AmySRQ

Last summer, I booked a car with Hertz for a February trip to Spain. The cost was 253 euros. I did the "print this for your records" thing and they said they'd send an email confirmation. I printed and filed it away.

Now, I am double checking all my reservations for this trip. Hertz did not send a confirmation email with details and pricing, just with the confirmation number. When I log in with the confirmation number, the price is now 430 euros. Ten or 20 and I would not worry. This is huge!

I called Hertz and they said I have to take it up with the counter rep. Yippee...just what I want to do while I am on vacation in Spain....wrangle with someone in a language I don't speak very well.

The rep made a note in the record of my call and that I have documentation regarding the lower price. She said that Hertz's policy everywhere is to honor the paperwork I have in hand at the time of the rental. I specifically booked this with Hertz so there would be no surprises.

So, should I just carry the paperwork with me and hope for the best or is there something else I can do before we leave to help resolve this issue on this side of the ocean? Also, if I get nailed for the higher price, what should I do to while there to help me dispute the price once I return home?

UAPremExecflyer

You're likely making way more out of this than you should.
If your booking printout says "rate is guaranteed" then you have nothing to worry about.
Out of curiosity, what CDP did you use - a contract or personal/leisure one?
If company/contract, those rates can and do change.
Similar thread from last week http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz...d-rate-me.html

SanDiego1K

I'd look for a better price on autoslash.com. You can check their price, then submit your booking number. They almost always find something better than I have.

Sydney

A similar thing happened to us 2 years ago at Hertz CDG. We booked a 10 day one way hire for 544.75 euros (through the Hertz site). When we arrived, they said the price was wrong and charged us 824 euros instead. They refused to negotiate and made us wait over an hour. This, after a long flight from Sydney to CDG via Shanghai. We were exhausted so gave in and paid the much more expensive rate. Then we returned home to find they ripped us off with the currency conversion charge too. We had said we wanted to pay for the rental in Euros (as had an international conversion fee free card), but they charged us in AUD and hence added their own currency conversion rate on top before charging our credit card.
This year, we are renting a car for 6 weeks from CDG. Trying to avoid Hertz if possible.

AmySRQ

It does say "rate is guaranteed" but there was also online small print referenced in the other thread. (Thanks for that link btw. I did a search but used "price increase" as search terms and it didn't turn up that thread or much else recent.)

I used the CITI GROUP CDP. I understand that they shift over time, but I'd think that like airline tickets, you get the price you get the day you book. I guess that only holds true of you pay in advance.

WestCoastFlyer

After hundreds of rentals, Hertz Spain (Malaga) is the only location where I have had a problem with being charged an incorrect rate.

It started with the computer system being down when I picked up the car. I was told this was common. When I returned the car the Hertz employee in the garage checked in the car for damage and noted the time on my rental record. What I didn't get was the computer print out with the final charges - since the system was down when I picked up the car my reservation was on a manual contract. I didn't have the time to wait while they figured this out.

Of course my credit card was charged hundreds of euros more than I should have been. I couldn't get Hertz Spain to respond to my requests for an adjustment. I had to dispute the charge with my credit card company and Hertz Spain responded by having me blacklisted and sending me to collections. It took me months to straighten this out.

My advise - save every scrap of paper as part of this reservation. Make sure that you leave plenty of time when you return the car as that appears to be the time when the actual cost of your rental will be calculated and that may not be what you and the renting agent agreed to. Finally, make sure that you get the print out of the final charges when you return the car. Don't accept their notation of date and time.

With all that said, enjoy your trip. We loved Spain.

P.S. We paid for the GPS as most US units will not have Spain maps and our cell phone was hit and miss. it was a portable unit and very much worth the cost, however the map was 18 months out of date - according to the warning we received. They said you can take it into any Hertz office if this happens to you.

AmySRQ

SD1K, Autoslash is only returning results for manual cars. We both drive stick, but were hoping for some ease in the mountains.

Sydney, I am so sorry to hear this. Better luck in France this time.

WCF, we'll be in Seville, with plenty of time to straighten things out, but thanks for that reminder. I am starting to think that I want nothing to do with Hertz Spain. The funny thing is, here in the US I will pay a bit more because I expect Hertz to be less of a nuisance.

I find that every time we rent a car, there is a GPS in it, even though we have not requested nor paid for one. My husband just got some kind of GPS-like app for his Android. We have a paper map and we're never going more than a few hours a day. Do you think we'll be okay?

So glad you likes Spain! We have been to France often. Aside from a few days in BCN, this is a first for us.

