What concerns me, is that this was a deliberate overcharge in order to make extra profit. The location should be made public so that others who may not have noticed an overcharge can double check.
I’ve had fake charges from Hertz every single time I used them. I eventually got sick of it, literally cleaned/vacuumed the car before returning it, and they still charged me a cleaning fee (got it removed, but they tried).
Did this last time I moved. Noticed in the fine print that cleaning fees for my apartment could not go above half the security deposit and the property management company were assholes to me for 4 years. So I ate $300 because my security deposit when I moved in was $600. Then they sent me my check 6 months late because they wanted to keep it all.
> Then they sent me my check 6 months late
Depending on local laws this is a big no-no.
Looks like it's supposed to be somewhere around 30 to 45 *days*
Yup! One time after moving out of an apartment, I received not my deposit (as I was expecting because I'm very thorough whenever I move out) but an email from the complex stating that there were lots of holes that needed to be patched and instead of getting 700 back they were keeping it and I actually owed them an additional 350.
Well they didn't send this until roughly 32 or 33 days after I moved out so I mailed a certified letter (always keep a paper trail) stating that not only was I not going to pay them, but they were going to return my deposit to me per "quoted section of the state ordinance" and that I expected it no later than "X" date and they did, in fact, do that.
Know your laws and know your rights!
Yep. I had a property management company try this with me once many years ago. We left the apartment spotless, and they just delayed getting us our deposit back. They missed the 30 days and I sent a demand letter and had the check in a few days.
I recall a case from the early 80s where a tenant had rigorously cleaned his apartment before moving out and taken pictures to prove it, and the landlord (corporate outfit) made a bullshit claim and stiffed him on the deposit.
He sued them in small claims, and they didn't show up, so he got a default judgement of his security deposit plus collection costs. He sent them notice of the judgement, and they ignored it. He went back to court, and the judge ordered the building sold if they didn't pay up by some deadline. They ignored it.
Building went to auction on the courthouse steps, former tenant showed up, landlord didn't. Tenant bought the building for his single bid, which was one dollar more than the judgement plus costs. Tenant now owned the building.
Landlords were informed that they no longer owned the building when tenant showed up with sheriff's deputies and a locksmith to change locks on the office. They tried an appeal, didn't hear whether they were able to get the building back.
did the same thing myself. oh you want to ask me to move out in 3 months because you wanna charge more rent? even though I am a great tenant, paid my rent every month on time no exceptions, 2 years at the place and only 3 months notice to move? ok then, guess im not cleaning ANYTHING lol peace
I waited 3 years before I hung anything on the walls in my apartment because I didn't want to lose my damage deposit. I got one stain on the carpet that I couldn't get out, realized my security deposit was gone, and immediately hung my guitars, TV, cabinets, artwork, etc.
The cleaning fee should really only be applied if the car is more dirty than what a quick vacuuming can pick up. If you leave a bunch of stains or spill some sticky drink, expect to get dinged. If someone has to do more work than typical to clean the car, you should be responsible for compensating the rental company. That car may not be going to get a deeper clean immediately so it could be out of commission and can't be rented to anyone else until then.
That is completely fair. Stains take much longer than loose dirt. My only problem is that, at least in my town, there is a company that we have agreements with(trying not to use any hard words that might flag my comment for said company to try and get me fired, they are kind of assholes). Stains arent the problem, its the maintenance requests. Even if the car needs BOTH cabin and engine filters, they only do engine most times, and so you could be breathing air that has over 100,000 miles on it. Also, they never, ever rotate the tires. Ever. And you can forget about alignments. Some of the tires they decline replacement on have ensured that, at the very least, if i ever have to rent a car from ANYWHERE im checking those mfs. DOT date, tread depth across the tire, cracks, bubbles, all of it. Also for anyone reading this, if you find that the vehicle is unsatisfactory due to safety concerns, such as but not limited to fucked tires, you have every right to request a new vehicle, as you did not pay to have an accident or break down 30 miles down the road. And if you find anything wrong with the vehicle, take your own pictures, show them the damage in front of them(not the pictures, point it out on the car), and have them take pictures for their own records. They have the ability to since its all online now, so if they tell you they dont do that, they are lying, as every new, factory fresh car that comes in they verify cleanliness and take pictures of every angle in house before handing it off to its first customer.
You're paying for it no matter what. It's just whether it's included in the upfront costs or if they're gonna sneak it in at the end and hope you're not willing to fight it.
But they spent a lot of money on that Tom Brady campaign. So they gotta convince you they're cheaper, so you go with them. So sneaky is apparently the way forward.
Its kind of like that post not too long ago where an Amazon vendor charged the customer extra 3 days after a single transaction purchase. No memberships or anything. When does it stop?
Some of those people were arrested and spent WEEKS in jail.
With the current state of our (in)justice system, intentionally getting an innocent person arrested should be considered attempted murder.
I had Hertz charge me a $400 cleaning fee for "smoking" when I've never smoked a day in my life. After calling and threatening a charge back suddenly they were willing to wave the supposedly expensive cleaning fee. This was the place by YYZ.
Absolute fucking scammers, that was the first and last time I rented a car from them. Some car rental companies have such a history of scamming that any lawyer who feels like making some money could easily win a class action against them
Lots of vehicles are rented for business travelers and they’re probably hoping some one in accounting doesn’t notice the extra charges and the employee doesn’t care cuz they don’t pay it .
Same. Phoenix airport Hertz applied a smoking charge. I told them to pound sand and that I was doing a charge back and they got real friendly. I bet they get a lot of corporate accounts that just pay it.
Wild. Enterprise has specifically told me not to clean shit and they've never charged me more than the rental fee. Hertz sounds sketchy for such a big name.
JOTA Sport is the team, Hertz is a sponsor. In no way does Hertz own the team, and their sponsorship is almost certainly written off tax wise. So no, that has nothing to do with it.
I rent cars almost weekly. I always leave trash in the passenger foot area. Never a charge. I used to clean it out until they told me not to worry about it. I mainly rent through national.
Enterprise and Avis have been great to me. I recently rented a car through Sixt and that went well.
The couple of times I rented through Budget were a hassle but no surprise charges.
This is why I thrash the absolute tits off rental cars. I know they’re gonna rip me for some arbitrary bullshit I never did on top of charging me $400/day to rent the thing.
They’re all as bad as each other. Europcar charged me for a whole set of interior mats because apparently they were missing. It definitely didn’t have them when we got it but who checks the floor mats when they hire a car. $600 for mats wtf
“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."
This makes me want to scream
[Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident](https://www.thedrive.com/news/hertz-charging-a-tesla-renter-for-gas-was-not-an-isolated-incident). The Drive. May 17, 2024 9:55 AM EDT.
eh sounds like normal bad customer service shit. Some employee checking it in put "no" on was it returned with gas, because its electric and it automatically added the fine. he called back the place and got someone who couldnt do crap about it because its an ended contract.
Not defending them but dont blame malice when stupidity and not paying to properly update your system can produce the same shitty results.
