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WARNING RE: HERTZ CAR RENTAL


Angie
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Hi there

We always rent a car from Hertz and have done so several times a year for many years.  Because I have a very comprehensive travel policy through my company I never take out Hertz's enhanced insurance because my excess will be covered; however the basic CDW has always been included in the rental price.  We booked a car for June 2013 but upon sorting out the paperwork we noticed that instead of the 180 euros quoted for the 9 days we were being asked for an additional 146 euros to cover the CDW.  We declined but it was drawn to our attention that if we wrote off the car or it was stolen a sum of 13,000 euros was payable.  On checking the paperwork once at our holiday home it did indeed say we were not insured for any loss whatsoever.

On returning to the UK I checked with Hertz and apparently this is their new policy; they refused to answer my question as to why the rental charges haven't been reduced at all seeing as insurance is no longer included.  My UK car insurer also said that we are not covered by them for any loss to a hire car, only our own vehicle when driving abroad.  There may be an element of insurance when paying with a credit card but I couldn't get any straightforward answer out of Mastercard either.

As we rent 8 or more times a year we are obviously a bit miffed at this additional cost and worried at the fact that Hertz did not advertise this change (at least we didn't see it).  For those of you interested or need such insurance, I have found a UK company who provide an annual policy which covers absolutely everything and for multiple trips for £89.99 per year - they are called carhireinsurance.com and its their Worldwide Plus policy that you need.  A bonus is that this policy also covers damage to tyres and the underside of the car (which I now know is not covered by Hertz so if you run over a rock or go off-road, beware!), lost car keys and towing and breakdown cover.  It is also valid for up to 9 named drivers on the rental agreement.

Hope this is of some help.

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We had just the same problem when renting a car from Hertz in Sicily this year. The extra insurance cover on picking up the vehicle just about doubled the cost of the car hire.

I complained fruitlessly, and eventually found that most car hire firms operate this way these days, apparently to keep their basic rental quote looking good.

The solution seems to be, as you say, to use one of the comanies that will cover your excess for a 12 month period for any car hire.

Angela
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This is a minefield!

I'm just going through price comparisons for USA for next year's holiday; it looks as though CDW and TP is included there (with Alamo at least, the best results so far). I haven't tried Hertz yet.

I wonder if this is a European Hertz problem? We used them in May at Liverpool and the maximum liability was higher than previously but certainly not 13,000€; it was 1000€ if I remember correctly but I haven't got the documents now. Over the past 10 years I have never taken out optional cover.

 

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There was a programme on BBC2 last night (featured Goldcars) where extra upon extra was heaped on when collecting the car. One of the claims was that there was no insurance included for the actual car as stated at the collection desk. However, it was. There were all sorts of things that they tried to screw money. Another was having to pay for a full tank of fuel. You only got a refund if hiring for 3 days or less - so hire for 4 days, only travel a few miles and you are the loser. They also worked out the cost of the fuel. With a Clio they claimed it was a 65 litre tank whereas it is a 55 litre tank and tried to justify the cost as all the fuel stations near the airport charged high prices (hire firms have their on pumps). In one case the fuel cost 2.40 euros per litre and the three fuel stations near the airport charged 1.775 euros per litre.

I also would never use Hertz again. Twice hiring a car at Toulouse late in the evening when the extension work was being carried out and the hire car parking was in darkness on their diagram it showed a couple of scratches on the car. In the light of the morning they were far more damaged which involved me sorting it out with Hertz.

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I think that Hertz practices in the US and EU are different: my wife's cousin (lives in the US), came over to France on holiday and booked a car for a day or so with Hertz, booking from the US. Normally, in the US, CDW would be included: in France it was not and resulted in a (large) extra local payment. This business of charging for a full tank of fuel has become a big scam, with quite a few trying it on. The last couple of times that we have needed a hire car, we used Sixt after reading recommendations in various places: we would thoroughly recommend them to anyone - price included CDW etc, no pressure to accept paying for a tank of fuel. A car that we hired was broken into whilst in our care: this was not even mentioned by them on return (yes, that's how it SHOULD have been, as it was covered by insurance), and there was no comeback. All very efficient.

