Hertz: "I'm sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment." Seinfeld: "I don't understand; I made a reservation; do you have my reservation?" Hertz: "Yes we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars." Seinfeld: "But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation." Hertz: "I know why we have reservations." Seinfeld: "I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation. You just don't know how to hold the reservation, and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them..."
A Hertz spokesperson just released a statement "While we at Hertz aim to screw over every customer we do business with, we deeply regret this incident. If we had known she was a lawyer, and that she would tweet the incident in such vivid detail, we would certainly have accommodated her."
Call. Put on hold 30 min. Call back 45 min. U get a manager. I can’t answer that, let me put u through to another manager. Repeat. Rinse. We all have experienced it. And we all know there is no manager. They want you to get so frustrated, you give up. I don’t know who started the practice. Probably insurance companies or AT&T. It’s become so common now, it feels like almost every company is handling complaints this way. Because it works. I have a claim to file with UHAUL. It states u have to go through arbitration. It would be nice to hire an attorney but the cost/reward isn’t justified. So 90% or more just say screw it. I currently am dealing with progressive on a claim where someone swiped the edge of my car while parked . I have full comprehensive / collision. Should be simple. Over 80 days. No car. No income. $3800 in rental fees. I’m all about capitalism and companies maximizing profits - ethically. They are causing extreme hardships in peoples lives on purpose. So much for striving for excellent customer service to retain customers
@@boataxe4605 So years later he wanted a receipt ro use in his defense in a court case and they couldn't find it? Seems reasonable that they couldn't produce it immediately. What am I missing?
@@gblargg hertz’ accounting department would be embarrassed if that was an irs audit. They “must” hold records to support their tax returns…i was able to magically recover a year old receipt from a car dealership after i explained it that way.
@@gblargg The part where they ignored every legal notice until they ordered an exec to personally appear in court to explain the failure to produce the records, they suddenly found the records. The courts asked for the records and then Hertz ignored them for years.
The dog is named “Nina”. We have known Kate for years…… great person and I would not put it past her to push this as long as it took then become an advocate for all the customers Hertz has done wrong. Kate is a powerhouse…….
If you’re ever in Kodiak Alaska and in need of a rental car, I highly recommend Rent-A-Heap. They’re not nice cars and they’re not new, but they’ll get you where you’re going and won’t screw you over.
I avoid Hertz like the plague. Last time I used them was years back - I booked a car (weeks in advance, this was for a wedding I was attending), arrived off my flight and was told "we don't actually have any cars of the size you booked (and had already paid for) at this location, I'll need your credit card to charge with the upgrade cost." Which 'upgrade' was also more than the original rental because it was a 'walk-in' price. I said "no," and stood my ground, and eventually left the location in the next size down, having been refunded for the difference from what I'd pre-paid.. When I returned the car a few days later, the manager tried to stiff me on fuel, marking it as half full, and still lying about what the gauge said even when we were both standing looking at it with the engine running, and needle on the far right. He backed down when I took a video of the gauge and odometer and threatened to sue him personally if he didn't record it truthfully. There are worse and more systematically dishonest companies than Hertz in the world, but not many.
@@jonathanj8303 "That's illegal! That's quid pro quo!" /sarcasm Reminds me of the scene from Wardogs where Jonah Hill's character tried to buy illicit susbtances. I'll link it in another comment in case TH-cam deletes it.
i'll give you a few companies. Nestle, United Airlines, Enterprise, Spirit Airlines, etc. do you see a pattern here? car rental and airlines have abused us for too damn long
Everything I've heard and read from people that worked in car rentals is that it is pretty much a universal fact that rental reservations mean nothing. They'll try their best to help the customer, but the simple fact is the cars aren't there for them to rent. Oh they HAVE to honor the price? How? The cars are gone? What now? Pay for them to rent from competitor? It turns out they have same policies and they are out of cars too! Uh oh! Point is, it doesn't matter if something is illegal if the fear of punishment isn't there.
That last sentence you have is critical. It is the same reason the whole "defund the police" is nonsense. If there is no fear of punishment from someone, everything will turn into lawlessness.
“Pay for them to rent from a competitor?” This is the standard hotels are held to. If you have a reservation but the hotel is full, the hotel is obligated to find you alternate, equivalent accommodation at their expense.
After hearing all the nonsense with hertz from Steve, I’m shocked Hertz is still in business. From letting a man wrongfully get imprisoned for murder, to informing the police their vehicles are stolen while out on contract. This is serious BS.
@@craigclose125 Yeah, so it’ll be difficult/near impossible to collect on litigations. However that was 2020, so they may have earned money since then and things may have changed. Of course, I do have to comment I’m not a lawyer, just another person with an opinion.
That's right! It was Hertz that wouldn't provide the alibi. I remember that episode. Wasn't Hertz the company that had that football player that murdered his wife as their marketing personality?
@@bluestormcloud791 That’s before my day, but I took a quick look, and apparently they did hire OJ for ads. Seems they didn’t learn, seeing these ads with Tom Brady now. Guess we should keep a close eye on him now, given Hertz track record.
Well. They just emerged from Bankruptcy Reorganization a few weeks back. The CEO is very proud of the new team. They plan to dominate “the Mobility Ecosystem Space” or some similar line of BS. Before moving on to World Domination of “Mobility”, they should learn how to run a car rental business.
From my understanding: They're fine financially, they have two sides of the company. It's offloading debt from one company to the other. The family has been building huge estates in St Louis.
Yeah, I'd never rent a car from them. They filed for bankruptcy, so they can't be in good shape anyways, and this is a nice public reminder that they are in shambles.
I had something similar with Hertz years ago. Bad seal on the back of a truck let water in during a rainy day. Took it to fair trading (Aussie business disputes court) won, they refused to pay until a day after the due date, took it bad to the court, the manager of the branch had a trading stay put on him (not allowed to trade from that branch) for a month for contempt of court. That magistrate didn't mess about.
In these situations, I put myself in an attitude of "I don't care if I win, as long as they lose." I then budget out an amount of time and money to use to make them have to pay their lawyers more than I ever would have won.
Not humorous. Just bad logic. Hertz, car, and rental popped up in the dialog so many times that it was SURE to be a relevant ad. That it would have been a better spot for, say, Enterprise, Alamo, or even U-Haul, is beside the point.
Hertz did this to me recently. I had a car reserved for a week but when I went to pick up the car they didn't have one. Instead they offered me one that would cost twice as much per day to rent. When I said no we went round in circles with them basically saying it's all they have so take it or leave it. I asked why they didn't have the right car available since I reserved it a week ago and they actually said that a reservation didn't mean a car would be held for you, that it was first come first served with what they had available on the lot. Yeah, they actually said that. Reserving a car doesn't mean one will be reserved. Fuck Hertz.
Did you ever see the Seinfeld show about the rental car company? Jerry: you can take the reservations but you just cannot keep the reservation. th-cam.com/video/4T2GmGSNvaM/w-d-xo.html
We had a bait and switch experience with Hertz years ago. Booked a large suv (we have a large family with kids and luggage). When we arrived they said they only had the next size down (which would not fit our needs) so we refused. Stepped over 1 counter to Avis who provided great service and got us the vehicle we needed. Been using Avis ever since.
I had almost this exact situation except worse, first and last time using Hertz. They were unable to honor my Christmas Eve reservation that they had already confirmed... because the location was closed the day for the holiday. I had to spend a bunch on alternative travel and then their systems automatically triggered a "no show" fee which I had to contest (which they did overturn after a long call). If we didn't have the American system where you need to pay a bunch of lawyer/court fees to fight these practices I'd absolutely have gone after them for damages on the difference
@@virt1one yes time is always ticking but i don't see how that makes any difference. youve gotta make a value judgment on it and decide what to do. may not be worth pursuing if someone is too busy.
My last rental with hertz ended up with me receiving an email from them saying/asking if I was planning to file my insurance for the “accident” I had when I had rented a vehicle from them. The funny thing was I had a receipt from an agent that clearly said that the vehicle was in pristine condition when I got to the airport to return the vehicle. It took two months of them doing research to finally admit it was one of their drivers that had backed up into a pillar. If I hadn’t gotten to the airport early and waited for them to do the inspection and give me a receipt I would have been forced to pay for the accident that was not my fault.
I've heard on the news and on Facebook where Hertz is doing this all the time now. One story was a person was charged (after the fact of turn-in) for a car cleaning for smoking in the car and pet hair. The person who rented the car didn't smoke nor had they ever smoked and they were the only person who travelled in the car. Neither did they have a pet. The person refused to pay the "added" charge and disputed it with their credit card company.
@Sikandar Durrani - How did you find out it was an Hertz employee that backed the car into a pillar ? They told you ? Ever since cell phones and ability to video, I always walk around the car when returning and get a backdrop of the location and last thing I do is video the car return receipt. I actually had the same accusation months after a car rental, I never heard back from them after providing a walk around video of the car being returned.
Hertz has a computer inventory system that tracks all the cars across the entire country. Saying they dont know their inventory is an outright lie. They know everything in their inventory. Any agent can look at the inventory of many other locations across the nation. They KNOWINGLY overbook.
I've had terrible experiences with Hertz over the years. Nothing I could sue for, nothing that seemed to be illegal on their part, but just horrible experiences as a customer (waiting hours for a pick up, the old 'we don't have any more cars in that class scam, horrible customer service, etc.). They should actually re-hire O.J. Simpson as their spokesperson, it would be very fitting.
Oh they're horrible and since a lot of times you're traveling and they have you for a barrel they're actually smug and arrogant about it like they think they're your boss or something you are subject to their wins they don't seem to be aware of all the paperwork you sign for them constitutes a contract and if they are aware they just don't seem to care. Customer service is a thing of the past because with the internet corporate executives are no longer worried about the customers always right and repeat business they figured they'll just make it up in volume!
I can see the commercial now…….Here at Hertz, we’re slashing rental fees. You can even upgrade to the NO DNA guarantee…..we promise to remove all of your DNA from the vehicle.
O. J. would seemingly elevate Hertz's reputation at this point! Sears may even survive Hertz. Every story about Hertz in recent times has been a scandal. Did Tesla ever get an order on Hertz's EV PR scheme‽
Days in advance of my trip I called and reserved a car with Hertz at the Billings MT airport. My arrival time was at 10:10 PM and the Hertz rep told me that their office would close at 12 midnight so with that in mind I rented the car. The plane arrived on time and the Hertz rental office was right next to the luggage carousel but at 10:25 the office was closed. Right next to Hertz was an Alamo car rental and I ask them about Hertz and they told me that when they no longer had any cars available they closed. Since I was stuck I rented a car from Alamo at a lower price and a better model. When I returned my rental at the Billings airport I contacted the now open Hertz office and after a phone call, they did refund my reservation deposit.
I had a similar experience with Hertz earlier this year. They wanted to add $1400 to a $300 reservation for asking to add 3 days onto a week reservation just 2 days after the original booking and over a month before we needed the car. Canceling and rebooking made it a $450 reservation. No problem Hertz. I found another rental company and already made the top renter status they have… Not sure how Hertz thinks they’ll get back on their feet this way. Seems more like shooting themselves in the foot.
This Hurts just to listen to what happened…. Thank you for calling hurts…. Hold please…. 30 min click. I can’t imagine how furious i would be…. Multiple times omg
@@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket I work at hertz sometimes, Im a vendor. Ive had to wait 1 hr for them to answer the phone to let me in and fix their air conditioner. Needless to say I billed them for the hour. Its a terrible place.
