6 ms·

What Happens When Hertz's AI Scanner Finds Damage on Your Rental

57 points by danielmorozoff 1y ago

toomuchtodo 1y ago
Hertz is simply a systemically terrible rental care company that should be avoided whenever possible.
- JohnFen 1y ago
  Isn't Hertz that company that was getting innocent customers arrested and even jailed for stealing cars? Yes, yes they are. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa... Never do business with Hertz.
  - jasonthorsness 1y ago
    I don't understand how they survived this reporting as a company. Amazing how slowly and ineffectively information permeates the world.
    - sidewndr46 1y ago
      It's almost like corporations face no penalty for what is an obviously criminal act
      - imglorp 1y ago
        An obviously profitable criminal act which impresses shareholders. The stock is up 50% since April. Same thing we're seeing with United Healthcare: shareholders see a horrifying, inhumane, murderous but profitable denial policy and clap with glee. The system is broken.
        sidewndr46 1y ago
        I wonder if Hertz can close the loop by using imprisoned customers as a cheap source of labor?
    - TheChaplain 1y ago
      My guess it hat they have a sizeable income through business renting, so companies rent or pay the invoice. And they probably don't care about extra fees on the bill.
    - amy214 1y ago
      It's also an easy fact to remember - renting from Hertz, Hurts
  - YawningAngel 1y ago
    It sounds like the real damage here was done by US law enforcement. Not to excuse Hertz
    - alwa 1y ago
      I mean… perhaps, but is it really the police’s job to scrutinize the company’s records substantiating its claims of theft? “The big well-established company is straight-up lying to me about this supposed crime that happened, and fabricating the documentation that proves it” seems like a heuristic that would not normally be the right one… I’ve personally had to pursue cases where somebody just took a fleet rental vehicle across the country and started driving Uber with it. It was basically written off as “shrug guess we lost it” (!) until the org got a recent speed camera ticket in the mail. Somehow I feel like the default case that makes it to the police turns out to be closer to that situation than to “the organization alwa was working with just fabricated this bizarre tale on a lark.” It’s so much easier to just write it off as a loss, or handle it without LE. I feel like it’s not just the US system that’s ill-prepared for well-reputed large institutions to fabricate tales of victimhood and extensive paper trails to “back it up.” Well… “paper” trails from poorly-implemented computer systems, anyway… The UK police (and also their courts) were similarly ill-prepared when the Post Office and Fujitsu straight-up lied about missing money in the Horizon scandal.
      - gambiting 1y ago
        >> mean… perhaps, but is it really the police’s job to scrutinize the company’s records substantiating its claims of theft? Not only it's not, keeping the car for longer than you rented it for isn't theft, it's a breach of contract and it's a civil not criminal matter. So indeed, Police shouldn't be involved at all.
        alwa 1y ago
        I mean eventually it becomes theft, doesn’t it? There’s some kind of line where your behavior demonstrates you have no real intention to return it? The guy who took the car across many states and started driving Uber with it—he’d been assigned the vehicle for 3 days, claimed to have brought it back to the yard, but actually was using it to make his living every day for 6 months by the time we heard about it… surely that’s a bit closer to “he took it” than “he messed up the return date,” isn’t it?
- citrin_ru 1y ago
  It’s terrible but widely available and on of the cheapest. Not everyone can afford to avoid it.
  - lucianbr 1y ago
    If the perspective of the company is that the official price is low, but they make it up by inflating the damage penalty and/or sometimes making up damage penalties, so that in the end the real price is not that low, then the real price for the customer is probably also not that low. It's the same money. Company has to make profit somehow. Unless you as a customer have some advantage over the other customers allowing you to avoid the penalty more often than normal. But on average, it must be non-cheap.
