Enigma368

I had a 7 day booking from Hertz at LAX from last Friday. I am Presidents Circle so I picked a car from Ultimate Choice and drove out as usual. I gave my driver's license to the gate agent and he scanned the barcode on the car windcreen and printed the rental record, which I neglected to look at.

Only 4 days later, did I glance at the rental record document to see that he had put my rental against someone else's reservation, someone who had the same last name but acompletely different first name to mine. The car was technically overdue by that point going by this reservation. I called Hertz and was shunted around several different departments for 45mins before I finally got put through to Hertz at LAX who didn't seem that bothered and advised me to come in the next day to get it fixed. I spent a couple of hours the next day driving down to LAX and back and dealing with the customer service agent who initially had no idea to fix the problem. Hertz were not especially apologetic about the incident but a manager did say the gate agent would be "talked to" as this is a "big no no".



Some questions/comments though:

1) I actually picked this car up at about 5.30pm on June 14th, but the rental record says I picked it up at 12.27pm which was 3 mins before the other person's reservation. I don't know how this could happen?
2) I am assuming that the person who had the reservation for 12.30pm never showed up, since his reservation was still un-used at 5.30pm.
3) This rental record shows a $60 per day upgrade charge for the Ford Focus Hybrid I took from Ultimate Choice. Even if I had been this person, should the agent not at least have checked I was OK with a hefty upgrade fee?
4) Was I insured driving this car for 4 days while it was technically attached to this persons reservation? My actual real reservation included full liability and LDW insurance, would I have been covered had I had an accident?
5) Had I kept it for the full 7 days without noticing the error, could I have run the risk of Hertz reporting it stolen?

MSPeconomist

m907

I'm not sure what the use is answering all these questions after the reservation is done, but this was definitely a bad screw-up on Hertz's part. Thank God you weren't in an accident because that would've posed a lot of problems with insurance.

I would complain to Hertz corporate and make sure they understand the gravity of the situation. They should not charge you for this rental, IMO.

Enigma368

I have submitted an online complaint but I don't expect much.

When I phoned Hertz LAX about this issue, they suggested I come in the next day to get it resolved. I asked if I was still OK to drive the car in the meantime and the guy said yes. I am not sure this is true though and I think they should have at least done something over the phone to switch it over in their system. That said, the Hertz staff at LAX seem so depressed and apathetic about everything it is hard to see them ever being pro-active.

Edit: I should have just insisted that they come and pick up the car from me. Since they didn't have my credit card details, there is no real way I could have been charged if I had just kept the car and said I'm not driving this if my name is not on the RR so you have to come get it. That might have at least lit a fire under them since they seemed so completely apathetic to the situation.

MojaveFlyer

This is freaky. OTOH you might have been able to just return the car and let the original renter charge back the charges Not fair to the original no-show though, so I am not suggesting that.

Anyway, thanks for posting, just one more reason I need to always check the rental record before leaving the lot.

Enigma368

Yeah I wonder if some people in my position would just drop it off at the end of the week with an empty tank and say nothing. That poor guy would then have a real struggle to prove he didn't actually rent the car and hadn't actually chosen to pay a $60 per day upgrade fee for a Ford Fusion!!

Or I could have just parked the car in some hidden garage for it never to be seen again. Not sure how Hertz would ever figure out what had happened. I guess they would eventually realize that the guy on the RR didn't rent the car and then cross check for reservations on the same day with similar names.. The whole thing is just silly.

TerryK

Even if they do, they cannot prove it was you who rented and cannot bill you.

MojaveFlyer

As I think on it, it also seems that the upgrade fee is pretty strange. Wouldn't that be added at the time of rental? I would think if you upgraded it on the res before you picked it up, it would just be included on the rate. You can perhaps upgrade from the app, when you get your confirmation email, but why would you do that if you did not expect to pick it up? Strange

Enigma368

The upgrade fee seems to be because I took a car from Presidents Circle section which would have no upgrade charge for me as a PC member but seems to have triggered an automatic $60 a day upgrade charge for the guy whose reservation they used. Again it seems super sloppy that the gate agent didnt even ask if I was ok with an upgrade charge.

Well I am sure they have CCTV at LAX and could use that to eventually prove it was me. Anyway, I have no interest in stealing a car from Hertz lol. But it is funny how sloppy their process can be.

m907

Do contact them and let us know how it goes. You might try the BBB.

Enigma368

I finally got a reply from them 2 weeks after contacting them about the issue. Their reply was

"We sincerely regret your rental experience with Hertz did not meet with the high standards of service we strive to maintain. As a service oriented company, we rely on customer feedback to help us maintain and improve our service performance standards.
The information you have provided is very important to us, since it tells us how our various locations are doing and where improvements are needed. Please be assured your comments will be shared with the appropriate Hertz management.".

Basically a boilerplate response that did not address the issue at all..

m907

Yeah, obviously the person didn't even read it. I'd do a BBB complaint because you'll get someone's attention.