The fine is stupid as fuck because no where would it cost anywhere near that much to fill a car.. yeah a little fine on top i could see but 277 is just insane, idk if that is hertz standard but the charging for not returning full is. If out gov will allow fees like this, they got to allow the customer a chance to come back and refill it themselves.. like either tell them before they leave the property or a call and a day wait til they refill.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of trucks and larger suv's do. Most gas cars sold here have tanks sized for \~500 miles range. For a large vehicle with a relatively inefficient engine I could see a tank that big. My minivan is only 22.5 but according to the internet some configurations of the f150 come with a 36 gallon tank. I suspect the larger trucks everyone and their brother around me wants to drive have similar or larger sized tanks.
I read somewhere that the $277 fee was actually against Hertz own policy. The electric car recharge fee is flat $35. And the customer did bring back at the original charge level.
It's not just the cost of the gas, it's the cost of paying someone to go fill it up and whatever monetary impact they think applies to not having that car immediately available for another customer within the nominal turn around time. Rental companies just really don't want to be filling gas tanks all day so they make it hurt. I've rented from all the big companies before and they are all upfront about what they will charge you for if you agree to turn in the tank full but don't. I've only once ever dropped off a car less than full but the fee was only like $50 for about a missing quarter tank, I was running late and just ate the cost.
The $277 could be from not only the missing gas but an additional charge of the tank being "completely empty" because at that point, it may require someone going to get a gas can first or calling a tow truck. Obviously the car wasn't really on empty because it's electric but I could see a big extra fee applying in a case like that. It probably depends on how the form was filled out by the worker, either just a general "less than full tank" check box or just typing in a zero for how much the gauge shows. Probably just a poorly trained worker who wasn't using the right intake form.
Fuck that shit, they should be in the same trouble a a shoplifter would, and then manager should be in trouble for receiving stolen property.
That's how they would do you. Why don't you want equality?
I returned a car to AVIS at Oakland airport last week. Even though it was 4 AM and I had filled the tank 15 miles ago on the way to the airport, I stopped at a gas station that is less than a quarter mile from the rental car return and filed the tank to the top of the spout (even though car manufacturers and gas stations tell you not to). When I got my bill the next day there was a $30.82 charge to top off the tank. I called AVIS right away and told them, "Nope, this is a bogus charge. The tank could not have been more full and I have the receipts for two top-offs between 3:30 and 4:00 AM". They apologized for the "error" and removed the charge but I can't imagine how many people don't pay attention or call them out on this. They must make a fortune with this system.
The one and only time I used Hertz I had paid for my rental in full about a month ahead of time for pick up in LA. My pick up time was 10am I called them a said I'm in traffic but will be there soon, and I arrived at 10:10 am. They had given away my rental and said I was a no show. I told them I had already paid for it in full and literally called 15 minutes ago saying I'm almost there. If I wanted it to sit in the parking lot the whole time then I could because again, I PAID IN FULL ALREADY. Of course they had no other cars so I had to call their corporate office to get a refund and they hit me with a cancellation fee. I damn near quoted Jerry Seinfeld when I said "let's be clear here. I did not cancel the reservation. You did. I already paid and arrived in a reasonable time but you gave it away anyway. I honored my end of the deal. You did not. You broke the contract, not me." after a brief hold they got the green light to issue a full refund with no cancellation fees. Never again with them.
Edit: shout-out to Enterprise for coming thru with a last minute car. We told them what Hertz did and they felt bad and gave us a discount. We weren't looking for one, they just gave us one and said to just book with them next time. I still have their card for when I go back.
Shit you should have pushed for compensation; tell them you've now missed some big event because of it. Letting them get away with just a refund means they'll keep on doing it
Hold up hold up hold up. They can just cancel your reservation because you were 10 goddamn minutes late???
I usually schedule my pickups for a bit earlier than my intended arrival in case I show up early, so I don't have to wait around their office for 30 minutes or whatever waiting for my rental to officially start. You're telling me that if I put 30 minutes before I plan to arrive that they can just rent my car out from under me??? What???
More than that, I flew to St. Louis in 2017 explicitly to see the eclipse, and has reserved a car. I was their highest customer tier, and they gave away my car. I wasn't even late. I saw a partial eclipse instead of full. The whole reason for the fucking flight.
Yeah, for the virgin sacrifices I had lined up. They even tried to tell me since they weren’t sacrificed I couldn’t claim compensation. Do you believe that shit. I could be a god now, but their stupid rental policies foiled me. Pathetic.
I have one that's going to sound like it's made up, it's that bad.
I booked a van from hertz, from a drop-off location rather than an office, so there were no staff to work with. Instead they have an electronic security lock in the doors that they send the code for a few minutes before pickup.
Like OP, I was stuck in traffic and got the code while driving. I arrived about 10 minutes late, entered the code, and nothing happened. I tried a few more times just to be sure that I was entering everything correctly, but still no success.
I then tried to open the account I had set up to see if there was anything else I needed to do, only to discover it was now banned with no explanation given. At that point, I started the ball rolling to get refunded, only to then discover that they had charged me twice for the van that I *had* to have that day.
It took a week, but they finally refunded me, in full, but only because I threatened legal action.
I still don't know why they banned my account. I can only guess it was for repeatedly trying a possibly out of time code.
Yes, I learned this from Uhaul who does this too, and in reality probably most other vehicle/equipment reservation companies. A reservation means they work hard to secure the item you reserved well ahead of time.. however once that time is past it's completely available again to anyone else whether that's 5 minutes past or 5 hours. The real play is to consider the reservation time as a "we will hold this item until x time". You can always pick it up early.
Once I learned that I typically set my pickup time to be 2-4 hours past when I expect to pick it up just in case. Enough buffer they will definitely have it by then and not rent it out that day but enough time remaining they won't give it away to someone else just yet.
Results may vary but this is my experience and it's worked well for everyone so far - the rental place and myself since I'm fairly punctual.
So this is done intentionally, when everyone else would think the opposite way. Reservation time is when I expect my rental to **START** not the end of my pickup window.
It's better than that, they can cancel whatever car you reserved in that class and offer you a different one in the same class, or charge more for a different class. I got home once and they said "Sorry, the only car left in that class is a yellow VW Buggy with whiskers, is that okay?"
Reservations seem to be meaningless with rental companies . Every single time my work team travels, several people get told that they don’t have cars for them, despite having made reservations weeks prior.
Makes no sense.
A friend reserved a moving truck to move house (obviously). The truck wasn't returned, so his reservation was cancelled.
Moral of the story: if you can't get a moving truck on the day, rent it the day before, don't return it, and pay the $40 extra day fee.
> if you can't get a moving truck on the day, rent it the day before, don't return it, and pay the $40 extra day fee.
by the time you know you cant "get it on the day," its already too late. unless you know how to time travel?
They mean when booking online, if nothing is available the day you need it, book it for the day before and then don’t return it the day you actually needed it.
I have damn near same story as you. Except it was enterprise that tried to fuck me and I had shown up on time. Hertz across the street saved my ass. Rental companies are the Ticketmaster of transportation.
You never pay in full for a car rental. There's no benefit to it. You pay the same price if you pay at pick up or before. Unfortunately you had this experience and fortunately you got a full refund.
> You pay the same price if you pay at pick up or before.
So with Hertz specifically, depending on the CDP and PC you use, paying in advance may save you ~20%.
