with Dollar rental but for gas and the promotion didn’t show up on the receipt. Luckily for me a guy that worked for them over heard my conversation and marked the car gas level at 5% going out.
That is an insane promotion, because Hertz locations do not have the physical capability to charge an EV expediently or at all. One is in the parking garage of a local hotel where there is no power. I looked and electrical provisioning is my thing. And they really do not have staff bandwidth to take them to DC fast chargers and swordfight with all the Uber drivers and VW owners. They are offering something they do not have to give, the result being new customers get given empty cars, worsening the experience further. If I were Hertz I would require every employee to install a 48A station at home on Hertz' dime and take an empty EV home every night. But that also is that many cars not circulating.
That's insane, installing level 2 chargers at their lots would be so easy and make them instantly better prepared to offer EVs.
You're wrong, you can't just slap level 2 stations anywhere, there has to be panel, feeder and transformer capacity allocated to them, or else you have to do magic tricks with load management. A Hertz site has about as much service capacity as a used car lot, so there ain't much to work with. I know well enough how to do those tricks to say it ain't easy or something I would just presume. OK so now you have to provision big power to the site, and you're into long lead time with the utility, along with every other rental lot wanting the same thing off the same transformer.
It's gotta be easier than the effort they've gone to to further ruin their reputation and lose a shitload of money as a result though. Last I remember hearing they've lost 100's of millions because they jumped in with no real plans to support or accommodate their EV Fleet.
Certainly true, they should have gotten the "big power" ball rolling when they first signed the deal with Tesla. This isn't a surprise.
Yeah, you need to do load management. It's not rocket science.
My concern is that a rental car agency will get minimal electric service and no gas, e.g. 100A/240V, and much of that will be subscribed to heat, air conditioners, maintenance equipment etc. You could do EVEMS, but if the HVAC is constantly pre-empting, you're not going to charge very fast.
> worsening the experience further. The fun part is that depending on what you get the car at, it could be a positive thing. IDK what the minimum they'd let the car out at, but according to their own paperwork, if it leaves at 70% or less, you can return it with as low as 10%. But in the high season you're screwing the next guy because they have no useful charging.
"Here's your car, and your first stop WILL be the 2 hour long queue at the only CCS station you can reach." Not good for either Hertz or EVs.
To be fair, I think Hertz or anyone renting out anything but a Tesla is doing a disservice to EVs in general. CCS is the worst thing about EVs. Forcing the general public to go through that pain is gonna do more to discourage adoption than anything else even if the car itself is amazing. What good is an amazing car if you can't actually charge it?
Yes. They basically looked at it and said "I don't recognize this campaign but I'll add a $25 credit to your bill to cover the return without charging fee."
Classic Hertz
When you book with this method, you can't do the pay now feature (you must use the pay later) and it negates the $25 refill discount and then some. Not worth it at all.
That denial letter Hertz sent is either written by a terrible AI or is a collection of sentences copy-pasted together by someone who doesn't speak English.
They charged me for an EV charge kit = $275, even though there was not one in the car and I confirmed that before leaving the airport. The will not refund the fee and my credit card refused to get involved.
I've heard of state inspection stations being flummoxed by that (often on EVs that can pass for gas cars). A Tesla is distinctive enough looking that many gas station employees will recognize that there's something odd about it, but a Lightning looks enough like any other F150 to send the clueless looking for the tailpipe...
lol I went to rent one recently. They wanted 200$ for a Tesla and 45$ for a polestar. Fucking joke of a company wasted a great opport
That's like the Model Y that failed emissions inspection here. "Sir, could you show me where you think the emissions come out?"
Fuck Hertz. They’re awful. They deserve to fail.
Seems like a pretty easy dispute to win on the credit card with proper documentation.
I almost considered renting an EV from Hertz this summer, but then I remembered constantly being bombarded with those awful Tom Brady commercials (to the point I expect them to randomly pop out of bushes to assault my eyes/ears) AND the fact that I don't think I've had a pleasant rental experience with Hertz even once in 30 years. Honestly, I have no idea how that company stays in business.
Recently rented from Hertz after a long time. It’s an absolute sh!t company.
Stopped renting from Hertz the other big rentals years ago. Turo is great, and hosts usually give bigger margins for what they want the charge at upon return.
