meerkatani

Hey guys, this is my first time renting a car and I run into some situations. It'd be great if I can get some help/advice

I am doing an internship in the middle of nowhere in Arizona and I rented the car for a whole month from Pheonix airport. I purchased the premium road side assistance because I don't normally drive and I was really nervous :P

Yesterday, the battery died while I was driving. Some friendly stranger helped me jump started my car so I could move to the side of the road. I then called the emergency road side service, who told me that they don't have a car for me to replace at the local location, and that I would have to get the battery replaced and they will reimburse me. I went to an auto shop but they said they don't have the battery of my car. I called them again, and they said I'll have to drive back to Pheonix if I want a replacement.

I think this is just completely ridiculous. When I purchased the road side assistance, I was told that they would drive a car out for replacement within 90 minutes if we run into any problems. But now, they're telling me that as long as the vehicle is able to move, they won't send out a car. I'm in the middle of nowhere and I really don't feel comfortable driving the car onto the high way.

If anyone has any advice on how I should handle this, I would really appreciate it. The priority is to get a new car so I can go to work tomorrow, but I'd also like to get the road side assistance refunded because it's obviously not doing anything.

MSPeconomist

I ran into a similar situation about two years ago with an airport rental than I drove about an hour to a small town. In my case, the car would move but it was unsafe to drive on highways as it was overheating very quickly and then would only drive at very low speeds. This happened at the start of a weekend.

Hertz thought it was unsafe for their employees from the airport location to drive a new car out for me and then drive the one I had back to the airport, although they suggested that the easiest/quickest way for me to have a functional car would be for ME to drive the defective car on an interstate back to the airport.

The local agency had cars but declined to give me one as they thought they could rent them at higher rates. I did a dummy booking to prove this.

After about a day of fighting on the phone, I called AmEx PTS (through whom I had reserved the car). The agent called Hertz and convinced them that something had to be done. Eventually a new vehicle (somewhat higher category but not anything wonderful) was delivered to me from the airport location by tow truck, with my broken car being towed back maybe 70 miles to its airport home.

I was very annoyed by not only the anxiety but also the waste of my time.

bo1953

Not sure if this would help, yet have you tried calling corporate or the national number about this? They may have a procedure or policy in place to assist as I Am sure this is not the first time this has happened...

good luck

Cymro

Batteries don't generally die while driving - usually it would be the alternator that dies, fails to charge the battery, and then the battery is dead and leaves you stranded. As such, changing the battery wouldn't solve the issue anyway (well it would until the charge in the new battery was depleted...)

Mwenenzi

Agreed. A car does even need a battery to be able to drive it. Battery is mainly for starting. But car electrics are now complicated.
If the car just stopped it will be another issue. Now days it often electronics. Battery failure is a symptom and not the cause. Was it very hot?

canyoncar

I second this. Alternator is bad or something else is wrong with the charging system. Hertz needs to get you towed.

COSPILOT

We are getting off topic as the real issue is how Hertz handled this, but in response to your battery question, batteries don't won't wait for a idle period to die simply because of charging issues. A battery can develop a bad cell at any time, even during driving with a perfectly good charging system.

And for those suggesting new cars behave like older ones, start your car, then disconnect the battery and see what happens. Not all modern cars will continue to run, and in some cases you may do damage to components in the system by doing so.

What is more important is how rental car companies deal with this, and its sad to see that the customer is often left high and dry because someone without knowledge within the company suggests its OK for you to fix on your own and get reimbursed later. I'm not spending a dime on my own to fix a faulty rental car with an assumption that reimbursement will be quick and easy.