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Renting cars has always been a bad experience. Terrible websites where you don't know what car you're going to get. You arrive and they try to upsell you on a c

Renting cars has always been a bad experience. Terrible websites where you don't know what car you're going to get. You arrive and they try to upsell you on a car. The employee spends 10 minutes filling out forms on their computer before they can rent you a car. Employees multitasking, going out to the lot to do car stuff while you're standing there with your ID and credit card in hand, your paperwork half filled out. Never enough staff on hand. The auto lots are always in an awkward spot that's hard to drive out of. So I'm not surprised that their theft entry system is something trash. It's probably an Access database running on some Windows 95 node. Or maybe Gentoo. It's clear from stories like this that Hertz has chosen to double-down on not caring, and make it part of their business model. I mean look at this non-response: > Hertz declined to comment for this story but has previously said the "vast majority" of cases "involve renters who were many weeks or even months overdue returning vehicles and who stopped communicating with (Hertz) well beyond the scheduled due date." The only way a company responds like that is when they fully believe that they're a staple and CAN'T go out of business. We'll see about that...

petre 5y ago
We were just ripped of by Booking.com Transport Limited two weeks ago. Basically if anything goes wrong it's your fault and they will not give you a refund. I have to report them to the European Consumer Centers Network but since they're not registered in the EU they might get away with it. Other people had their deposits blocked for months before the rental companies released their funds after numerous complaints. Big companies like Hertz, Sixt etc are almost always the worst offenders. Sixt has five people at the reception desk but you were required to book online. They could have as well put a chimpanzee in charge of the whole reception desk.
- literallycancer 5y ago
  Can't you charge back the deposit transaction if they don't return it?
  - petre 5y ago
    I tried but bank sided with them, since they don't want to get into legal issues. Booking.com claims the reservation is a "non refundable time limited special offer" in order to rip you off. This is anti consumer behaviour that should just be illegal. Just avoid them at all costs. Neither Booking.com nor Sixt would resolve the issue. I called support, they just fed me social engineering mumbo jumbo.
    - literallycancer 5y ago
      Your bank sided with the merchant? Normally they would at least try to argue the case and maybe lose it if the merchant's bank has better arguments or evidence, but straight up refusing to try? I'd just drop the bank and get a one that knows what the hell they are doing.
idiocrat 5y ago
>Access database Hertz has spent 500 million USD on Accenture to implement SAP and the project royally failed. So you are perhaps right with MS Access. Furthermore, Lidl has spent 600 million USD to implement SAP and failed.
throwaway894345 5y ago
I was in a hurry once while renting from Hertz, I verbally declined all of the extras, but the employee at the counter put it on my bill anyway. The contract they gave me was literally 10+ pages of fine print, so I didn't check it--I didn't expect to be scammed. Later I got a second charge to my credit card which doubled the price of my rental for services I didn't request or use. I called Hertz customer service and they were hostile in tone and basically told me to piss off, so I told my credit card company to decline the charge. Hertz sent me to collections, and I explained the issue to the collections company and they basically told me Hertz didn't have any ground to stand on and left me alone. Fuck Hertz.
jjav 5y ago
> Renting cars has always been a bad experience. Terrible websites where you don't know what car you're going to get. You arrive and they try to upsell you on a car. The employee spends 10 minutes filling out forms... Join their frequent renter programs (no need to be a frequent renter). Then you can generally just walk to the lot, pick a car and go.
cj 5y ago
Last time I rented a car from Hertz, it was totally touchless with no human interaction. Walk in, find your name on the screen which shows the parking spot your car is in, and go. Perhaps things have changed.
- bryan_w 5y ago
  Yeah, I actually like hertz's process, quick and no hassle (assuming they don't report the car as stolen)
- catillac 5y ago
  I travel a lot for work and after some setup I have found hertz to be the most efficient. When they’re not efficient, I want to blow a gasket at the line and lack of any urgency from the staff, and another time they canceled my reservation day of without telling me (because they were overbooked) leaving me stranded in an unfamiliar city. But when it works it does work well. I have the board down to a science: shuttle to hertz, look for my name on board, walk to car directly as indicated by board, drive away with the only human interaction being the person scanning the car as I exit.
  - DebtDeflation 5y ago
    >When they’re not efficient, I want to blow a gasket Can confirm that getting off the shuttle, looking up at the Hertz Gold board expecting to see either a parking space number or a section listed by your name, and instead seeing "See Agent" is absolutely rage inducing.
  - jfrunyon 5y ago
    > When they’re not efficient, I want to blow a gasket at the line and lack of any urgency from the staff As a customer, I completely get that feeling. As someone who has worked in auto rental (although for Budget Truck), the reality is usually along the lines of rental clerks making slightly above minimum wage, the entire city getting drastically overbooked by corporate, and customers who were due to return (and counted on for availability) not doing so. They have no urgency because it happens on a regular basis and they're the ones getting screamed at all day because of it even though they have no control over it.
hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
> The only way a company responds like that is when they fully believe that they're a staple and CAN'T go out of business. We'll see about that... Considering Hertz emerged from bankruptcy just 5 months ago I think they're pretty aware of their capability to go out of business...
- jfrunyon 5y ago
  Considering they were bankrupt and didn't go out of business I think they're pretty aware of their capability to get away with anything they want...
  - rich_sasha 5y ago
    Or, au contraire, they messed it all up and nothing happened.
    - vkou 5y ago
      I assume shareholders took a serious haircut.
sixothree 5y ago
You forgot the whole "lets walk around this can and look for scratches and pretend we've never seen this car in our life" thing. And that's before you even exit the lot. Then you do the same god damn dance when you get back. Enterprise does this and I just find it completely unfathomable. You did a thorough cataloging of the car when you received it from the last renter. Just give me that fucking report instead of acting like an oblivious idiot.
- jjav 5y ago
  They did, but you weren't there. Do you really want to trust their honesty on that one, since if they forgot (intentionally or by mistake) to record previous damage, now you become liable for paying for it.
- phendrenad2 5y ago
  Yeah it's a waste of time, and they should do it while you're doing the paperwork. But again, they're perpetually understaffed, so the same employee has to greet you, manage your place in line, do your paperwork, check your ID, ready the car, do the inspection, push the upsell to a higher-price model, do the insurance upsell, etc. etc.
- simplestats 5y ago
  But between you and the previous renter it may have been driven by an employee or transported across the country by truck, or just damaged in the lot by the person renting the car next to it five minutes earlier. I found the walkaround off-putting initially (years ago). Especially when you get it wet from washing and this it hides all the minor damage. But they have pretty lax rules about what counts as damage. The best though, is those airport lots with cameras that record the condition of the car as you drive out.
  - throwaway8689 5y ago
    One time we did the walk-around and neither of us noticed a scratch. When I returned the car they did notice this scratch. The agent offered to look on the computer to see if it had been logged from a previous rental. Nothing in the computer, but since we were using paper forms I got them to grab the form from the last rental and it did log the scratch. I try to avoid rentals because their business model seems to rely on billing the same scratch to as many customers as they can.
3np 5y ago
> the "vast majority" of cases "involve renters who were many weeks or even months overdue returning vehicles and who stopped communicating with (Hertz) well beyond the scheduled due date Even if true, that does not address those not in that "vast majority". Truly effective corporate speak for "whatever".
sersi 5y ago
> It's probably an Access database running on some Windows 95 node. Or maybe Gentoo. Why the dig on Gentoo? haven't used it for years but it's perfectly fine distro :)
Nursie 5y ago
I've used Hertz a lot in the past, and to avoid that sort of experience all you have to do is join the gold club (free), make your booking through that, then go to the special gold desk on arrival. Usually everything's ready for you and you just need to pick up the keys. OTOH yes this story is worrying!

