In fact, if they used the same reservations website to book the travel, you’d probably have a fairly easy time sueing hertz USA.

That’s really a sophisticated legal question that would be determined by the specific relationship between Hertz USA and Hertz Mexico.

Bottom line – check your reservation before the trip. If possible, even call the location to confirm it.

I get very annoyed with rental places trying to upsell customers. Once, they told me to wait two hours for my car. “The previous renter was late”. I told them politely that was not my problem. Well, perhaps I wanted a larger car. I asked if that would me more expensive. Yes. Well, no, I’d like the car I reserved. And now please. I didn’t tell them what flight I was on for no reason. In the end, the guy grudgingly gave me a larger model, with no extra cost. And I made him write that down.

The problem is that they try to make you feel guilty just to get more money from you. It’s not their fault that the previous driver was late, is it? Well, you can wait for your car. How ’bout we give you an upgrade?

It’s a sneaky, dishonest and disgusting way of doing business. No wonder nobody trusts these guys.

Actually a written contract DOES NOT override everything else. There are many defenses to a written contract. Additionally, his confirmation is also a written contract so there are two competing written contracts. Moreover,the signed contract should be in the same language and currency as the original confirmation just to avoid this exact situation, otherwise a judge is more inclined to believe that hertz in Cancun is not playing straight.

Later reviewing the reservation, it said the child seat would cost around $60 (as did Budget’s online reservation system).

When returning the car my wife questioned the $139,50 charge, and the same employee said that it was not for the child seat, they were not even charging it. It was for the category upgrade which I had signed! What I signed indeed said rental charges, but he clearly had told me the extra charges were for the child seat). At least a disrespectfull attitude.

Due to an accident on the freeway we were running late for our flight and decided to deal with that later. When arriving home I contacted my travel agent and she got in touch with Budget. If they did not have a car on the group I had reserved, an upgrade could not cost me anything, after all, it was not my fault they didn’t have the car, but they confirmed their version of the facts. A couple of weeks later they did refund the difference ($77).

That said, a Dodge Nitro ain’t exactly a “specialty vehicle”.

Traveling wastes more paper for me than nearly any other activity, but I print out my reservations and keep copies of anything I sign for a long time. Sometimes it is a nice reminder two years later of a trip, sometimes just debris, but in a case like this absolutely critical. Either Mr Getson signed the wrong paperwork – so he is stuck – or paperwork was switched on him. His copy should tell the story.

I am also sure the Mexico location knows exactly how long it takes to convert the money for a “gringo” and uses that to their advantage.