rove312

I returned a car at SMF Airport in the wee hours of 10/24, and left the keys in the drop box. I haven't gotten an email receipt, and it doesn't show when searching for a receipt on the site, but they say to allow seven days. There's no credit card charge posted. Is there any reason to be worried about the car being checked in?

jason8612

You can try calling up the location and seeing if they processed the return. You can also call up the Hertz line and see if they can contact the location to verify the return.
I've had a e-return email the following morning at some locations, and a few days later at others.

rove312

Thanks, I've called the central number and they said the rental still shows as open, and they'll ask the local office to close it and send the receipt.

pradyot

Hi Guys ,

Need your advice and help .
I rented hertz car from a Hertz Local Edition , took the car on Friday and had to return it on Sunday (when the location is closed)
They had a Key drop facility ,where i dropped in the keys on Sunday .
I was expecting Hertz to send me the bill by Monday morning , but when the bill did not came in by 1PM , (Monday ) i decided to call the Hertz location from where i rented .

Initially the guy said the some cars went for Oil change , once they are back then they will close the rental .
After 2 hours when i did not received any call then i decided to call them again and they said they are not able to find the keys to the car and (car never went for Oil change)
I decided to go and talk in person where i asked the manger to open the drop box and he opened and told they are not able to find the keys , and asked me whether did i drop the keys .
I replied them saying that i did drop and if the car is standing on their premise then why will i not drop the car keys post completion on rental .
Mostly i suspect they lost the keys and now want to charge me for that .
I asked him to check the camera , which they said they dont .
Finally he agreed to not charge me for lost keys (which is not my mistake ) and towing to get the car opened for taking the reading .

On Tuesday when i called them again one of the associate said they will charge me for the keys . When i again went to their location they guy was not there but another lady agreed that it does not make any sense that i drop the car but lost the keys .

I also called helpline they also agreed that i should not be charged for this .

Issue is everyday my credit card is being authorized since till the car does not gets towed the contract is technically open under my name .
Plus every time i call the location i get to hear different versions .
Is there anything what i can do to escalate this ? As this is quite frustrating .

Any help will be appreciated .

Regards

AutoSlash

First off, it may be a screw-up or incompetence, but it's not scam, so let's not try to imply that they're specifically targeting you to take your money. I'm sure the rental location has better things to do than to play games with missing keys.

As far as what to do, you can try the contacts on this page. Write up a clear and concise email regarding what happened and a timeline and stick to the facts and avoid too much color commentary (trust us, you'll get better results that way). Example:

Sunday, 4/15 8PM - Returned car to the Hertz at XXX, locked the car, and dropped the keys in the drop key box at the entrance to the location.
Monday, 4/15 1PM - When I hadn't received the final invoice via email, I called the location and spoke with XXX who told me....

If you don't get satisfactory responses, you can try to contact Chris Elliott here and he may be able to intervene on your behalf if all else fails. I wouldn't worry too much about the card authorizations. Just document everything and it will get sorted out one way or another eventually as Hertz has the car so it's obvious it was returned. The only issue is the keys and hopefully, they will deal with that and retroactively close your contract with no additional charges.

PS--The other thing you can do is to call the location and not identify yourself and just ask for the name and phone number of the Hertz area manager. You may be able to light a fire under the location manager if you go over his/her head.

pradyot

Thanks a lot for the help !!
Thank you

CloudsBelow

Rented Range Rover recently from MCO.
Returned it around 10pm. No one around when i pulled into "car return area". Sign said, After 9pm, leave keys in vehicle. Somethign to that effect.
It felt odd leaving the car sitting there. Went to the Canopy area where cars are assigned as I wanted some closure on the rental.
Place was busy and the agent said she'd check it in and email me receipt.
I left.
5 days later I get an automated message from Hertz telling me the car is overdue and needs to be returned.
I've called and explained the situation to 3 different agents. No one seems overly competent nor able to do anything. They've left messages for the manager in MCO to no avail.

Any thoughts on what to do? I'm not stressed but would prefer it closed

Jaimito Cartero

jim32190

missingcolours

Last time I returned to MCO in the evening they didn't check the car in until the next morning, resulting in a steep "extra day" charge despite assurances from the agent at the Gold Booth that it would not. Customer service called them and determined they had mishandled it and refunded the charge. Seems like they don't have a good handle on this "returns not staffed after 9" arrangement.

m907

Try calling the MCO location directly. They make it very difficult to speak to someone at a location rather than a call center, but keep trying.

Often1

I would treat this as a serious issue. The vehicle is likely sitting on the lot, but it could also have been taken. If it is involved in an accident, you will wind up spending a lot of time, effort & money providing that you did return the vehicle and are long gone.

Do this all when you can multi-task, let the phone sit on mute while you work on something else. It may take a long time.

CloudsBelow

thanks for the tips and recs here.
blew a couple hours i'll never get back on this.
the laissez faire responses got me frustrated. Told them to find where the car is and close my bill. some manager said she'd take care of it. I asked, "how will you know when it was dropped off". she replies, " we have our ways". I say, "why don't you use those "ways" to validate a car was not returned before you start with the threatening voicemails!?"

anyways, 1 week after the car was actually dropped off, I get a receipt saying the car was checked in ~10 hours after i dropped it off. aaannnnd, of course, the miles used was listed at ~75 miles more than I dropped it off at. This triggered 75mi * 75c charge.

Hertz MCO needs to get their act together.

andyl999

Slightly off topic, I prefer to use Hertz (as from my experience I am less likely to get scammed on damage) however last year I had a Gold reservation at MUC, I went up to the parking space to discover no car! I proceeded to the check out kiosk and they told me that I had already been there and taken the car, nooooo said I, she then said oh it must have been somebody with a similar name (my name is long and quite rare).

Eventually they gave me another car and later in the day I start to get Hertz emails detailing my mileage and bill. Obviously the phantom renter had returned my car, but it did get me thinking, the account is linked to my Plat Amex, what if he incurred extra charges or damaged the car?

By the way his name was nowhere near mine it only started with the same letter.

leiserom

I go to DSM now and then. I usually have an early AM return flight. Their counter does not open until 7 or 8 on Sundays. There is no one to check in a car. They have a drop box for the keys. Never had a problem. On the other hand I dropped off a car at the Sixt station at the Madrid airport. They said they would send me a receipt. I got it in the mail two months later(came by ship-I didn't know mail from outside the US didn't arrive on anything but airplanes any more)