kirkpt

Just got a claim request from Viking billing service on behalf of Hertz. Claims my rental was involved in an accident or returned with damage. But this did not happen - no accident or damage. They even did a walk around.
Now they are charging a claim for over $1000.00
Not sure what is the next steps to take. Of course Hertz has no info over the weekend. I did pay bill with American express credit card and I am a Gold President #1 circle customer. Never had any issues in past.
Any advise would be appreciated.

Often1

Start with Hertz during regular business hours.

Don't do anything else until you have nailed down the facts. This could be as simple as a one-digit error and as serious as a further inspection which is documented as showing serious damage.

Not worth sweating until you have every fact in hand.

exerda

Now I've got to call Hertz, as I just got a Viking collections letter in the mail.

Seriously, Hertz, can't you at least try contacting your customer, particularly a President's Circle customer?

Serious customer service fail, Hertz.

Rut Dog

My father had one of these claims. It, too, was preposterous. He was put on the Do Not Rent (DNR) list, and eventually got taken off of it, but only after many headaches.

These claims are not trivial, and should be dealt with assertively, patiently, and forthrightly. They do indicate a seriously out of touch corporation -- a characteristic all too common these days.

kirkpt

Follow-up to Viking claim. Was actually at the Philadelphia airport location where my rental was supposed to have been in accident. Meet with the manager and they asked if I could wait while they reviewed claim. After reviewing video etc. appears the rental damage was 2 rentals after mine. Manager said it would take a few days to get cleared up and did provide her card and email address for follow-up.
Just crazy - wonder how many others received a letter as well. Makes you wonder just how many people would just pay and go on.

ijgordon

It's still appalling that Hertz never even tried to contact you directly (and why didn't they just bill your credit card?) but just sent it to a collections agency.

Does this kind of thing show up on your credit report?

Lastly - they really were able to easily pull and review all the videos of that particular car being returned?!?

exerda

So far, no one at Hertz has been able to even tell me what this is about. I've spoken to Customer Service three times now via phone, and they claim they have no information in their systems and keep trying to foist me off onto Viking.

I told the most recent agent there was no way in heck I was dealing with Viking lest they treat that as some kind of acknowledgement of the "debt," and besides, since they claim to be representing Hertz, Hertz should be able to tell me what the heck is going on. She gave me a direct # to "someone who should be able to see the information in our claims system."

I have at least a decent idea what this is about, though the "debt" is about 3x what it should have been if it's related to a damage report I filed for a rental back in January ($1500 for a cracked headlight lens? Really?!). But I've already spoken to my insurance (with whom I opened a claim back in January), and they told me that Hertz has told them there was nothing to inspect and refused their adjuster access to their facilities. If that's true, I will be raising hell with the next person I speak to at Hertz--because the return agent took my insurance info as part of the report and said they'd work with the adjuster as necessary.

exerda

Follow-up for me:

Still playing phone tag with Hertz. They haven't responded to e-mails I've sent, nor to voicemails I've left. I finally got through to a person at the claims department today (having left voicemails last week) who was at least able to find me a claim # for this and who gave me two people to call about it in yet another Hertz office--neither of whom is in today, of course.

aviator4512

Exerda-

Please see my posts today/yesterday regarding the same issue. I'm not happy about it either as a President's circle member, although I worked through some contacts to get answers from real people and not voicemails with no return phone call. If you PM me I'll see if I can get you some good contacts to work this through. I have more peace of mind now that this is over with (hopefully).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz...idnt-rent.html

I've learned with Hertz that there is no communication, accountability, or ways to get in touch with REAL people who know how to make things right. Between this and various other issues I've had, I'm over it. From the sounds of things I'm not the only one either.

Aviator

sbagdon

For some of the HIDs and projector beams, yes, at full retail, including labor. And the new LEDs are going to be worse then that, until they become mainstream, and drive the price down. Sad, considering I can get an incandescent lens assembly for my GM vehicle for about $50-$75 on eBay... yet they just don't look as cool!

Once rented a GLK-350 in PBI, for a day. When I later found out the retail value, not sure I'll do that again.

Not saying that the practices Hertz appears to be working under in these threads are proper, yet the repair price on late-model cars can get egregious.

doctor15

As absurd as it sounds, it almost seems best not to deal with Hertz in these instances. Their debt collector VCS just tries to collect money however they can without providing any information.

I would send a letter according the Fair Credit Reporting act for them to acknowledge this debt, as required by law. I doubt you will hear from them again.