I've been going through this with Lowe's. They installed defective doors in April 2021. I'm at a point where the replacement doors are at the store, but they won't ship them until a date for the install is confirmed. (The installer has been great and confirmed the date with me. Lowe's keeps "losing" the date.) Each call is multiple hang ups and 2-3 hours.
I used to work at a Hertz location in NW Arkansas and CAN confirm that they do indeed deliberately overbook cars as well as engaging in various other unethical practices.
I once had a rental car company charge me an extra several hundred dollars over my contract rate for returning a car one hour too EARLY. I got nowhere with their customer service until I tweeted my story and tagged their twitter account. Suddenly, they decided they COULD offer me a refund for the difference.
I once had a rental car company who made it obligatory to use their insurance company despite not needing to do so. Tried fighting it with them and my credit card company and guess what... I lost.
@@LinoBarraza It was 20 years ago, but we had the same experience on a Florida package vacation that cost $thousands. Can't recall the rental company, but Hertz isn't impossible. Fortunately, in the aftermath, we were able to successfully claim the money back from the company that sold us the package deal. tbh we were quietly hoping that our choice would be 'out of stock' and that they would have to upgrade us for free (it was in the contract). However the car we got was clean, comfortable and economical.
I was rear-ended while in a rental car. The car was totaled with all the airbags deployed. We were barely able to drive back to the rental yard. The rental company later sent me a bill because I didn't fill up the totaled car with fuel before returning it.
While in principle, I agree, doing that might raise the amount of the settlement to above the limit of a small-claims claim into a full-blown case, at which point, she'd probably retain counsel of her own, and then have to win big enough to play their fee. That's a trickier proposition, and a much more time-consuming one. And when you add stress and hassle to the greatly increased fiscal risks, it becomes apparent that she's probably being smart by staying in small claims, since in that case, Hertz gets hurt if they drag their feet, instead of her. You want to fight battles you can win, but you still have to bear in mind that Pyrrhic victories are still a thing.
@@hoogabooga9736 jeff bezos only makes 100k a year, the rest is stocks, company paid travel expenses food, etc. but his annual salary is actually much lower than a lawyer. his net worth is in stock, which is not a salary. its a legal tax loophole. that example means nothing.
I dealt with Hertz exactly once in my life. It was a couple years ago. It was rented on my behalf by the insurance company of the driver that put my car into the body shop. They made the reservation for the car with Hertz on my behalf. When I arrived, I was told that they did not have a car for me. They did, however have some returns due in. I had to sit and wait for one to arrive. As I recall, it was smaller than the one that was on the reservation. I had run into availability issues at other companies and was always accommodated immediately with a car in a larger class for the same rate as the one that I had reserved. When telling this to others, I discovered that this is how Hertz seems to do business. I have never dealt with them again and I plan never to do so.
It's a nice gig if you can get it. Boggles my mind that people can pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars to only _use_ a car for _only_ a week. The rich really are different.
@@ElectroDFW Gee, did someone prevent you from going to law school, or engineering school? If somebody makes enough money to support themselves and their family, they can spend the rest on whatever they want. Yes, it is a nice gig, and you can get it if you put in the time and effort to get a degree. Quicher whinin' and go to night-school.
Honestly I don't understand how overbooking things, flights, vehicle rentals, concert tickets, whatever isn't considered some sort of fraud. As a company it should be relatively easy to have records of how many $20,000+ wheel boxes you own and where they are, seems like a very important thing to keep track of, and if you know how many you have, then you simply only agree to rent that many, BOOM how easy is that? On the other hand if you knowingly agree to a contract to rent a thing, or ferry a passenger, or allow access to a venue or whatever, because you know how many of thing X you have and you as a company agree to give more than you have, then you knowingly can't fulfill your side of the bargain. Instead we have specific laws at least in the airline sector that make it legal and have laws governing exactly how much you can inconvenience people. Unless you have an oracle that can peer into the future and know exactly how many people aren't going to show up you simply shouldn't be allowed to overbook, in fact I'd go as far as to say these companies should be charged some multiplier of the original agreement for every person that showed up for a double booked seat/car. Of course consumer protections never go far enough as to make sure consumers are actually protected and the companies can get away with it as long as suing them is too inconvenient, because these laws don't pass if they actually compensate wronged consumers in a meaningful way... I wonder why...
I was the CTO of a company that partnered with Hertz in Los Angeles, let me tell you, they are so far mixed up that this story does not surprise me. We partnered to supply their exotic cars and we supplied the staff to handle it, so many times we saw people get stuck at the LAX location and not have any cars, almost daily. They overbook like airlines overbook
@abigmonkeyforme Very true and I agree with you 100%. After I left the exotic car market, I consulted for a few years to other car rental companies and one of the most important things I expressed is customer service. If overbooked, contact the customer and make other arrangements, dont punish them for being your customer. We overbooked exotics sometimes, but we always offered an upgrade at the same rate. if we only had lower car, we gave the lower car rate plus a day free for to make up for it. Even lower class car customers should be treated with good service - I just happen to know some insight to Hertz and I can say they are just a numbers company and dont really care about customer service as a whole. you may find a good manager who does, but they quickly leave to another company.
Years ago Hertz pulled a "bait and switch" on me with my first reservation with them. I've never been back. Another company had run out of the class I had reserved a few years later. I not only got a better class than I had reserved, but I got it at the price quoted on my reservation. When I traveled this past summer I tried to reserve with them and they honestly told me they had no vehicles available for that date at that location. This is how the good companies do business.
I had that in UK with Enterprise. When I arrived they already knew they had run out of the class I'd booked, and said they'd already reserved a better car for me at the same price, but if I preferred I could ask for a refund. No fuss, no pressure. That's how it should be.
You just summed up the world with your last sentence. About 1-5% of the world is corrupt, evil, spineless and just bad when the rest of us have to suffer in the world they run and make corrupt because they are either loudest, complain the most or have all the money and airwaves. Great post…
Sue them and report them. This was utter fail of customer service and the supervisors should have known better about not meeting the reservation's terms. Hertz overbooking and then hoping that people will pay the higher prices is definitely illegal and shouldn't happen with computer tracked inventory and reservations.
_I watch everything in _*_Closed Captions._*_ Many times the words are not what's been Spoken. However, almost every time you were saying _*_"Hertz"_*_ the _*_Closed Captions_*_ was posting _*_"Hurt"._*_ I thought about the irony of that relating to the story about the lawyer's experience._ 😂
My question is, why did she continue to try to use a company that made it very clear, they did not want to have her as a customer? In my last experience this year,, Hertz service is horrible and their cars are in worse shape than at Rent-A-Wreck.
Because everywhere else would (justifiably) be at 'walk-in' pricing levels, and possibly because Hertz already had her money and/or a reservation against her card?
Could she go to a different car rental place, rent a car for whatever the price, then sued Hertz for breach of contract, and also for the cost difference of the new rental.
Because it was Thanksgiving, and all the other companies were just as swamped...I think the biggest issue is that customers rent cars, and don't return them on time...? Especially during thanksgiving weekend.
@@brentfarvors192 Another problem is that rental companies don't have enough vehicles. During the lockdowns of 2020 there was less travel and thus less demand for rental cars. Rental companies sold off (then) surplus fleet. Things are open again and demand is rising. Unfortunately car manufactures are experiencing parts shortages. Production is down and there are waiting lists for what can be produced. Rental companies can't buy enough cars to rebuild fleets because they just aren't available
At Enterprise, they pick you up and drop you off. I rented from them when my cars were being repaired and never had a problem. Hertz should take a close look at that business model. I've heard many horror stories about Hertz customer service over the years and they are just as bad as Bell customer service. Corporate complacency becomes the norm, it seems.
Can't agree enterprise last weekend didn't have my car that I reserved with a confirmation number. When I got there the last car was given to the individual ahead of me.
Enterprise has always treated me well, as well as Alamo and National the few times I've used them (same company/fleet). Now, I have gotten a different car from them than I reserved when there was short supply at an airport location. I could have waited, but had no issues when I came back the next day to swap it out, and even got a free upgrade from a premium to a luxury without even asking. They even recommended the best time to come for the greatest selection based on what times cars were scheduled to come back at. The neighborhood locations have also always been great at picking me up or dropping me off if needed, or when I've needed an insurance rental. I'll pay a few bucks extra to reserve with Enterprise just to know I'm not going to have to deal with crap customer service.
Many years ago, I managed a coffee house for a time. The best advice I ever got was that how the customer feels from the time they walk in to the time they leave is the most important thing one can do for your business. This is something that companies spend millions on getting people to develop positive feelings for a brand or product, yet forget that all of the advertising in the world can be negated with one bad customer interaction. Keeping the place neat and clean may not even register consciously with customers, but effects how we feel when we walk in. Having employees who are well trained and groomed who relate with customers is important. If a customer asks for something extra in their coffee, just give it to them. If they or others keep asking for the extra item, add it to the menu and charge extra.
Customer service is important. I use a local internet service provider, their service is mediocre, but the customer service people are good. I've had my cell phone disconnect while on a complex interaction but the service rep called me back. I wish they were a better company but their people try. That's good enough.
I agree with everything you've saying. My son however has made it clear to me his company doesn't notice any of his efforts to give the customer a positive experience. I have raised him to be polite and helpful and he isn't going to give that up. The lower level managers don't have the proper understanding to do their job.
@@jeromemckenna7102 I used to live in Manassas, Virginia back in the 1980s when the only local ISP was the local phone company whose customer service was horrible. You had to go to their office and sit in a room full of phones that you could use to call their customer service -- you couldn't reach customer service any other way. There were no employees that you could interact with to complain to or even ask any questions. When I started attending the local community college, one of my professors asked us to introduce ourselves and give our occupations. One of the students was a young woman who said she was an employee of the local phone company, then added that she couldn't help us with our customer service problems -- everyone laughed and/or groaned! 😵
@@eddarby469 Unfortunately many employers are not willing, or even actively discourage, any attempts of employees to communicate up the management chain issues and ideas that will help the business and employees to thrive. I have seen ex employees years later who thanked me for the great experience, and said that the things they learned helped get them good jobs where people treated them well. Having a decent example of what a good boss looks like helps us too both avoid being a bad boss, and not tolerate them.
So many companies spend a pile of cash trying to obtain new customers, but neglect the customers they already have. Many times they also do not have adequate staff to look after their customers. Also possible that this happens every day at this location, and if head office only pays staff to noon everyday, what should staff do? (Besides quit) Hope head office gets the message!
I am a Hertz employee and we do not know how many cars we have for rent we just keep fulfilling reservations if you get a car you get a car if you don't sorry have a nice day you got to realize we go through so many different companies Expedia you name it that's why we don't know how many cars we have for rent
In this circumstance she can add _entrapment_ under Federal law because of the bait and switch nature being effectively triggered from the national call center. She arrived with the contractual obligation that Hertz provide her a means of transport to then leave without her own means of being transported.
1. Hertz, I will never, ever rent a car from your company or any other rental agencies that you own. As far as I understand, this means I won’t rent from Dollar, Thrifty or Firefly. Your corporation is a terrible citizen of the world extorting customers like you do. I travel a lot so not only will you lose my business forever, I hope this lawyer wins as largely as possible in her small claims suit. 2. Unfortunately, this is not a problem with just Hertz, but overall, corporation’s across the United States and probably the world could not care less about customers. They only care about how much money they can make. And, every time a customer has a negative experience with corporate America, they always want to apologize for the bad experience but they.NEVER are willing to do whatever it takes to make it right. That means that their Apologies are empty. People, we need to stop accepting being treated as customers as crap. We need to stop using these bad companies and find other good companies that care.
