My father was reading this, and he had a thought that had completely escaped me. If Hertz does the entire price of the rental plus $200, and they keep that money for 24-48 hours PAST the time of the rental being turned in, that means they have your money in their account and can generate interest off of it. So if you rent a car for a week (and we will pretend that the rental is $300), and they tack their "advance fee" of $200, then that means they have $500 for seven or so days. While you will not generate a lot of interest on that single $500, imagine if you multiply that by thousands of people per day that this can occur to? They could be sitting on tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per day gaining interest!
I think I need to find more state and federal agencies to complain to on this.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Hertz Outrageous Advance Charges
I rented a car from Hertz over the weekend. Actually, I travel for business around 45 weeks out of the year, and we use Hertz exclusively. Therefore, I have plenty of Hertz points built up. I was visiting friends in LA, and decided to use a bunch of my points to rent a Corvette for the weekend. This covered all of the rental except for the taxes, and when I returned the car they printed he receipt out showing that my charge would be $10 on my VISA debit card.
I logged into my bank Monday morning to balance my account, and imagine my astonishment at seeing a $629 charge from Hertz! Even without the bonus points the charge would have only been $340 (it shows the amount before the bonus points on the receipt). I immediately called Hertz, and after a 16 minute hold time (which was pissing me off more), a rude and obnoxious "customer service" lady told me that "Hertz policy" was to charge my card the price of the rental and $200 more, and that this would be returned to my account "in 24 to 48 hours".
This is beyond belief that they would not only give a receipt for $10 charged to you, but to then charge you the full amount and another $200 on top of it for "Hertz policy" is so far past my boiling point I cannot put it into words. The "customer dis-service" person could not (or would not) explain why, since the rental was technically $340 without the points certificate, that they charged $300 more (instead of their "policy" of $200) on my card.
The policy on their website about using a debit card with the VISA logo (which is what I use)
“At most Hertz locations, debit cards (sometimes called check cards) issued under a VISA or Mastercard logo which draw funds directly from the cardholder's account may be used to qualify for rental. However, prepaid or stored value cards which have a VISA or Mastercard logo are not accepted to qualify for rental. Debit cards must have available funds for the estimated amount of the rental charges plus up to $200 to cover any incidental charges in order to secure the rental. Both debit cards and prepaid or stored value cards issued under a VISA or Mastercard logo may be used as a form of payment when you return the vehicle. Please contact your local Hertz Reservations Office if you have a question about whether Hertz will accept a certain card”
There is ZERO mention that they will charge you the fee’s plus their “up to $200” in advance, and that they will take up to 48 hours (per their phone person) to reverse the charge. Technically, I watched my account reach a negative amount before they corrected the issue. I remain angry beyond description.
As a side note, I sent this complaint in on Monday when this happened, and also sent the email to both the CEO and the President of the Board of Directors, but have never received a reply, an apology, or a phone call (and I sent all my contact info to them)
On the receipt they ask you to complete a "feedback survey". Enclosed is my letter to them, and I do plan to follow thru on my complaints to every agency I can find. In fact, I would welcome any suggestions on who to complain to.
___________________________________
I am outraged and appalled over the billing issue that has occurred on my rental. I have a receipt in my possession that shows a charge on my credit card of $10 for my rental. However, I am showing a $629 charge on my bank from Hertz. This rental was done using my Hertz points, and this charge is NOT appropriate.
Furthermore, when I contacted customer service I was told that "Hertz Policy" is to place a "hold" of over $200 over the estimated charge of the rental for at least 28 hours. I had a points reservation and a receipt that shows a charge of $10 from when I turned in this car, and your policy of putting a pending charge of $629 is not proper, nor was it spelled out in any of the rental agreements or contracts that I signed. You gave no advance notice of this sort of "policy" that would place a $629 charge on my bank account when the total price of the rental was $10, and then to have a VERY rude person in customer service tell me that the charge would be refunded "within 28 hours". The total price of the weekend rental was $340 without the gift certificate, and for you to add another $300 in addition for some sort of hold policy has angered me beyond belief.
As a side note, the person who answered my phone call was both rude and not helpful. She was abrasive during the call, repeatedly telling me that she was "explaining Hertz policy to me". I do not appreciate being talked down to. To be honest, the policy is wrong, especially when you consider that there is no advance notice of this policy during the rental process or in the contract that was given me at the time of the rental. For you to charge double the price of the rental with MY money is totally unacceptable.
I was already upset over this rental because they did not have the car I reserved. Over a month ago I had reserved a Corvette using my Hertz points, but when I arrived the car was not available. The lady at the counter was nice, but she could not advise why the Corvette could not be found. I was frankly amazed that a company such as Hertz could lose track of a Corvette, but the bottom line is that my weekend was a disappointment because the one time in my life that I would rent a car like this was destroyed because they could not find a car that was rented in advance. In addition, the insult was magnified when she called for three different managers to come to the Gold counter to assist with this, and not one of them showed up nor apologized for the error.
