Kathyfm1

I purchased a Full Size with Hertz for $27 per day at IAD for one week. The guy at the rental car counter told me they had a special rate for $25 extra for SUV's. I declined. He said, "Let me put you in a beautiful SUV Nissan Rogue 2018 for an extra $15." He said "I'm not supposed to make this offer, but I will for you". I agreed. I felt so foolish when it was $15 per day and got the email from Amex of the additional charge of 115.15. I went back and turned the car in the next day and told them I thought it was misleading as he never said "PER DAY". I was supposed to know that automatically! That is where I felt scammed. I am now happy in my that Nissan Altima (leather seats and great rims) after the Toyota Camry that they had me pick out had a "mechanical failure" engine light as soon as I turned it on. The high pressure sales upgrade was not appreciated.

And for anyone who thinks I was totally fooled.......The upgrade on the website I booked was only 3 extra dollars to upgrade to the SUV.....That is why I thought the $15 seemed reasonable. And I hated the Nissan Rogue! This Altima was actually the upgrade.

pjcarly

Similar thing happened to me. Just ignore the upselling and walk out with what you ordered.

The clerks get commission on what they upsell, just keep that in mind for the future.

Dave Noble

To be fair, you indicated that you had a booking at $27 per day , not $189 for a week. Quoting at $15 for the upgrade seems consistent with that and reasonable inferrence that it is per day

Personally I would never engage in buying upgrades and simply book the vehicle type that I want . Even "only" $15 is a 60% price rise

With any type of sales "pressure", you can just say no

When you were given the paperwork for the rebooked car, did you not see the cost there?

Often1

This was not a scam, it was simply a failure by OP to ask the follow-up question before agreeing. If something is not stated, e.g. $15 for the rental period, then ask.

Better yet, don't take those upsells at the counter. It is possible that someone may offer you a vintage Bentley at the price of a Yugo and maybe that's worth considering. Otherwise, if you wanted the SUV, you would have booked it. You did not, so you did not want it.

Just be firm and say, "thanks but I'll take what I booked." About 50% of the time, all they had was the SUV and you will get that in the end without an upcharge. The rest of the time, you get what you booked. Big deal.

Jamtex

Get a Gold membership and that way you never have to deal with the desk (nearly all the time) at most major airports.

bapts

That was a few years ago, also at IAD Hertz counter desk, and I got the exact same experience. I felt scammed when I received the bill. I now refuse whatever paid upgrade that any rental company offers me.

bagwell

agree 100% -- OP's fault for not clarifying/confirming $15 was for each day or the entire week.

jrpallante

When you were given the paperwork for the rebooked car, did you not see the cost there?[/QUOTE]

20 bucks says you initialed the line that said "daily rate $42."

UserSchmoozer

Seems as though, somewhat similarly to the case with Wells Fargo, this is an unofficial corporate policy of Hertz in that employees are incentivized to mislead customers at the counter when offering upgrades. I have experienced the same thing with Hertz and it was as though the local area manager was playing bad cop when I complained and then when I called Hertz customer service it was a completely different story where they were very apologetic for the 'misunderstanding' and reimbursed me the difference. Also seems that, as with airfares, the burden should not be on the uneducated consumer to determine what ought to be considered reasonable when it comes to discounted rates. When, exactly, does an offered promotion become 'too good to be true'? I certainly don't understand Hertz's business model in intricate detail. Maybe that location ended up with three times the necessary number of C300s or whatever, so they are able to offer them much more inexpensively, for instance, at that moment in time.

JapanFlyerT

At the Denver Thrifty I prepaid for a compact and I was told to take any car in lane B, so I took the biggest car, a Nissan Rogue. I enjoyed it a lot.

When I returned it 10 days later they said I owed something $8,000 ($500 extra per day). They waved it once I had a quick chat with the manager. Seems the confusion was that particular Rogue was a 2WD the guy who cleans and parks it got confused and put it in the wrong lane. I was amazed though that the system allows you to take the wrong class of car (the guy at the gate made no mention of it).

MojaveFlyer

You get off your plane, you're tired, you want your car, you want to hit the road and get on with it. Don't blame the OP for not reading the contract carefully, or for hearing what she wanted to hear. It's a shame that you have to be always watch out for the "scam" or the upsell. As said above, if you get Gold (which I believe is free for the asking) you don't have to deal with this. You may miss out on some opportunities but it's just easier. I reserve the vehicle I class I'm willing to drive; if I get something nicer that may be nice but I'm unlikely to buy it. Anyway, lesson learned, move on.

Dave Noble

If someone is too tired to read a contract, then woul dsuggest to me that the person shouldn't be driving

Before signing a contact, tired or not, it is up to the person to actually read what they are signing. There was no scam, just an attempt to sell the customer something

clubman

Couldn't agree more.

drphun

I have to say that I get really annoyed when they try to upsell me like this, since, reiterating what others have said, I reserved what I wanted. Especially when I reserve the 4 cylinder because I will be driving a lot of miles or will have to park in the city, then they try to upsell me to the 6 cylinder, and then when I refuse they sheepishly tell me they don't have the 4 cylinder I reserved and are going to give me the 6 cylinder anyway as a free "upgrade" (One time it was the huge town car. Another time it was a van.) It's not an upgrade if it isn't what I want!

JapanFlyerT

Back when gas prices spiked I got "upgraded" to a Suburban. Turned out to be the only car on the lot, and I was on a 1,000 mile Colorado roadtrip. I really considered going back inside, but being late at night and tired from 20 hours of overseas flights I just bit the bullet.