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    Enterprise is affordable and widely available, and I have never had a bad experience across hundreds of rentals in the US and Europe.
- madaxe_again 1y ago
  So many are awful, though. I’ve had sixt bill me €2000 for a new door, despite me having a video of it showing no damage when I dropped it off at their (closed during what were supposed to be open hours) location, I’ve had europcar decide to close early, leaving me with no car after arriving at the airport on time, and I’ve had dollar give me a car that broke down before it even got out of the lot - and you’ll never guess who they decided was responsible.
Kon-Peki 1y ago
Hertz used to be the best by a wide margin, but now it's a totally different company using the name and logo.
- os2warpman 1y ago
  Hertz used to be a business, run by businessmen who wanted to build and run a business. Hertz is now a financial instrument run by private equity and investment bankers. Businessmen want money the same way you or I want money. They just want to run a business in order to make that money. The same way novelists want to write novels to pay the bills. The book has to be good, people have to like the book so that they buy the book and tell other people to buy the book. So goes business. Financial instruments are disposable, to be squeezed and wrung of every available cent until it becomes untenable and then the owners drop it and move on. If they can cut, squeeze, and extract they will. If they cannot-- they will destroy the instrument and the trick is they never lose money doing the destruction. People who run financial instruments masquerading as business don't want money like you and I. They want money the way addicts want heroin.
jqpabc123 1y ago
Hertz is working to promote Uber.
more_corn 1y ago
Never rent from hertz
omegaworks 1y ago
[flagged]
- tomhow 1y ago
  > Unsurprising where it was developed. Please don't post nationalistic swipes like this on HN.
Daishiman 1y ago
To be frank there's nothing in the article that seems outrageous. The AI thing is just burying the lede; the point is accesible and transparent before-and-after images so that damage claims are more transparent.
- x187463 1y ago
  I agree. Regardless of what you think about Hertz or the dubious fees associated with the damage repair, the actual tech is doing something useful. I'd rather scan the vehicle as I leave the lot and have clear evidence of its state before and after the rental period, than have to argue with a random employee about the timing/source of damage.
  - ryandrake 1y ago
    They’re never going to use the technology to provide the customer something that will prevent them from paying. Its purpose is to soak customers for more fees. Using it before the rental to scan for existing damage is counterproductive and will not help Hertz make more money.
- bomewish 1y ago
  What the story was dancing around — and should have just got to the point about — was that the damage seems like very normal wear and tear and it seems unfair to charge people for it. It also sounded like they weren’t even gonna fix it, but just charge him for the pleasure of having detected it.
- eesmith 1y ago
  The pricing structure is not transparent. For one, are fees "higher when renting vehicles from Hertz stores that use UVeye scanners, as opposed to those that don’t"? Can a renter get "estimates of what different kinds of damage typically cost"? (quotes from the article). I'm pretty sure that want to use automated scanners for this because if they had human agent make the same claims, and charge $440 for that scuff, then there would be a blowup right away, and keeping employees willing to deal with that anger all the time is hard. I'm pretty sure I've scuffed up a rental car like that, and didn't get dinged at all. It's a rental car, and normal wear-and-tear should be part of the regular depreciation.
anonzzzies 1y ago
In the EU it is probably not allowed and won't happen but I would pay any amount to take them to court over this. Car rental companies are shite, especially the big chains, but they will have to relent when confronted with consumer rules. And rightly so: was told to pay many fines over non valid damages, paid 0.