I will be contacting very local, state, and federal agency that I can, in addition to the Better Business Bureau, to file formal complaints on this policy of charging such a preposterous amount as some sort of "hold" when you are giving a receipt that shows a different amount. There are a number of consumer complaint websites that I plan to post this on as a complaint. Furthermore, my office and my corporate office has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in rentals from Hertz over the years, and I plan on informing the CEO and owners of both companies of what has occurred with this situation.
Your prompt attention and reply to this matter is expected.
I logged into my bank Monday morning to balance my account, and imagine my astonishment at seeing a $629 charge from Hertz! Even without the bonus points the charge would have only been $340 (it shows the amount before the bonus points on the receipt). I immediately called Hertz, and after a 16 minute hold time (which was pissing me off more), a rude and obnoxious "customer service" lady told me that "Hertz policy" was to charge my card the price of the rental and $200 more, and that this would be returned to my account "in 24 to 48 hours".
This is beyond belief that they would not only give a receipt for $10 charged to you, but to then charge you the full amount and another $200 on top of it for "Hertz policy" is so far past my boiling point I cannot put it into words. The "customer dis-service" person could not (or would not) explain why, since the rental was technically $340 without the points certificate, that they charged $300 more (instead of their "policy" of $200) on my card.
The policy on their website about using a debit card with the VISA logo (which is what I use)
“At most Hertz locations, debit cards (sometimes called check cards) issued under a VISA or Mastercard logo which draw funds directly from the cardholder's account may be used to qualify for rental. However, prepaid or stored value cards which have a VISA or Mastercard logo are not accepted to qualify for rental. Debit cards must have available funds for the estimated amount of the rental charges plus up to $200 to cover any incidental charges in order to secure the rental. Both debit cards and prepaid or stored value cards issued under a VISA or Mastercard logo may be used as a form of payment when you return the vehicle. Please contact your local Hertz Reservations Office if you have a question about whether Hertz will accept a certain card”
There is ZERO mention that they will charge you the fee’s plus their “up to $200” in advance, and that they will take up to 48 hours (per their phone person) to reverse the charge. Technically, I watched my account reach a negative amount before they corrected the issue. I remain angry beyond description.
As a side note, I sent this complaint in on Monday when this happened, and also sent the email to both the CEO and the President of the Board of Directors, but have never received a reply, an apology, or a phone call (and I sent all my contact info to them)
On the receipt they ask you to complete a "feedback survey". Enclosed is my letter to them, and I do plan to follow thru on my complaints to every agency I can find. In fact, I would welcome any suggestions on who to complain to.
___________________________________
I am outraged and appalled over the billing issue that has occurred on my rental. I have a receipt in my possession that shows a charge on my credit card of $10 for my rental. However, I am showing a $629 charge on my bank from Hertz. This rental was done using my Hertz points, and this charge is NOT appropriate.
Furthermore, when I contacted customer service I was told that "Hertz Policy" is to place a "hold" of over $200 over the estimated charge of the rental for at least 28 hours. I had a points reservation and a receipt that shows a charge of $10 from when I turned in this car, and your policy of putting a pending charge of $629 is not proper, nor was it spelled out in any of the rental agreements or contracts that I signed. You gave no advance notice of this sort of "policy" that would place a $629 charge on my bank account when the total price of the rental was $10, and then to have a VERY rude person in customer service tell me that the charge would be refunded "within 28 hours". The total price of the weekend rental was $340 without the gift certificate, and for you to add another $300 in addition for some sort of hold policy has angered me beyond belief.
As a side note, the person who answered my phone call was both rude and not helpful. She was abrasive during the call, repeatedly telling me that she was "explaining Hertz policy to me". I do not appreciate being talked down to. To be honest, the policy is wrong, especially when you consider that there is no advance notice of this policy during the rental process or in the contract that was given me at the time of the rental. For you to charge double the price of the rental with MY money is totally unacceptable.
I was already upset over this rental because they did not have the car I reserved. Over a month ago I had reserved a Corvette using my Hertz points, but when I arrived the car was not available. The lady at the counter was nice, but she could not advise why the Corvette could not be found. I was frankly amazed that a company such as Hertz could lose track of a Corvette, but the bottom line is that my weekend was a disappointment because the one time in my life that I would rent a car like this was destroyed because they could not find a car that was rented in advance. In addition, the insult was magnified when she called for three different managers to come to the Gold counter to assist with this, and not one of them showed up nor apologized for the error.
I will be contacting very local, state, and federal agency that I can, in addition to the Better Business Bureau, to file formal complaints on this policy of charging such a preposterous amount as some sort of "hold" when you are giving a receipt that shows a different amount. There are a number of consumer complaint websites that I plan to post this on as a complaint. Furthermore, my office and my corporate office has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in rentals from Hertz over the years, and I plan on informing the CEO and owners of both companies of what has occurred with this situation.
Your prompt attention and reply to this matter is expected.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