petre 5y ago

We were just ripped of by Booking.com Transport Limited two weeks ago. Basically if anything goes wrong it's your fault and they will not give you a refund. I have to report them to the European Consumer Centers Network but since they're not registered in the EU they might get away with it. Other people had their deposits blocked for months before the rental companies released their funds after numerous complaints. Big companies like Hertz, Sixt etc are almost always the worst offenders. Sixt has five people at the reception desk but you were required to book online. They could have as well put a chimpanzee in charge of the whole reception desk.

literallycancer 5y ago
Can't you charge back the deposit transaction if they don't return it?
- petre 5y ago
  I tried but bank sided with them, since they don't want to get into legal issues. Booking.com claims the reservation is a "non refundable time limited special offer" in order to rip you off. This is anti consumer behaviour that should just be illegal. Just avoid them at all costs. Neither Booking.com nor Sixt would resolve the issue. I called support, they just fed me social engineering mumbo jumbo.
  - literallycancer 5y ago
    Your bank sided with the merchant? Normally they would at least try to argue the case and maybe lose it if the merchant's bank has better arguments or evidence, but straight up refusing to try? I'd just drop the bank and get a one that knows what the hell they are doing.

idiocrat 5y ago

>Access database Hertz has spent 500 million USD on Accenture to implement SAP and the project royally failed. So you are perhaps right with MS Access. Furthermore, Lidl has spent 600 million USD to implement SAP and failed.

throwaway894345 5y ago

I was in a hurry once while renting from Hertz, I verbally declined all of the extras, but the employee at the counter put it on my bill anyway. The contract they gave me was literally 10+ pages of fine print, so I didn't check it--I didn't expect to be scammed. Later I got a second charge to my credit card which doubled the price of my rental for services I didn't request or use. I called Hertz customer service and they were hostile in tone and basically told me to piss off, so I told my credit card company to decline the charge. Hertz sent me to collections, and I explained the issue to the collections company and they basically told me Hertz didn't have any ground to stand on and left me alone. Fuck Hertz.