My wife and I were coming back from a trip to Cancun. When we arrived at the airport, they told us our flight was over booked and that we had been bumped. We sighed, and asked the desk agent how we could get back home. She said apologetically that she had another flight leaving 1 hour later, but was direct to Atlanta (our final destination) and unfortunately didn't have a 2 hour layover in Miami. And also apologetically, that coach was booked and we would get stuck in business class. And since we were bumped that it wouldn't cost us extra. That was customer service.
I remember in financial class this being called a Bait and Switch. You offer someone a product at a certain price tell them it’s unavailable. Then offer another similar product for a greater price.
I flew into Milwaukee once and, because it last minute and I was travelling stand-by, I didn't know when I was getting there so I didn't make a reservation for a rental car. I arrived late at night and Hertz was the only rental company open. The guy at the counter told me they were out of cars and he couldn't help me. I got out my laptop (this was right before smartphones) and got on the internet and made a reservation. 20 minutes after the guy told me there were no cars they suddenly had one for me. When I got to the lot to pick up my car, there must have been 40 cars there.
My ex wife use to work there and Hertz does have good policies on paper but the problem is that the people that are supposed to execute those policies have a conflict of interest because they get bonuses based on the upgrades and every additional dollar that you spend past your original reservation because that part is like free money to Hertz. She used to get a minimum of 4-$5000 every bonus. If they would’ve gotten her to take the new reservation at the $1800 they would’ve gotten that as a part of their complete bonus instead of only getting something if she upgrades or takes the insurance or the prepaid gas. so that’s why I think they kept trying to push the new reservation instead of giving her the one she maid on her own.
I had the same problem with Hertz in Jacksonville at the airport. I had a reservation last minute and when I flew in I was told they did not have the car. I was 19 at the time and it was roughly midnight when I flew in. They made me get a more expensive car that I was not even allowed to drive due to their policy and it was triple the amount of my original contract. I couldn't go to another rental company because of my age, the only reason I could use hertz was because I am a member of USAA and the agent told directly he knew I wouldn't be able to get another car. Once I finally agreed to this I was told I have to take the insurance, toll pass, and XM radio. Once I said no to those extras he told me "you're taking it or you're not getting a car." It was hard to believe what was really happening at the time, especially being a member of a military bank and insurance company. Let me make it clear, I'm not personally military. My father is a Marine but the Hertz agent didn't know that. Actions like that is what paved their way for bankruptcy and from the way it looks, its paving the way for their next bankruptcy.
I feel ya on what happened but, you weren’t supposed to be able to even drive the car admittedly? Please clarify. If you lied about who you were or omitted saying who you were and what you weren’t entitled to, isn’t that just as bad as what Hertz (a terrible company we get it and we agree) did?
I always take a picture of the fuel gauge at pick up and drop off. I've only rented a few cars in my life time but I hear horror stores like this one that make me do the things I do. I take photo of the vehicle as well, inside and out. One day U-haul tried saying the light on top was my responsibility. I showed them the picture and they ate crow. That saved me a headache. This was minor in the grand scheme of things but still worked in my favor none the less.
This is 100% on Hertz corporate. They clearly mislead her several times and made no attempt to communicate with their locations. It must suck being a Hertz employee and knowing that no matter what effort you put in, you'll be the face of Hertz incompetence. . Also she is entitled to well more than the difference in the promised rate and what she paid. The promised rate was for a mid size sedan and a rental starting Sunday. What she got was a compact that was a full day later. Even if we take Hertz at their word regarding the refund, they still aren't in compliance with the law. Why should she be paying for a day she wasn't given?
I've been done with Hertz for a few years, now. I needed a rental to go to my brother's funeral. I used my gold membership to reserve a specific vehicle, as opposed to a class of vehicle. Their website even went so far as to tell me that I would be responsible for the first day's rental cost if I did not show up to take possession, as I had reserved a specific vehicle. I showed up, and they did not have the vehicle. The best he could offer me was a scary looking rust bucket of a van with no windows behind the driver's seat. Seriously, I would have never looked at it and guessed it was part of their rental fleet. I noped that one because . . . scary looking, and because at least one child has issues with motion sickness. If I hadn't shown up they would have been happy to take my money for a car they didn't have, but they were unable to meet my needs despite the reservation. I ended up going to their competitor who got me on the road in a matter of about 90 minutes (because they drove the car I needed from the next county). It would take some real motivation to get me to use Hertz again. I'm just not interested.
It's not unique to Hertz. U-Haul was notorious for taking "reservations" for trucks they didn't have. If you cancelled and went elsewhere they charged you a cancellation fee.
I just don't get how these giant companies can keep getting more blatantly bone-headed and openly greedy. This isn't the first time I've read about companies charging a cancellation fee for cancelling a service that they can't even provide.
I've rented from u haul about a dozen times, always had a positive experience... Except, one time I drove down to Florida to rent a van and help a relative move a few things up north. But someone just crashed it (it was in the lot crashed), so I got a "free" upgrade to the biggest moving truck they offer (because it was all they had in stock), for a nice 1400 mile trip @ 8 mpg.
@@SayAhh Ah, the before-times of 2017. "We'll sell you a ticket for a seat that isn't there and then give you a concussion and knock out some teeth as we drag you off the plane!" The kicker (hah) is that their company slogan is "Fly the friendly skies."
As someone who traveled for work and drove rental cars much more than my own for years, usually renting for only a day or two from a wide variety of companies, I can definitively say, Hertz is one of the worst for customer service and value. This is sadly not surprising at all. Also, fyi, Hertz Global owns Thrifty.
I know this is an old video, and im sure Hertz sucks. That said I have an insight and a thought about why they may be overbooking. I am a mechanic and a handyman. I have never done work for a rental car company, but im considered very good at what I do (not trying to sound arrogant but just to give perspective) and am often contracted to set up new maintenance programs/ hire staff at newly purchased apartment complexes/ strip malls and most relevant, hotels. A common mistake hotel managers/ owners make that I always have to talk them out of is booking to 100% capacity. When other people are using your stuff, hotel rooms, or in Hertz' case cars, you ALWAYS need to assume you are going to get some back in unusable condition. I would guess its worse with cars but if you book a 200 room hotel to capacity on a Friday night you are going to be unable to provide rooms to usually 2-4 of those guests because some people are going to break the TV, damage the shower body, some of the PTACs are going to go out, 10 people are going to trash the room, put holes in walls, burn the bed or carpet etc, and someone is going to complain they saw an ant or smell a phantom smell and demand a new room. While maintenance can rush repair most of it there are always going to be a few that cannot be repaired in time or where damage is unnoticed until the new guest checks in. Therefore you need to leave about 2 rooms empty for every 100, unfortunately owners, managers and im sure Hertz HATE this because it means they cant get every penny out of the business, but if you dont do it you are going to end up with people throwing fits and suing you.
I had an issue with EasyCar. I booked a car, but then got mobilised (2003). I tried to cancel and they declined without proof. I sent them proof. They still declined as my papers didn’t state where I would be sent. My oldest daughter had just seen a consumer affairs programme and told me that EasyCar had been renting out dangerous vehicles. I emailed them a 3rd time to say that while my papers didn’t state I was headed to the Gulf, it was most likely. If I didn’t go yo the Gulf, I would not have accrued enough leave to take my trip! I then wrote about what my daughter had informed me, and stated that as a professional driver, IF they didn’t cancel my booking I’d be taking the car and checking it thoroughly. If I found any illegal faults, I’d be contacting the relevant Govt agency with my findings and the recommendation their licence to lease vehicles be revoked. I even got the non-refundable deposit back
My wife was a manager at Hertz for years until covid hit and she was laid off because they shut down her office. It is completely true corporate does not keep track of inventory at their individual terminals. My wife was always complaining about this. People would make a reservation online only to show up at her office and she would have no cars available. And I'm sure the matter is worse now. When Hertz filed bankruptcy she was having a really hard time getting cars transferred to her location. Because they were having to downsize their national fleet. Think of Hertz as the ball under the cup game. Cars are constantly being shuffled around from location to location. Not just by the customer but the terminals as well. My wife would call other locations on a daily basis asking for cars to get transferred to her. And the other terminals would do the same. Every terminal has dedicated drivers to go and pick up cars or deliver cars. And when one location was really short on cars they would send a car carrier that could haul 6 cars. The local managers know best how to wrangle up cars. So if a local manager tells you there are no cars. Take that as the gospel truth. Because they have already talked to all the managers in their district if they can get a car from them.
I worked in the construction industry from the early 90's to the early 00's in Ireland. My role was Plant & Transport manager. I had to keep track of where every piece of mechanical equipment (Over 5000 pieces) big & small and every vehicle (over 300) we had was, who was driving etc. Capable software has been available since the early 90's to manage your fleet. It is totally unbelievable that a company of the stature and scale of Hertz cannot manage a fleet and honour contracts with clients. This is where legislators need to step up and hold these companies to account.
I agree with you. I bet they can provide what is promised with what software they have, they just make more money this way. Nothing like having unhappy customers!
So with that software how far into the future could you tell where any one piece would be? How many location did manage? (that is how may different places could the information be changed?)
Gotta give the woman props for being able to tweet a five page letter. Had an experience myself with a car rental company (not Hertz) a couple of years ago where I tried to rent a car to make the last leg of a trip home from New York City. I landed in Seattle where I was due to transfer to a commuter airline that serves my hometown from there. My flight home, a distance of less than 150 miles, was cancelled due to weather on the ground at home. I went to the rental desk to see about getting a car to drive the rest of the way home and was quoted a price of over $2000 for a vehicle that I needed for less than four hours and where I was going to drop off it off at the company's location a half mile from my house. The cost of the rental would have been more than my round trip to New York had cost altogether. I ended up paying $50 for a cab from SEATAC to the King Street train station and an additional $65 for a train ticket home. Still better than paying for a hotel room in Seattle that I had no reason to need.
A taxi driver in Korea tried to extort me by charging me about 10 times the posted rate. He was shocked when he realized I could read and write Han gul, the Korean language. I wrote down his name and license number, as well as the posted number for filing an official complaint. He begged me to hand over my notes, but I refused and pointed at the rates. He muttered, grimaced, then agreed to the much lower rate. I hasten to add, however, that this was the only such incident I encountered in a country full of truly wonderful people.
Yeah, Korean taxi drivers sometimes do that. (I lived in S. Korea for ~4 years as a child) This was well before the time of Google Translate (2004-2008 ish) so we always carried around a Korean to English translation dictionary until we got used to the language enough to recognize the rates listed on the cab.
I marvel at the incompetence of Hertz's criminality: You'd think a competent extortion racketeer would have figured out, "Wait, this one's a lawyer; make sure to treat them correctly." Maybe the lawyer was fair-minded enough to never mention her professional status when many others would have used it as negotiating leverage? That would be interesting: Dishonesty can't win when faced with people who aren't themselves at least a little bit susceptible to it.
I dropped a Hertz rental at the agreed time, 4 pm. As I was pulling in, I see the agent locking the door and drive off, even waiving at me. They charged me an extra day. I filed a chargeback and it was accepted.