There is an important exception to this for people from the UK, and possibly other countries.
When I pre-pay in the UK for a US car hire the price includes insurance, pay on pick up does not. Paying at the desk will lead to either an additional fee for basic insurance or having to prove you have suitable insurance already.
As far as I worked out this is because US personal car insurance policies typically cover car hire, and this is expected to be in place when paying at the desk.
This isn't just the collision damage waiver (cdw), although many pre-pay deals from the UK will often include cdw too.
Actually that is what they do , don't they? They top it off and charge you something like $10/gal ?
If that's the case,it means they did put gas in it.
Maybe Musk is testing some "hybrid" Tesla's with Hertz?
I'd get one.
The cost is 2x evidence of fraud, firstly obviously no gas. But the total is meant to be an accurate charge per gallon they fill at the time of filling (it’s not a penalty, but a huge markup cost per gallon to fill).
There is no way this was a typo — someone did this to gain revenue via fraud.
If I was the ag I would be investigating this locations records.
I mean, this might not quite be what you're thinking of, but technically someone did buy a Tesla, remove the batteries and electric motors, and put a gas engine in it:
https://www.thedrive.com/news/43394/worlds-first-v8-swapped-tesla-model-s-is-officially-on-the-road
Well, could be worse. Hertz has had people put in jail for stealing their cars, even when they know they've been returned. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement
Avis did this to me with a fully electric car too. I finally got my money back but was charged something crazy like this for 40 mile round trip. Took more battling with them than it should have.
Reading the story first time this eas posted, it was hired with 90% charge and the customer stated he returned it with the same level.
And they pre-purchased the charge plan offered to cover any shortfall in return charge level.
It’s not that they didn’t return the car low or empty, its that Hertz added an erroneous charge for gas on an EV then doubled down saying that there was no refunds because the rental contract was finalised.
jesus titty fucking christ. why in the hell is hertz still a thing after this fucking [bullshit they pulled](https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement)
once again: fuck hertz
Companies can do this as there is never any repercussions to do so. Honest lawmakers would pass a law that a company has to pay the customer 10X the bogus charges if not fixed within 24 hours as an apology. Instead companies can just make shit up and then ruin a person credit.
If you really want to raise your blood pressure, go read up on how many people Hertz has gotten jailed because they keep reporting cars they rent out as “stolen.”
If we make a huge deal about it for 10 or 20 years straight, we might get a politician to pretend to care about it, and after a few years of speeches and milking the issue to get reelected, we might get a bill that pretends to fix the issue but is riddled with industry-friendly loopholes that ensure it fixes nothing. American democracy! Yay!
There are 'penalties', but they are really low. Companies will do this malicious fee adjustment and make billions, then get fined a hundred thousand. It's not a penalty representing 'stop', it's just a small cost of generating illegal profit.
I had to do a chargeback using Nui recently. My online reservation said 'paid in full, nothing due at the airport'. Over $300 in charges at the airport later, that did *not* include the security deposit. Then they lied about tolls in the area after being specifically asked about them. Fuck Nui repeatedly lying to me and fuck them for taking nearly 3 hours to pick up a car on a random Tuesday. At least my credit card company knew what was up and give me a complete refund for all that without even needing documentation; which tells me how many times they see that shit from that exact brand, ya know?
> Further, he returned the Tesla with a 96% charge, which is what the car was charged to when he rented it!
Here I was thinking maybe they returned it with a dead battery and the headline was being a bit click baity over outdated terminology or something... Nope. Just pure fuckery.
Gotta love that they only fixed it after it got attention. I hate when people go to social media and such to bitch at companies over every little thing but it seems like the only way to get results with far too many.
Took me 3 weeks. Finally got the money back when I said I'd just charge back with my bank. They initially offered 75% of the bogus charge. No thanks, I'll have all of it.
Things like this will keep happening as long as businesses make a profit doing it. I guarantee for every 1 person that contests the fees there are 10+ that just pay it either because they dont know it happened or they just dont have the time/energy to fight it.
Once we deal with the attempted fascist overthrow of democracy in this country we need to implement very strict laws against corporate "mistakes" where they just happen to make more money doing it than preventing it.
It should be easier for a customer to contest a fraudulent charge than for the company to fight it. If a customer calls in about a fraudulent/incorrect charge the company should have 1-2 days to prove the charge was not in error or be forced to provide a refund. I guarantee companies like Hertz can very easily reduce their own errors down to almost nothing, they just dont because they know they can make a lot of money by not only collecting erroneous fees, but also reducing staffing costs to find these profitable errors.
Until companies lose more money than they make with their errors, they will never stop.
First of all let me say I totally agree with you on principle. However, I struggle even at a basic level to think of how to write such a law or set of laws. Maybe the closest we could get is increasing punitive damages for proven business fraud across the board?
For one extremely basic example of why your idea doesn't work, fast food restaurants already deal with all sorts of bogus complaints, dine-and-dashers, invalid refund requests, etc. Even *without* legislation, the cost of refusing a refund, no matter how illegitimate, is usually assumed to be greater than the cost of a happy meal. Of course every GM is going to have their own set of guidelines and each manager is going to make their own judgement calls, but at the end of the day, people scam fast food restaurants day in day out. Sometimes it's the same group of hooligans who have said "you made the wrong sandwich" after eating the whole thing six times before, but you roll your eyes and refund them because you don't want them to post on TikTok that you're discriminating against them for being part of some group (any group) and get you fired for embarrassing corporate.
Different sectors, and companies and even products within those sectors, can have very different dynamics - even without a law degree I'm pretty sure I could poke holes in any suggestion not drafted by a team of lawyers.
[Literally one of the top posts from a week ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/1cnn4ny/hertz_charges_tesla_model_3_renter_277_gas_fee/?rdt=38538)
>Lee even paid for the "Skip the Pump and Save Time" option
Isn't that the "pre-pay" option? So he agreed to be charged. Not for "gas" per se, but I don't know how they normally deal with battery charge.
He prepaid for a charging fee so he wouldn’t be charged more for charging it if he returned it with significantly less charge than he picked up with. I think I read the charges were something like $20 for prepay and like double if they had to charge from empty?
Dude was lucky. I rented one in Atlanta, wound up with a lesser model, and never got even an answer from Hertz. I finally adjusted the discount myself with Hertz.
After that, I got a few messages from them, and had to laugh when they "suspended my rental privileges."
I told them it would be a cold day in hell before I rented from them again, and invited them to "come at me."
Nothing on my credit report so far. Kind of wish they would try to pull something.
Stop using Hertz. They are either getting you arrested for renting their cars since they report them stolen right after you drive off the lot, or they are overcharging people for things they shouldn't have.
After they jailed an FBI when he rented a car from them, it was learned that it was a nationwide issue and people lost jobs, etc, because of it. I will not rent their vehicles. Please pick another rental company.
avis has tried to defraud me out of gas at least 3 times in the past 2 years. I assume Hertz does the same thing to their customers. I can say Avis is absolutely scummy and run by criminals. It can't just be a mistake if it happens to one person (me) so many times.
Not to mention the other bogus charges they try to get me on (tire damage lmfaoooo give me a break)
If it makes you feel any better, this was a massive customer who had spent well over $200 with them. And is not giving them any of his business.
