Hertz rental re-pricing

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by chgoodrich56 New Member July 3, 2021, 5:38 pm

So when Delta rescheduled my flight into HPN, NY, for early August, I figured I’d let Hertz know I’d be an hour late picking up my two-week rental. After an hour on hold, the Hertz agent “fixed” my problem — by re-booking my car, with the same reservation number, at 500% more (from under $350 to over $1700)!!!! That’s NOT what I asked for, obviously, and is customer DISservice, as well as unethical (to my mind) and price-gouging (obviously). Four e-mails to Hertz have been ignored, though props to Priceline for calling on my behalf (with zero hold time!) to unsuccessfully represent my side of things. I wonder whether Hertz is breaking some NY state law by effectively breaking a contract with me when circumstances beyond my control (the later Delta flight) altered the contract…which resulted in a *shorter* rental! Any ideas about a next step, besides further broadcasting this story and boycotting Hertz altogether?

OCTinPHL Diamond
July 5, 2021, 4:09 pm

Just curious – why did you even call about 1 hour? Did it mean the location was going to be closed? Or right at closing time? A one hour delay does not warrant telling the agency, IMO. Is the Hertz fleet at HPN so small that you were concerned there wouldn’t be a car available?
Clem Diamond
July 6, 2021, 12:45 pm

OCTinPHL : in high demand locations, they are so short on cars that they will give it to someone else if you’re even just a little late (that happened to me a couple of weeks ago), so I can see where the OP is coming from.

As for the problem at hand, it’s terrible and I’m sorry they did this to you. I assume they’ll tell you that it’s not their fault the flight was delayed so they can rebook you at whatever price is available then, but they could have been nicer and let it slide I think. Not sure there is a whole lot you can do if Hertz isn’t willing to do the right thing.
OCTinPHL Diamond
July 6, 2021, 3:42 pm

Fair enough. Perhaps I should worry more; in the past I have called agencies (the local office, never the 800#) to inform them of delays (6+ hours minimum, probably). And always at smaller stations (like Westchester).

I still can’t believe an hour delay led to this re-pricing. BUT, I’ve had some horrible Hertz experiences as well in the last 6 months (prefer National, but at times they have no cars available), so I guess it is believable.

To the OP – I would go to Elliot.org to get the email address for the EVP for customer service and email him/her. I escalated a dispute over a charge for gasoline (I had photos showing the tank level – yes, I’m cynical, and learned not to trust rental companies) to this guy (pretty sure it was a guy), and was given 1500 points to makeup for it. Using those points is a pain in the @$$, as my usual station is never accepting points.

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Hertz rental re-pricing