I had a similar nightmare experience with enterprise. I used Lyft to get home from a bar with a few buddies after a night of drinking. The Lyft driver was using a vehicle rented from enterprise. On our way home the driver was involved in an accident while we were still in the car. Enterprise tried to claim I was responsible for their vehicle and sent me a bill of 12k. I told them my name wasn’t on the rental agreement I wasn’t the driver and I wasn’t going to pay. The agent for their recovery team was no help and wanted me to prove that I wasn’t the driver. I told her that I didn’t have to prove anything and that it was her job to investigate and recover the damages, I don’t think she like that answer. Finally, after several months of harassment I contacted the better business bureau and filed a complaint before they finally took me serious and left me alone.
it's wild and ridiculous that a rental agency would let someone use their vehicle as a rideshare driver. they ask if you have a delivery job when you rent, so lying that you are not using the car for driving work is a violation of the contract the uber driver agreed to with enterprise.
@MrJCerqueira I agree, but that was between the driver and enterprise. I don't know why they tried to pin it on me. My name wasn't anywhere on that contract
The irony is that Hertz USED TO BE a top tier rental provider, along with Avis. They were always overpriced and unimpressive. I've used National for well over 20 years as an experienced traveler; they have always been very good to me.
I do tech support for a living and this whole process sounds painfully familiar to me. It's every time, literally...EVERY time, I call AT&T's BUSINESS tech support line. Wrong department (usually 2-3 times, calling the number that they gave me, of course.) over and over, then I can't help you, then maybe I can, then they can't find the account... It just goes on and on. They're pretty infamous at my job. Funny that people keep chirping about "market pressures". Hard to do that with a company that's almost permanently bonded to the U.S. Government because they gave them access to their network decades ago to keep tabs on users. No market pressure in the universe will matter at this point and boy howdy does it show. They are hands down the worst to deal with that I have ever experienced. Seems like Hurts is taking a page from their book.... "What are you going to do? Go to a competitor now?" (raucous laughter ensues.) Sure glad any and all customer rights protection laws never see the light of day due to briber----I mean "lobbying".
It’s one of the most woke companies in the US and yet, your story is very very accurate. Customers gained are just that, a number to help pay rich contracts for spokespersons like woke Taylor Swift at the expense of the employees every year during the annual purging of staff. Sigh. It really is too bad that they got HUGE in America but now hate America.
@@dcarts5616 "Live long enough as the hero and you will eventually become the villain." Mind you, I would debate if we were ever a 'hero'....but the world isn't a nice place lol.
Earlier this year I had issues with Enterprise, long story short, didnt matter that I had proof that it was damaged before I got it, it wasn't notes by their employees at any time so I was held liable for a vehicle that I didnt damage. I wont ever go to a car rental place again. I would rather buy a beater temporarily plate it and have it insured then use them again
"A spokesperson for Hertz, which also operates the Dollar and Thrifty rental brands, told me that the company “cares deeply about our customers and we regret Ms. Klonick’s experience, which does not reflect our standards of service.” What a load of crap...
Sounds like Hertz are actually taking bookings for what would be called "stand by" customers on an airline. They are over estimating the availability of cars. By underestimating the number of cars that will be returned late, stolen or returned damaged. Their computer algorithm is demonstrably wrong, but it is actually making them extra money. So they won't change it in a hurry. Then they supress the number of recorded complaints, by crippling their customer service helpline.
I had something similar with Hertz. They said they were all out of the cars I reserved, but I could get an upgraded car for only $20 more (per day). Worst experience was at Dollar, where the airport office was closed even though I had a reservation (including flight schedule). I called their customer service, and they basically told me "too bad", and I could wait 6 hours for the airport office to reopen. Luckily the Enterprise was open and gave me a rack rate rental at the Dollar price because of what happened.
I used to work for a company that operates under the "Hertz, Thrifty, and Dollar" car rental flags. They would do this to people daily, along with charging people for various damages that were already claimed and charged to multiple other customers. They charge a "smoking fee" to customers (some rightly so), then spray air freshener ("the detailed cleaning"), and when the odor would return, they would also charge the next several customers.
Wish I could say this surprises me, but it doesn't. Back when I used to work at Hertz, their computer system was garbage. They were talking about upgrading it when I quit, but even if they did, I doubt it's any better. It would show cars as available for rent, but when you tried to actually assign the car to a rental, a notice would pop up saying that the car was actually undergoing maintenance or had to be returned to the manufacturer or some other reason why the car actually wasn't available for rent, and physically would not let you assign the car to the rental. Or it would show cars available for rent that physically were not on the premises and nobody had any idea how they'd shown up in our system. As in, you'd plug the car's rental history into the system and it had NEVER been at that location. And they would ALWAYS overbook rentals, for the same reason the airlines overbook flights: they bank on a small (but not insignificant!) percentage of customers no-showing. And then the customers got screwed when a) 100% of the reservations showed up, and b) cars were returned late (or not at all) and there weren't enough cars to go around. As far as the jacking up the rate goes... never saw what she describes for myself, but I did see the "oh, we only have premium cars left, we'll have to charge you an upgrade fee to put you in that, unless you want a subcompact," bit. "If we don't have your reserved class, we'll put you in a different car at no charge" doesn't apply to premium classes (which I understand: don't want to put someone in a Mercedes if they've only paid for a Mazda), and the upcharge is locked into the computer system. Managers COULD override it... but they almost never did.
This happened to me with delta airlines, I made a reservation, went to the airport, got on the plane and the pilot announced that a fuse had blown that he was authorized to reset but since that fuse had blown 10 times over the last 30 days he was no longer able to reset it so we all got off the airplane. I talked to delta customer service and they told me they had rebooked me on a flight the next day because they were all booked up. The flight they had me on the next day got me to my weekend destination 25 minutes before my return flight and they told me not to delay because she couldn't guarantee they would hold the flight for me. After talking about flights to airports a couple hundred miles away in exasperation I asked "you don't have first class or anything?" she says yes but it will cost you an extra 600 dollars. So I had a choice 600 or miss my daughters high school graduation. So I paid the 600 dollars. When I finally got onto the airplane it was the same pilot as earlier and I asked if they got a new plane. He said "no they flew empty to a different airport where an engineer came out reset the fuse and they loaded up with passengers and continued the shuttle service.
As an aircraft mechanic, not all fuses are what you think. Some of the circuit boards and other safety devices are there to prevent FATAL ACCIDENTS. And not all facilities have maintenance personal/parts for the issue. FAA does alow one time flights to get aircraft to a maintenance facility for repairs and no passenger are allowed on those flights.. most airline pilots dont know half of the work required to fix the modern birds, or all the complex hoops maint has to jump through to trouble shoot and get a bird back in service.. most m9dern birds fly themselves, they just need somone on the stick to push destinations coordinates and emergencies.
Arrived in Tampa around 10:00 one evening, had a reservation with another company. Picked us up at the airport and delivered us to their (very remote) office only to tell us they had no cars - told us we reserved a "rate" not a car. We're stuck in the middle of nowhere, won't let us make a call, wouldn't take us back to the airport, so we haul our baggage 3/4 of a mile down a dark highway to a motel that had a public phone (pre-cell phone days), and called family (30 miles away) to pick us up. The lesson I learned is: make double or triple reservations with multiple companies - not a Kosher way of doing business, but necessary to protect one's self as long as the rental companies play these games.
After watching one of your videos saying that hertz was arresting their customers for falsely claiming the rental was stolen. I had a reservation with them to pick it in one state and dropping it off in another. I immediately reserved with another company and cancel after watching that video. When I went to pick my rental from the other company just to notice that hertz had no line whatsoever. I will never do business with hertz. And I got the other rental for alot less $600 to be exact for 4 days for a minivan.
Hertz: "I'm sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment."
Seinfeld: "I don't understand; I made a reservation; do you have my reservation?"
Hertz: "Yes we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars."
Seinfeld: "But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation."
Hertz: "I know why we have reservations."
Seinfeld: "I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation. You just don't know how to hold the reservation, and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them..."
The Outtakes are hilarious, too.
First thing I thought of as well 🤣🤣🤣
th-cam.com/video/ZTvtSKXwu0o/w-d-xo.html
Hilarious!😂😂😂
Absolutely classic bait and switch.
No question whatsoever.
A Hertz spokesperson just released a statement "While we at Hertz aim to screw over every customer we do business with, we deeply regret this incident. If we had known she was a lawyer, and that she would tweet the incident in such vivid detail, we would certainly have accommodated her."
Well, I'm satisfied...lol
Most people would have gone insane after dealing with this.
🤣🤣🤣 isn't that how the world works? We deeply regret this due to being called out.
Call. Put on hold 30 min. Call back 45 min. U get a manager. I can’t answer that, let me put u through to another manager. Repeat. Rinse. We all have experienced it. And we all know there is no manager. They want you to get so frustrated, you give up. I don’t know who started the practice. Probably insurance companies or AT&T. It’s become so common now, it feels like almost every company is handling complaints this way. Because it works. I have a claim to file with UHAUL. It states u have to go through arbitration. It would be nice to hire an attorney but the cost/reward isn’t justified. So 90% or more just say screw it. I currently am dealing with progressive on a claim where someone swiped the edge of my car while parked . I have full comprehensive / collision. Should be simple. Over 80 days. No car. No income. $3800 in rental fees. I’m all about capitalism and companies maximizing profits - ethically. They are causing extreme hardships in peoples lives on purpose. So much for striving for excellent customer service to retain customers
😂
I was done with Hertz when they refused to provide a legitimate alibi to a man who ended up being wrongly convicted of murder.
Can you tell me more or provide a link to this story?
@@1x1HealthyEnergybyAndrew Just google Hertz murder case.
@@boataxe4605 So years later he wanted a receipt ro use in his defense in a court case and they couldn't find it? Seems reasonable that they couldn't produce it immediately. What am I missing?
@@gblargg hertz’ accounting department would be embarrassed if that was an irs audit. They “must” hold records to support their tax returns…i was able to magically recover a year old receipt from a car dealership after i explained it that way.
@@gblargg The part where they ignored every legal notice until they ordered an exec to personally appear in court to explain the failure to produce the records, they suddenly found the records. The courts asked for the records and then Hertz ignored them for years.
The dog is named “Nina”. We have known Kate for years…… great person and I would not put it past her to push this as long as it took then become an advocate for all the customers Hertz has done wrong. Kate is a powerhouse…….
That's awesome. Please tell her thank you from all of us screwed by Hertz (and subsidiaries)
You got an update for us?
@@holstorrsceadus1990 came here to ask that also.
If you’re ever in Kodiak Alaska and in need of a rental car, I highly recommend Rent-A-Heap. They’re not nice cars and they’re not new, but they’ll get you where you’re going and won’t screw you over.
Why doesn't Kate have her own car?
Hertz - Should Be Sued OUT of Business - Period...New York AG Should Be Contacted Also...
A lawyer could do worse than setting up an office next door to hertz
😆 rite!
savage!
Ambulance Chasers 2: Rental Car Chasers
Now THAT is a great idea !!! Especially for new attorneys !!
Hertz just coming out of bankruptcy.... and treating customers like this. Are they THAT big of idiots?
Apparently…
Yes. Corporations seem to genuinely believe they can do anything they want, without repercussions.
Largely because, in way too many cases, they do.
Idiots too big to fail...
I avoid Hertz like the plague.
Last time I used them was years back - I booked a car (weeks in advance, this was for a wedding I was attending), arrived off my flight and was told "we don't actually have any cars of the size you booked (and had already paid for) at this location, I'll need your credit card to charge with the upgrade cost." Which 'upgrade' was also more than the original rental because it was a 'walk-in' price. I said "no," and stood my ground, and eventually left the location in the next size down, having been refunded for the difference from what I'd pre-paid..
