Originally Posted by Zeeb

A bill for hundreds of euros or more for barely noticeable scratches that are only noticed when you bring the car in isn't just being more exact about tracking damage. It's a shady business practice that they are using to get money out of people. If it was just a "they care more about it" situation then they'd provide well lit places and explicitly review everything with every renter before letting the car leave the lot (instead of putting the onus on the renter to notice everything themselves, often in a dim parking garage after a long flight). Plus in addition to the actual things they consider "damage' vs normal wear and tear, the bills people are getting are ridiculously magnified.

Consider this if nothing else - if it was just a situation where they wanted to keep the cars utterly pristine, why is it that they give out cars with already existing "damage" in the form of scratches and small dings? They are sending out bills as if each time you return a car they bring it back up to just from the factory condition. But clearly that is not the case - that small scratch in the bumper that they sent out a 1,000 euro bill for is still there when the next person rents the car.

And if nothing else, at the end of the day it doesn't matter if Hertz Germany thinks what they are doing is reasonable. Or that Hertz Germany and Hertz USA are technically different companies from a corporate perspective. What matters is that from the customer perspective they are both "Hertz" and from the customer perspective what they are doing is hurting the Hertz name and the Hertz brand worldwide.