Kalboz

What is CONCESSION PASS THRU FEE & CUSTOMER FACILITY CHARGE?

Rip off seems to be unrestrained by the Hertz YVR Branch. Had a 5-day rental at YVR over the Easter holiday – and God did they pump up the charges! A $51/day car became $385 total charges:

DAYS/JOUR(S) 5 @ 51.00 255.00
SUBTOTAL/SOUS-TOTAL 255.00
FF SURCHARGE 0.30
VEHICLE LICENSE FEE 1.40
CUSTOMER FACILITY CHARGE 25.00
PVRT 7.50
CONCESSION PASS THRU FEE 50.14
AIR CONDITION RECOVERY FEE 5.00
GST/TPS 5.00% 17.22
TAX/TAXE(S) 7.00% 23.58
TOTAL CHARGES/TOTAL DES FRAIS 385.14 CAD

Original rate at booking:

Rate Details5 days at 51.00 CAD 255.00 CAD
Included Unlimited Kilometers Included
Vehicle License Recovery Fee and Air Conditioner Recovery Fee 6.40 CAD
Customer Facility Charge 25.00 CAD
TaxesTotal Sales Tax 35.27 CAD
Passenger vehicle rental tax 7.50 CAD
Amount to be paid at time of rent 329.17 CAD

What’s the $25 CUSTOMER FACILITY CHARGE? the $50.14 CONCESSION PASS THRU FEE? the $5.00 AIR CONDITION RECOVERY FEE? Air Conditioning fee? Really? It was unseasonably cold during our Vancouver stay and in fact it hailed on couple of occasions. All these extra charges were not mentioned when I first booked as the estimate was $329 including taxes and fees. Disputed the difference in charges (US$44) with the CC but what else can I do and how much time should I waste on fighting these overcharges? This seems to be worse than the “resort fee” scam in Vegas and elsewhere.

AutoSlash

These are all taxes/fees that should have been disclosed at the time of booking. They are all legitimate charges, which is to say that they'd be similar if not identical if you rented from Avis, National, etc. despite the fact that we agree that the extra fees, in general, are egregious and out of control (see our series of articles on this here).

Where did you book the rental? Was it Hertz.com or another site? Can you paste the pricing breakdown from your original reservation here for review and comparison?

JLewisinSyr

What did your contract say when you rented the car and left the lot? If it had the above charges, you agreed to them when you left the lot with the vehicle. Your dispute will almost guaranteed be denied, and if its not, I would probably almost guess you will be placed on a DNR list by Hertz. The fees you outlined are completely normal, in fact I just did a test booking and saw all the same fee categories though some online have a slightly different name; the concession pass through fee is listed as premium location charge now. That said, my guess is when you first booked the rental, the Concession Pass Through Fee/Premium Location Charge wasn't in place and may be a new fee for YVR. Rates when booking are guaranteed but taxes and fees imposed by governing agencies are not (even says that in the T&C of the booking). It appears this is a 17.21% tax charged by the governing agency on rental cars.

Kalboz

I booked through the Hertz app on my iPhone and I also signed up the confirmation number for your service/alerts.

The detailed charges on the email I got differ considerably from the final bill.

What's the DNR list? Do not rent? They are not the greatest and I am President's Circle member, earned NOT comped status! You have to call or tweet to get credit for rentals and then this last episode, Concession Pass thru fee? Really?

In response to this rip-off, I canceled all my future Hertz rentals which by the way are double what everyone else is charging for the same class of vehicles ... and I tweeted to tell them the same.

JLewisinSyr

Yes, DNR = Do Not Rent list.

docbert

You really need to look at little closer, because most of those charges ARE in your original confirmation.

Your booking has :
Vehicle License Recovery Fee and Air Conditioner Recovery Fee 6.40 CAD
The final bill has :
VEHICLE LICENSE FEE 1.40
AIR CONDITION RECOVERY FEE 5.00

5.00 + 1.40 = 6.40 (even in Canada), so yes, they DID disclose that one to you.