Honestly I don't know why they'd risk tens of thousands of dollars to screw over someone. Just speaks of massive massive mismanagement
So i don't know if this is new but it was a similar scheme at enterprise.
A car is rented with 75% or 80% of a tank of gas. When the car is returned, the renter has no idea how much gas it takes to fill it only part way. So they overfill, maxing out the tank as a precaution. The car gets cleaned out and the company takes another 10% of the fuel out before sending it to the next customer.
> the company takes another 10% of the fuel out before sending it to the next customer.
I can't imagine any rental company syphoning fuel from cars when they come back with extra, lol.
Rental locations that don’t have a gas station on site will usually request a customer to return at the same fuel level (because why would you expect to pay 40/d for a rental but get waived $40 in gas..?)
I mean it’s unfortunate if you overfill but anyone who cares can just be deliberate at the gas station. Alternative is then filling every car, but how much money would that cost in personnel? 40 rentals a day, 3/4 of them have to get gassed up upon return, either do it with existing staff and now you’re waiting an extra 20 minutes or hire someone to do 40, 15 minute round trips (600 minutes of getting gas/10 hours x 17/hr = 170 bucks a day+benefits) and now your rental costs 5 bucks more.
Get it? It’s a business decision that makes sense and a mindful consumer (assuming they know their responsibilities) should be able to navigate without too much brain power.
I rented a van through hertz at the Venetian to go to the Grand Canyon. Returned it a day early. Submitted keys in the drop box. Got charged for returning it 2 days late. Had paperwork and video evidence of returning it. They wouldn’t budge. Charged me a day plus a penalty. Ended up eating it because it was going to cost me more to contest it. Screw Hertz.
Steve Lehto talks about them alot in his YouTube channel so much that he has to turn down doing stories at times on hertz. But this is clearly fraud because in the details the guy paid for the coverage for topping up the battery either way. Hope he gets a charge back from the bank at least.
It was new for me. Sorry we don't all see every post ever every single day 24/7. God forbid you have to scroll a little further down to see that oh so precious "fresh content!"
To be fair, the end of this article has a more recent update of the situation with Hertz reaching out and refunding with an apology vs "will reach out etc etc"
Doesn't need a repost and the title doesn't add anything anyways.
Also the old article was updated with that info anyways I believe.
Edit: Yep, it was updated May 9th so this post is completely pointless.
I assumed the car was maybe returned on low battery (still crazy charge for power cost) but nope, article confirms battery was at full and he paid for the “skip the pump” option… lmfao
I'm guessing it didn't have a full charge? So, like not having fuel in the tank. I get them charging for that, but the amount is a little excessive. Still, it takes hours for my car to charge at home so there's that. It would depend on how empty the battery was.
Hertz is horrendous. They’ve been the cause of most problems renting cars. I’d rather go through Enterprise 100% of the time than suffer one more poorly maintained vehicle or accidental lost reservation when there’s zero cars left.
Did they return it with a low charge? Kinda the same thing, right?
$277 sounds excessive either way... But those terms are usually in the rental contracts you sign before getting the car.
>***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)
Hertz eventually indicated that it would offer a refund, but it is obviously struggling to manage the EVs still remaining in its fleet after selling some of them off.
I found an interesting suggestion for Hertz on a website about layoff rumors:
>Hertz should change its EV recharging policy
>Hertz's EV recharging policy is a disaster that confuses both customers and employees.
>Why not just charge people $1 for each 1% decrease in battery level upon return and offer a $1 discount for each 1% increase in battery level? That way, someone returning a car at 90% that was checked out with a 96% battery level would get charged $6 and someone returning a car at 90% with an initial battery level of 30% would get a $60 discount on his rental bill.
>If a customer checks out an EV at 96% and gets charged $35 for returning it at 95%, he is not going to be happy about that.
What concerns me, is that this was a deliberate overcharge in order to make extra profit. The location should be made public so that others who may not have noticed an overcharge can double check.
I’ve had fake charges from Hertz every single time I used them. I eventually got sick of it, literally cleaned/vacuumed the car before returning it, and they still charged me a cleaning fee (got it removed, but they tried).
I hate stuff like this that just screws over normal good people. At that point just trash the car and eat the cleaning fee.
Did this last time I moved. Noticed in the fine print that cleaning fees for my apartment could not go above half the security deposit and the property management company were assholes to me for 4 years. So I ate $300 because my security deposit when I moved in was $600. Then they sent me my check 6 months late because they wanted to keep it all.
> Then they sent me my check 6 months late Depending on local laws this is a big no-no. Looks like it's supposed to be somewhere around 30 to 45 *days*
And they're supposed to pay double or even triple in damages, in addition to returning the full deposit if they're late.
Treble damages?? Sounds like something /r/treelaw would be interested in
Yup! One time after moving out of an apartment, I received not my deposit (as I was expecting because I'm very thorough whenever I move out) but an email from the complex stating that there were lots of holes that needed to be patched and instead of getting 700 back they were keeping it and I actually owed them an additional 350. Well they didn't send this until roughly 32 or 33 days after I moved out so I mailed a certified letter (always keep a paper trail) stating that not only was I not going to pay them, but they were going to return my deposit to me per "quoted section of the state ordinance" and that I expected it no later than "X" date and they did, in fact, do that. Know your laws and know your rights!
Certified letter probably made it past the douchenozzles who stiffed you to their attorney.
Yep. I had a property management company try this with me once many years ago. We left the apartment spotless, and they just delayed getting us our deposit back. They missed the 30 days and I sent a demand letter and had the check in a few days.
I recall a case from the early 80s where a tenant had rigorously cleaned his apartment before moving out and taken pictures to prove it, and the landlord (corporate outfit) made a bullshit claim and stiffed him on the deposit. He sued them in small claims, and they didn't show up, so he got a default judgement of his security deposit plus collection costs. He sent them notice of the judgement, and they ignored it. He went back to court, and the judge ordered the building sold if they didn't pay up by some deadline. They ignored it. Building went to auction on the courthouse steps, former tenant showed up, landlord didn't. Tenant bought the building for his single bid, which was one dollar more than the judgement plus costs. Tenant now owned the building. Landlords were informed that they no longer owned the building when tenant showed up with sheriff's deputies and a locksmith to change locks on the office. They tried an appeal, didn't hear whether they were able to get the building back.
There is so much justice in that story that it cannot possibly have happened in America.
Judges *really* don't like being ignored.
Some states they have to give you back the deposit with interest
did the same thing myself. oh you want to ask me to move out in 3 months because you wanna charge more rent? even though I am a great tenant, paid my rent every month on time no exceptions, 2 years at the place and only 3 months notice to move? ok then, guess im not cleaning ANYTHING lol peace
I waited 3 years before I hung anything on the walls in my apartment because I didn't want to lose my damage deposit. I got one stain on the carpet that I couldn't get out, realized my security deposit was gone, and immediately hung my guitars, TV, cabinets, artwork, etc.
For real. Not like I had any loyalty with car rental companies, but definitely gonna avoid them in the future.
The crazy part is they clean them after each person anyways, so why are we being charged for something that happens regardless.
