Had a confirmed reservation for a full size car at SFO on 26 Dec 2014. Reservation made four months earlier.

Arrived on time at SFO after a 12-hour flight from New Zealand. Chaos at the Hertz rental counter - "no cars available, try other companies". The manager blamed Head Office at Oklahoma City for continuing to take reservations when there were not enough cars, but hey, we had booked four months earlier. We tried other airport car rentals - nothing available.

We had to travel to our pre-booked accommodation in Carmel - the cheapest option was the Monterey Shuttle. Arrived four hours late after an uncomfortable ride in a packed shuttle van.

Tried car rental companies in the Monterey area - nothing available. Finally spoke to Gary (a really helpful agent) at Hertz Seaside (near Monterey) who initially said "no new rentals", but he relented when we told him we had a confirmed and dishonored Hertz reservation from SFO. A car had been returned faulty (radio not working) and he allowed us to apply our reservation to it, and we were all set.

Now, Hertz's failure to honor our confirmed reservation left us out of pocket - the fare on the shuttle, taxi from hotel to Hertz Seaside, and the relocation or drop fee from Seaside to SFO (we had to return to SFO four days later).

I have written to Hertz's head office (Oklahoma City) with documentation of our extra costs. No reply. I am being ignored.

Have others had experience of arriving at Hertz with a confirmed reservation to be told they have no cars? What is the point of booking a car in advance if they don't have cars and tell you to go away? Yes, I am sure they have a few no-shows, but the benefit to them is that by taking advance reservations they get a good handle on likely demand, and also it steers customers towards them and away from the competition.

Suggestions on how to proceed please. One option could be to ask our bank to do a charge back on the credit card payment.