Hertz Car Rental Company

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Dublin, Ireland

Year / Model Reviewed:
2009 Corolla

Strengths:
Lots of locations, some are even staffed.

Weaknesses:
Poor, unresponsive service

Summary:
Got a brand new so-called full sized car in Ireland (where the Toyota Camry's are full sized) with 7 kms on it. After filling tank on the other side of the country with 700 kms on the odometer the car died electrically. When I phoned Hertz on their 1-800 number they said the car was "out of petrol", and when I assured her this wasn't the case the claim was "you left the lights on", also of course not true since it was daytime and I had only stopped for 5 minutes. After that they said "call Toyota on their 800 number" and hung up. When I called them the attitude was about the same, blamed me. I got a local auto electric guy to help me trouble shoot the car and found a bunch of loose connections, finally finding the one causing the problem and carried on. I have no idea what a less resourceful or capable person would have done since neither company gave a damn about the car quitting.

Similar Products Used:
All the other rental car companies for many years. Never before had one quit on me so had no need of "service" beyond making sure the car was available and most of my experience have been ok other than Sixt (Budget Germany) ripping me off for $700 for a minor rub mark on the corner of a plastic front bumper. My Visa company took care of that charge under their "insurance".

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $0.00

Strengths:
customer service

Weaknesses:
2xs the cost

Summary:
Completely screwed by Hertz. I had a free voucher from a rebate credit card for a mid size car rental for a week. It was a toyota corrola! To upgrade to a bottom of the line minivan was another 450.00. Never use them again.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $300.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 rental

Weaknesses:
Hertz is unreliable

Summary:
We had booked a car from Hertz to be picked up in Santa Barbara (late January 2010). Huge mistake. To reconfirm our reservation (I had already received a printed confirmation and a subsequent email repeating the particulars), I tried calling their location earlier that day. No answer. I also got the Hertz desk at LA Union Station to call them. No answer. And when we got to Santa Barbara Amtrak station which was the Hertz "location", no car and no desk, just a yellow Hertz telephone. By this, I was connected to their central booking line who suggested I "might" get a car the next day (although we needed it immediately). I insisted that they had a responsibility to fix this, so after some time, they agreed that I could go out to the airport and that office "would honor" our booking. Being a $50 cab ride away, they agreed to reimburse me $25. The problem is that Hertz has many small (one person) desks who may or may not be there and apparently take a very casual approach to their bookings. My complaints afterward resulted in their promise to send me some gift certificates, which never arrived. Typical.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
2008 Corolla

Summary:
My Gold Club membership (started the year that club started) evaporated. I was told I was an Express customer, that I'd never been a Gold member (I guess all those years of my name on the Hertz marquee were hallucinations) and that, by claiming something was changed, I was lying. Customer service didn't care, and couldn't be bothered. I will never use this company again.

Price Paid:  $50.00 from Hertz

Year / Model Reviewed:
2007 Mazda 6

Strengths:
They have locations everywhere.

Summary:
It was pretty good deal. I rented a car from Hertz they gave me an upgrade without charging me for it.