[TonyR]

I’ve been with Hertz at Gold tier for decades and always found the service good if a little more expensive than competitors. But this week they have fallen apart. I had a confirmed booking for a car last Saturday in Austin TX but when I turned up to collect it, no cars. And I wasn’t the only one there in the same position. We rebooked for the following Wednesday and again got a confirmed booking. Turned up to collect it and ….you’ve guessed it…..no cars. Again we were not alone and one poor person had had their Hertz car break down on them just off the lot and there were no replacement vehicles.

I’ve not had this happen once before in 40 years and here twice in one week. I emailed customer services and got an automated acknowledgement back but since then crickets.

Although it wrecked our plans for the day fortunately they were personal plans and we were staying in Austin. I can’t imagine what I would have done if it had been booked for business purposes or we needed it to drive to our destination.

Has anyone else experienced this or other problems with them?

[cwoodward]

In trouble = I very much doubt it.
It seems that some destinations are very short of rental cars in general -this of course because many ‘big name” rental companies operate franchises in many destinations. Many of these relatively small business using a major brand name were forced to sell-off a majority of their vehicles during the pandemic just to survive.
I know first hand that there is a significant shortage in Thailand and Philippines as well as several other popular destinations around Asia. The situation is improving though.

[TonyR]

I can understand a shortage of cars but in that case rent what you have rather than confirming reservations for what you don’t have. Austin is Tesla Town with having a factory there and the first time they told us customers returned them discharged and they don’t have the fast chargers to recharge them (bit of a simple error given how Hertz are making a thing of renting Teslas) but the second time the lot was just empty.

[AlanOrton1]

Tony, I wonder if this is a specific Austin, TX issue. I only say this as having rented cars in the US this and last month I didn’t see any shortages in the rental car centres at MIA, SAN or LAX.
There have been shortages in the US, as I’ve had issues with certain providers at certain smaller airports but none in the last 6 months.
I always used to use Hertz (via status afforded from Amex Plat) but found their prices have escalated more than some others since Covid.
I now tend to use National – simple booking process and their Emerald Club offers a choice from the aisle rather than a pre-assigned car.
Hertz were in Chapter 11 during the early part of Covid but I think exited in 2021. Not sure if this could still be having some knock on effect.

[cwoodward]

I cant understand why my post would be reported for inappropriate content by other than as a complete misunderstanding or by a complete fool.
Would the person perhaps reveal themselves ?

[TonyR]

Sorry that was me and finger trouble. Unfortunately there seems to be no way to undo it if you hit Report instead of Reply 😕. So in the complete fool option.

[TonyR]

Someone pointed me to this; https://youtu.be/4T2GmGSNvaM

1 user thanked author for this post.

ASK1945

[TonyR]

Just got a response from Hertz Customer Service which can be summarised as “Shit happens, live with it, thank you for choosing Hertz” 🙄

[cwoodward]

TonyR I certain that you are not a fool of any kind (dis-coordinated perhaps) and I apologise for being a little hasty with the response.

[Davethepubsinger]

I hired a car from Avis ( sorry I know this is a Hertz thread) and it took 3 hours and 3 cars before I left the airport. The first car was rent a wreck, which I declined, the second had a tyre pressure problem (could have been a slow puncture) before finally getting a low mileage third. There were no helpful staff to go around the vehicle prior to leaving, so I videoed the vehicles. I was also excessively charged on return, but got that sorted and refunded. It appears the bigger companies are struggling. Will use Alamo next time. No problems with themin Trinidad.

[cwoodward]

These days I find the smaller rental companies (not the cheap rent a wreck variety) the best as they need to perform to survive and hopefully grow. We rented recently in Phuket from ‘NinasCar.
They were first class in every way and the pleasant French owner intervened when a fault developed during the 20 day rental and the car needed to be changed. The credit card detail was not asked for until well into the rental period. (an oversight I suspect).
I would recommend them also for motorcycles.

[TonyR]

To add insult to injury I have just discovered that Hertz put through a rental charge on my credit card the day after they failed to supply a rental car. This is sounding like a scam! If I hadn’t been checking my CC statement for something else I would not have noticed and they would have got away with money for nothing.

[SwissExPat]

We are looking to hire a car in the USA (PHL) in June 2023.

I checked the Hertz rates using my Hertz gold membership (which would be my defauult provider) and was quoted nothing less that CHF1,000 for the week.

Mid size for the same week with AVIS was CHF 400.

I checked a month ago and this was the same situation.

Sounds like Hertz have some issues.

[TonyR]

My experience with Hertz Gold is they can charge a lot more – up to 3x more – for a Gold member than for a non-member. I usually don’t log in to Gold when I book.

[CathayLoyalist2]

I had exactly the same issue albeit the huge increase in price was primarily because I had removed all the insurances from my profile given at the time Amex covered said insurances

[Author]

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