moral_low_ground

I am an experienced renter, a long term President Circle member but am very concerned re the "new" electronic services introduced by Hertz.

Two things in particular:

1) Lack of damage report in the car - I am sent a PDF of the condition of the car (including photos) which in my opinion does not show in any great detail issues with scratches, marks on the wheels etc

2) I rented a car at IAD and received no contract but it was emailed to me on leaving the lot. It is (obviously) very difficult to check an electronic contract when you are just driving out of the Hertz lot

Re point 1, I was told that if I wanted to mark my own damage I would have to go into the office and ask for a form and fill it in. This negates the benefit of GOLD in terms of having the damage report in the car, you mark it up and leave. Now I have to go to the office

Re point 2. This is just the worst. I rented a car at IAD, estimated rental charges of $328 USD was on my reservation email and what I expected to pay. I picked a car from the President Circle choice so no contract in the car and when I left the lady said I would be emailed my contract. No problem with this except when I returned the car my charges were now $825 USD. Apparently I had accepted LDW and CDW which added $500 to the bill. I know I didn't accept but in checking my emailed pdf contract sent after i exited the lot, it showed I had accepted LDW and CDW (which I didn't and is not in my profile either). Of Course I only checked this when I saw the bill for 825 USD.

If this had been a paper contract I would have seen this straight away. However, I expected to pay $328 and on no occasion did I accept LDW or CDW but querying after the rental is difficult. I complained straight away but the first Hertz person I spoke to didn't want to know. Fortunately I did find another representative who saw my side and refunded 400 USD. That made the rental $80 USD more that is should have been but I was grateful to get a result and will in future insist on seeing the electronic contract BEFORE i leave the Hertz lot.

Moral - beware. If damage not apparent on the Hertz pictures then you will pick up the bill. If Hertz add extra services that you did not sign up for then unless you correct this before you leave or soon after then likely you will have to pay. When you got paper copies it was easy to check, now, with e-copies you need a decent phone to read them on and actually be bothered to do it rather than assume you get what you think you paid for.

AutoSlash

Two comments:

1. Not that you're wrong, but I've found Hertz to be very lenient when it comes to minor damage. They generally will not bother you about small scratches, scuffed wheels, etc. I'm sure there is someone who is going to comment here that they were dinged for something (no pun intended), but in my experience (and that of many other AutoSlash team members), Hertz is far more lenient about this stuff than many other rental companies--especially the discount brands. They're trying to speed the checkout process which I applaud. If you have any concerns, why not just take your own pics before you leave the lot with the level of detail you feel comfortable with.

2. Hertz has the ability to print the contract at the exit booth. All you need to do is to ask.

Dave Noble

I think that the leniancy depends a lot on the country. I have found Hertz UK, for example, to be very meticulous in checking for damage whilst in USA the checking seems a lot more lax

docbert

Except for the occasions that I've asked for it, I've never received a damage report from Hertz. Are you talking about a case where there was specific, visible damage, or just in general?

You should still be given a 2-page document, which includes the usual "page 1" of the contract that lists the full price of the rental. Are you saying you weren't given this?

rcspeirs

In the UK, the process is now that you so get a printed contact, but the damage report is emailed to you. The damage reports I've received were emailed immediately on collection (I had them before I walked to the car) and included lots of photos). As others have pointed out, all European rental agencies (including hertz) are strict on damage control so I would not drive away without checking the car against the report.
I would not accept an email contract - I've been stopped by the police (licence and insurance check - which I welcome as London had a lot of uninsured drivers) and this would have been really sticky without rental paperwork to prove I was entitled to drive the car,

moral_low_ground

I get an email .pdf about 1 hour in advance of renting the vehicle with photographs of the car and a page which lists damage (if any). If you get to the gate and want to add stuff then you either have to go back to the office or get the person there to do a paper report and give it to you.

Re Point 2. When I left IAD (Dulles Airport) Hertz I was only sent an email of my contract on leaving the lot. No paperwork was printed and the contract was not discussed apart from asking me about the fuel option which I did not want. In the UK I am still given the paper contract which is what I want (but was not in the US).

jackal

Agree. I always take a 45-second video with my phone of myself going around the car and pointing out any damage just in case, but never once in well north of a hundred rentals has Hertz challenged me about anything.

While you are correct about how it should be done, IME, the implementation of this is not consistent. Some locations do as you describe, while others still print out the full contract and still others print nothing and promise an email. (Hertz has always had issues with consistency of processes between locations.) If you encounter the latter, you can always (and probably should) ask for a printout at the gate.

MojaveFlyer

When I have been stopped by police in a rental (speeding), they ask for license and registration. I tell them it is a rental so I don't have the registration, and they ask for the rental agreement. I'm not sure how this would work if you had it "on the phone" which might be hard to see or hard to load, if you are out in the boondocks and don't have coverage.

I have been over charged enough times that I always check the contract at the exit gate. On a recent rental I got a very short form of contract, that did show the rate, and a longer one as email, which is one of the options described above. If I don't get anything, I will ask for it at the gate. If they won't give me one, I will ask if they can see the total price. If they give me one that is in line with what I expect, I think I'd trust that. If they can't, I guess I'd make them get the traffic to back up so I can go back to the counter to get it, annoying though that might be.