Ken -- I agree with you. Hertz has a lousy attitude toward customer service.

In a nut shell, here was my situation:

Rented a car from Dollar in Costa Rica. Called the night before to confirm, told they made a mistake and booked me in San Jose Mexico. They did not have a car but would get me a Hertz car. They told me the price ($250) and that it was an automatic.

Get to San Jose, took 20 minutes to complete the paperwork. Get the car -- low and behold, a standard (not automatic) car. Asked the agent about the mistake and told me to "take it or leave it." Of course, in a review of their web site, a automatic car goes for much more than a standard car (250 vs 170).

Get home and contact Hertz CS. Took them two weeks to get back to me. They told me it was not their fault, I had a choice to take the car or leave it. They billed me what I signed for and if anything, I had to go back to Dollar. Dollar took car of it, but it should not have come to that.

I told the CS agent that I would never use Hertz again and she said "Fine."

National, Avis and Budget get all my business.

--Jim