- disillusioned 1y ago
  EuropCar tried to hit my brother with a $275 charge for a missing parcel shelf from a hatchback he had rented, which, to his knowledge, had never _had_ a parcel shelf. They insisted, but could provide no proof, that it did, and told him to prove that it didn't, but obviously he hadn't thought to document _missing, optional pieces he didn't know were equipped in a car he didn't own_. It's a complete scam: they hit everyone for the missing parcel shelf and see who's stupid enough to pay up. He obviously didn't and told them to pound sand. That being said, I just rented from Enterprise in Zurich and the car was < 300 km brand new, I was renter #2. Sure enough, the X3 had a parcel shelf, and you better believe I documented its presence upon its return.
- gambiting 1y ago
  >>In the EU it is probably not allowed and won't happen but I would pay any amount to take them to court over this. I'm from EU and I don't see why this wouldn't be allowed? They have proof of what the wheel looked like when the car was rented out and they have proof of what it looked like when it was returned - if it's clearly damaged then why would they not be able to charge you for it?
  - madaxe_again 1y ago
    A common way they operate in Europe is that they’ll leave their offices at airports unattended when they’re supposed to be open, forcing you to use the key drop. They then say in the fine print that customer submitted videos and photos aren’t accepted, so even if you film the car when you drop it off, you’re liable for any damage that occurs after you return it. Worst I had was they ripped the door off a rental on a lamppost, and even though I had a video (one take) of the car being in good condition, their office being closed, and the clock behind their counter, they threatened me with court unless I paid them €2,000.
crazygringo 1y ago
If anything, this just makes much clearer and provable what damage occurred. It's clearly evident in the photo, and yes you need to pay for damage. On the other hand, this does make me wonder if there ought to be a threshold for damage. A small scratch to a panel can result in a very expensive panel replacement, and the car is still totally driveable and most people renting won't notice or care. It would be one thing if minor damage could just be "buffed out", but it can't. But when the only repair option is an entire expensive replacement of a component, is that really fair? Do people really need their rental cars to be perfectly pristine? Are they willing to pay these exorbitant damage fees in order to ensure that?
- ceejayoz 1y ago
  "Damage" seems like a really generous interpretation of that scuff.
  - crazygringo 1y ago
    That's the entire point of my second and third paragraphs.
    - ceejayoz 1y ago
      But you open with "yes you need to pay for damage". I would not expect to have to pay for this sort of "damage", AI or otherwise.
- amelius 1y ago
  Isn't that a problem for insurance companies, ultimately?
  - crazygringo 1y ago
    Not when there's a deductible you have to pay. Or when you don't get insurance, and then you're charged for repairs that wouldn't have been made if you hadn't gotten insurance. And indeed, is there any proof that the repair even gets made?
ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
They need to get another really effective and popular spokesgoblin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_VpVaPLWs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_VpVaPLWs
fisherjeff 1y ago
I had this issue with Sixt, but fortunately they were very easy to deal with (i.e., they were not Hertz). The scanner found some damage that simply was not possible for me to have incurred, and I just explained that in the webform they sent and the charges went away a few days later. Makes me wonder if this whole process is worth actually worth it to the rental companies.
- bravoetch 1y ago
  I'm happy to hear this worked out for someone! My experience with a different company was being shown photos of hail damage, even though it was easy to show that the car could not have experienced a hail storm while I had it. It took me several years to fight before they dropped it. Turns out insurance companies are diligent about detailed records of all hail storms and this was useful in the fight.