jjav 5y ago

> Renting cars has always been a bad experience. Terrible websites where you don't know what car you're going to get. You arrive and they try to upsell you on a car. The employee spends 10 minutes filling out forms... Join their frequent renter programs (no need to be a frequent renter). Then you can generally just walk to the lot, pick a car and go.

cj 5y ago

Last time I rented a car from Hertz, it was totally touchless with no human interaction. Walk in, find your name on the screen which shows the parking spot your car is in, and go. Perhaps things have changed.

bryan_w 5y ago
Yeah, I actually like hertz's process, quick and no hassle (assuming they don't report the car as stolen)
catillac 5y ago
I travel a lot for work and after some setup I have found hertz to be the most efficient. When they’re not efficient, I want to blow a gasket at the line and lack of any urgency from the staff, and another time they canceled my reservation day of without telling me (because they were overbooked) leaving me stranded in an unfamiliar city. But when it works it does work well. I have the board down to a science: shuttle to hertz, look for my name on board, walk to car directly as indicated by board, drive away with the only human interaction being the person scanning the car as I exit.
- DebtDeflation 5y ago
  >When they’re not efficient, I want to blow a gasket Can confirm that getting off the shuttle, looking up at the Hertz Gold board expecting to see either a parking space number or a section listed by your name, and instead seeing "See Agent" is absolutely rage inducing.
- jfrunyon 5y ago
  > When they’re not efficient, I want to blow a gasket at the line and lack of any urgency from the staff As a customer, I completely get that feeling. As someone who has worked in auto rental (although for Budget Truck), the reality is usually along the lines of rental clerks making slightly above minimum wage, the entire city getting drastically overbooked by corporate, and customers who were due to return (and counted on for availability) not doing so. They have no urgency because it happens on a regular basis and they're the ones getting screamed at all day because of it even though they have no control over it.

hn_throwaway_99 5y ago

> The only way a company responds like that is when they fully believe that they're a staple and CAN'T go out of business. We'll see about that... Considering Hertz emerged from bankruptcy just 5 months ago I think they're pretty aware of their capability to go out of business...

jfrunyon 5y ago
Considering they were bankrupt and didn't go out of business I think they're pretty aware of their capability to get away with anything they want...
- rich_sasha 5y ago
  Or, au contraire, they messed it all up and nothing happened.
  - vkou 5y ago
    I assume shareholders took a serious haircut.

sixothree 5y ago

You forgot the whole "lets walk around this can and look for scratches and pretend we've never seen this car in our life" thing. And that's before you even exit the lot. Then you do the same god damn dance when you get back. Enterprise does this and I just find it completely unfathomable. You did a thorough cataloging of the car when you received it from the last renter. Just give me that fucking report instead of acting like an oblivious idiot.

jjav 5y ago
They did, but you weren't there. Do you really want to trust their honesty on that one, since if they forgot (intentionally or by mistake) to record previous damage, now you become liable for paying for it.
phendrenad2 5y ago
Yeah it's a waste of time, and they should do it while you're doing the paperwork. But again, they're perpetually understaffed, so the same employee has to greet you, manage your place in line, do your paperwork, check your ID, ready the car, do the inspection, push the upsell to a higher-price model, do the insurance upsell, etc. etc.
simplestats 5y ago
But between you and the previous renter it may have been driven by an employee or transported across the country by truck, or just damaged in the lot by the person renting the car next to it five minutes earlier. I found the walkaround off-putting initially (years ago). Especially when you get it wet from washing and this it hides all the minor damage. But they have pretty lax rules about what counts as damage. The best though, is those airport lots with cameras that record the condition of the car as you drive out.
- throwaway8689 5y ago
  One time we did the walk-around and neither of us noticed a scratch. When I returned the car they did notice this scratch. The agent offered to look on the computer to see if it had been logged from a previous rental. Nothing in the computer, but since we were using paper forms I got them to grab the form from the last rental and it did log the scratch. I try to avoid rentals because their business model seems to rely on billing the same scratch to as many customers as they can.

3np 5y ago

> the "vast majority" of cases "involve renters who were many weeks or even months overdue returning vehicles and who stopped communicating with (Hertz) well beyond the scheduled due date Even if true, that does not address those not in that "vast majority". Truly effective corporate speak for "whatever".

sersi 5y ago

> It's probably an Access database running on some Windows 95 node. Or maybe Gentoo. Why the dig on Gentoo? haven't used it for years but it's perfectly fine distro :)

Nursie 5y ago

I've used Hertz a lot in the past, and to avoid that sort of experience all you have to do is join the gold club (free), make your booking through that, then go to the special gold desk on arrival. Usually everything's ready for you and you just need to pick up the keys. OTOH yes this story is worrying!