The booking has :
Customer Facility Charge 25.00 CAD
The final bill :
CUSTOMER FACILITY CHARGE 25.00

So saying that "All these extra charges were not mentioned" is clearly wrong.

That said, based on what you've posted above, this one is new :
CONCESSION PASS THRU FEE 50.14

I'm sure that if you were to contact Hertz and ask about that one they would tell you what it is, and likely remove it if it was charged in error (which given that it was not stated on your initial charges it probably was - unless you changed something about the rental, such as the return location, after booking it). Requesting a credit card chargeback without first discussing it with the merchant is likely against the rules of your credit card program, and generally not the right way to go about things.

Bjam99

It's just the premium for renting at the airport. I used to live in Vancouver and to avoid it, I'd have to rent from the Via Rail HLE instead (which was actually much easier for me to get to anyway and a nicer team running it) but it's weird that it wasnt on the original booking. Usually that fee is just included in the rate and YVR was nearly always much more expensive because of it. (at least whenever I booked via Hertz.ca) and never saw this additional charge in 20+ rentals. I would try and query it, though Hertz customer service isn't the best.

Often1

Many airports impose the fee for on-site companies as a means of recovering the cost of a rental facility. The rental companies, in turn, pass that on to the consumer.

The whole premise is objectionable because the same could be set for electricity, internet service and supplies for the employee bathroom. It's all overhead and should be baked into the total rate. But, it isn't and it's the common practice in North America.

OP has filed a false credit card chargeback dispute with his card issuer. It's a relatively small amount and it may well be that neither the card issuer nor Hertz looks at it and OP winds up with a credit. But, if either or both do, he may wind up without a CC and on the Hertz DNR list.

He says he's jumping ship over this, but he will find these same fees at other companies. The better question is why on earth anybody would pay double the rate for the same vehicle. That's on OP.

cestmoi123

I'm of two minds on this. Fees like the "air conditioning recovery fee" certainly fall into that category - it's part of the cost of doing business. The concession recovery fee, though, is just passing through a fee that the airport is charging the rental car company because of your specific rental. If you didn't rent, that fee wouldn't be collected. It doesn't really bother me that it's itemized on the bill - it highlights the fact that some airports are a LOT more expensive to rent from than others, for reasons that are in no way the rental car company's responsibility. I also find it kind of useful, since it lets me know how much effort I should put into exploring pricing options - if I see that the rental is costing me $50/day on a weekend, I might say "hey, that's pretty high," and feel the need to shop around a lot, but if I can see that the rate is actually only $25/day, but there are $25 in pass-through charges and taxes, then I'm going to invest less effort, since there's a limit to how much lower I can push that $25/day rate.

Personally, it's the total amount that I actually care about, and so long as that's clearly shown upfront, I'm fine.

Kalboz

But that's the thing, the total amount upfront is $55 less than the actual amount charged at the end. If these charges are legit why didn't Hertz mention them upfront?

And don't tell me that the original quote was an estimate because we did not use any additional services (gasoline, extra time, baby seat, etc.). What we rented was exactly what we got.

cestmoi123

If the upfront quote didn't match the end result, then either

(a) it was a tax that was imposed by the airport between your booking and picking up the car, in which case you're on the hook for it

OR

(b) Hertz screwed up, in which case they should eat the cost

Have you contacted Hertz and told them that this fee wasn't included in your rate quote, and asked why?

Kalboz

So, BC' taxes changed between the time I booked on my Hertz app. (3/17) and the time I returned the vehicle (4/4)? Really? I don't think so!

I tweeted to Hertz and requested a resolution, got a response to DM my account number which I did - then total silence from Hertz! Contacted my credit card (CSP) and disputed $55 Canadian (~ $43) on that particular charge.

Will keep you posted on the results!

cestmoi123

That's why I said there were two possibilities.

Why not call their customer service? I've found the PC number quite responsive.

91StealthES

newfbc

The daily $5 fee is fairly new at YVR. Avis charges the same.. National charges $10/day!

Ron.