nkrisc 1y ago
It wasn't clear to me if the AI is automating the claim of damage, or just notifying employees of potential damage which they then inspect and file as they always would have done.
4b11b4 1y ago
While a legitimate use case for computer vision... Defaulting to pay first, litigate against us later if you dare... F THAT!
- weare138 1y ago
  This is why companies like Hertz are shifting tasks like this to AI. Plausible deniability. Those billions we made overcharging our customers? Whoops, AI software error. Our bad.
jnsie 1y ago
That's wear and tear and not down to negligence on the driver's part. It's abhorrent that a rental company would attempt to charge a customer to fix something like this.
- bravoetch 1y ago
  They don't intend to fix it, they intend to make money from it.
iJohnDoe 1y ago
This particular “damage” seems like normal wear. Hertz probably won’t even fix it. Most rental companies used to not care about anything less than a circle or deck of cards size. Like trunk wear, when getting luggage out. Are they going to charge for trunk wear scuffs now?
curiousgal 1y ago
Diffing two scans is now AI?
- notTooFarGone 1y ago
  It's crazy what PR bullshit is done for investors.
acrooks 1y ago
Often when I've rented cars, the agent has shown me an evaluator they use to assess damage - like this https://www.core77.com/posts/111200/Damage-Evaluator-Templates-for-Rental-Cars https://www.core77.com/posts/111200/Damage-Evaluator-Templat... Using that as a template, I would find it difficult to argue against a claim. e.g., the evaluator linked above permits any bumper scratches smaller than 6 inches, or a wheel scratch less than 2 inches. I feel like it permits reasonable wear and tear. However, the example in the article was for 1-inch wheel damage, which would be permitted by the evaluator, so I guess the AI flags _any_ damage. I wonder how receptive these businesses will be to negotiation and pushback. Maybe they'll capitulate if you push hard enough, but it puts an unfair burden on the customer to argue against unreasonable claims (likely by design to maximise cash collection).
xnx 1y ago
Repeating what others have said in many of the comments. Never rent from Hertz. Many rental car companies brands are interchangeable and operated by the same owner, but Hertz is different and much worse. Hertz sucks. Hertz is the worst. Avoid Hertz at all costs. You're in for a world of hurt with Hertz.
comrade1234 1y ago
Hertz became bad in the last few years. I think they got bought by someone or merged with someone... it used to be that I would rent from them for more money but it would be hassle free. Now, it's just like any other scummy car company trying to upsale you at the counter. My last trip to California- the guy at the counter told me to go wait at some area for a car to come in, in my class. I went and waited. I saw three foreign asian guys there too - they got in a car and drove off but 15 minutes they were back and got out of their car, I assume because it was the wrong class. I realized then that this was bs - we had no info on what was an appropriate car for our class and that we were sent to this purgatory because we didn't buy the extra insurance or something. So I looked up what cars were in my class and wandered the lot and found a very nice car in its class. Got inside and drove it to the exit. They checked my paperwork and the class, approved it, and let me go.
- FireBeyond 1y ago
  > because we didn't buy the extra insurance or something Anchorage, similar story - arrive just before closing time after a long flight. They try to pull some blatantly scammy shit, that "in order to decline our optional insurance, we need to actually open a claim on your insurance to verify your coverage". Me: "Here's their app, you can see that here." "We need to actually open a claim..." (How would that even work, a 'proactive claim') "... and we're about to close so we might not be able to finish processing your rental this evening." Ate the fee for their insurance waivers, and vowed never to rent from Hertz again.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
indigodaddy 1y ago
Wonder if you opt-in to the rental company’s insurance, if this wouldn’t apply

