Hertz South Africa is not Hertz - be careful
 

Recently I rented a Mercedes for 3 weeks in Cape Town through Hertz.com. I got a very good rate which included 1200 free kms and a good one with all kms included. When I picked up the car I told them to use the 1200km rate since my route was only 1100km. No surprise that they charged me the other rate which was 2200 ZAR more expensive and their proof consisted of a calculation where 58600 - 58340 was 1560 kms....

After about 100km it turned out one of the tires was losing pressure so I changed it and called Hertz to ask what to do. No spare cars in my category anywhere on my route, so just keep going or get a small Toyota. Fair enough, I kept going and made it back to CPT. I have comprehensive rental car insurance so I asked if they planned to charge me for the flat, so we could take care of it through my insurer. "No, no worries. It is covered in your rate and besides, the tire was probably punctured before you left"

They picked up the replacement car 3 days later from my hotel and left no final invoice, despite my request. Meanwhile I also discovered that they had put 3x the same authorization (in total 39000 ZAR!!) on one of my credit cards, making it unusable. Later I discovered they also put 2 authorizations on the credit card in my profile.

When I got home I noticed they had overcharged me by 2600 ZAR. I called the CSD of Hertz in the Benelux and although they took my case very seriously they could not do anything because Hertz SA is a licensee. They are called Hertz, but they are not Hertz. The same is true for AVIS but when I had problems with SA overcharging me (a relatively common occurrence in SA!) their head office finally sorted it out. Hertz SA did restitute around 800 ZAR after my complaint because they suddenly discovered they had charged me twice for something or rather. Very dodgy.

Hertz SA then proceeded to charge my credit card for another 2598 ZAR 2 weeks later without any form of communication whatsoever. It took me a while to figure out what this new charge was about: the tyre. Finally (almost 6 weeks later) they send me their proof. Funny that the repair bill (which they also included) was only 1788 ZAR. Another honest mistake no doubt.

I warn you against renting with Hertz SA. Car rentals in SA can often be a problem but at least with AVIS they take charge of the situation. Hertz, even though it is booked on Hertz.com, simply tells you to go after Hertz SA by starting a court case in SA....

Luckily I paid by AMEX. They have proven the true heroes in this case. They have returned the 'dubious payments' and corrected my original invoice. They are doing what Hertz fails to do. Just thought I'd share my experience and make sure you know who you are renting with in SA! Back home Hertz won't help you.

I am a Presidents Circle member with over 150 rental days per year in higher categories, but I don't think that should matter in this case. To be fair, apparently it doesn't.

In the UK papers there are often people reporting problems with car rental in Europe as well as South Africa.

I was surprised about the tyre. In the US when I had a flat they refunded before I got home.

I feel that car rental is one of the most difficult problems of travelling outside the US.

Only problems I ever had was in SA. Once with AVIS, once with Hertz. Sometimes things go wrong elsewhere too - the other day Hertz tried to charge me $650 for $ 80 rental - but that is quickly sorted because you're dealing with the 'real' Hertz.

What I find unbelievable is that Hertz does not take any responsibility for its licensee.

Well, that is not quite true; they did sent me a $90 gift voucher.

Well the licensee pays Hertz to run the operations, really they are just using the name.

A gift voucher what you have always wanted. Its a bit like going to a salon.

My life objective has been achieved. I can rest easy. :D

Yeah, Hertz CPT definitely tried to pull some funny business with me a couple of years ago. One was trying to charge me for loss damage waiver when my pre-paid rate explicitly excluded it. Then there were multiple invoices for some scratches (which was my fault, but covered under Amex). And their billing department was rather unresponsive (or at least very slow).

In any event it was Amex that reversed all the "bogus" charges and paid for the repairs. ^

Its nice to hear the AMEX have been helpfull in dealing with Hertz SA. Whilst I know for a fact that AMEX always try to help when the card holder has been a little silly. However it would appear that Hertz SA might have a reputation for doing this.

South Africa Codes and Deals
 

Hey Guys,

are there some codes for South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg) each one Week?
Right now, I go for the best rate with the AMEX Platin Code(but it gives just a 10% discount).

Thanks

PS:Does someone know if at the Airport in CapeTown and Johannesburg there is a Gold-line and Gold Service?
Is there also a free Upgrade or if you book at least intermediate you can choose from the Gold-line?

in joburg hertz was quite small. i changed my reservation to avis because it was way cheaper. didnt see something like a goldcounter or even gold choice.

^Thanks man for your post...
ok does avis got some nice codes and tricks
as I am not so familiar with avis. I mean like booking not from avis.com maybe using other pages like avis.uk, avis.ir , like it is as heartz?!?

Unless it's changed recently, both Avis and Hertz in ZA are licensees, which is likely why most of the Hertz codes don't work.

Last time I rented a car at JNB I used Avis, with a code that gave a fairly good discount (far better than anything I could get from Hertz). When I picked up the car, the rate was significantly higher. After I showed the confirmation, they promised to fix it but sent me on my way with the paperwork for the higher rate - but to their credit on my return it was all sorted out and I was charged the originally quoted rate.

is there right now a good code for avis?
I still can get a 15% discount with heratz.
Avis is a little bit the same price and in that case I go with heartz cause I feel more comfortable with them.
The only problem is both of them doesn't offer a Super CDW which is defently needed for SA.

any hertz discount
 

Will be renting a car in South Africa for 10 or 11 days. Any promo code/discount or perks with credit card other than AMEX plat and citi prestige.

Hertz South Africa extra charges?
 

So after years of using Avis exclusively in SA, I thought I should give Hertz a try, especially since the price was much lower, for a 3 days rental of a small car, ~32€ instead of ~45€

As I'm already used from Avis to getting the invoice by e-mail few minutes/hours after returning the car, I didn't stay any longer than needed, and after I got confirmation from the agent that there are no new damages and fuel is good, I left the place.

When I received my invoice, I saw that it had extra charges, or namely my pre-paid voucher covered R488 (with an apparent exchange rate of about R15,3 = 1€), and I was charged about R72 extra on my credit card, those R72 seems to be:
~R3, seems to be the difference between the rental cost and what I prepaid
~R69, which is 14% VAT

I e-mailed them to request an explanation, as my reservation clearly states "Pay at Location" of 0, as well as it already includes TAX (though, not at 14% which is SA VAT rate).
While it's clearly a small amount, and even if they refuse to refund it I still paid less then what I would have got with Avis, one must wonder if this is the 'norm' ? anyone else have similar experience?

My reservation was done through the hertz.com website.

I had two experiences with Hertz in JNB (well, one at Sandton and one at the O.R. Tambo). I don't know if I actually got overcharged on the first one, because they massively screwed up my credit card charges by placing a R5,000 charge on my card instead of a R5,000 authorization, so when it was refunded two days later, I ended up losing about $50 due to currency fluctuations. I had issues at the counter on my airport rental to the point that I pulled up a rental for about the same price with Avis on my phone and promptly walked out of the Hertz office and picked up an Avis car with zero hassle and for the exact rate I was quoted and without even needing to sign (a bit of a surprise that my U.S.-based Avis Preferred account transferred to Avis SA so seamlessly!).

I wouldn't be afraid to book Hertz in SA (they don't engage in outright fraud like, say, Europcar there does), but I definitely would not expect it to be as smooth of an experience as Avis.

(Note that none of my ~6 SA rentals have been prepaid.)