YXXFlyer

Like some of you on this board, I rent a lot (40+ from hertz this year), mainly weekend rentals to get out-of-town as we don't own a car. Friday pick-up, Monday return is my default.

Last week, I forgot to return the car on Monday. Didn't notice / remember all week. On Friday, I go back to Hertz rent another car, return it as normal on Monday. The following Wednesday, we find the car keys and return the car.

Of course, by then we had a 10 extra days at $40 per day... I know not returning the car is my fault and responsibility. Just wondering about some process aspects and curious to get other data points / insights.

- Not a single contact (call, email, ..) was made between end of reservation and Wednesday + 1 week from Hertz to me.
- Manager at the station claimed the process is: you're OK as long as "within legal coverage", after that we report it stolen. I yet have to speak with him face to face, but I read this as "we'll never contact you".
- Even though I rent it on the same account, drivers licence, credit card, the system does not flag this. I know it might be "exceptional", but still?

Thoughts?

JLewisinSyr

It's not completely uncommon to have more than one open rental contract. Regarding the claim process and lack of calling, that is a bit odd, but if you have an active relationship with the location, they may have just ignored the situation.

HLEWorker

A lot of it will be dependent on your relationship with the location, and how badly they needed your car for upcoming reservations. We were supposed to run a report on overdue contracts once a week and assess from there (though it could be run daily or any frequency you wanted, we did daily). From there, we would decide whether to contact the customer or just wait for them to return based on how much we needed that vehicle to meet our future needs rental needs.


Hertz's computer system will automatically flag the contract if it's more than 2 weeks overdue, which will initiate contact before the recovery process. As a President's Circle customer with such a high frequency of rentals, I would have just assumed you knew everything and were just keeping the vehicle as if your plans were changed (from my stance as an employee). I probably would have given you a courtesy call right around the day you returned it, but I generally avoided bothering PC members unless I had to.

TerryK

There can be legitimate reason why someone will rent two cars at the same location. I once had a monthly rental at IAH and had to rent a second one for a few days. The monthly was driven by my SO. No one at Hertz questioned it and I was glad. Oh, I got Hertz Gold Reward points for both rentals.

TerryK

Thank you, that's good to know.:-:

Rut Dog

I bolded the "we" because whoever makes that plural (domestic partner/spouse) is an automatic authorized driver (for gold members). I used to rent like you do, and when I kept over a rental it was often because the other unnamed authorized driver was using the vehicle. This is one of a handful of situations where you can easily have more than 1 car rented in your name.

As for not hearing anything, 2 weeks starts the recovery process = suspicion the car was stolen, but it is rather unusual you didn't hear anything from anyone.

Then again, I must say it is unusual to forget you have a car parked outside! ;-)

TerryK

Precisely. :-: I was glad that I didn't need to explain to Hertz as to why I needed to rent 2 cars or my marital/domestic partner situation.

YXXFlyer

Thanks for all the replies! I surely hadn't thought of all the reasons why one might want two cars at the same time. And ^^^ to HLEworker for the process insight!

I admit its unusual to forget you have a car in front of the door (though in my defense, we live in an apartment and I walk out the other side in the morning...). I'm glad we didn't get a parking ticket all week

236Dakota

I often rent a car for business on Oahu for a week, and during that week I fly to another island for the day and rent a second car. No issues so far.

bhunt

One reason they may not contact you is I noticed they are charging an "administrative late fee" I had a two week rental thought it was due back on Monday but was the previous friday. The hle manager(which I know well) said anything over 48 hours that you don't extend it's an automatic corporate charge they cannot remove. Just started July 1. (My charge was $68)

suley

Seems like you have your reply, I would add it is possible. I have had a van and car at the same time, providing your cc credit limit allows you to place 2 deposits on your fine.

petosuba

Well, I was told by UK agent that there is no way I can have 2 cars written on me and it's against all their internal rules. However, Norwegian staff (and their franchisee) didn't care about that, even confirmed I can have 2 cars on my name at the same time... And it did work indeed, 2 contracts, me as the main driver, others as additional ones.
And be smart now when 2 reps of the same company contradict each other.

doctor15

Yup, they generally will not contact you.

It has happened to me 2x that no one processed my return when I put it in the dropbox. No idea how long it would have been until they noticed except for after a week I called to find out why my receipt was missing and was then told they thought I still had the car.

HoratioXXXXblower

there are people who will rent a half dozen cars for their 'posse'.

I know in the past you would eventually start getting robocalls form hertz overdue dept threatening you that the car would be reported stolen, and I expect that's still true if you keep it long enough.

maybe they're a little slower on the trigger now that they charge this admin fee.