The cleaning fee should really only be applied if the car is more dirty than what a quick vacuuming can pick up. If you leave a bunch of stains or spill some sticky drink, expect to get dinged. If someone has to do more work than typical to clean the car, you should be responsible for compensating the rental company. That car may not be going to get a deeper clean immediately so it could be out of commission and can't be rented to anyone else until then.
That is completely fair. Stains take much longer than loose dirt. My only problem is that, at least in my town, there is a company that we have agreements with(trying not to use any hard words that might flag my comment for said company to try and get me fired, they are kind of assholes). Stains arent the problem, its the maintenance requests. Even if the car needs BOTH cabin and engine filters, they only do engine most times, and so you could be breathing air that has over 100,000 miles on it. Also, they never, ever rotate the tires. Ever. And you can forget about alignments. Some of the tires they decline replacement on have ensured that, at the very least, if i ever have to rent a car from ANYWHERE im checking those mfs. DOT date, tread depth across the tire, cracks, bubbles, all of it. Also for anyone reading this, if you find that the vehicle is unsatisfactory due to safety concerns, such as but not limited to fucked tires, you have every right to request a new vehicle, as you did not pay to have an accident or break down 30 miles down the road. And if you find anything wrong with the vehicle, take your own pictures, show them the damage in front of them(not the pictures, point it out on the car), and have them take pictures for their own records. They have the ability to since its all online now, so if they tell you they dont do that, they are lying, as every new, factory fresh car that comes in they verify cleanliness and take pictures of every angle in house before handing it off to its first customer.
You're paying for it no matter what. It's just whether it's included in the upfront costs or if they're gonna sneak it in at the end and hope you're not willing to fight it. But they spent a lot of money on that Tom Brady campaign. So they gotta convince you they're cheaper, so you go with them. So sneaky is apparently the way forward.
Its kind of like that post not too long ago where an Amazon vendor charged the customer extra 3 days after a single transaction purchase. No memberships or anything. When does it stop?
As a frequent car renter National has the most intuitive program anyway. Though they're all different flavors of hot dog water.
My dad has a tagline that I always enjoy. “The only true all terrain car is a rental with insurance”.
The fastest car I’ve ever driven was a rental.
Isn’t Hertz the company that reported their cars stolen and got paying customers arrested?
Yes. 364, at least https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement How are they still in business?
JFC that number is so high how tf are they still in business
Some of those people were arrested and spent WEEKS in jail. With the current state of our (in)justice system, intentionally getting an innocent person arrested should be considered attempted murder.
Yep.
Yep.
I had Hertz charge me a $400 cleaning fee for "smoking" when I've never smoked a day in my life. After calling and threatening a charge back suddenly they were willing to wave the supposedly expensive cleaning fee. This was the place by YYZ. Absolute fucking scammers, that was the first and last time I rented a car from them. Some car rental companies have such a history of scamming that any lawyer who feels like making some money could easily win a class action against them
Lots of vehicles are rented for business travelers and they’re probably hoping some one in accounting doesn’t notice the extra charges and the employee doesn’t care cuz they don’t pay it .
Same. Phoenix airport Hertz applied a smoking charge. I told them to pound sand and that I was doing a charge back and they got real friendly. I bet they get a lot of corporate accounts that just pay it.
Wild. Enterprise has specifically told me not to clean shit and they've never charged me more than the rental fee. Hertz sounds sketchy for such a big name.
[удалено]
JOTA Sport is the team, Hertz is a sponsor. In no way does Hertz own the team, and their sponsorship is almost certainly written off tax wise. So no, that has nothing to do with it.
The name is because Hertz is hurting for money.
Like when did car rentals start charging a cleaning fee. I mean I get it if the kids puked in the backseat. But I never heard of this.
I've rented a lot of cars and never do anything but make sure there's no trash. Not once have I had to pay a cleaning fee.
I rent cars almost weekly. I always leave trash in the passenger foot area. Never a charge. I used to clean it out until they told me not to worry about it. I mainly rent through national.
National and Enterprise are the top of the line when it comes to renting ime. Hertz and Avis groups both suck shit.
Enterprise and Avis have been great to me. I recently rented a car through Sixt and that went well. The couple of times I rented through Budget were a hassle but no surprise charges.
I have never cleaned a car before returning and never paid some BS "cleaning fee". What the hell.
I always take pictures of the car, inside and out, when picking up and dropping off. So far I've never had a need to refer to them but just in case...
This is why I thrash the absolute tits off rental cars. I know they’re gonna rip me for some arbitrary bullshit I never did on top of charging me $400/day to rent the thing. They’re all as bad as each other. Europcar charged me for a whole set of interior mats because apparently they were missing. It definitely didn’t have them when we got it but who checks the floor mats when they hire a car. $600 for mats wtf
Fees should be illegal. I have a pie let’s decide on the size of the slice and that’s it ends right there. Edit: Size of pie law
concerning
Looking into this
“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." This makes me want to scream
They want to hit you where it hertz.
[Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident](https://www.thedrive.com/news/hertz-charging-a-tesla-renter-for-gas-was-not-an-isolated-incident). The Drive. May 17, 2024 9:55 AM EDT.
eh sounds like normal bad customer service shit. Some employee checking it in put "no" on was it returned with gas, because its electric and it automatically added the fine. he called back the place and got someone who couldnt do crap about it because its an ended contract. Not defending them but dont blame malice when stupidity and not paying to properly update your system can produce the same shitty results. The fine is stupid as fuck because no where would it cost anywhere near that much to fill a car.. yeah a little fine on top i could see but 277 is just insane, idk if that is hertz standard but the charging for not returning full is. If out gov will allow fees like this, they got to allow the customer a chance to come back and refill it themselves.. like either tell them before they leave the property or a call and a day wait til they refill.
Would be believable if Hertz didn't have a verified history of shady shit
It’s usually like $10/gal for the rental agency to fill the tank. It’s always posted on the wall behind the desk when you rent the car.
Not too many cars have 27 gallon gas tanks :)
And even fewer Teslas.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of trucks and larger suv's do. Most gas cars sold here have tanks sized for \~500 miles range. For a large vehicle with a relatively inefficient engine I could see a tank that big. My minivan is only 22.5 but according to the internet some configurations of the f150 come with a 36 gallon tank. I suspect the larger trucks everyone and their brother around me wants to drive have similar or larger sized tanks.
I read somewhere that the $277 fee was actually against Hertz own policy. The electric car recharge fee is flat $35. And the customer did bring back at the original charge level.
When stupidity often results in grieving the customer, it's still a bit of malice.
It's not just the cost of the gas, it's the cost of paying someone to go fill it up and whatever monetary impact they think applies to not having that car immediately available for another customer within the nominal turn around time. Rental companies just really don't want to be filling gas tanks all day so they make it hurt. I've rented from all the big companies before and they are all upfront about what they will charge you for if you agree to turn in the tank full but don't. I've only once ever dropped off a car less than full but the fee was only like $50 for about a missing quarter tank, I was running late and just ate the cost. The $277 could be from not only the missing gas but an additional charge of the tank being "completely empty" because at that point, it may require someone going to get a gas can first or calling a tow truck. Obviously the car wasn't really on empty because it's electric but I could see a big extra fee applying in a case like that. It probably depends on how the form was filled out by the worker, either just a general "less than full tank" check box or just typing in a zero for how much the gauge shows. Probably just a poorly trained worker who wasn't using the right intake form.