toomuchtodo 1y ago

Hertz is simply a systemically terrible rental care company that should be avoided whenever possible.

JohnFen 1y ago
Isn't Hertz that company that was getting innocent customers arrested and even jailed for stealing cars? Yes, yes they are. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa... Never do business with Hertz.
- jasonthorsness 1y ago
  I don't understand how they survived this reporting as a company. Amazing how slowly and ineffectively information permeates the world.
  - sidewndr46 1y ago
    It's almost like corporations face no penalty for what is an obviously criminal act
    - imglorp 1y ago
      An obviously profitable criminal act which impresses shareholders. The stock is up 50% since April. Same thing we're seeing with United Healthcare: shareholders see a horrifying, inhumane, murderous but profitable denial policy and clap with glee. The system is broken.
      - sidewndr46 1y ago
        I wonder if Hertz can close the loop by using imprisoned customers as a cheap source of labor?
  - TheChaplain 1y ago
    My guess it hat they have a sizeable income through business renting, so companies rent or pay the invoice. And they probably don't care about extra fees on the bill.
  - amy214 1y ago
    It's also an easy fact to remember - renting from Hertz, Hurts
- YawningAngel 1y ago
  It sounds like the real damage here was done by US law enforcement. Not to excuse Hertz
  - alwa 1y ago
    I mean… perhaps, but is it really the police’s job to scrutinize the company’s records substantiating its claims of theft? “The big well-established company is straight-up lying to me about this supposed crime that happened, and fabricating the documentation that proves it” seems like a heuristic that would not normally be the right one… I’ve personally had to pursue cases where somebody just took a fleet rental vehicle across the country and started driving Uber with it. It was basically written off as “shrug guess we lost it” (!) until the org got a recent speed camera ticket in the mail. Somehow I feel like the default case that makes it to the police turns out to be closer to that situation than to “the organization alwa was working with just fabricated this bizarre tale on a lark.” It’s so much easier to just write it off as a loss, or handle it without LE. I feel like it’s not just the US system that’s ill-prepared for well-reputed large institutions to fabricate tales of victimhood and extensive paper trails to “back it up.” Well… “paper” trails from poorly-implemented computer systems, anyway… The UK police (and also their courts) were similarly ill-prepared when the Post Office and Fujitsu straight-up lied about missing money in the Horizon scandal.
    - gambiting 1y ago
      >> mean… perhaps, but is it really the police’s job to scrutinize the company’s records substantiating its claims of theft? Not only it's not, keeping the car for longer than you rented it for isn't theft, it's a breach of contract and it's a civil not criminal matter. So indeed, Police shouldn't be involved at all.
      - alwa 1y ago
        I mean eventually it becomes theft, doesn’t it? There’s some kind of line where your behavior demonstrates you have no real intention to return it? The guy who took the car across many states and started driving Uber with it—he’d been assigned the vehicle for 3 days, claimed to have brought it back to the yard, but actually was using it to make his living every day for 6 months by the time we heard about it… surely that’s a bit closer to “he took it” than “he messed up the return date,” isn’t it?
citrin_ru 1y ago
It’s terrible but widely available and on of the cheapest. Not everyone can afford to avoid it.
- lucianbr 1y ago
  If the perspective of the company is that the official price is low, but they make it up by inflating the damage penalty and/or sometimes making up damage penalties, so that in the end the real price is not that low, then the real price for the customer is probably also not that low. It's the same money. Company has to make profit somehow. Unless you as a customer have some advantage over the other customers allowing you to avoid the penalty more often than normal. But on average, it must be non-cheap.
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  Enterprise is affordable and widely available, and I have never had a bad experience across hundreds of rentals in the US and Europe.
madaxe_again 1y ago
So many are awful, though. I’ve had sixt bill me €2000 for a new door, despite me having a video of it showing no damage when I dropped it off at their (closed during what were supposed to be open hours) location, I’ve had europcar decide to close early, leaving me with no car after arriving at the airport on time, and I’ve had dollar give me a car that broke down before it even got out of the lot - and you’ll never guess who they decided was responsible.

Kon-Peki 1y ago

Hertz used to be the best by a wide margin, but now it's a totally different company using the name and logo.

os2warpman 1y ago
Hertz used to be a business, run by businessmen who wanted to build and run a business. Hertz is now a financial instrument run by private equity and investment bankers. Businessmen want money the same way you or I want money. They just want to run a business in order to make that money. The same way novelists want to write novels to pay the bills. The book has to be good, people have to like the book so that they buy the book and tell other people to buy the book. So goes business. Financial instruments are disposable, to be squeezed and wrung of every available cent until it becomes untenable and then the owners drop it and move on. If they can cut, squeeze, and extract they will. If they cannot-- they will destroy the instrument and the trick is they never lose money doing the destruction. People who run financial instruments masquerading as business don't want money like you and I. They want money the way addicts want heroin.

jqpabc123 1y ago

Hertz is working to promote Uber.

more_corn 1y ago

Never rent from hertz

omegaworks 1y ago

[flagged]

tomhow 1y ago
> Unsurprising where it was developed. Please don't post nationalistic swipes like this on HN.

Daishiman 1y ago

To be frank there's nothing in the article that seems outrageous. The AI thing is just burying the lede; the point is accesible and transparent before-and-after images so that damage claims are more transparent.

