Microwave

So, I’ve got an odd situation. Here are the facts surrounding the situation:

• I’m currently in the middle of a 17 day rental, and would like to extend to 21 days.
• I’m about 90 minutes and a couple of tolls from the original rental location (BOS).
• Extending to 21 days would charge me three weeks, which would be cheaper than 2 weeks and 7 days (duh).
• I tried extending online and get an error.
• I called the PC reservations line and they told me the booking can’t be extended because the car is scheduled to be sold and they want the car back on time.
• I asked her what would happen if I just kept the car; she suspected that I’d just pay the daily rate, but couldn’t give a definitive answer.
• I don’t mind paying for 2 weeks and 7 days, but would prefer not to.

Now for the options:

• I could keep the car for the extra 4 days and pay whatever they want me to pay.
• I could schlep back to Logan to swap the car to another one and extend with them, eating the loss in fuel, tolls and my time.
• I could not extend the rental, return on time, and not spend an extra 4 days.

And my questions:

• Does anyone have experience with keeping a car for 4 days (or more than the standard 1-day no-notice extension) without having extended the reservation in advance?
• Would I just be charged the extra days, or is there another fee they would hit me with?
• Are there any options I’m not considering at this point?

Mwenenzi

Another "Hertz have sold the car" thread:---> Overdue Rental, no plans to return

AutoSlash

You would likely be charged the additional day rate plus a late fee of around $10 per day (although we would not guarantee it 100%). If you don't mind that, it's probably your best option based on what you've described.

Qwkynuf

Or maybe his best option would be to return it as agreed, so that he is not inconveniencing a stranger who has nothing to do with him selling his car.

I just bought a Hertz “Rent2Buy” car last week. I made a reservation for the earliest date they showed available for that particular vehicle, 2.5 weeks out, and was provided the VIN for the car I reserved. We were on vacation last week, and had arranged our plans around the need to drive 2 hours each way to pick up the car on that day

I would have been really annoyed if I had arrived there to find that the car never came back, or to have gotten a call from them telling me that the car wasn’t available at the scheduled time, and they didn’t know when it would be.

I would suggest that he doesn’t make his problem someone else’s problem. Stop being selfish and return the car.

m907

What is selfish about it? It's Hertz's fault for trying to sell a car they don't actually have in their custody.

Microwave

In my own defence, I asked the question because I didn’t know all of the details... For example, my assumption was that they would ship a group of cars to an auction of some sort rather than offering individual cars to individual people on short notice. I also assumed the car would get some kind of servicing and cleaning first—certainly this one needs some of both. I also assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that they would rent the car to a specific person if they needed it back by a specific time rather than leave it on the PC lot for someone to drive off on whichever rental length they happened to have booked—had I booked for 3 weeks to begin with, I’d have the same car and this would be moot.

Now that I have more information, I am more informed.

FlyinHawaiian

I agree; I don't want to blame the OP here; life/stuff happens now and then and having to extend a rental is something that should be expected and supported within a company's operating model. This appears to be a direct example of the risks of renting from a company in Chapter 11 and desperate to raise cash.

In the thread linked above, the member in a similar situation to yours was able to drop off their committed vehicle at an HLE that was more convenient, with the one-way fee waived. Perhaps Hertz would be open to a similar solution and let you exchange the BOS car at a location convenient to you for a new one-way back to BOS. The warning about keeping a car past it's due date without authorization from Hertz is worth heeding, IMO.

sethb

Is there a Hertz location closer to where you are that you can exchange it at?

LondonElite

Note that it is SOP to declare a car stolen after 72 hours following rental ending, so just be aware of that.

gruntermen

I would be particularly careful right now. Hertz is being sued over false theft claims. See https://6abc.com/hertz-action-news-i...-suit/6303402/ for additional details.

azepine00

be annoyed with hertz then... extending rentals, return to other location etc etc is a fairly common occurrence let alone i would expect hertz to leave enough time to do proper mechanical check and possibly repairs..

Did you buy a used car without looking or test driving it?

Catbert10

Rent2Buy is the test drive.

wrldwide1

if you look at the sales site you are purchasing a specific car with a specific VIN. No auction. Each car even has last mileage, options and pricing.

Qwkynuf

Thanks, this is exactly right. You can go to hertzcarsales.com and search within an area for cars that will be coming up for sale. In my case, I searched within 75 miles of my zip code and found a 2020 Ford Edge SEL - 7 months old, with 6,200 miles on it, for $8k under MSRP (and $6k less than I could order brand new under my X-Plan agreement). The site told me when the car would be available (presumably allowing for extant rental, service, cleaning, etc) and let me select a date/time to pick up. I was able to choose between a free 2 hour test-drive or a 3-day rental at $99/day. If I chose the rental and *didn't* buy the car, I could just return it and pay the fees. If I bought the car, the rental fees were waived.

The point is that each car that I looked at had a different "available by" date. Some were immediate, and presumably sitting on the lot, others were days or weeks out. Had someone had that car out on rental, and decided to keep the car until...whenever, because they didn't feel like bringing it back, what effect does that have on the mileage - another 1,000? 1,500? How does that affect the price that they advertised? Their price model is that the advertised price is the sale price - no negotiation (which is awesome if you find a price that you like). I'm going to be a lot less excited about the price with 7,500 miles than I was at 6,200. Are they going to be able to hit the tardy renter for $500 in fees to offset the reduced value? Is it worth whatever fees they can charge him to potentially drive off a nearly sure sale?

To answer the OPs later question, if he had rented it for 3 weeks in the first place, the car would have a later "available by" date to the buyer - no harm, no foul. But in my case, I arranged my camping vacation around being ready to go pick up this car at the time that Hertz said I could have it. He said that he called and asked to extend, and was told "no". So, it's their car, and they said no. The follow up question shouldn't be "well, what can I get away with?". That's selfish.

I would be surprised if *any* of the majors auction their cars. There is some distribution between leased cars (that are often resold as "Program Cars" through dealerships) and owned cars that they resell through their used car arms. Seems like auction would be a straight up money loser for them.

IAHtraveler

FWIW, I returned a vehicle the first week of June, within 10 minutes of the scheduled return time. They had to credit for fuel and they couldn't get the price to be right for it. Took forever and then it added time onto the rental. They finally just gave me a $30 credit and we agreed to call it even (should have been more like $40, but I wasn't going to argue at that point). I got an email and paper "receipt" (upon investigation later, I realized they REPRINTED the contract, but didn't close it; all items were estimated).

3 days after the scheduled return to a local/non-airport where I picked up the car, I started getting the automated "return the car now or call us immediately" calls. I called back immediately and gave all the return details and they said they would email all details to the local station and it would be closed within 24 hours. 3 more calls where I gave the details over the next week, and I was still getting calls. Every day they were pre-authorizing my card for $17-18 but they fell off; I just assumed this was to make sure the card was still valid. After ~2 weeks, I called the local station enough that they answered the phone. They looked it up and said "that car was sold weeks ago. I can't do anything to the contract at this point". I asked for a manager and gave some stink because their calls >5x a day were just annoying. He promised to call the local airport station and work to get the contract closed. About a day later, they finally closed it. Maybe I'm just lucky, but they didn't report it stolen and it was ~2 weeks overdue.