Recently rented a car from Hertz at Dubai (DXB) Airport. It was probably the worst experience I've ever had with Hertz. I'm a Gold member and have never had any issues with their locations in the US, so when I was booking my rental car in Dubai, I had no second thoughts about renting from Hertz.

Upon arrival, its a bit of a trek to the parking garage where the Hertz counter is located from terminal 3, most of the journey is outdoor which means walking through really hot desert heat. The agent helping me was friendly, but there seemed to be an issue pulling up my reservation on their system. It took an hour before I was given the keys to the car. Good thing I wasn't in a hurry.

As I loaded the car, another Hertz employee asked me to sign the paperwork showing previous damages to the vehicle. I know from experience with "Independent Licensee" locations to always be thorough with this document. So I did my own walk-around... which was being actively discouraged by the Hertz employee. He kept repeating, "I've already marked everything, everything is fine, don't worry"... trying to rush me through the process. I did find some scratches that were not noted by him and made sure they got onto the document.

Also, unfortunately, the lighting in the parking garage is pretty dim and I didn't notice some other minor scrapes that would later come back to bite me. I also didn't bother to look UNDERNEATH the vehicle, and I would highly regret this a few days later...

Anyways, the car drove fine for a few days.

When I returned, a Hertz employee came out and asked for my paperwork. He then proceeded to do the most thorough, nit-picky walkthrough of a car that I have ever seen in my life.

He then claimed that I damaged the vehicle pointing to some minor scratches on the vehicles body, and also some major scrapes underneath the front bumper which were not visible unless you crawled underneath the car... absurd. I assured him I didn't hit anything that could do that type of damage during my usage of the car. He then suggested maybe someone else drove the car during my rental period, which I re-assured him that no one else drove the car as I self-parked at my hotel.

After returning inside, the lady at the front desk told me that she'll pull up the previous renter's paperwork to see if the damage was noted then. Fine. After about 10 minutes she told me that their computers were "slow tonight" and that I could go along my way and she'll take the charges out of my account for the damage. No way lady. I didn't damage the car and I'm not letting you charge me for it.

So I waited. For another hour. Until finally another Hertz employee came along (the same guy that checked me in at arrival), punched some things into the computer, and told me that there was nothing to worry about, and that the damages were from a previous rental.

Again, glad I wasn't in a hurry.

I'm still watching my credit card like a hawk to make sure that nothing else is going to be charged.

Not sure what the deal is, or if they think they could've pulled a fast one on me, but the whole experience was just terrible. I wish Hertz corporate would do more to regulate their overseas independent licensees.