Question: I’m having some trouble with my car rental bill, and hope you can help me. I recently reserved a midsize car for about a month through the Hertz Rent a Car Web site. I was offered a price of 946 euros. But when my wife and I arrived at the rental counter in Hamburg, Germany, an agent told me that the car wasn’t available.
We were offered a smaller car at a reduced rate or a bigger car for an extra 10 euros per day. I asked why the larger car was not given as a complimentary upgrade, since the car I had reserved was not available, and was told that the upgraded car was in the “wrong class” and wouldn’t be an option.
Because cost was a concern for us, we opted for the smaller car. But our luggage wouldn’t fit in the trunk, so we returned to the office and asked if we could come back later to pick up the car we had requested. The agent said, “No.”
I had no choice but to take the larger car at 10 euros more per day. In the end, my rate seemed even higher than the one I had agreed to pay — it came to an extra 357 euros. It was a terrible start for our vacation, and I feel that the salesperson used a bait-and-switch tactic to make us pay more.
I have rented from Hertz many times and I have come to expect a much higher level of service from the company than I received on this occasion. I contacted Hertz and was offered half of the money back, but I think they should refund the entire 357 euros. What do you think?
– Earnest Hoenck, Charleston, S.C.
Answer: I think Hertz shouldn’t have charged you the extra 357 euros in the first place. It should have handed you the keys to the car you reserved or offered an upgrade at no additional charge.
You were correct to expect that when a vehicle you have reserved isn’t available, the car rental company should give you a car in the next available class at no extra charge. That’s a standard industry practice.
When you started getting a string of denials from the agent, you should have asked to speak with a manager. A supervisor would probably have known that the agent was out of line, and that you were entitled to a free upgrade. Certainly, a manager would have known that your offer to return later and pick up the car was entirely acceptable.
If that hadn’t worked — sometimes managers will “support” their agents even when they’ve made a bad decision — then you should have called the corporate office and explained your situation. A trained phone agent would have been able to fix the problem on the spot.
Booking directly through the Hertz Web site was not a mistake. You probably found an excellent rate. But if you had used a travel agent, you would have had one other person to turn to in order to resolve your problem or act as your advocate when you were overcharged for your rental.
All of these things could have been caught and fixed by a well-trained customer service representative answering your e-mail query. But that didn’t happen, either. You might have tried appealing to someone at a higher level at Hertz or to a supervisor in Hamburg (I publish a list of these e-mail addresses and contacts on my Web site).
I asked Hertz to take another look at your rental record. It found that the agent in Hamburg was “aggressive” when you were renting your car, according to Hertz spokeswoman Paula Rivera. The employee “did not adhere to our policy of providing a complimentary upgrade if the car reserved is not available,” she said. Hertz also failed to fully investigate your complaint. It has issued a 357 euro refund.
✓ Get the latest travel news, tips and commentary from Elliott’s E-Mail, the subversive newsletter from industry gadfly Christopher Elliott. You’ll travel like a pro. Sign up here. It’s free.
Sign up for my 
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I feel sorry about this, but Hertz really screwed me over as well. In october, in MEM, i went to hertz to rent a car. While my car was not available, i was offered an upgrade (totoya corolla to a ford fusion) at 1 dollar extra per day since the car i requested wasn’t available. The rental was smooth and i paid exactly what i was “estimated” to pay. I was happy. Subsequently, i went online the same day after i got back, about a month prior to thanksgiving to rent a car for a week. After inputing my info (including age – 23), they came back with a ford fusion at a total of 383 estimated charges. When i got to the rental counter in DCA, the counter agent didnt’ even give me courtesy. he was rude. They didn’t have the fusino and offered me an excursion or an expedition. I couldn’t use that with this type of gas today. I asked what else was available, there was nothing else. Hard to believe since i made a reservation. After choosing a dirty ford escape, they added almost 300 dollars for under age fee, something that wasn’t added before and is waived if your a gold club member. Even worse, they added more money on top of the rental and taxes and all this ludacris fee’s. My 383 rental became 1300 for the car. i left the counter fuming, went into the airport, bought two roundtrip tickets on delta for the same price. Hertz lost me as a customer forever. I opted to rent at National upon arriving for 100 and no under 26 fee. This is crazy
As atravel agent, I of course agree with your comment about the wisdom of using one. I had a similar situation with a client who was offered an upgrade (“we have a beautiful car for you”) with no indication that it would be more expensive than what he had booked. Imagine his surprise when he returned the car and found a significant extra charge. Not being able to settle this on the spot he turned to me and I was able to get a full refund for the extra charge from Europcar.
My friends and I went to Europe for a wedding. In Amsterdam we rented a vehicle from Hertz and drove through Germany to Switzerland on our way to the wedding. They insisted we buy extra insurance, or they would not rent to us. My friend’s credit card was verified to already cover that expense, so we were able to cancel their extra insurance, much to the dislike of the rental company.
The van we used was brand new (less than 100km on the odometer). We took great care of the car. When we returned our vehicle to the rental location, a slight scratch was noticed, and marked, and the entire car was inspected. The rental person insisted that the scratch (which officially was listed as ‘barely noticible’ by the inspector) be signed off on, and my friend agreed and wrote in at the point of signature that she did not agree that there was any damage done and disputed the claim. However, she signed it. After returning to the US, a month later, a bill came in from Amsterdam for the equivalent of $750 US!! The bill was in Dutch, contained some photocopied photographs that you could not see anything in, and one had a smashed grill. The grill was perfect when inspected, and only the scratch was listed, but this bill demanded repair for the grill. It was nearly impossible to deal with the company directly, and we had to fill out and affadavit describing the dispute, contact legal aid, contact the credit card company, and fraud protection. We felt that they were trying to pull one over on us and were at no time helpful. They would not even send the original digital photos to us.
Ultimately, the credit card’s fraud protection service took over and resolved the issue. Likely they just paid the company, unfortunately, we never found out what they did. So the moral of the story is, take a camera with you and photograph every aspect of the car, with the inspector, or with something that shows the date/time in the photo. Also, check with your credit card company’s policies regarding protection for rentals, insurance, etc. We were lucky, but the time/effort spent dealing with the issue was ridiculous.