When I returned the car a few days later, the manager tried to stiff me on fuel, marking it as half full, and still lying about what the gauge said even when we were both standing looking at it with the engine running, and needle on the far right. He backed down when I took a video of the gauge and odometer and threatened to sue him personally if he didn't record it truthfully.
There are worse and more systematically dishonest companies than Hertz in the world, but not many.
They should just change their slogan to "Hertz, doesn't it?"
@@SayAhh How about "We have your money, what do you mean you expected something in return?"
@@jonathanj8303 "That's illegal! That's quid pro quo!" /sarcasm
Reminds me of the scene from Wardogs where Jonah Hill's character tried to buy illicit susbtances. I'll link it in another comment in case TH-cam deletes it.
@@jonathanj8303 th-cam.com/video/IaGGq73wqPU/w-d-xo.html
i'll give you a few companies. Nestle, United Airlines, Enterprise, Spirit Airlines, etc. do you see a pattern here? car rental and airlines have abused us for too damn long
Notifying the Better Business Bureau is about as effective as pissing in the wind. The businesses in their lists pay to be there.
Everything I've heard and read from people that worked in car rentals is that it is pretty much a universal fact that rental reservations mean nothing. They'll try their best to help the customer, but the simple fact is the cars aren't there for them to rent.
Oh they HAVE to honor the price? How? The cars are gone? What now? Pay for them to rent from competitor? It turns out they have same policies and they are out of cars too! Uh oh!
Point is, it doesn't matter if something is illegal if the fear of punishment isn't there.
That last sentence you have is critical. It is the same reason the whole "defund the police" is nonsense. If there is no fear of punishment from someone, everything will turn into lawlessness.
“Pay for them to rent from a competitor?”
This is the standard hotels are held to. If you have a reservation but the hotel is full, the hotel is obligated to find you alternate, equivalent accommodation at their expense.
After hearing all the nonsense with hertz from Steve, I’m shocked Hertz is still in business. From letting a man wrongfully get imprisoned for murder, to informing the police their vehicles are stolen while out on contract. This is serious BS.
They declared bankruptcy in May 2020. Wonder why.
@@craigclose125 Yeah, so it’ll be difficult/near impossible to collect on litigations. However that was 2020, so they may have earned money since then and things may have changed. Of course, I do have to comment I’m not a lawyer, just another person with an opinion.
That's right! It was Hertz that wouldn't provide the alibi. I remember that episode. Wasn't Hertz the company that had that football player that murdered his wife as their marketing personality?
@@bluestormcloud791 That’s before my day, but I took a quick look, and apparently they did hire OJ for ads. Seems they didn’t learn, seeing these ads with Tom Brady now. Guess we should keep a close eye on him now, given Hertz track record.
Well. They just emerged from Bankruptcy Reorganization a few weeks back. The CEO is very proud of the new team. They plan to dominate “the Mobility Ecosystem Space” or some similar line of BS. Before moving on to World Domination of “Mobility”, they should learn how to run a car rental business.
With this kind of stellar customer service, I can not imagine how Hertz fell into Bankruptcy Administration. Well done Hertz!
From my understanding: They're fine financially, they have two sides of the company. It's offloading debt from one company to the other. The family has been building huge estates in St Louis.
funny thing is, I am sure this public outing of Hertz is going to cost them a lot more than what this woman is asking for.
Yeah, I'd never rent a car from them.
They filed for bankruptcy, so they can't be in good shape anyways, and this is a nice public reminder that they are in shambles.
I had something similar with Hertz years ago. Bad seal on the back of a truck let water in during a rainy day. Took it to fair trading (Aussie business disputes court) won, they refused to pay until a day after the due date, took it bad to the court, the manager of the branch had a trading stay put on him (not allowed to trade from that branch) for a month for contempt of court. That magistrate didn't mess about.
In these situations, I put myself in an attitude of "I don't care if I win, as long as they lose." I then budget out an amount of time and money to use to make them have to pay their lawyers more than I ever would have won.
I find it humorous that TH-cam decided to serve me a hertz advertisement at beginning of this video.
They're spending a ton on advertising, because that's all they got going for them. Lets Go!
@@bg6b7bft let's not.
Not humorous. Just bad logic. Hertz, car, and rental popped up in the dialog so many times that it was SURE to be a relevant ad. That it would have been a better spot for, say, Enterprise, Alamo, or even U-Haul, is beside the point.
Hertz did this to me recently. I had a car reserved for a week but when I went to pick up the car they didn't have one. Instead they offered me one that would cost twice as much per day to rent. When I said no we went round in circles with them basically saying it's all they have so take it or leave it. I asked why they didn't have the right car available since I reserved it a week ago and they actually said that a reservation didn't mean a car would be held for you, that it was first come first served with what they had available on the lot. Yeah, they actually said that. Reserving a car doesn't mean one will be reserved. Fuck Hertz.
(The rental car episode of Seinfeld)
"You are realy good at taking reservations, but not so good holding and keeping the reservations!"
UHaul does the same thing. They overbook their equipment. You can have a reservation in hand, show up and they won't have the truck/trailer/whatever.
I’ve got fucked so bad by uhaul 😓
Did you ever see the Seinfeld show about the rental car company? Jerry: you can take the reservations but you just cannot keep the reservation.
th-cam.com/video/4T2GmGSNvaM/w-d-xo.html
@@BarryB382 I gotta watch that
We had a bait and switch experience with Hertz years ago. Booked a large suv (we have a large family with kids and luggage). When we arrived they said they only had the next size down (which would not fit our needs) so we refused. Stepped over 1 counter to Avis who provided great service and got us the vehicle we needed. Been using Avis ever since.
That isn't a bait and switch, it is an inventory management issue
Avis: We try harder!*
*Harder than Hertz, at least...
Makes me wonder how a Hertz rep would react if you said, 'Just give me a refund.' I'll bet they don't hear that often enough.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826
They’d probably say we can only give you a refund when the next stool pigeon lays down their deposit. Please wait.
This should explain everything th-cam.com/video/ZTvtSKXwu0o/w-d-xo.html
I had almost this exact situation except worse, first and last time using Hertz. They were unable to honor my Christmas Eve reservation that they had already confirmed... because the location was closed the day for the holiday. I had to spend a bunch on alternative travel and then their systems automatically triggered a "no show" fee which I had to contest (which they did overturn after a long call). If we didn't have the American system where you need to pay a bunch of lawyer/court fees to fight these practices I'd absolutely have gone after them for damages on the difference
Small claims court is like 80bucks in my state. It takes less than u think
@@matthewwarren7879 but there's the time. this is a lawyer, and her time is quite expensive, none of which she would be able to recover.
@@virt1one yes time is always ticking but i don't see how that makes any difference. youve gotta make a value judgment on it and decide what to do. may not be worth pursuing if someone is too busy.
@@matthewwarren7879 From their behavior, apparently they can ignore small claims court, as well.
I worked as a rental agent at an airport and I can believe every word.
My last rental with hertz ended up with me receiving an email from them saying/asking if I was planning to file my insurance for the “accident” I had when I had rented a vehicle from them. The funny thing was I had a receipt from an agent that clearly said that the vehicle was in pristine condition when I got to the airport to return the vehicle. It took two months of them doing research to finally admit it was one of their drivers that had backed up into a pillar. If I hadn’t gotten to the airport early and waited for them to do the inspection and give me a receipt I would have been forced to pay for the accident that was not my fault.
I've heard on the news and on Facebook where Hertz is doing this all the time now. One story was a person was charged (after the fact of turn-in) for a car cleaning for smoking in the car and pet hair. The person who rented the car didn't smoke nor had they ever smoked and they were the only person who travelled in the car. Neither did they have a pet. The person refused to pay the "added" charge and disputed it with their credit card company.
@Sikandar Durrani - How did you find out it was an Hertz employee that backed the car into a pillar ? They told you ? Ever since cell phones and ability to video, I always walk around the car when returning and get a backdrop of the location and last thing I do is video the car return receipt. I actually had the same accusation months after a car rental, I never heard back from them after providing a walk around video of the car being returned.
Recommend using your cellular phone to video the car (internal / external) both at the time of rental and at turn in.
@@williamlloyd3769 Similar to how you should do it when renting an apartment or house.
Hertz has a computer inventory system that tracks all the cars across the entire country. Saying they dont know their inventory is an outright lie. They know everything in their inventory. Any agent can look at the inventory of many other locations across the nation. They KNOWINGLY overbook.
Just like some airlines do.
I've had terrible experiences with Hertz over the years. Nothing I could sue for, nothing that seemed to be illegal on their part, but just horrible experiences as a customer (waiting hours for a pick up, the old 'we don't have any more cars in that class scam, horrible customer service, etc.).
They should actually re-hire O.J. Simpson as their spokesperson, it would be very fitting.
Oh they're horrible and since a lot of times you're traveling and they have you for a barrel they're actually smug and arrogant about it like they think they're your boss or something you are subject to their wins they don't seem to be aware of all the paperwork you sign for them constitutes a contract and if they are aware they just don't seem to care. Customer service is a thing of the past because with the internet corporate executives are no longer worried about the customers always right and repeat business they figured they'll just make it up in volume!
NOW every hertz car comes with a complimentary bloody glove in the glove box ! B-)
I can see the commercial now…….Here at Hertz, we’re slashing rental fees. You can even upgrade to the NO DNA guarantee…..we promise to remove all of your DNA from the vehicle.
Thanks for the O.J. reference, I was thinking the same thing.
O. J. would seemingly elevate Hertz's reputation at this point! Sears may even survive Hertz. Every story about Hertz in recent times has been a scandal. Did Tesla ever get an order on Hertz's EV PR scheme‽
Days in advance of my trip I called and reserved a car with Hertz at the Billings MT airport. My arrival time was at 10:10 PM and the Hertz rep told me that their office would close at 12 midnight so with that in mind I rented the car. The plane arrived on time and the Hertz rental office was right next to the luggage carousel but at 10:25 the office was closed. Right next to Hertz was an Alamo car rental and I ask them about Hertz and they told me that when they no longer had any cars available they closed. Since I was stuck I rented a car from Alamo at a lower price and a better model. When I returned my rental at the Billings airport I contacted the now open Hertz office and after a phone call, they did refund my reservation deposit.
I had a similar experience with Hertz earlier this year. They wanted to add $1400 to a $300 reservation for asking to add 3 days onto a week reservation just 2 days after the original booking and over a month before we needed the car. Canceling and rebooking made it a $450 reservation. No problem Hertz. I found another rental company and already made the top renter status they have… Not sure how Hertz thinks they’ll get back on their feet this way. Seems more like shooting themselves in the foot.
This Hurts just to listen to what happened…. Thank you for calling hurts…. Hold please…. 30 min click. I can’t imagine how furious i would be…. Multiple times omg
They should have just taken a bus, right? And now I have the theme song from your videos stuck in my head again 😀
This Hertz to listen to you mean?
It sounded like calling a cable company.
@@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket I work at hertz sometimes, Im a vendor. Ive had to wait 1 hr for them to answer the phone to let me in and fix their air conditioner. Needless to say I billed them for the hour. Its a terrible place.
I've been going through this with Lowe's. They installed defective doors in April 2021. I'm at a point where the replacement doors are at the store, but they won't ship them until a date for the install is confirmed. (The installer has been great and confirmed the date with me. Lowe's keeps "losing" the date.) Each call is multiple hang ups and 2-3 hours.
I used to work at a Hertz location in NW Arkansas and CAN confirm that they do indeed deliberately overbook cars as well as engaging in various other unethical practices.
