Checking car back in
 

Most of the cars I have rented in the last 6 months no longer give you a receipt when you check it back in ( some haven't even had anyone there ). For instance, yesterday at Hertz in Charlotte, there was someone in the return area and he simply said leave the keys in the car and you are good to go. I didn't have time to wait in line at the rental counter so I simply went to my flight. Yesterday afternoon I still had not received anything from Hertz stating that I had returned the car. So I called and after 20 minutes on hold an agent sent me a receipt.

If Hertz had claimed I hadn't returned the car, how am I suppose to prove it?

That feeling of uncertainty about a $30K+ asset (in most cases) can cause a lot of anxiety. To help cover yourself when time is tight, you can take pictures of the car back in the return area, mileage, fuel levels and some pictures of the overall condition.

You can also request a receipt from hertz's website here: https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/recei...st-receipts.do

I requested the receipt through that link and it was not available, stating that it is often 7 days before a receipt is available.

Got it -yep that would be stressful. Wondering if next time it would also help to have the Hertz app?

I've learned some hard lessons with this type of return system. Tho' I haven't been able to come up with a "fast" way of obtaining a receipt. I now take it as a mantra to take pictures of the car before and after from as many angle/directions as possible - exterior and interior. For the former - try include some background of the drop off area to show where the car was when you left it. For the latter - include a picture of the keys on the dash/seat/etc. as well as a good photo of the fuel gauge showing how full the tank is as well as the mileage/odometer.

Ideally, you'll want to have the odometer reading and the fuel-gauge level in a single photo. ;)

And zoomed out far enough to get a clock on the dash (or your watch with a date/time showing) plus a sign from the agency visible out the windshield. I end up taking a few pics to get them all, but that you can still see the dash of the car is the same as the one as the zoomed-in pic showing the gas/dash.

Date/Time and Geo Location can be captured by the phone and embedded in the file.