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I am car-less for the moment due to selling my car and then finding out my new one won't be available until  late August - my fault but hey-ho.

As a consequence, I have had to hire a few cars in France, Luxembourg and UK.  I use

http://www.rentalcars.com/

which is a price comparison site but gives good deals being much cheaper than going direct with say Hertz or others and not paying a load of extras like a big fee for picking the car up at the airport.

They will try to charge quite a lot for Excess protection.

For this I use

http://www.carhireexcess.co.uk/

which works out around €3 to €4 per day which I think is OK

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1 Goldcar

My advice would be to avoid like the plague.

I hired a car from Goldcar in Portugal. This had been arranged through Holiday Autos. First of all, Goldcar refused to accept that the contract included CDW and told me that I would not be allowed to take the car if I did not buy their insurance - and that this was the law in Portugal. The contract was also "pick up empty - return empty" except, of course, the car was provided with a full tank of fuel which had to be paid for. The car itself, when I eventually found it, was in poor condition.

The Algarve is not a very large place and it is very difficult to use up a whole tank in a week. When I took the car back the tank was still half full. I received no rebate - the contract was "empty - empty"! Of course, Goldcar would just top up the tank and charge their next victim for a full tank.

Holiday Autos, whom I had used many times in the past, will never get my custom again, and I have since found a smaller firm in Portugal, Zitauto, who treated me very fairly.

2 Hertz

And this really applies to all the well known car hire companies. A general point - all the local operators are franchises and this means that there may be wide variations in the quality of service they provide.

 

 

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Hi----------when we first moved to France, we rented from Hertz here in Gard. They proved a complete shambles----their office in Avignon would not help with anything we asked.

It spurred us on much quicker than we'd imagined into buying our own car------a Renault Clio : highly recommended, unlike any hire company, especially Hertz.

Suggestion as you are not French residents : find small local firms by asking on Forum or from local tourism office----they tend, here in France, to often be family-owned and offer a very personal service with a few excellent vehicles. Hope this helps.

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[quote user="PaulT"]

Clarkkent

I presume you contacted Holiday Autos on your return - what did they have to say about the matter.

Generally

Think Goldcars have featured in other postings on this forum.

[/quote]

To my shame, I did not. I arrived home to find that Consumers' Association had reported the practices of Goldcar and Holiday Autos in Motoring Which? and my partner confided that she would sooner put the business behind us and learn from our mistake.

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[quote user="PaulT"]

I presume you contacted Holiday Autos on your return - what did they have to say about the matter. [/quote]

[quote user="Clarkkent"] To my shame, I did not.[/quote]

That is a pity. As they did right by us, eventually.

We used to use Holiday Autos all the time before we came to live in France and only had one poor experience. When we got home I did contact them and they refunded quite a bit of our hire charges, and some compensation, as the car we wanted - an estate - had not been available; even though we stressed that was what we wanted. We had to squash into a much smaller car which was both inconvenient and uncomfortable.

Sue

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[quote user="suein56"][quote user="PaulT"]

I presume you contacted Holiday Autos on your return - what did they have to say about the matter. [/quote]

[quote user="Clarkkent"] To my shame, I did not.[/quote]
That is a pity. As they did right by us, eventually.
We used to use Holiday Autos all the time before we came to live in France and only had one poor experience. When we got home I did contact them and they refunded quite a bit of our hire charges, and some compensation, as the car we wanted - an estate - had not been available; even though we stressed that was what we wanted. We had to squash into a much smaller car which was both inconvenient and uncomfortable.

Sue
[/quote]

I agree with Sue, a pity you didn't contact them.

I booked a hire car for my wife through them in Liverpool a couple of years ago, and she had to stay longer because of a death.

I told her to check the cost of extending the hire period, and that if it was not at a similar rate I would hire another car with them on line.