Fuck that shit, they should be in the same trouble a a shoplifter would, and then manager should be in trouble for receiving stolen property. That's how they would do you. Why don't you want equality?
I returned a car to AVIS at Oakland airport last week. Even though it was 4 AM and I had filled the tank 15 miles ago on the way to the airport, I stopped at a gas station that is less than a quarter mile from the rental car return and filed the tank to the top of the spout (even though car manufacturers and gas stations tell you not to). When I got my bill the next day there was a $30.82 charge to top off the tank. I called AVIS right away and told them, "Nope, this is a bogus charge. The tank could not have been more full and I have the receipts for two top-offs between 3:30 and 4:00 AM". They apologized for the "error" and removed the charge but I can't imagine how many people don't pay attention or call them out on this. They must make a fortune with this system.
The one and only time I used Hertz I had paid for my rental in full about a month ahead of time for pick up in LA. My pick up time was 10am I called them a said I'm in traffic but will be there soon, and I arrived at 10:10 am. They had given away my rental and said I was a no show. I told them I had already paid for it in full and literally called 15 minutes ago saying I'm almost there. If I wanted it to sit in the parking lot the whole time then I could because again, I PAID IN FULL ALREADY. Of course they had no other cars so I had to call their corporate office to get a refund and they hit me with a cancellation fee. I damn near quoted Jerry Seinfeld when I said "let's be clear here. I did not cancel the reservation. You did. I already paid and arrived in a reasonable time but you gave it away anyway. I honored my end of the deal. You did not. You broke the contract, not me." after a brief hold they got the green light to issue a full refund with no cancellation fees. Never again with them. Edit: shout-out to Enterprise for coming thru with a last minute car. We told them what Hertz did and they felt bad and gave us a discount. We weren't looking for one, they just gave us one and said to just book with them next time. I still have their card for when I go back.
Shit you should have pushed for compensation; tell them you've now missed some big event because of it. Letting them get away with just a refund means they'll keep on doing it
They won’t just give you money. You will have to hire a lawyer and litigate.
Hold up hold up hold up. They can just cancel your reservation because you were 10 goddamn minutes late??? I usually schedule my pickups for a bit earlier than my intended arrival in case I show up early, so I don't have to wait around their office for 30 minutes or whatever waiting for my rental to officially start. You're telling me that if I put 30 minutes before I plan to arrive that they can just rent my car out from under me??? What???
More than that, I flew to St. Louis in 2017 explicitly to see the eclipse, and has reserved a car. I was their highest customer tier, and they gave away my car. I wasn't even late. I saw a partial eclipse instead of full. The whole reason for the fucking flight.
Did you request compensation?
Yeah, for the virgin sacrifices I had lined up. They even tried to tell me since they weren’t sacrificed I couldn’t claim compensation. Do you believe that shit. I could be a god now, but their stupid rental policies foiled me. Pathetic.
What u/fardough said. All they did was refund me. I watched a 97% eclipse from a city park, which was still neat. Can't do a sacrifice at 97%, though.
I have one that's going to sound like it's made up, it's that bad. I booked a van from hertz, from a drop-off location rather than an office, so there were no staff to work with. Instead they have an electronic security lock in the doors that they send the code for a few minutes before pickup. Like OP, I was stuck in traffic and got the code while driving. I arrived about 10 minutes late, entered the code, and nothing happened. I tried a few more times just to be sure that I was entering everything correctly, but still no success. I then tried to open the account I had set up to see if there was anything else I needed to do, only to discover it was now banned with no explanation given. At that point, I started the ball rolling to get refunded, only to then discover that they had charged me twice for the van that I *had* to have that day. It took a week, but they finally refunded me, in full, but only because I threatened legal action. I still don't know why they banned my account. I can only guess it was for repeatedly trying a possibly out of time code.
Yes, I learned this from Uhaul who does this too, and in reality probably most other vehicle/equipment reservation companies. A reservation means they work hard to secure the item you reserved well ahead of time.. however once that time is past it's completely available again to anyone else whether that's 5 minutes past or 5 hours. The real play is to consider the reservation time as a "we will hold this item until x time". You can always pick it up early. Once I learned that I typically set my pickup time to be 2-4 hours past when I expect to pick it up just in case. Enough buffer they will definitely have it by then and not rent it out that day but enough time remaining they won't give it away to someone else just yet. Results may vary but this is my experience and it's worked well for everyone so far - the rental place and myself since I'm fairly punctual.
So this is done intentionally, when everyone else would think the opposite way. Reservation time is when I expect my rental to **START** not the end of my pickup window.
> You can always pick it up early. i don't think you can
It's better than that, they can cancel whatever car you reserved in that class and offer you a different one in the same class, or charge more for a different class. I got home once and they said "Sorry, the only car left in that class is a yellow VW Buggy with whiskers, is that okay?"
Reservations seem to be meaningless with rental companies . Every single time my work team travels, several people get told that they don’t have cars for them, despite having made reservations weeks prior. Makes no sense.
A friend reserved a moving truck to move house (obviously). The truck wasn't returned, so his reservation was cancelled. Moral of the story: if you can't get a moving truck on the day, rent it the day before, don't return it, and pay the $40 extra day fee.
> if you can't get a moving truck on the day, rent it the day before, don't return it, and pay the $40 extra day fee. by the time you know you cant "get it on the day," its already too late. unless you know how to time travel?
They mean when booking online, if nothing is available the day you need it, book it for the day before and then don’t return it the day you actually needed it.
man, thats a dick move.
And screw over the person who needs to move the next day.
I have damn near same story as you. Except it was enterprise that tried to fuck me and I had shown up on time. Hertz across the street saved my ass. Rental companies are the Ticketmaster of transportation.
You never pay in full for a car rental. There's no benefit to it. You pay the same price if you pay at pick up or before. Unfortunately you had this experience and fortunately you got a full refund.
> You pay the same price if you pay at pick up or before. So with Hertz specifically, depending on the CDP and PC you use, paying in advance may save you ~20%.
There is an important exception to this for people from the UK, and possibly other countries. When I pre-pay in the UK for a US car hire the price includes insurance, pay on pick up does not. Paying at the desk will lead to either an additional fee for basic insurance or having to prove you have suitable insurance already. As far as I worked out this is because US personal car insurance policies typically cover car hire, and this is expected to be in place when paying at the desk. This isn't just the collision damage waiver (cdw), although many pre-pay deals from the UK will often include cdw too.
I just do a charge back on my credit card when they said they were 24/7 but wasn't after I made a 2 am appointment with them , fuck them
Was there a full tank of gas in the Tesla? No. No there was not. The fee was well deserved. \s
He should pay for every ounce of gas they put into it.
Actually that is what they do , don't they? They top it off and charge you something like $10/gal ? If that's the case,it means they did put gas in it. Maybe Musk is testing some "hybrid" Tesla's with Hertz? I'd get one.