I once had a rental car company charge me an extra several hundred dollars over my contract rate for returning a car one hour too EARLY. I got nowhere with their customer service until I tweeted my story and tagged their twitter account. Suddenly, they decided they COULD offer me a refund for the difference.
I once had a rental car company who made it obligatory to use their insurance company despite not needing to do so. Tried fighting it with them and my credit card company and guess what... I lost.
@@LinoBarraza It was 20 years ago, but we had the same experience on a Florida package vacation that cost $thousands. Can't recall the rental company, but Hertz isn't impossible. Fortunately, in the aftermath, we were able to successfully claim the money back from the company that sold us the package deal. tbh we were quietly hoping that our choice would be 'out of stock' and that they would have to upgrade us for free (it was in the contract). However the car we got was clean, comfortable and economical.
I was rear-ended while in a rental car. The car was totaled with all the airbags deployed. We were barely able to drive back to the rental yard. The rental company later sent me a bill because I didn't fill up the totaled car with fuel before returning it.
Didn't hertz have people arrested for renting cars that they originally been alleidly reported as stolen ??
Yes, she as a lawyer SHOULD at a minimum charge her normal lawyer rates
While in principle, I agree, doing that might raise the amount of the settlement to above the limit of a small-claims claim into a full-blown case, at which point, she'd probably retain counsel of her own, and then have to win big enough to play their fee. That's a trickier proposition, and a much more time-consuming one.
And when you add stress and hassle to the greatly increased fiscal risks, it becomes apparent that she's probably being smart by staying in small claims, since in that case, Hertz gets hurt if they drag their feet, instead of her. You want to fight battles you can win, but you still have to bear in mind that Pyrrhic victories are still a thing.
@@bookman7409 NY small claims maxes out at $10k
I would charge them my rate if i was in her shoes! Just go for it!
it doesn't work that way. what if you're Jeff Bezos?
@@hoogabooga9736 jeff bezos only makes 100k a year, the rest is stocks, company paid travel expenses food, etc. but his annual salary is actually much lower than a lawyer. his net worth is in stock, which is not a salary. its a legal tax loophole. that example means nothing.
I dealt with Hertz exactly once in my life. It was a couple years ago. It was rented on my behalf by the insurance company of the driver that put my car into the body shop. They made the reservation for the car with Hertz on my behalf. When I arrived, I was told that they did not have a car for me. They did, however have some returns due in. I had to sit and wait for one to arrive. As I recall, it was smaller than the one that was on the reservation. I had run into availability issues at other companies and was always accommodated immediately with a car in a larger class for the same rate as the one that I had reserved. When telling this to others, I discovered that this is how Hertz seems to do business. I have never dealt with them again and I plan never to do so.
"It's just money" is something a lawyer can get away with saying.
"It's just money."
Then
"That I'll sue for later, let's just go now."
It's a nice gig if you can get it.
Boggles my mind that people can pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars to only _use_ a car for _only_ a week.
The rich really are different.
@@ElectroDFW Gee, did someone prevent you from going to law school, or engineering school? If somebody makes enough money to support themselves and their family, they can spend the rest on whatever they want. Yes, it is a nice gig, and you can get it if you put in the time and effort to get a degree. Quicher whinin' and go to night-school.
@@danmoyer4650 Not everyone is academic Dan?
Getting a degree isn't necessarily the right course for everyone, unless they show an aptitude for it.?
Honestly I don't understand how overbooking things, flights, vehicle rentals, concert tickets, whatever isn't considered some sort of fraud. As a company it should be relatively easy to have records of how many $20,000+ wheel boxes you own and where they are, seems like a very important thing to keep track of, and if you know how many you have, then you simply only agree to rent that many, BOOM how easy is that? On the other hand if you knowingly agree to a contract to rent a thing, or ferry a passenger, or allow access to a venue or whatever, because you know how many of thing X you have and you as a company agree to give more than you have, then you knowingly can't fulfill your side of the bargain. Instead we have specific laws at least in the airline sector that make it legal and have laws governing exactly how much you can inconvenience people. Unless you have an oracle that can peer into the future and know exactly how many people aren't going to show up you simply shouldn't be allowed to overbook, in fact I'd go as far as to say these companies should be charged some multiplier of the original agreement for every person that showed up for a double booked seat/car. Of course consumer protections never go far enough as to make sure consumers are actually protected and the companies can get away with it as long as suing them is too inconvenient, because these laws don't pass if they actually compensate wronged consumers in a meaningful way... I wonder why...
Come on, she's a law professor and still thinks the BBB is legitimate?
I was the CTO of a company that partnered with Hertz in Los Angeles, let me tell you, they are so far mixed up that this story does not surprise me. We partnered to supply their exotic cars and we supplied the staff to handle it, so many times we saw people get stuck at the LAX location and not have any cars, almost daily. They overbook like airlines overbook
That last sentence reflects exactly what I was thinking!
Was this in the Ford timeframe, or the Mark Frizzora timeframe?
@abigmonkeyforme Very true and I agree with you 100%. After I left the exotic car market, I consulted for a few years to other car rental companies and one of the most important things I expressed is customer service. If overbooked, contact the customer and make other arrangements, dont punish them for being your customer. We overbooked exotics sometimes, but we always offered an upgrade at the same rate. if we only had lower car, we gave the lower car rate plus a day free for to make up for it. Even lower class car customers should be treated with good service - I just happen to know some insight to Hertz and I can say they are just a numbers company and dont really care about customer service as a whole. you may find a good manager who does, but they quickly leave to another company.
The dog wanted to remain incognito.
I’ve only used Enterprise for cars.
"Kafkaesque" seems an appropriate description of at least 25% of my interactions with Hertz. Dealing with them Hertz very much.
And they wonder why terrorism is on the rise. People have limits.
I’ll never use this company again then.
Steve, I once heard somewhere that it is easy to take the reservation. But what really matters is the holding the reservation.
Anyone can take a reservation
Ahh good ol' Jerry Seinfeld
Ha ha ha!
Years ago Hertz pulled a "bait and switch" on me with my first reservation with them. I've never been back. Another company had run out of the class I had reserved a few years later. I not only got a better class than I had reserved, but I got it at the price quoted on my reservation. When I traveled this past summer I tried to reserve with them and they honestly told me they had no vehicles available for that date at that location. This is how the good companies do business.
I had that in UK with Enterprise. When I arrived they already knew they had run out of the class I'd booked, and said they'd already reserved a better car for me at the same price, but if I preferred I could ask for a refund.
No fuss, no pressure. That's how it should be.
You just summed up the world with your last sentence. About 1-5% of the world is corrupt, evil, spineless and just bad when the rest of us have to suffer in the world they run and make corrupt because they are either loudest, complain the most or have all the money and airwaves. Great post…
Steve, you need to do a Zoom interview with her! Thanks for covering this, I saw this the other day.
Sue them and report them. This was utter fail of customer service and the supervisors should have known better about not meeting the reservation's terms. Hertz overbooking and then hoping that people will pay the higher prices is definitely illegal and shouldn't happen with computer tracked inventory and reservations.
_I watch everything in _*_Closed Captions._*_ Many times the words are not what's been Spoken. However, almost every time you were saying _*_"Hertz"_*_ the _*_Closed Captions_*_ was posting _*_"Hurt"._*_ I thought about the irony of that relating to the story about the lawyer's experience._ 😂
My question is, why did she continue to try to use a company that made it very clear, they did not want to have her as a customer?
In my last experience this year,, Hertz service is horrible and their cars are in worse shape than at Rent-A-Wreck.
Because everywhere else would (justifiably) be at 'walk-in' pricing levels, and possibly because Hertz already had her money and/or a reservation against her card?
Could she go to a different car rental place, rent a car for whatever the price, then sued Hertz for breach of contract, and also for the cost difference of the new rental.
Because it was Thanksgiving, and all the other companies were just as swamped...I think the biggest issue is that customers rent cars, and don't return them on time...? Especially during thanksgiving weekend.
@@brentfarvors192 Another problem is that rental companies don't have enough vehicles. During the lockdowns of 2020 there was less travel and thus less demand for rental cars. Rental companies sold off (then) surplus fleet. Things are open again and demand is rising. Unfortunately car manufactures are experiencing parts shortages. Production is down and there are waiting lists for what can be produced. Rental companies can't buy enough cars to rebuild fleets because they just aren't available
At Enterprise, they pick you up and drop you off. I rented from them when my cars were being repaired and never had a problem. Hertz should take a close look at that business model. I've heard many horror stories about Hertz customer service over the years and they are just as bad as Bell customer service. Corporate complacency becomes the norm, it seems.
Agree about Enterprise never had an issue
Can't agree enterprise last weekend didn't have my car that I reserved with a confirmation number. When I got there the last car was given to the individual ahead of me.
Agree outstanding company that gives employees the chance to move up. They have a buy in to good service
In Hertz's hands the pick up and drop off model would turn into a nightmare.
Enterprise has always treated me well, as well as Alamo and National the few times I've used them (same company/fleet). Now, I have gotten a different car from them than I reserved when there was short supply at an airport location. I could have waited, but had no issues when I came back the next day to swap it out, and even got a free upgrade from a premium to a luxury without even asking. They even recommended the best time to come for the greatest selection based on what times cars were scheduled to come back at. The neighborhood locations have also always been great at picking me up or dropping me off if needed, or when I've needed an insurance rental. I'll pay a few bucks extra to reserve with Enterprise just to know I'm not going to have to deal with crap customer service.
Many years ago, I managed a coffee house for a time. The best advice I ever got was that how the customer feels from the time they walk in to the time they leave is the most important thing one can do for your business. This is something that companies spend millions on getting people to develop positive feelings for a brand or product, yet forget that all of the advertising in the world can be negated with one bad customer interaction.
Keeping the place neat and clean may not even register consciously with customers, but effects how we feel when we walk in. Having employees who are well trained and groomed who relate with customers is important. If a customer asks for something extra in their coffee, just give it to them. If they or others keep asking for the extra item, add it to the menu and charge extra.
Customer service is important. I use a local internet service provider, their service is mediocre, but the customer service people are good. I've had my cell phone disconnect while on a complex interaction but the service rep called me back. I wish they were a better company but their people try. That's good enough.
I agree with everything you've saying. My son however has made it clear to me his company doesn't notice any of his efforts to give the customer a positive experience. I have raised him to be polite and helpful and he isn't going to give that up. The lower level managers don't have the proper understanding to do their job.
@@jeromemckenna7102 I used to live in Manassas, Virginia back in the 1980s when the only local ISP was the local phone company whose customer service was horrible. You had to go to their office and sit in a room full of phones that you could use to call their customer service -- you couldn't reach customer service any other way. There were no employees that you could interact with to complain to or even ask any questions. When I started attending the local community college, one of my professors asked us to introduce ourselves and give our occupations. One of the students was a young woman who said she was an employee of the local phone company, then added that she couldn't help us with our customer service problems -- everyone laughed and/or groaned! 😵
@@eddarby469
Unfortunately many employers are not willing, or even actively discourage, any attempts of employees to communicate up the management chain issues and ideas that will help the business and employees to thrive. I have seen ex employees years later who thanked me for the great experience, and said that the things they learned helped get them good jobs where people treated them well. Having a decent example of what a good boss looks like helps us too both avoid being a bad boss, and not tolerate them.
So many companies spend a pile of cash trying to obtain new customers, but neglect the customers they already have. Many times they also do not have adequate staff to look after their customers. Also possible that this happens every day at this location, and if head office only pays staff to noon everyday, what should staff do? (Besides quit) Hope head office gets the message!
