tony flynn

Hi, Some months back I reserved and paid for a GMC Yukon for the first two weeks in October. I arrived at TPA on Thursday and went to the counter and that's when the fun started.

Hertz - 'We have a Ford Expedition for you'
Me - 'nope, I rented a Yukon'
Hertz - 'We don't have one, we have an Expedition though.'
Me - 'No thanks, it's not in the same class.'
Hertz - 'At this location we class all SUVs as the same class!!!'
Me - 'I think we both know that not to be true.'

To cut a long story short, the manager authorised a $100 coupon and an Expedition with neverlost, (I wasn't bothered about the navigation as I always carry my own Tom Tom).
The car was filthy inside and dented/scratched on the outside and had worn it's 25000 miles badly, I would have put up with this but this vehicle had also been the transport of choice of a very heavy smoker and the car absolutely stank.
Having just got off a nine hour flight, We decided to drive down to Cape Coral and sort it out in the morning but the stink made me pull off the highway and call Hertz. I spoke to a very nice lady and explained the situation, she made a note of my comments and We agreed to rectify this the next day.

I called the next day and reiterated the situation, I also made it clear that I would be happy to drive to Fort Myers or Naples to swap out the car. This agent said she would check those locations and call me back.
She called back 10 minutes later and said that all she could find was another Expedition at Fort Myers airport - I agreed to drive down change the vehicle after 12pm.
I arrived at 1pm and met a very nice agent but nobody knew anything about us. After some time elapsed, another Expedition was located - with a worse smell of smoke and a cigarette burn on the driver's seat! We ended up with a Toyota Highlander which although it's a decent vehicle, it's a few classes down from the Yukon that I originally reserved and paid for.

In short, I would have put up with the situation if i was just here on business for a few days but this is the long awaited two week vacation and I would happily give back the voucher in exchange for the car that I booked.

Is there any Gold number I can call or person that I could speak to to resolve this or am I better off just quitting while I'm behind?

Thanks for reading this far, all comment and advise gratefully received!

stevenshev

I sympathize, but have no real comments other than, besides wanting to get into the whole American culture thing, is there any reason you need an SUV in Florida?

For similar money, you can usually get a lovely Prestige Collection car.

tony flynn

A few years ago my Wife and I planned to drive down to Key West and were both looking forward to the view of the Atlantic and the Gulf - in the DTS that I had, we saw mile after mile of concrete barrier! I rent an SUV for the height and consequently the view.

Also, most of the accidents that I've seen down here seem to involve more pickups than anything else so a bit more metal is desirable.

Finally, UK gas prices are around $10 a gallon, I now regard 'conspicuous consumption' as part of the vacation!

Hertz4me

email customer support, tell them about the horrible experience you had with the car, smoke dirty not given the class reserved etc, the yukon xl is a bigger suv and nicer than the expedition.

tony flynn

Thanks Hertz4me, I've just emailed them and I'll post the response here. I don't want them to think I'm complaining for no reason, if I was here on business for a few days it would be different but a smoky car in a hot climate is horrible. I run a business myself and understand that sometimes things just happen to go wrong that are nobody's fault, the measure of the quality of any company is how hard they work to put things right - I've had great service from Hertz in the past, let's hope they don't disappoint when the chips are down.

DWilliamson5002

Now I understand when there are no cars there on the lot not being able to get another car to drive but when I see a full lot and 100's of cars on the lot how come agents tell me there are no other vehicles for you to have when you are given a junker...

That is what gets me...

KNRG

Just a thought from a TPA-resident.

A) Get a diffferent car. You'll be happier and there's not much you're missing behind those barriers. FL highways aren't really designed to be scenic, more functional.

B) More truck accidents because people own more trucks. Nothing more, nothing less.

Tuneman1984

I don't think SUV's can be booked by make/model unless they are Prestige or Fun Collection vehicles (e.g. Volvo XC90, Lincoln Navigator). Looks like they tried to get you with the "or similar" part of "GMC Yukon or similar". However, I've noticed that Hertz TPA lists the Expedition as it's example of a "Large SUV" and the Yukon XL as a "Premium SUV". So which class did you book? I think they may have tried to downgrade you and hope you didn't notice....if anything you should've been given an Expedition EL.

tony flynn

The Yukon was shown as 'GMC Yukon XL or similar', the printout of the original reservation in front of me describes it as 'Premium 4x4 SUV Automatic Aircon,PFAR'.

The Expedition was clearly in a lower class and was even described as such in the vehicle guide on the desk.

No response from Hertz yet.........

Beckles

If you search this board for TPA you'll find that myself and other folks have repeatedly warned that this location should be avoided at all costs. What you describe is par for the course at Tampa Airport in my experience.

I use National at this airport most of the time now, despite the fact it's off airport and Hertz is on airport, they have a good National location there that I've been pleased with.

tony flynn

Thanks for the advice Beckles, as I said earlier, the mark of good customer service is in how long and how a company responds when they've messed up -48 hours and six emails have elapsed with no contact from Hertz.........

tony flynn

Actually, the no contact isn't entirely true, I did receive an email from a computer stating that Hertz complaints would respond within ten days and not to contact them again before that ten days have elapsed -not much use 3 days into a 14 day vacation.

Does anybody from Hertz still read this board?



'Thank you for contacting Hertz. You should receive a response within ten business days. However, please allow ten business days before contacting us again.

We appreciate your business and hope we will have the opportunity to serve you in the future.

(This auto-response message was automatically generated, and you will be unable to reply to the address shown.


OKC Customer Relations
The Hertz Corporation
P.O. Box 26120
14501 Hertz Quail Springs Parkway
Oklahoma City, OK 73134
U.S.A.

Telephone: 800-654-4173
Fax: 405-290-2899
Visit us at: www.hertz.com

tony flynn

Yet another email sent. Is it normal for Hertz to just ignore customer problems?

DWilliamson5002

It does take a while when you send in an email. If you want a quicker response you need to call and do it that way.

philphys

They usually took about a full week to respond to my complaints. That's "only" 5 business days.