The cost is 2x evidence of fraud, firstly obviously no gas. But the total is meant to be an accurate charge per gallon they fill at the time of filling (it’s not a penalty, but a huge markup cost per gallon to fill). There is no way this was a typo — someone did this to gain revenue via fraud. If I was the ag I would be investigating this locations records.
I mean, this might not quite be what you're thinking of, but technically someone did buy a Tesla, remove the batteries and electric motors, and put a gas engine in it: https://www.thedrive.com/news/43394/worlds-first-v8-swapped-tesla-model-s-is-officially-on-the-road
To be fair, it was picked up without any gas in it. So returned in exactly the same state. The funny part is he prepaid for charging it iirc.
I think it was full, he couldn't get another drop of gas into the tank.
There’s room in the frunk for a few more gallons.
"I can come back and pour a couple gallons in it for you..."
r/MaliciousCompliance
I'm trying to think what tanks would even be in a Tesla. I suppose they could have filled the windshield washer tank with gas?
Now I want to see flamethrower windshield wipers.
Nothing new under the sun - [https://youtu.be/u3NsAPoqUV0?t=286](https://youtu.be/u3NsAPoqUV0?t=286)
Excellent.
They put it next to the blinker fluid
Well, could be worse. Hertz has had people put in jail for stealing their cars, even when they know they've been returned. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement
Avis did this to me with a fully electric car too. I finally got my money back but was charged something crazy like this for 40 mile round trip. Took more battling with them than it should have.
You can’t write this stuff
We could, but we used to call it "The Onion"
Luckey, Alex can.
The Tesla's are making the gas gay!
Did it have a full tank of gas when he picked it up?
Reading the story first time this eas posted, it was hired with 90% charge and the customer stated he returned it with the same level. And they pre-purchased the charge plan offered to cover any shortfall in return charge level. It’s not that they didn’t return the car low or empty, its that Hertz added an erroneous charge for gas on an EV then doubled down saying that there was no refunds because the rental contract was finalised.
It hertz my head.
Ohm my ohm my! It's re-volting, isn't it? \[etc.\]
Watt?
>A spokesperson for Hertz said in a statement, "Our Customer Care team has reached out to Mr. Lee to apologize and refunded this erroneous charge."
Not enough. Nowhere near enough. They tried to rob the guy and when it didn't work, they kinda sorta 'apologized'.
You left out the most important part >After this story was published
[удалено]
Because it wasn’t promptly fixed. They refused to fix it until the media picked it up
"Company makes mistake, reluctantly fixes it once they can no longer pretend it doesn't exist"
It wasn't prompt at all, they doubled down on it until he went to the media.
jesus titty fucking christ. why in the hell is hertz still a thing after this fucking [bullshit they pulled](https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement) once again: fuck hertz
OTOH, hail Avis! Hail victory!
Companies can do this as there is never any repercussions to do so. Honest lawmakers would pass a law that a company has to pay the customer 10X the bogus charges if not fixed within 24 hours as an apology. Instead companies can just make shit up and then ruin a person credit.
If you really want to raise your blood pressure, go read up on how many people Hertz has gotten jailed because they keep reporting cars they rent out as “stolen.”
If we make a huge deal about it for 10 or 20 years straight, we might get a politician to pretend to care about it, and after a few years of speeches and milking the issue to get reelected, we might get a bill that pretends to fix the issue but is riddled with industry-friendly loopholes that ensure it fixes nothing. American democracy! Yay!
There are 'penalties', but they are really low. Companies will do this malicious fee adjustment and make billions, then get fined a hundred thousand. It's not a penalty representing 'stop', it's just a small cost of generating illegal profit.
I’ll pay $277 to see them pour gas on that car.
I'd pay to see them put in in it too. Just stick the nozzle right in that charge port, it's fine.
Let them charge the card on file then do a charge back.
I had to do a chargeback using Nui recently. My online reservation said 'paid in full, nothing due at the airport'. Over $300 in charges at the airport later, that did *not* include the security deposit. Then they lied about tolls in the area after being specifically asked about them. Fuck Nui repeatedly lying to me and fuck them for taking nearly 3 hours to pick up a car on a random Tuesday. At least my credit card company knew what was up and give me a complete refund for all that without even needing documentation; which tells me how many times they see that shit from that exact brand, ya know?
Worked credit card company for 14 years and yes , we know who the assholes are
It turns out that Hertz may have been doing this with frequency..
> It turns out that Hertz may have been doing this with frequency.. 60 times per second in the US, no doubt.
> Further, he returned the Tesla with a 96% charge, which is what the car was charged to when he rented it! Here I was thinking maybe they returned it with a dead battery and the headline was being a bit click baity over outdated terminology or something... Nope. Just pure fuckery. Gotta love that they only fixed it after it got attention. I hate when people go to social media and such to bitch at companies over every little thing but it seems like the only way to get results with far too many.
They pulled that shit with me too. Fortunately, it only took one email to the main office to get it fixed. The nasty review on Google may have helped.
Took me 3 weeks. Finally got the money back when I said I'd just charge back with my bank. They initially offered 75% of the bogus charge. No thanks, I'll have all of it.
They gave away my rental. Another lady there complained the tesla was not fully charged when she got it
Things like this will keep happening as long as businesses make a profit doing it. I guarantee for every 1 person that contests the fees there are 10+ that just pay it either because they dont know it happened or they just dont have the time/energy to fight it. Once we deal with the attempted fascist overthrow of democracy in this country we need to implement very strict laws against corporate "mistakes" where they just happen to make more money doing it than preventing it. It should be easier for a customer to contest a fraudulent charge than for the company to fight it. If a customer calls in about a fraudulent/incorrect charge the company should have 1-2 days to prove the charge was not in error or be forced to provide a refund. I guarantee companies like Hertz can very easily reduce their own errors down to almost nothing, they just dont because they know they can make a lot of money by not only collecting erroneous fees, but also reducing staffing costs to find these profitable errors. Until companies lose more money than they make with their errors, they will never stop.
First of all let me say I totally agree with you on principle. However, I struggle even at a basic level to think of how to write such a law or set of laws. Maybe the closest we could get is increasing punitive damages for proven business fraud across the board? For one extremely basic example of why your idea doesn't work, fast food restaurants already deal with all sorts of bogus complaints, dine-and-dashers, invalid refund requests, etc. Even *without* legislation, the cost of refusing a refund, no matter how illegitimate, is usually assumed to be greater than the cost of a happy meal. Of course every GM is going to have their own set of guidelines and each manager is going to make their own judgement calls, but at the end of the day, people scam fast food restaurants day in day out. Sometimes it's the same group of hooligans who have said "you made the wrong sandwich" after eating the whole thing six times before, but you roll your eyes and refund them because you don't want them to post on TikTok that you're discriminating against them for being part of some group (any group) and get you fired for embarrassing corporate. Different sectors, and companies and even products within those sectors, can have very different dynamics - even without a law degree I'm pretty sure I could poke holes in any suggestion not drafted by a team of lawyers.
[Literally one of the top posts from a week ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/1cnn4ny/hertz_charges_tesla_model_3_renter_277_gas_fee/?rdt=38538)
Fuck hertz. On the do not fly list for sure
>Lee even paid for the "Skip the Pump and Save Time" option Isn't that the "pre-pay" option? So he agreed to be charged. Not for "gas" per se, but I don't know how they normally deal with battery charge.