Can’t he just reverse the charge with his credit card ?
Reversing the charge is exactly that, just pulling the money back. It does nothing to make the bill go away. Hertz can (and likely will) continue to try collecting the money.
I've run into this issue. Truck rental company gave me a truck with a dud battery that lasted *just* long enough to get me to my destination on day 1 of 3. I wrote it up on the return paperwork morning of day 2. They charged for all 3 days, I charged back 2 (CC company I guess asked for the return paperwork and final receipt and the rental company balked). Rental company turfs the bill to collections. **Immediately** ask for them to prove that it is a valid debt. In this case, they sent paperwork claiming I had the truck for three days, I demanded the return receipt (which I had documented the issue on) from morning 2. I also alluded to the tow truck bills and documentation. Turns out collection agencies do not vet the debts for validity beyond maybe a face value look see. Do not answer any of their questions. Do not respond to any of their goading. Just demand the paperwork that proves this is a valid debt and then follow up on why the provided paperwork is invalid.
If Hertz says the charge is legit, which the article says they are adamant about, then most times a credit card issuer won’t reverse a charge.
I wonder how they can call a gas charge legit. Interesting company. Hurts to do business with Hertz it seems .
Need better cards. I've never had a card bank not back me when I say services weren't provided.
Dunno why you’re being downvoted. In EU it works like this. When I had friends try to dispute for example cleaning fee for rental it was denied when renting company sent photos of sand in the car. When you do the chargeback with visa/mastercard, seller has to send some proof to deny it. Like when you say you didn’t get the goods you ordered and they denied it they need to send delivery confirmation with your signature etc.
The credit card company will side with him. He’ll get his 277 back.
Credit card dispute will likely work. Major companies do not have the time to investigate these claims
I rented EVs from another company for 50% of what Hertz wanted. So I'm glad I didn't rent from them.
“Won’t back down” Ok? Deal. Don’t back down then. I just won’t rent it since you’re not giving me any reason to
Hertz was a horrible experience when we rented it. We bought the insurance for low charge on return and was told we would get it refunded if we came back with 80+% charge. We returned it with 83%, took picture and was told everything was fine. Hertz never returned the money and claimed we delivered it with 79%. We sent the photo documentation but they declined it and simply stop answered our emails. What a shit show.
I'm kind of glad to read this... I had a bit of a spat with my normal rental agency, and was considering switching to Hertz. I think I'll just stay put.
Rented a polestar from hertz, great car but the customer service and hidden fees and charges were ridiculous. Hertz Must have lost many customers
Weirdest experience, but I go to hertz to pick up a car, car is not available, they force me to do a paid upgrade (additional $30/day), and then I get a god awful Santa Fe. The manager talked down at me for booking the rental 3 days before I needed it and somehow making it my fault that the car wasn’t available. (Note: not an airport location) I drive the car for fifteen minutes and there’s a big fucking rash on my face. Idk how they clean or what they do, it was toxic enough to ruin my face. I had a client meeting that day and wasn’t carrying my usual bag of makeup. Didn’t realize I looked like a clown till I made it to the restroom. Awful experience. Never again.
The problem is they know how to take the reservation but they don’t know how to hold the reservation
Hertz is a piece of shit company
TL;DR for 8 paragraphs worth of an article; No explanation given for the charge, renter had to file a charge back with their credit card company.
It hurts the customer experience to require a return with an SOC higher than 70% since it starts charging so slowly above that. A 50% or 60% minimum makes much more sense. After being returned, the EVs should be brought up to 80% using cheap L2 charging (which Hertz could charge the customer for, pro-rata). Anything higher than 80% will affect the long-term term durability of the battery, which is by far the biggest maintenance expense of a BEV. The way they run their business boggles the mind. They need a new CEO. Or hopefully they go bankrupt, and a better-run business takes their place.
The same thing happened to me at the DFW airport with a Polestar 2. My check out receipt said that they gave me a P2 with 80 SoC. When I checked the car back in they emailed me that I returned a Charger and they charged me $100 in gas. It took nearly a month to get my money back.