It would be terrifying to navigate NYC streets.
I am a Hertz employee and we do not know how many cars we have for rent we just keep fulfilling reservations if you get a car you get a car if you don't sorry have a nice day you got to realize we go through so many different companies Expedia you name it that's why we don't know how many cars we have for rent
In this circumstance she can add _entrapment_ under Federal law because of the bait and switch nature being effectively triggered from the national call center. She arrived with the contractual obligation that Hertz provide her a means of transport to then leave without her own means of being transported.
1. Hertz, I will never, ever rent a car from your company or any other rental agencies that you own. As far as I understand, this means I won’t rent from Dollar, Thrifty or Firefly. Your corporation is a terrible citizen of the world extorting customers like you do. I travel a lot so not only will you lose my business forever, I hope this lawyer wins as largely as possible in her small claims suit.
2. Unfortunately, this is not a problem with just Hertz, but overall, corporation’s across the United States and probably the world could not care less about customers. They only care about how much money they can make. And, every time a customer has a negative experience with corporate America, they always want to apologize for the bad experience but they.NEVER are willing to do whatever it takes to make it right. That means that their Apologies are empty. People, we need to stop accepting being treated as customers as crap. We need to stop using these bad companies and find other good companies that care.
That's been the case for years. A business's first priority is their shareholders. A customer is way down the line.
@@olsmokey corporations are required by law to think only of their shareholders and how to make them the most money that can be made.
My wife and I were coming back from a trip to Cancun. When we arrived at the airport, they told us our flight was over booked and that we had been bumped. We sighed, and asked the desk agent how we could get back home. She said apologetically that she had another flight leaving 1 hour later, but was direct to Atlanta (our final destination) and unfortunately didn't have a 2 hour layover in Miami. And also apologetically, that coach was booked and we would get stuck in business class. And since we were bumped that it wouldn't cost us extra. That was customer service.
The horror the horror.
Who cares. Quit hijacking other people's videos. If it bothers you put your own up
@@andyrogers1200 Did you actually read the irony! They got better service! If you cannot understand irony, spend a month in England.
@@andyrogers1200 What are you going to do about it?
I always get disconnected when I ask for a supervisor.
Moral of the story: Renting from Hertz hurts.
I remember in financial class this being called a Bait and Switch. You offer someone a product at a certain price tell them it’s unavailable. Then offer another similar product for a greater price.
I flew into Milwaukee once and, because it last minute and I was travelling stand-by, I didn't know when I was getting there so I didn't make a reservation for a rental car. I arrived late at night and Hertz was the only rental company open. The guy at the counter told me they were out of cars and he couldn't help me. I got out my laptop (this was right before smartphones) and got on the internet and made a reservation. 20 minutes after the guy told me there were no cars they suddenly had one for me. When I got to the lot to pick up my car, there must have been 40 cars there.
My ex wife use to work there and Hertz does have good policies on paper but the problem is that the people that are supposed to execute those policies have a conflict of interest because they get bonuses based on the upgrades and every additional dollar that you spend past your original reservation because that part is like free money to Hertz. She used to get a minimum of 4-$5000 every bonus. If they would’ve gotten her to take the new reservation at the $1800 they would’ve gotten that as a part of their complete bonus instead of only getting something if she upgrades or takes the insurance or the prepaid gas. so that’s why I think they kept trying to push the new reservation instead of giving her the one she maid on her own.
The old blind dog must have been angry. "Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I can't smell all the dog hair back here!"
Steve its 2024... Just now seeing this. So did Kate Klonick get her money owed???? I got many breach of contract and ive yet to see a penny owed to me
I had the same problem with Hertz in Jacksonville at the airport. I had a reservation last minute and when I flew in I was told they did not have the car. I was 19 at the time and it was roughly midnight when I flew in. They made me get a more expensive car that I was not even allowed to drive due to their policy and it was triple the amount of my original contract. I couldn't go to another rental company because of my age, the only reason I could use hertz was because I am a member of USAA and the agent told directly he knew I wouldn't be able to get another car. Once I finally agreed to this I was told I have to take the insurance, toll pass, and XM radio. Once I said no to those extras he told me "you're taking it or you're not getting a car." It was hard to believe what was really happening at the time, especially being a member of a military bank and insurance company. Let me make it clear, I'm not personally military. My father is a Marine but the Hertz agent didn't know that. Actions like that is what paved their way for bankruptcy and from the way it looks, its paving the way for their next bankruptcy.
I hope you reported this, via mailed letter, to USAA.
It would be dealt with.
I feel ya on what happened but, you weren’t supposed to be able to even drive the car admittedly? Please clarify. If you lied about who you were or omitted saying who you were and what you weren’t entitled to, isn’t that just as bad as what Hertz (a terrible company we get it and we agree) did?
@@dcarts5616 i have USAA it allows for under age drivers
I always take a picture of the fuel gauge at pick up and drop off. I've only rented a few cars in my life time but I hear horror stores like this one that make me do the things I do. I take photo of the vehicle as well, inside and out. One day U-haul tried saying the light on top was my responsibility. I showed them the picture and they ate crow. That saved me a headache. This was minor in the grand scheme of things but still worked in my favor none the less.
This is 100% on Hertz corporate.
They clearly mislead her several times and made no attempt to communicate with their locations.
It must suck being a Hertz employee and knowing that no matter what effort you put in, you'll be the face of Hertz incompetence.
.
Also she is entitled to well more than the difference in the promised rate and what she paid. The promised rate was for a mid size sedan and a rental starting Sunday. What she got was a compact that was a full day later. Even if we take Hertz at their word regarding the refund, they still aren't in compliance with the law. Why should she be paying for a day she wasn't given?
I've been done with Hertz for a few years, now. I needed a rental to go to my brother's funeral. I used my gold membership to reserve a specific vehicle, as opposed to a class of vehicle. Their website even went so far as to tell me that I would be responsible for the first day's rental cost if I did not show up to take possession, as I had reserved a specific vehicle. I showed up, and they did not have the vehicle. The best he could offer me was a scary looking rust bucket of a van with no windows behind the driver's seat. Seriously, I would have never looked at it and guessed it was part of their rental fleet. I noped that one because . . . scary looking, and because at least one child has issues with motion sickness. If I hadn't shown up they would have been happy to take my money for a car they didn't have, but they were unable to meet my needs despite the reservation. I ended up going to their competitor who got me on the road in a matter of about 90 minutes (because they drove the car I needed from the next county). It would take some real motivation to get me to use Hertz again. I'm just not interested.
I always enjoy watching the Tube
with stories that often include
Steve displaying his shirts
discussing of the failures of Hertz
It's not unique to Hertz. U-Haul was notorious for taking "reservations" for trucks they didn't have. If you cancelled and went elsewhere they charged you a cancellation fee.
I just don't get how these giant companies can keep getting more blatantly bone-headed and openly greedy. This isn't the first time I've read about companies charging a cancellation fee for cancelling a service that they can't even provide.
United Airlines (and others, as well) will also overbook, and sometimes drag you off their plane! (Pre-pandemic, too!)
I've rented from u haul about a dozen times, always had a positive experience...
Except, one time I drove down to Florida to rent a van and help a relative move a few things up north. But someone just crashed it (it was in the lot crashed), so I got a "free" upgrade to the biggest moving truck they offer (because it was all they had in stock), for a nice 1400 mile trip @ 8 mpg.
@@SayAhh Ah, the before-times of 2017. "We'll sell you a ticket for a seat that isn't there and then give you a concussion and knock out some teeth as we drag you off the plane!" The kicker (hah) is that their company slogan is "Fly the friendly skies."
@@CantankerousDave They should drop the "r" and say, "Fly the Fiendly Skies"
As someone who traveled for work and drove rental cars much more than my own for years, usually renting for only a day or two from a wide variety of companies, I can definitively say, Hertz is one of the worst for customer service and value. This is sadly not surprising at all.
Also, fyi, Hertz Global owns Thrifty.
I will never rent a car. Ever.
I know this is an old video, and im sure Hertz sucks. That said I have an insight and a thought about why they may be overbooking. I am a mechanic and a handyman. I have never done work for a rental car company, but im considered very good at what I do (not trying to sound arrogant but just to give perspective) and am often contracted to set up new maintenance programs/ hire staff at newly purchased apartment complexes/ strip malls and most relevant, hotels. A common mistake hotel managers/ owners make that I always have to talk them out of is booking to 100% capacity. When other people are using your stuff, hotel rooms, or in Hertz' case cars, you ALWAYS need to assume you are going to get some back in unusable condition. I would guess its worse with cars but if you book a 200 room hotel to capacity on a Friday night you are going to be unable to provide rooms to usually 2-4 of those guests because some people are going to break the TV, damage the shower body, some of the PTACs are going to go out, 10 people are going to trash the room, put holes in walls, burn the bed or carpet etc, and someone is going to complain they saw an ant or smell a phantom smell and demand a new room. While maintenance can rush repair most of it there are always going to be a few that cannot be repaired in time or where damage is unnoticed until the new guest checks in. Therefore you need to leave about 2 rooms empty for every 100, unfortunately owners, managers and im sure Hertz HATE this because it means they cant get every penny out of the business, but if you dont do it you are going to end up with people throwing fits and suing you.
I had an issue with EasyCar. I booked a car, but then got mobilised (2003). I tried to cancel and they declined without proof. I sent them proof. They still declined as my papers didn’t state where I would be sent.
My oldest daughter had just seen a consumer affairs programme and told me that EasyCar had been renting out dangerous vehicles.
I emailed them a 3rd time to say that while my papers didn’t state I was headed to the Gulf, it was most likely. If I didn’t go yo the Gulf, I would not have accrued enough leave to take my trip! I then wrote about what my daughter had informed me, and stated that as a professional driver, IF they didn’t cancel my booking I’d be taking the car and checking it thoroughly. If I found any illegal faults, I’d be contacting the relevant Govt agency with my findings and the recommendation their licence to lease vehicles be revoked.
I even got the non-refundable deposit back
My wife was a manager at Hertz for years until covid hit and she was laid off because they shut down her office. It is completely true corporate does not keep track of inventory at their individual terminals. My wife was always complaining about this. People would make a reservation online only to show up at her office and she would have no cars available. And I'm sure the matter is worse now. When Hertz filed bankruptcy she was having a really hard time getting cars transferred to her location. Because they were having to downsize their national fleet. Think of Hertz as the ball under the cup game. Cars are constantly being shuffled around from location to location. Not just by the customer but the terminals as well. My wife would call other locations on a daily basis asking for cars to get transferred to her. And the other terminals would do the same. Every terminal has dedicated drivers to go and pick up cars or deliver cars. And when one location was really short on cars they would send a car carrier that could haul 6 cars. The local managers know best how to wrangle up cars. So if a local manager tells you there are no cars. Take that as the gospel truth. Because they have already talked to all the managers in their district if they can get a car from them.
I worked in the construction industry from the early 90's to the early 00's in Ireland. My role was Plant & Transport manager. I had to keep track of where every piece of mechanical equipment (Over 5000 pieces) big & small and every vehicle (over 300) we had was, who was driving etc. Capable software has been available since the early 90's to manage your fleet. It is totally unbelievable that a company of the stature and scale of Hertz cannot manage a fleet and honour contracts with clients. This is where legislators need to step up and hold these companies to account.
In the US the legislators do the bidding of corporations. Not the other way around.
I agree with you. I bet they can provide what is promised with what software they have, they just make more money this way. Nothing like having unhappy customers!