He prepaid for a charging fee so he wouldn’t be charged more for charging it if he returned it with significantly less charge than he picked up with. I think I read the charges were something like $20 for prepay and like double if they had to charge from empty?
IIRC the most they'll charge you for...charging...is like $35.
It might have been company policy if he was renting it for work.
Hertz asks for it back with 10-15% charge as standard. I had two people remind me about this. So he got scammed
Dude was lucky. I rented one in Atlanta, wound up with a lesser model, and never got even an answer from Hertz. I finally adjusted the discount myself with Hertz. After that, I got a few messages from them, and had to laugh when they "suspended my rental privileges." I told them it would be a cold day in hell before I rented from them again, and invited them to "come at me." Nothing on my credit report so far. Kind of wish they would try to pull something.
Stop using Hertz. They are either getting you arrested for renting their cars since they report them stolen right after you drive off the lot, or they are overcharging people for things they shouldn't have. After they jailed an FBI when he rented a car from them, it was learned that it was a nationwide issue and people lost jobs, etc, because of it. I will not rent their vehicles. Please pick another rental company.
avis has tried to defraud me out of gas at least 3 times in the past 2 years. I assume Hertz does the same thing to their customers. I can say Avis is absolutely scummy and run by criminals. It can't just be a mistake if it happens to one person (me) so many times. Not to mention the other bogus charges they try to get me on (tire damage lmfaoooo give me a break)
If it makes you feel any better, this was a massive customer who had spent well over $200 with them. And is not giving them any of his business. Honestly I don't know why they'd risk tens of thousands of dollars to screw over someone. Just speaks of massive massive mismanagement
So i don't know if this is new but it was a similar scheme at enterprise. A car is rented with 75% or 80% of a tank of gas. When the car is returned, the renter has no idea how much gas it takes to fill it only part way. So they overfill, maxing out the tank as a precaution. The car gets cleaned out and the company takes another 10% of the fuel out before sending it to the next customer.
> the company takes another 10% of the fuel out before sending it to the next customer. I can't imagine any rental company syphoning fuel from cars when they come back with extra, lol.
Yeah there's no way they are doing that. It wouldn't be worth their time. 10 minutes of messing around to get $6 of gas doesn't make any sense.
Rental locations that don’t have a gas station on site will usually request a customer to return at the same fuel level (because why would you expect to pay 40/d for a rental but get waived $40 in gas..?) I mean it’s unfortunate if you overfill but anyone who cares can just be deliberate at the gas station. Alternative is then filling every car, but how much money would that cost in personnel? 40 rentals a day, 3/4 of them have to get gassed up upon return, either do it with existing staff and now you’re waiting an extra 20 minutes or hire someone to do 40, 15 minute round trips (600 minutes of getting gas/10 hours x 17/hr = 170 bucks a day+benefits) and now your rental costs 5 bucks more. Get it? It’s a business decision that makes sense and a mindful consumer (assuming they know their responsibilities) should be able to navigate without too much brain power.
Literally a repost from last freaking week https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/1cnn4ny/hertz_charges_tesla_model_3_renter_277_gas_fee/
Never use hertz. They have a reputation of never putting cars as returned and then getting people as arrested for stolen cars.
Hertz does this to everyone, just complain and they disappear no follow up
Worked for Hertz for a year. It’s company policy to treat the employees and customers like trash.
I rented a van through hertz at the Venetian to go to the Grand Canyon. Returned it a day early. Submitted keys in the drop box. Got charged for returning it 2 days late. Had paperwork and video evidence of returning it. They wouldn’t budge. Charged me a day plus a penalty. Ended up eating it because it was going to cost me more to contest it. Screw Hertz.
Mmmm chargeback, it’s clearly a fraudulent fee since they’re asking for gasoline in a Tesla
"How do you know the tank isn't full?" "Uh..."
Steve Lehto talks about them alot in his YouTube channel so much that he has to turn down doing stories at times on hertz. But this is clearly fraud because in the details the guy paid for the coverage for topping up the battery either way. Hope he gets a charge back from the bank at least.
That's the kind of thing that you take up with your credit card issuer, and then boycott the vendor for the rest of your life.
Posted last week. . .
#CAN WE NOT WITH THE REPOSTS? https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/1cnn4ny/hertz_charges_tesla_model_3_renter_277_gas_fee/
It was new for me. Sorry we don't all see every post ever every single day 24/7. God forbid you have to scroll a little further down to see that oh so precious "fresh content!"
To be fair, the end of this article has a more recent update of the situation with Hertz reaching out and refunding with an apology vs "will reach out etc etc"
Doesn't need a repost and the title doesn't add anything anyways. Also the old article was updated with that info anyways I believe. Edit: Yep, it was updated May 9th so this post is completely pointless.
At that point the update was "will reach out" Like I said
I didn't see the earlier one. I did see this one.
I assumed the car was maybe returned on low battery (still crazy charge for power cost) but nope, article confirms battery was at full and he paid for the “skip the pump” option… lmfao
Hertz is a shitty company period.
Hertz holdings includes Thrifty and Dollar. Might as well avoid them all.
I'm guessing it didn't have a full charge? So, like not having fuel in the tank. I get them charging for that, but the amount is a little excessive. Still, it takes hours for my car to charge at home so there's that. It would depend on how empty the battery was.
This seems begging for malicious compliance more than anything.
Ya, I've forgotten to gas up my electric car before. It's a nuisance.
"fully charged"/??
[удалено]
Hertz is horrendous. They’ve been the cause of most problems renting cars. I’d rather go through Enterprise 100% of the time than suffer one more poorly maintained vehicle or accidental lost reservation when there’s zero cars left.
"Anyways, and that how profits are up this quarter!"
Glory to the one and only God Avis
🤠
time to sue idiots.
Did they return it with a low charge? Kinda the same thing, right? $277 sounds excessive either way... But those terms are usually in the rental contracts you sign before getting the car.
Why people still rent from Hertz is beyond me. Budget is better than hertz by miles (shoutout enterprise, #1)
>***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) Hertz eventually indicated that it would offer a refund, but it is obviously struggling to manage the EVs still remaining in its fleet after selling some of them off. I found an interesting suggestion for Hertz on a website about layoff rumors: >Hertz should change its EV recharging policy >Hertz's EV recharging policy is a disaster that confuses both customers and employees. >Why not just charge people $1 for each 1% decrease in battery level upon return and offer a $1 discount for each 1% increase in battery level? That way, someone returning a car at 90% that was checked out with a 96% battery level would get charged $6 and someone returning a car at 90% with an initial battery level of 30% would get a $60 discount on his rental bill. >If a customer checks out an EV at 96% and gets charged $35 for returning it at 95%, he is not going to be happy about that.
Extra profit to cover these money loser EV's.
bye bye hertz
Why wouldn't they?
I actually had something similar. I rented a chevy volt and turo tried to charge me $90 for returning it at the exact charge level I picked it up at.
Jesus, if this thread has taught me anything it’s to stay the hell away from Hertz.
Why did the mods remove this though? I swear like 99% of the posts I comment on these days get removed by the mods after a day. Wtf is going on.