I've rented from Hertz regularly since my first road-warrior job in the 90's. I was President's Circle from the day they launched the elite tiers in 2000-ish. Hertz used to be amazing - well ahead of its peers including National and Alamo. They always had good cars, usually well-trimmed models thanks to their Ford relationship, while Avis and National had a *lot* of stripped down Pontiacs and Buicks, even for their Preferred/Emerald renters.

By the early 00's and 10's, I felt like Avis and National/Alamo (pretty much a combined operation by then) had reached parity, but all three were pretty good.

But now, Hertz is an outright dumpster fire. My worst rental ever was this year, when I returned a car to LAX and, along with about a dozen other returning renters, couldn't find an employee anywhere to process the return. OK, this has happened before, I didn't worry too much. It was raining, a bus driver was there, so I just got on board and figured the email would come coon. Three days later, I start getting nastygrams about returning the car. Knowing that it's all-too-common Hertz practice to report the car to police as stolen, even when it's sitting on their lot, I started making calls. Eventually they located it - sitting on their lot - and closed out my rental, charging me for three extra days.

When I asked the charges to be reversed, I was literally asked if I had video proof that I returned the car on time. Thinking it was a bad joke or they misunderstood something, I emailed a called a couple more times and got the same answer every time. No gas receipt, no airline mileage statement showing I'd actually flown across the country shortly after dropping off the rental car. They wanted a video.

No, I didn't video myself pulling into the Hertz lot. When was the last time anyone did this? And even if I did, wouldn't they just say I could have edited the timestamp? The irony is, HERTZ is the only one with the video evidence, as I'm sure the LAX rental facility is bristling with cameras covering every vehicle movement on the lot. But that's irrelevant - they know it's an impossible request to for a renter to comply with, and that is indeed the entire underlying fraud.

As this was going on, I had completed a couple more (thankfully normal) Hertz rentals. I know I can't contest the charges with my credit card without getting the banhammer from Hertz and every other agency it owns. So I'm just out $150 or so - but now consider Hertz my absolute last resort, after every other third-tier agency, after Turo, after Ubering, in some cities after cycling/scooters, after literally any other transportation option there is.

Hertz is terrible. It's a great case study in how to thoroughly trash a once-premium brand.