Originally Posted by
Often1
You are missing the point. This is far from an IM problem.
Hertz has sold the vehicle and contracted for delivery at a time when it is contractually entitled to have that specific vehicle in its possession.
There is no such thing as walking the new owner. Put simply, Hertz has no contractual right to extend the vehicle rental.
Not likely to occur often, but something for one to consider when doing business with a provider in Chap. 11.
Oh come on -- Hertz isn’t somehow transferring title with a contracted delivery date before the buyer has even seen the car. The phone agent didn’t mean the car is “sold” literally. They are no more contractually obligated to have the car available than they are for any other reservation.
I went to the site myself -- the program that lets you buy straight from the rental lot is “Rent2Buy”, and indeed the cars there have varying availability dates and mileages listed. All you’re doing is making a reservation for a “test drive” that presumably can turn into the sale. The $99/day rental fee for the 3 day test drive If a car isn’t available on the date, has more mileage than desired, or is otherwise not to the buyer’s satisfaction, the buyer’s recourse is...to not buy the car.
That’s separate from whether Hertz has an obligation to extend or not -- it doesn’t...but people do have emergencies that delay returns, and the rental contract has specific penalties for that (potential repricing plus $10-$15/day additional charges generally). I highly highly doubt that Hertz is going to report a car stolen that I called and told them I was unable to return for 3 more days (longer delays with no contact, payments bouncing, then sure).
And let’s be clear that the OP did return the car as originally reserved, so we don’t need to keep telling them they are lucky <something> didn’t happen. They asked a legitimate “what if” question.