yst33

Well this was a first for me, and I have had generally (luckily?) good experiences with Hertz. I had a gold reservation at the airport the other day, with a flight arriving around 8pm, and the car reservation had my flight info. My flight got delayed 3 hours, so I landed a bit before 11pm. I went to the gold area and didn't see any names on the board, and so went to the counter inside. An agent was still there, and I showed my reservation and asked to pick up my car. I still had a 100 mile drive to make for a business trip that I had to be at by 8am the next day.

The agent said, "Sorry, I just picked up all the keys out of the cars, and we close at 11pm." But, I'm here, you're here, the lot has about 20 cars in the gold area, why can't I get a car? "Sorry, I'm closing up. You have to come back at 7am." I explained my situation that I can't afford to be stranded here. He said, "You know what, let me go check in back what I can do, just wait here." So I'm waiting, waiting, and after about 15-20 minutes standing there like an idiot, I figured out he had ducked out the back and ditched me. All the other agencies (open till 12am) ended up sold out, so no luck there either, and I was completely stranded there.

By now it's after midnight, and hardly worth it to me to take a taxi, get a hotel for 5 hours and then come back, so I just camped out at the airport overnight, but couldn't sleep. What's even the purpose of Hertz getting my flight arrival info, knowing I'm arriving delayed, if they're just going to close up shop on me, even with an agent still there? I was definitely not alone, as probably 7-8 other irate late arrivers with reservations were left in the same boat right after me.

I walked back around 6am to the Hertz counter, and again, despite there being an agent who had arrived, and clearly lots of cars, "nothing we can do till 7am". I did finally get the car, and arrived a couple hours late and extra exhausted. What a miserable experience, and it's the first time I have been unable to grab a gold-reserved car regardless of arrival time.

Would you say it's worth it to lodge a complaint with Hertz, and any chance of receiving anything for the ordeal?

Dave Noble

So, from what I read, you arrived after the location was closed and were unable to rent a vehicle - you then arrived next day before the location opened and was unable to rent a car until it opened

What exactly do you plan to complain about?

hsk

I can understand refusing to serve you after 11 pm but telling a customer to wait and then running off is unacceptable.

However, the ordeal part is a stretch. If you arrived at 11:01 and the place was closed, you'd suck it up and grab a taxi. The 15-20 mins you waited was you trying your luck - it didn't pay off in this case.

Dave Noble

If the meeting was that important, wouldn't taking a cab the 100 miles to the (assumedly) booked hotel be more sensible than sitting in the airport for 7-8 hours ? with a 07:00 opening time, there would be no way that one could expect to complete a 100 mile journey by 08:00

Having the arrival information assists the location, but I haven't seen Hertz publish anything that states that all locations will stay open past scheduled closing time for delayed flights

corolla

Sounds strange. Which airport is this?? And what exact time did you arrive at their counter?

randix

Notwithstanding other posts here, if I were you I would definitely take the time to lodge a complaint based on the agent opening up the "door" to serve you and then not following through...

seawolf

You should append to the title of the thread because I arrived after location closed. Current title is not illustrating what happened accurately.

You should file a complaint to Hertz on how agent handled it poorly if he/she ditched you.

catlike

First question, have you ever worked in a service/retail type role? I have and would consider it exceptional service to provide services outside of published hours. I also wouldn’t take offense if “no” was the answer.

there are multiple reasons the transaction couldn’t be completed. The register/inventory system could have already been closed out for the night, maybe the keys go into a time controlled safe, or that this employee is no longer being paid by Hertz.

the “but I can see the cars” comment is rich, you’re really saying “just do what I want”.

I think you are justified in reporting the employee as not returning to the counter , that’s poor form. I also think it’s reasonable you express your disappointment that they don’t track your inbound flight and ensure the rental center is open.

Eujeanie

I also find it strange that you could see that Hertz had about 20 cars, but every single other company, which were open until midnight, had none?

What airport was this, it had to be a small one to be able to "see" the cars.

Dave Noble

I get the sense that if the employee was to post his version of the customer arrival, there might be a different story on leaving

corolla

Not hertz. And definitely not in most countries where customer service isn’t a joke like the United States. For hertz US locations, you can regularly get cars outside the published hours in most HLEs as long as the staff is still there and they usually close later than published times (wait until customers are all out)

Hertz transaction system never closes at night. You might’ve turned off the computer though, but it takes 1 minute to restart and any people that have a little compassion for others should’ve done that to help frustrated customers (if the op’s description of 7 or 8 people waiting is true).