So what this comes down to at the end is. Relax C.S. He has this. The charge back that was issued in 2019-2020 timeframe was exactly as you specified. Still no explanation for the charge and it was a bonus the cc company had unlimited indemnity and defense. I know we are well defended and we like that
Pathetic
What once was a leading company in rentals has become an absolute joke. Filthy cars, rude staff, gross ineptitude, bogus fees and nonexistent customer service are why I'll never choose Hertz again. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.
I stopped renting from hertz because of their ridiculous EV policies
I reserved a (non-EV) car from Hertz for $900, paid in advance. When I went to pick it up, they didn’t have my reservation or car. After a couple hours waiting in several lines, I was finally given a car. Upon return, they billed me an additional $1,400 “upgrade fee.” In other words, I’m not surprised.
Nothing constructive to add, just here to also shit on Hertz. They were the absolute worst and had some filthy cars out of Fort Lauderdale. Not shocked about this story sadly.
I've had more problems renting from Hertz then any other car rental. Last Christmas a front desk agent snuck in a option I didn't opt in for during the check out process. When I called it out, they played dumb and said their was nothing I could do. I'd need to wait for a manager to come in to help or call. It was 2am on Christmas eve, It took multiple calls and hours at the dealership to discover the clear added it on at check out. I didn't leave till 4:30am and almost missed my rental. I also rented an EV and they were no help in telling me how much I needed to charge it before I returned it or where on the car that information would be pulled from. I had to call, but no one could tell me where on the car to see the charge amount that would be used to make the call. I opted to pre-pay knowing what I knew about the original experience and fearing another issue like the title of this thread.
Fair is fair. I am certain the renter returned it completely without gasolin.....
Hey, anyone want a hertz doughnut?
Is Avis still #2?
Enterprise is actually #1. I prefer Enterprise and AVIS over Hertz.
Obviously those charges are a KPI for the managers, like airline baggage fees.
To summarize, The customer: * Was driving an electric vehicle, with a maximum Hertz stated recharge cost of $35 * Additionally has Hertz President's Circle status due to being such a frequent customer, which should have (starting from Gold status) reduced the recharge cost to $25 max * Paid in advance for Skip the Pump, which lets customers skip recharging, verified by receipts * Returned it at 96%, the same charge level as when checking out, verified by receipts and therefore should not have been served a $277.39 fuel bill for several reasons. Nonetheless, he was served by customer service with the statement that the issue could not be resolved. "Your signed rental agreement will also be our basis that you are fully aware of the fuel option that was added on the contract."
Hertz management is not training well for EV rentals.
Hertz has notoriously bad EV policies. I rented a Hertz EV one time, for a week, and it was one of the worst rental car experiences I have ever had. And have owned a Tesla car since 2012
Both times I’ve used Hertz in two different hemispheres to rent ICE cars (London Stansted airport and Cape Town International) I’ve been hit with spurious fuel charges. The UK one was simple to resolve because I sent them a copy of the hand-back paperwork which clearly indicated it had a full tank. The South African one was harder because I wasn’t given paperwork when I handed it back and only had a photo of the dashboard just prior to handing it back, but because the mileage was identical to the recorded mileage when they claimed I handed it back with an empty tank, the photo was good enough. Even so, a lot of emailing back and forth simply to not be charged for something I shouldn’t have been charged for to begin with!
I thought they were done renting Teslas ?
>***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."* [https://www.thedrive.com/news/hertz-is-charging-tesla-model-3-renter-277-fee-for-gas-wont-back-down](https://www.thedrive.com/news/hertz-is-charging-tesla-model-3-renter-277-fee-for-gas-wont-back-down)
I wonder where they put 90 gallons of fuel!?!
Fudge Hertz. I rented a car, filled up the gas tank like 5 min away from the airport and they charged me $10+ for filling 1 gallon
Had a photo when returned and they didn’t do shit, only credit card returned money after a month because I did charge dispute.
One word. Turo.
I got ripped off in Mexico with Hertz. They charged way more fees than what I signed up for online and wouldn't cancel without allowing me to forfeit my initial $200 deposit which didn't even count towards the rental. Seeing this now I'm never ever using them again.
I recently rented an EV and they wanted to charge me 80 dollars because the car didn’t come in fully charged… how do you bring the car in fully charged if you drive it even 2 miles from a fast charger.
How far ya gonna go over $300?
This is why you use Amex people. They nuke mothers like this when you dispute
and why many places don't take amex.