Letters back and forth with Hertz rental car agency last month, relating to my August 15-20 rental reservation in Grand Rapids:
From me:
I should not be surprised that I can’t even get a mailing address to send this letter of complaint. Last month, I was on a book tour in michigan, promoting my recently published book on videoblogging. Seriously, I now wish I’d had the camera rolling, because your company’s actions…. really worth getting on film.
I had reserved an economy car to pick up at 4 PM. My Greyhound bus was late getting into Grand Rapids (it left 30 minutes late) and because the rental station doesn’t have a sign where one can easily see it from the street, I missed the stop and had to walk back, adding about 10 minutes to my travel time. I arrived at 4:55, only to be told that the rental agent had given my car away. He didn’t even apologize for it, and only made a half-hearted attempt to find me a replacement car.
It astounds me that, in a time when travellers are frisked every time they turn around, during a heightened Red Alert security phase at the airports, that anyone in any phase of the travel industry would consider a delay of less than an hour to be sufficient reason to give away someone’s confirmed reservation. I won’t delve into the inconvenience your agent’s actions caused to me personally; it was not small, but the folks at another rental agency were very helpful, as they were when I needed to rent a car last week, and as they will be the next time I need to rent again.
I sincerely hope that Hertz received a lot of money from the economy car rental your agent yanked out from underneath me, because I will never, EVER rent from Hertz again.
Sincerely, Stephanie Bryant
Hertz’s official reply: (emphasis mine)
Dear Ms. Bryant:
Thank you for your E-mail regarding the problems you encountered in Grand Rapids. We appreciate the opportunity to review your concerns.
Hertz prepares vehicles one hour prior to the reserved arrival time. Vehicles are kept approximately thirty minutes after the set time of arrival. When you arrived outside this time frame, your vehicle was no longer available. We sincerely apologize that the representative did not handle this situation in a more professional manner.
As a service oriented company, we rely on customer feedback to help us maintain and improve our service standards. Please be assured the appropriate management will be sent a copy of your comments for their review and corrective action.
Thank you again for contacting us. We appreciate your business and hope we will have the opportunity to serve you in the future.
Sincerely,
Maraida Lopez
OKC Customer Relations
For all correspondence sent USPS, please use the address below.
The Hertz Corporation
Attn: Customer Relations Department
P.O. Box 26120
Oklahoma City, OK 73126
U.S.A.
At least I got a snail-mail address to use if I ever want to follow up! Apparently, it is their policy to give you only a 30 minute window to pick up your car, even though the rest of the travel industry thinks absolutely nothing of delaying you for hours!
Now, I’m not going to use this as another Call to Action to boycott Hertz, much as I would like to. I’ll never use them again, and I *hope* my friends will consider joining me in that choice. Particularly if you’re an author and you ever do book tours and speaking engagements. I can’t imagine, if this had happened when I was in St. Louis, what I would have done– probably called weeping. As it was, I had to call my stepmother to come to my rescue, and thank goodness I wasn’t in a city where I have no support network to help out!
In a word: unacceptable. Simple unacceptable.
16 Comments
A. Hertz counter guy is full of lame
B. Hertz customer relations dept is full of lame
The crazy thing is that I’ve gotten better customer service and a better price by stepping away from the counter and calling the 1-800 number and requesting a car — then stepping back to the counter and giving them my confirmation number.
In St. Louis, you always have a ride.
I haven’t rented from Hertz in years, except moving trucks and trailers. Also a good place to buy boxes.
I use Enterprise. They are cheaper, more flexible, and more convenient.
Call us anytime, and you don’t have to be weeping.
Just for my future reference, what company did you end up going with?
(Oddly enough, there was a similar situation many years ago in my family involving a delayed flight and no cars — but that time it was Hertz that came to the rescue! Sad to see their standards have slipped so far.)
Enterprise.
They wait thirty minutes and then give away your car to the next person wanting one? Sheesh, what assholes. I’ve been on a flight that was delayed um, six hours actually, and while I realize that’s a rather extreme delay, you’d think rental car companies would be smarter than that. I’d think that if they were going to give it away to another victim customer, they’d at least wait two hours before doing that.
Grr. That sucks so bad.
I’ll join you in boycotting them. I usually use whomever is cheapest or has good deal going, but I’ll gladly exclude Hertz from now on if that’s the way they treat their customers!!! Jerks!
And I agree that Enterprise is great. I go to them more often than not.
Wow! Recently I rented a car from Thrifty. Our plane was about 45 minutes late and they had given away “my” car. Without batting an eye, they upgraded my rental at no charge when I arrived, since they had no more small cars. If Hertz could only get a clue from that. Thrifty has my customer loyalty from now on.
I use to work for Hertz…..Next time anything happens call Customer Service and demand the toll free number to the Vice-President, Customer Service at Hertz Corporate Office Park Ridge NJ.
Well to be honest if you don’t have a flight number in your reservation, then how are they suposed to know when to expect you? If you are going to be late for a dinner reservation, you call ahead to let them know you are running late…. common sense people pls!!!
If I’m running late, I typically pick up the phone. Why didn’t you? Quit blaming others. I agree with KA.
What neither KA nor the other person (comment screened at the moment because “santa claus” isn’t a valid email address, sorry) who replied with similar attitude have done is looked back at the other post relating to the August 15 incident to know that my cell phone battery was dead, and I was en route, traveling just days after a “terrorist scare” that tangled up travel everywhere. I traveled by train, which is just as prone to delay (possibly moreso), so of course they didn’t have my incoming reservation information. But the larger problem here is that they have a policy of only waiting thirty minutes. This is absurd– it can take thirty minutes to get from your plane to the baggage claim, and heaven help you if you actually wait to get your bags! I usually reserve a car for the time closest to, but before my arrival, because I know I won’t be there before that time.
I can understand if I were more than an hour or two late. However, no other business in the travel industry expects a call if you’re less than an hour delayed, and certainly the airlines think absolutely nothing of delaying you for an hour without warning (how many times have we heard “we’ll be leaving in the next ten minutes” over and over again?)
If I’m late for a dinner reservation, I call ahead, but only if I think I’m going to be more than 15 minutes late. Otherwise, I expect the restaurant to use some common sense themselves and expect a normal delay. In travel, a delay of less than an hour is typical. In a restaurant, a delay of 15 minutes is normal (and, btw, again– the restaurant thinks nothing of making *me* wait 15 minutes if they’re busy!)
Finally, I’ll point out that this happened in August of 2006, and this post is from October, 2006. I guess the nice thing about the Internet and blogs is that people can still rile you up about old frustrations that you would otherwise let go.
Recently hired a car from hertz for our holiday in France. The duration of the hire was for 17 days.
An unauthorised debit was transacted on my credit card in the amount of € 287.83.
This amount was taken by stealth and customer relations are being stiff and are certainly of no help whatsoever.
This amount I am informed applies as an extra over insurance cover for the vehicle which when initially asked if we would like same absolutely refused this extra.
I just wonder about the commissions paid / incentive is to desk operatives if they manage to sell this package.
Now attempting to deal with the MD of Hertz Ireland based in Wexford southern Ireland to have a full refund reinstated to our credit card.
This experience ruined an otherwise fantastic 17 days in France.
Would never use Hertz again.
From: Hertz gold customer.
I rented a hertz car,noticed a couple of scratches on the car and pointed it out to attendant,somebody hit me while i had the car, a small scratch,my insurance company checked it out and they said the damage was $230.00, Hertz sends me a bill for $913.00.
$68.34 for loss of use
$111.52 admin. fee
$113.52 diminuation of value
$650.20 property damage
all this for a small scratch
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