Depends on different positions, but in hertz job description clearly didn’t say you only get paid until the closure time. Even hourly workers get paid after the close time, and if you are manager track and paid with stipend, your job is to serve the customer that comes in with a delayed flight.

If the key is in a safe, just open it. It takes 3 seconds. Why would this be a problem?

Overall if the op described the entire thing without omitting selected facts, this is a big and extremely unacceptable service failure. However I asked two important questions: where exactly was this place (a hertz corporate location? Is it even in the states?) and what time exactly did this happen - if it happened at 11:45 it’s more understandable than 11:01. But op said he landed before 11. This sounds super weird.

yst33

Here is plenty of added detail. I didn't want to write a novel in the first post, but now I can.

My flight landed about 10:45pm, then deplaning, then I had to wait for luggage, then a 10 minute walk to the rental car area, so I got there somewhere 11:20-25pm, didn't time stamp it. It really wasn't possible to make it there faster. I don't want to name and shame the location publicly just yet, until I might see what Hertz may say or offer, but I'll say it's an international airport in the central US. I have had plenty of late arrivals at different places while holding a Hertz Gold reservation, and every time in the past, even if the main counter was closed, my name was still on the Gold board, and I could still go pick up a car waiting there for me, and there was a late employee at the lot exit to handle these kinds of situations. This is the first I was time left outright stranded.

When I arrived to the rental area, I glanced and saw the Hertz counter had no one standing there, so I walked out to the cars first anyway because that's what I always do for Gold reservations, and thought perhaps an employee might be out there (nope), but that's where I saw all the cars parked available in the Gold spots, probably 20 cars there, plus another 20 in other sections - certainly not empty. Then I walked back in to the counter, and that's when I found the agent still there then.

I can understand this happening at local city branches, they close and you're out of luck of course, but at a major airport with clearly late arriving passengers, that's no way to operate. I was the only passenger at Hertz when I caught the agent and asked if he could still help me, but as I was left standing waiting for him to come back out, that's when other passengers trickled in looking for their reserved cars too. Their sentiment in expletives was pretty universal.

To me, the problem is two-fold. One is Hertz policy and practice here - the entire purpose of Hertz is customer service to rent cars to passengers. They ostensibly knew full well they had numerous unclaimed reservations from delayed flights, assuming agents can see the arrival info we put in our reservations, so why not make more reasonable provision to have someone wait until after those flights arrive? It costs them another 50 bucks to pay an employee or two for another hour to fill another few $thousand in rentals, not to mention saving the ill will given by stranding people who are counting on you. That's a branch management issue.

The second problem is the agent actually still being there late (and he even said they operate with a 15 minute grace period, until 11:15pm), but then a few minutes later having the demeanor, "Oh you need a car? You're late, too bad, not my problem." Yeah, everyone loves to say the rules are the rules, right? But that kind of merciless binary logic, where in this case 11:15pm means "I'm here to help!" and 11:20pm means "Screw you, go away", is something we're trained to sadly expect from automated computer systems with no sense of circumstance, not from live, supposedly aware and thoughtful humans. Some people seem to crave coldhearted service logic like that, lest others dare receive "unfair" special treatment. To me, it's the willful disparity in the agent's effort to spend 2 minutes while there anyway to grab a put-away key and enter a Gold reservation as claimed, versus the resultant distress to customers being now stuck for a whole night with zero alternative. And of course, to top it all off, to then change tune to say, "ok, wait here and let me go back and see what I can do", and then secretly sneak away, it definitely leaves a sour taste.

That's the only rationale that would be understandable, that there is another unsaid reason why the agent couldn't do anything, and maybe there was? Maybe the computer system there locks out at 11:15pm? Or the key safe locks out? He could have explained something at least, and not left me hanging with a thread of hope, which then comes across as just being a willful jerk.

I went out to the lot first, as always for Gold reservations where you go straight to your car. I also had a whole lot of time (later on) to stroll around the lot looking at cars, with nothing else to do once I gave up hope for the night. It surprised me too that the other agencies were sold out, while Hertz had so much inventory sitting there.