She was told that the hire could be extended a further week at the same price, but when she returned the car she was given, and paid, a bill for almost double, presumably at the company's published rates.

I contacted Holioday Autos, explaining all the details, and they immediately refunded the amount overcharged.

In situations like this I think they have considerable influence over the companies they use.

 

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Oh dear!  We've just sorted car hire via Ryanair for a holiday in Greece (Kephalonia).  Now I'm worried that they are going to sting us for an extra charge.

 

While on the subject, we don't have travel insurance and live in France;  can anyone recommend a reasonable policy to cover cancellation, repatriation etc?    I will try again to get EHICs.

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[quote user="Clarkkent"][quote user="PaulT"]

Clarkkent

I presume you contacted Holiday Autos on your return - what did they have to say about the matter.

Generally

Think Goldcars have featured in other postings on this forum.

[/quote]

To my shame, I did not. I arrived home to find that Consumers' Association had reported the practices of Goldcar and Holiday Autos in Motoring Which? and my partner confided that she would sooner put the business behind us and learn from our mistake.

[/quote]

I know that complaining can be difficult and an emotive issue BUT each time a complaint is not made then companies feel that they can get away with their malpractices so things escalate and do not improve.

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Ha, yes, chicken and egg!  I've just gone through all this for our "big" holiday next year, and now double-checked all the hire car arrangements as a result of this thread. Much more open and upfront for USA, no extras at all (unless you want GPS and that sort of extra), certainly the collision waiver stuff is included already in my package.

 

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I tried the "bring back the car with the tank empty" last time I hired with them.

You initally get charged for a full tank, at well over-priced pump prices, and then have to judge how much you put in towards the end of the hire so it goes back nearly empty. Thats more difficult than it appears and I'm guessing they hope you return it with more than a bit in so topping up for the next mug works out cheaper for them.

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  • 3 months later...
I hired a hertz car via Ryanair at Dinard airport recently. I returned the car with a full tank of fuel and made sure the Hertz receiving agent noted this. However they invoiced me for a full tank of fuel and took the amount from my credit card. The customer service in Ireland were quite aggressive. I had to register a dispute situation with my credit card company and eventually send whiteness statements from my passengers and an intention to sue for breech of contract before they backed down.This took about 2-months of e-mails. My advice would be to have the agent sign your own statement that the car is fully fuelled and free from damage and of course take photos of the car.
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Photo's yes, particularly of the mileage and fuel gauge.

When you say the receiving agent 'noted this' do you mean that he actually inspected the car and agreed of just accepted it by what you said and whatever you wrote on the paperwork ?

I don't know Dinard at all but from my personal experience of hiring cars from smaller airports many companies are virtually one or two man operations and as such often don't have the manpower to physically inspect returned cars on the spot and you'll probably find in the small print somewhere that even if they sign the car in allegedly full and undamaged if subsequent physical inspection reveals that to be not the case then they can charge accordingly.

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[quote user="sid"]

Ha, yes, chicken and egg!  I've just gone through all this for our "big" holiday next year, and now double-checked all the hire car arrangements as a result of this thread. Much more open and upfront for USA, no extras at all (unless you want GPS and that sort of extra), certainly the collision waiver stuff is included already in my package.

[/quote]

The devil is always in the detail Sid, what does CDW actually cover, most don't cover tyres or windsreens etc etc etc. Even the super CDW waiver doesn't.  I use after market insurer for this purpose Insurance4carhire, They cover for a year for what you could welll pay for a week (certainly in France)  and they also cover the bit's the others don't.  We had a tyre damaged on a hire car in france and that wouldn't have been covered by the hirers cover but was by afformentioned company. Payout was swift too.

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The hertz agent was in the rental car park when I returned the car and handed the keys and paperwork to her.She inspected the car for damage and I said the car was full of fuel, I left her with the car, I think they take it to a car wash ready for the next hire.She must have notice the car was fully fuelled when she drove it away. In the ensuring e-mail interchange the Hertz customer service claimed that their staff reported it empty.I think this is just a try on.
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