WestCoastFlyer

When we rented none of the cars had GPS as you see in the US. We had to rent a portable one. However it may depend on the location. There were four of us and we all had issues with good data access on our cell phones while driving making navigation difficult.

We drove to Seville and loved it, but it was also the most difficult city for us to navigate with lots of narrow one way streets around the city center.

If I were going again I would look into buying a portable unit here that I could load foreign maps onto - some brands do this at a nominal cost and some don't . Or, see what options and costs would be if you get one from hertz there.

By the way, we were very pleased with our rental vehicle. It was very well maintained and comfortable. Even with the problems I would consider renting from hertz again. I would just be more cautious about getting a final receipt. If you want to look at other options check out Sixt. We had friends who were happy with them and they are quite popular in Europe and growing in the US.

AmySRQ

We'll be picking up there and then heading straight out of town to Granada, which I hear is also a navigational challenge!

I'll look into that.

Looking at Sixt now on Autoslash. What's interesting is that there are all kinds of extras for an additional driver, rail station fee, etc. Every website handles the extra driver fee differently and none are clear. Hertz says nothing at all, Autoslash is cryptic, AutoEurope is the clearest, but it's 10 Euros a day. Ugh...just going to have to bite the bullet, I think.

Sydney

AmySRQ, we have rented a car in Spain a few times. The last time was in Jan 2013 from Madrid. We used arguscarhire and ended up with Guerin. Had 2 car accidents because two people ran into us but they only charged us a few hundred euros total for both, as the dents were not too big, instead of the 1000 euros collision excess. We were able to get it all back from our insurance company though so was not out of pocket at all.
So I found Guerin quite good, if you want to check them out.
We have also rented from Costa in Malaga. The rental went without a hitch at a very low price.

I would not use Hertz in Spain when there are so many cheap rentals available.

I found driving in Granada, Seville and throughout Spain and Portugal quite easy, but had a small car. Maybe that makes a difference. You can also get Navigon GPS that does not use data on an Android phone. We paid for the whole of Europe, from the Playstore, and used it all over Europe. Worked brilliantly and I have to say it is more user friendly and clear than Tom Tom or Google Maps. We will be using it again at the end of this year for 8 wks. Much cheaper and easier than the car rental GPS.

All the best with your trip!

AutoSlash

AmySRQ, we can certainly help you look for automatic transmission cars. When you're searching on our site, click on the link trhat says 'Change your search'. There should be an option there to show automatic only. If you have any problem, feel free email or PM us with details of your rental, or click here for a discounted quote and we'll help you get the best possible deal.

platbrownguy

OP, I had a similar thing happen with Helsinki. Booked a rate of 231 euro, rate changed to 403 euro. I didn't have time or desire to deal with the airport desk, I just went ahead with the rental and returned the car. I was charged the higher rate.

I then went online and requested a refund here: https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/custo...US_PAST_RENTAL

This was the message that I sent, nothing more nothing less:

I received a response the next day telling me to expect a two-week delay while they investigated.

I received a credit as requested three weeks later, and an email confirming that I was overcharged and that the credit would be issued (the email actually came a day after the credit).

I would hope that the posters who mentioned similar experiences would do the same. I'm not sure why the poster at CDG would even bother wasting an hour trying to get it sorted at the airport. To me, the point of using an Amex is that if I get overcharged and the merchant doesn't fix it, I can charge it back.

Sydney

They wouldn't give us the car and cancelled the booking. Then issued a new booking/contract number with the higher price which we had to sign in order to get the car. At the time, it seemed like we had no choice.

AmySRQ

Sydney, I appreciate the other rental agencies. My preference is to deal with a company with some kind of US presence. It leaves me feeling more like I am came home and send the kind of email that PlatBrownGuy did.

PBG, I was planning to use my Barclay Arrival World MC Elite. I don't think I am in possession of a platinum card at the moment. I'll have to dig around some and read some small print to see what card might be the most strategic for this situation.

AutoSlash, I did figure out that if I go one step deeper, the automatic cars show up in the offerings. Thanks. I am concerned about the lack of clear info regarding additional driver fees.

As I have become more aware of the ins and outs of getting a good deal on a rental car, and doing what I can to make sure there are no surprises, I am amazed at how non-standard the car rental industry is. With an airline ticket or a hotel room, you really feel like you're comparing apples and apples. Everything seems to be spelled out and there are no surprises when you check in. With cars, it's apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and the occasional durian.

cestmoi123

Is this CDP one for employees of Citigroup? If so, are you authorized to use it? If it's a corporate CDP, and the deal between Citi and Hertz has changed in the interim, it could certainly change your rate (unless the Citi/Hertz deal grandfathered in prior reservations).