So with that software how far into the future could you tell where any one piece would be?
How many location did manage? (that is how may different places could the information be changed?)
In USA Hertz donate to both parties and by that is safe and can make the laws to suite them.
No legislation needed. In a free market the customers have the power to decide who to do business with.
i feel so lucky. never had problems with them. i never get the car that i rented. always get upgraded... but they never charged me more.
Sounds like "The check is in the mail"
Gotta give the woman props for being able to tweet a five page letter.
Had an experience myself with a car rental company (not Hertz) a couple of years ago where I tried to rent a car to make the last leg of a trip home from New York City. I landed in Seattle where I was due to transfer to a commuter airline that serves my hometown from there. My flight home, a distance of less than 150 miles, was cancelled due to weather on the ground at home. I went to the rental desk to see about getting a car to drive the rest of the way home and was quoted a price of over $2000 for a vehicle that I needed for less than four hours and where I was going to drop off it off at the company's location a half mile from my house. The cost of the rental would have been more than my round trip to New York had cost altogether. I ended up paying $50 for a cab from SEATAC to the King Street train station and an additional $65 for a train ticket home. Still better than paying for a hotel room in Seattle that I had no reason to need.
Planes, trains and two thousand dollar automobiles
A taxi driver in Korea tried to extort me by charging me about 10 times the posted rate. He was shocked when he realized I could read and write Han gul, the Korean language. I wrote down his name and license number, as well as the posted number for filing an official complaint. He begged me to hand over my notes, but I refused and pointed at the rates. He muttered, grimaced, then agreed to the much lower rate. I hasten to add, however, that this was the only such incident I encountered in a country full of truly wonderful people.
Yeah, Korean taxi drivers sometimes do that. (I lived in S. Korea for ~4 years as a child) This was well before the time of Google Translate (2004-2008 ish) so we always carried around a Korean to English translation dictionary until we got used to the language enough to recognize the rates listed on the cab.
I experience this in Thailand. Didn’t speak the language though, but we knew he was ripping us off and we stood our ground
Hertz is the Bank of America of car rental companies.
I marvel at the incompetence of Hertz's criminality: You'd think a competent extortion racketeer would have figured out, "Wait, this one's a lawyer; make sure to treat them correctly." Maybe the lawyer was fair-minded enough to never mention her professional status when many others would have used it as negotiating leverage? That would be interesting: Dishonesty can't win when faced with people who aren't themselves at least a little bit susceptible to it.
Hertz messed with a attorney they are so screwed. Hertz couldn’t even read the sign on the wall.
I bank with chase. Anytime iv been bait and switched on anything. I dispute through chase, iv never been denied a refund.
Great story! You definitely need to do a follow up.
I dropped a Hertz rental at the agreed time, 4 pm. As I was pulling in, I see the agent locking the door and drive off, even waiving at me. They charged me an extra day. I filed a chargeback and it was accepted.
I had a similar nightmare experience with enterprise. I used Lyft to get home from a bar with a few buddies after a night of drinking. The Lyft driver was using a vehicle rented from enterprise. On our way home the driver was involved in an accident while we were still in the car. Enterprise tried to claim I was responsible for their vehicle and sent me a bill of 12k. I told them my name wasn’t on the rental agreement I wasn’t the driver and I wasn’t going to pay. The agent for their recovery team was no help and wanted me to prove that I wasn’t the driver. I told her that I didn’t have to prove anything and that it was her job to investigate and recover the damages, I don’t think she like that answer. Finally, after several months of harassment I contacted the better business bureau and filed a complaint before they finally took me serious and left me alone.
it's wild and ridiculous that a rental agency would let someone use their vehicle as a rideshare driver. they ask if you have a delivery job when you rent, so lying that you are not using the car for driving work is a violation of the contract the uber driver agreed to with enterprise.
@MrJCerqueira I agree, but that was between the driver and enterprise. I don't know why they tried to pin it on me. My name wasn't anywhere on that contract
Was the dog old, deaf, and blind? I forgot
Points for proper and appropriate use of the word, "Kafkaesque."
The irony is that Hertz USED TO BE a top tier rental provider, along with Avis. They were always overpriced and unimpressive. I've used National for well over 20 years as an experienced traveler; they have always been very good to me.
aint hertz the same rental company that was calling the police on people who rented cars from them saying they was stolen?!?!
I think that's what Steve was referring to when he mentioned other lawsuits.
I do tech support for a living and this whole process sounds painfully familiar to me. It's every time, literally...EVERY time, I call AT&T's BUSINESS tech support line. Wrong department (usually 2-3 times, calling the number that they gave me, of course.) over and over, then I can't help you, then maybe I can, then they can't find the account... It just goes on and on. They're pretty infamous at my job.
Funny that people keep chirping about "market pressures". Hard to do that with a company that's almost permanently bonded to the U.S. Government because they gave them access to their network decades ago to keep tabs on users. No market pressure in the universe will matter at this point and boy howdy does it show. They are hands down the worst to deal with that I have ever experienced.
Seems like Hurts is taking a page from their book.... "What are you going to do? Go to a competitor now?" (raucous laughter ensues.) Sure glad any and all customer rights protection laws never see the light of day due to briber----I mean "lobbying".
It’s one of the most woke companies in the US and yet, your story is very very accurate. Customers gained are just that, a number to help pay rich contracts for spokespersons like woke Taylor Swift at the expense of the employees every year during the annual purging of staff. Sigh. It really is too bad that they got HUGE in America but now hate America.
@@dcarts5616
"Live long enough as the hero and you will eventually become the villain."
Mind you, I would debate if we were ever a 'hero'....but the world isn't a nice place lol.
@@AsmodeusMictian agreed. So sad.
I used to be a gold hertz member. Not any more. I go elsewhere.
Earlier this year I had issues with Enterprise, long story short, didnt matter that I had proof that it was damaged before I got it, it wasn't notes by their employees at any time so I was held liable for a vehicle that I didnt damage. I wont ever go to a car rental place again. I would rather buy a beater temporarily plate it and have it insured then use them again
"A spokesperson for Hertz, which also operates the Dollar and Thrifty rental brands, told me that the company “cares deeply about our customers and we regret Ms. Klonick’s experience, which does not reflect our standards of service.”
What a load of crap...
Sounds like Hertz are actually taking bookings for what would be called "stand by" customers on an airline. They are over estimating the availability of cars. By underestimating the number of cars that will be returned late, stolen or returned damaged. Their computer algorithm is demonstrably wrong, but it is actually making them extra money. So they won't change it in a hurry. Then they supress the number of recorded complaints, by crippling their customer service helpline.
Ahhh yes, the wonderful innovations of modern capitalism.
@@ashkebora7262 I prefer the term Stage 4 capitalism... much like cancer, it is almost always fatal when it reaches this stage.
@@dennisriddle Very true. Very, very sadly true.
I had something similar with Hertz. They said they were all out of the cars I reserved, but I could get an upgraded car for only $20 more (per day). Worst experience was at Dollar, where the airport office was closed even though I had a reservation (including flight schedule). I called their customer service, and they basically told me "too bad", and I could wait 6 hours for the airport office to reopen. Luckily the Enterprise was open and gave me a rack rate rental at the Dollar price because of what happened.
I used to work for a company that operates under the "Hertz, Thrifty, and Dollar" car rental flags. They would do this to people daily, along with charging people for various damages that were already claimed and charged to multiple other customers. They charge a "smoking fee" to customers (some rightly so), then spray air freshener ("the detailed cleaning"), and when the odor would return, they would also charge the next several customers.
Liked the part where Steve said that he won’t rent from Hertz but he had a great experience renting from Thrifty…Hertz OWNS thrifty lolll
Wish I could say this surprises me, but it doesn't. Back when I used to work at Hertz, their computer system was garbage. They were talking about upgrading it when I quit, but even if they did, I doubt it's any better. It would show cars as available for rent, but when you tried to actually assign the car to a rental, a notice would pop up saying that the car was actually undergoing maintenance or had to be returned to the manufacturer or some other reason why the car actually wasn't available for rent, and physically would not let you assign the car to the rental. Or it would show cars available for rent that physically were not on the premises and nobody had any idea how they'd shown up in our system. As in, you'd plug the car's rental history into the system and it had NEVER been at that location.
And they would ALWAYS overbook rentals, for the same reason the airlines overbook flights: they bank on a small (but not insignificant!) percentage of customers no-showing. And then the customers got screwed when a) 100% of the reservations showed up, and b) cars were returned late (or not at all) and there weren't enough cars to go around.
As far as the jacking up the rate goes... never saw what she describes for myself, but I did see the "oh, we only have premium cars left, we'll have to charge you an upgrade fee to put you in that, unless you want a subcompact," bit. "If we don't have your reserved class, we'll put you in a different car at no charge" doesn't apply to premium classes (which I understand: don't want to put someone in a Mercedes if they've only paid for a Mazda), and the upcharge is locked into the computer system. Managers COULD override it... but they almost never did.
I posted a link to this video on the Hertz FB page, because I've seen exactly this. I've had much better luck with National.
This happened to me with delta airlines, I made a reservation, went to the airport, got on the plane and the pilot announced that a fuse had blown that he was authorized to reset but since that fuse had blown 10 times over the last 30 days he was no longer able to reset it so we all got off the airplane. I talked to delta customer service and they told me they had rebooked me on a flight the next day because they were all booked up. The flight they had me on the next day got me to my weekend destination 25 minutes before my return flight and they told me not to delay because she couldn't guarantee they would hold the flight for me. After talking about flights to airports a couple hundred miles away in exasperation I asked "you don't have first class or anything?" she says yes but it will cost you an extra 600 dollars. So I had a choice 600 or miss my daughters high school graduation. So I paid the 600 dollars. When I finally got onto the airplane it was the same pilot as earlier and I asked if they got a new plane. He said "no they flew empty to a different airport where an engineer came out reset the fuse and they loaded up with passengers and continued the shuttle service.
As an aircraft mechanic, not all fuses are what you think. Some of the circuit boards and other safety devices are there to prevent FATAL ACCIDENTS. And not all facilities have maintenance personal/parts for the issue. FAA does alow one time flights to get aircraft to a maintenance facility for repairs and no passenger are allowed on those flights.. most airline pilots dont know half of the work required to fix the modern birds, or all the complex hoops maint has to jump through to trouble shoot and get a bird back in service.. most m9dern birds fly themselves, they just need somone on the stick to push destinations coordinates and emergencies.
what's the frequency at which Hertz do that?
lol
"Hertz, high frequency of wrongdoing" should be their new catchphrase...
Arrived in Tampa around 10:00 one evening, had a reservation with another company. Picked us up at the airport and delivered us to their (very remote) office only to tell us they had no cars - told us we reserved a "rate" not a car. We're stuck in the middle of nowhere, won't let us make a call, wouldn't take us back to the airport, so we haul our baggage 3/4 of a mile down a dark highway to a motel that had a public phone (pre-cell phone days), and called family (30 miles away) to pick us up. The lesson I learned is: make double or triple reservations with multiple companies - not a Kosher way of doing business, but necessary to protect one's self as long as the rental companies play these games.
After watching one of your videos saying that hertz was arresting their customers for falsely claiming the rental was stolen. I had a reservation with them to pick it in one state and dropping it off in another. I immediately reserved with another company and cancel after watching that video. When I went to pick my rental from the other company just to notice that hertz had no line whatsoever. I will never do business with hertz. And I got the other rental for alot less $600 to be exact for 4 days for a minivan.