x187463 1y ago
I agree. Regardless of what you think about Hertz or the dubious fees associated with the damage repair, the actual tech is doing something useful. I'd rather scan the vehicle as I leave the lot and have clear evidence of its state before and after the rental period, than have to argue with a random employee about the timing/source of damage.
- ryandrake 1y ago
  They’re never going to use the technology to provide the customer something that will prevent them from paying. Its purpose is to soak customers for more fees. Using it before the rental to scan for existing damage is counterproductive and will not help Hertz make more money.
bomewish 1y ago
What the story was dancing around — and should have just got to the point about — was that the damage seems like very normal wear and tear and it seems unfair to charge people for it. It also sounded like they weren’t even gonna fix it, but just charge him for the pleasure of having detected it.
eesmith 1y ago
The pricing structure is not transparent. For one, are fees "higher when renting vehicles from Hertz stores that use UVeye scanners, as opposed to those that don’t"? Can a renter get "estimates of what different kinds of damage typically cost"? (quotes from the article). I'm pretty sure that want to use automated scanners for this because if they had human agent make the same claims, and charge $440 for that scuff, then there would be a blowup right away, and keeping employees willing to deal with that anger all the time is hard. I'm pretty sure I've scuffed up a rental car like that, and didn't get dinged at all. It's a rental car, and normal wear-and-tear should be part of the regular depreciation.

anonzzzies 1y ago

In the EU it is probably not allowed and won't happen but I would pay any amount to take them to court over this. Car rental companies are shite, especially the big chains, but they will have to relent when confronted with consumer rules. And rightly so: was told to pay many fines over non valid damages, paid 0.

disillusioned 1y ago
EuropCar tried to hit my brother with a $275 charge for a missing parcel shelf from a hatchback he had rented, which, to his knowledge, had never _had_ a parcel shelf. They insisted, but could provide no proof, that it did, and told him to prove that it didn't, but obviously he hadn't thought to document _missing, optional pieces he didn't know were equipped in a car he didn't own_. It's a complete scam: they hit everyone for the missing parcel shelf and see who's stupid enough to pay up. He obviously didn't and told them to pound sand. That being said, I just rented from Enterprise in Zurich and the car was < 300 km brand new, I was renter #2. Sure enough, the X3 had a parcel shelf, and you better believe I documented its presence upon its return.
gambiting 1y ago
>>In the EU it is probably not allowed and won't happen but I would pay any amount to take them to court over this. I'm from EU and I don't see why this wouldn't be allowed? They have proof of what the wheel looked like when the car was rented out and they have proof of what it looked like when it was returned - if it's clearly damaged then why would they not be able to charge you for it?
- madaxe_again 1y ago
  A common way they operate in Europe is that they’ll leave their offices at airports unattended when they’re supposed to be open, forcing you to use the key drop. They then say in the fine print that customer submitted videos and photos aren’t accepted, so even if you film the car when you drop it off, you’re liable for any damage that occurs after you return it. Worst I had was they ripped the door off a rental on a lamppost, and even though I had a video (one take) of the car being in good condition, their office being closed, and the clock behind their counter, they threatened me with court unless I paid them €2,000.

crazygringo 1y ago

If anything, this just makes much clearer and provable what damage occurred. It's clearly evident in the photo, and yes you need to pay for damage. On the other hand, this does make me wonder if there ought to be a threshold for damage. A small scratch to a panel can result in a very expensive panel replacement, and the car is still totally driveable and most people renting won't notice or care. It would be one thing if minor damage could just be "buffed out", but it can't. But when the only repair option is an entire expensive replacement of a component, is that really fair? Do people really need their rental cars to be perfectly pristine? Are they willing to pay these exorbitant damage fees in order to ensure that?

ceejayoz 1y ago
"Damage" seems like a really generous interpretation of that scuff.
- crazygringo 1y ago
  That's the entire point of my second and third paragraphs.
  - ceejayoz 1y ago
    But you open with "yes you need to pay for damage". I would not expect to have to pay for this sort of "damage", AI or otherwise.
amelius 1y ago
Isn't that a problem for insurance companies, ultimately?
- crazygringo 1y ago
  Not when there's a deductible you have to pay. Or when you don't get insurance, and then you're charged for repairs that wouldn't have been made if you hadn't gotten insurance. And indeed, is there any proof that the repair even gets made?

ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago

They need to get another really effective and popular spokesgoblin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_VpVaPLWs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_VpVaPLWs

fisherjeff 1y ago

I had this issue with Sixt, but fortunately they were very easy to deal with (i.e., they were not Hertz). The scanner found some damage that simply was not possible for me to have incurred, and I just explained that in the webform they sent and the charges went away a few days later. Makes me wonder if this whole process is worth actually worth it to the rental companies.

bravoetch 1y ago
I'm happy to hear this worked out for someone! My experience with a different company was being shown photos of hail damage, even though it was easy to show that the car could not have experienced a hail storm while I had it. It took me several years to fight before they dropped it. Turns out insurance companies are diligent about detailed records of all hail storms and this was useful in the fight.

nkrisc 1y ago

It wasn't clear to me if the AI is automating the claim of damage, or just notifying employees of potential damage which they then inspect and file as they always would have done.

4b11b4 1y ago

While a legitimate use case for computer vision... Defaulting to pay first, litigate against us later if you dare... F THAT!

weare138 1y ago
This is why companies like Hertz are shifting tasks like this to AI. Plausible deniability. Those billions we made overcharging our customers? Whoops, AI software error. Our bad.

jnsie 1y ago

That's wear and tear and not down to negligence on the driver's part. It's abhorrent that a rental company would attempt to charge a customer to fix something like this.

bravoetch 1y ago
They don't intend to fix it, they intend to make money from it.

iJohnDoe 1y ago

This particular “damage” seems like normal wear. Hertz probably won’t even fix it. Most rental companies used to not care about anything less than a circle or deck of cards size. Like trunk wear, when getting luggage out. Are they going to charge for trunk wear scuffs now?

curiousgal 1y ago

Diffing two scans is now AI?

notTooFarGone 1y ago
It's crazy what PR bullshit is done for investors.

acrooks 1y ago

Often when I've rented cars, the agent has shown me an evaluator they use to assess damage - like this https://www.core77.com/posts/111200/Damage-Evaluator-Templates-for-Rental-Cars https://www.core77.com/posts/111200/Damage-Evaluator-Templat... Using that as a template, I would find it difficult to argue against a claim. e.g., the evaluator linked above permits any bumper scratches smaller than 6 inches, or a wheel scratch less than 2 inches. I feel like it permits reasonable wear and tear. However, the example in the article was for 1-inch wheel damage, which would be permitted by the evaluator, so I guess the AI flags _any_ damage. I wonder how receptive these businesses will be to negotiation and pushback. Maybe they'll capitulate if you push hard enough, but it puts an unfair burden on the customer to argue against unreasonable claims (likely by design to maximise cash collection).

xnx 1y ago

Repeating what others have said in many of the comments. Never rent from Hertz. Many rental car companies brands are interchangeable and operated by the same owner, but Hertz is different and much worse. Hertz sucks. Hertz is the worst. Avoid Hertz at all costs. You're in for a world of hurt with Hertz.

comrade1234 1y ago

Hertz became bad in the last few years. I think they got bought by someone or merged with someone... it used to be that I would rent from them for more money but it would be hassle free. Now, it's just like any other scummy car company trying to upsale you at the counter. My last trip to California- the guy at the counter told me to go wait at some area for a car to come in, in my class. I went and waited. I saw three foreign asian guys there too - they got in a car and drove off but 15 minutes they were back and got out of their car, I assume because it was the wrong class. I realized then that this was bs - we had no info on what was an appropriate car for our class and that we were sent to this purgatory because we didn't buy the extra insurance or something. So I looked up what cars were in my class and wandered the lot and found a very nice car in its class. Got inside and drove it to the exit. They checked my paperwork and the class, approved it, and let me go.

FireBeyond 1y ago
> because we didn't buy the extra insurance or something Anchorage, similar story - arrive just before closing time after a long flight. They try to pull some blatantly scammy shit, that "in order to decline our optional insurance, we need to actually open a claim on your insurance to verify your coverage". Me: "Here's their app, you can see that here." "We need to actually open a claim..." (How would that even work, a 'proactive claim') "... and we're about to close so we might not be able to finish processing your rental this evening." Ate the fee for their insurance waivers, and vowed never to rent from Hertz again.

deleted 1y ago

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indigodaddy 1y ago

Wonder if you opt-in to the rental company’s insurance, if this wouldn’t apply