Budget might have had cars too, but their counter/building is in another location (and open till midnight), but by the time I finished waiting around for the Hertz guy to appear again, gave up, and then inquired at every other counter in that area (which all run till 12am; only Hertz closes earlier), and then figured out there was a Budget counter elsewhere I could go to, it was already just after midnight, and Budget was all locked up too once I got there. Budget had plenty of cars in their lot (and that leads to saga #2).

My sentiment exactly.

And, for the continuation saga for anyone curious, and another failed gamble... Budget is the only rental opening at 6am, all others at 7am, so needing to drive ASAP in the morning to get to my meeting, I opted to make a new online reservation with Budget for a "standard" car for 6am, having seen their lot full during my midnight strolling. So, that's why I opted to sit at the airport overnight, not take a taxi and buy a hotel room for 4-5 hours, just to need another taxi back before 6am. Also, I needed a car for over a week, with much driving ahead, so I didn't want to take a 2 hour 1am taxi to the hotel I booked for prior to my first AM meeting, and then need another 20min taxi in the morning, which would 95% be impossible to find in the small town, then another 2+ hour taxi later to get back to a car rental place, and then drive again back into the boonies... the logistics would be an absolute mess, plus it's all out of pocket for me.

Anyway, I wandered back around Hertz at 5:50am to look around in case I might get lucky, and saw an agent already at the counter and asked if he could get me going early on last night's reservation, but he only said firmly no, we're closed till 7am. I then walked to Budget at 6am on the dot, showed my new booking (already at $100/day), and the agent said wait outside please, then shuffled papers for the next 20 minutes before interacting again, then finally emerged and said, "We have no standard cars or lower, they all need cleaning first, and all I can give you right now is a cargo transport van at that rate. Or, I can give you a full size or specialty car for another $75/day." I quickly grabbed my phone and typed in a new booking for a full size, showing $2 more per day, and said can I reserve this? "No, our systems only update every hour, unless you want to wait for it." I wasn't going to be driving hundreds of miles in a cargo van all week, and for now saving 30 minutes at best, I wasn't going with their extortion strategy. And thus, I ended up back at Hertz at 7am anyway, where all finally went smoothly. At least my AM client was understanding, and so far so good on the rental.

corolla

OP, you still need to tell us where exactly was this place. If it's an airport without ultimate choice, contracts have to be preprinted before gold customer arrives. When a flight is supposed to land before the closing time they should've get your contract ready. If the gold section you described was indeed UC, I'm not too sure about the protocol but I assume the exit should still be manned after closing time?

Since you got the rental, if you get a survey after, fill it out. The survey goes directly to the location manager. Complaining to the president circle line (if you are PC) or executive email might work too but depends who answers the phone or replies to your email. Other methods does not guarantee it would be sent to local management.

Regarding your budget experience, that company is never famous for outstanding customer service and frankly what they did was way worse than hertz - technically hertz didn't do anything wrong (except the telling you wait but disappearing part) we are looking at their mercy that is expected by normal hertz experience. The budget one is just another ridiculous day at budget, when you are open it means you have to serve customers. The $75 upsell on a full size is quite bold even for them. (Not too sure about budget so can't firmly accuse them lying, but hertz system doesn't need one hour to update reservations. Actually if the new reservation really isn't showing in the system, they can make one full size reservation at the counter right away and you still get the same price you see on the website instead of the $75 upsell)

Dave Noble

So the listed closing time is 23:00
the location allows a grace period to 23:15
you arrived at 23:20 - 23:25

Why would you even expect the person to assist at this point - you were 20 to 25 minutes after the closing time when you arrived - hardly reasonable to expect the person to have a 10 minute grace period after the grace period

If you had taken a taxi to a hotel at destination , I doubt that getting a taxi or equivalent would have been that difficult in the morning. I suspect that there would be a car rental location somewhere in the vicinity of the destination

to me, it seems that you have unreasonable expectations of staff

Eujeanie

"We have no standard cars or lower, they all need cleaning first, and all I can give you right now is a cargo transport van at that rate. Or, I can give you a full size or specialty car for another $75/day." I quickly grabbed my phone and typed in a new booking for a full size, showing $2 more per day, and said can I reserve this? "No, our systems only update every hour, unless you want to wait for it."

This makes no sense to me. I have often, very often, been given a higher level car, on the spot, when the size I booked was out. So how did a "cargo van", which usually runs for way more money, be available, when there were larger regular cars/suvs sitting there that were not available?