Originally Posted by
wlau
A new low for Hertz! I rented an EV, came back with more charge than I got it. AND...guess what? I got charged gas! Hertz is a total scam these days. Unless you are a 5*/PC member with years of renting experience to watch this like a hawk, they will tag on fees and find ways to rip you off.
I arrived very late due to a flight delay, so I took an EV, which was one of only few sedans left. It's got about 87% of charge. Lucky for me, the hotel I used has a charger, so I charged to 98% on my last night. After driven it back to Hertz, the car was returned at 91% charge. I couldn't find anyone to close out transaction, so I took pictures of the odometer and charge level and went to Gold desk to get a receipt. Lady wasn't happy that I wanted a receipt and asked why. I told her I am trying to prevent 1) car "mysteriously" disappears; and 2) being overcharged. She handed me the receipt and with a single glance, I gave it back to her and asked why she overcharged me? She gets all defensive... In front of other customers, I asked her "Why did you charge me for gas, when I rented an EV, and I just showed you proof that car is returned with more charge than at rental?" She has no choice but has to fix it. If looks can kill, she would have ended me.
I came to the conclusion that these are corporate driven down mandate to tag on charges every which way possible and this is is no longer the Hertz us business travelers have known for decades..
Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
This is poor programming by Hertz. It makes for a much more sensationally click-baity headline to claim that it's a scam, but the reality is that Hertz's IT is crap and auto-applies charges like this when various conditions are met that it shouldn't.
While you can argue that Hertz's bad IT is in and of itself an act of malice (for their refusal to fix the problems), the reality is that in a big bureaucratic company like Hertz, small-scale issues that pop up like this are hard to get fixed because the dev teams may not even be aware of the problem, and communication between front-line and CS and dev is often not very fluid.