The last few rentals I've gotten with Hertz, the only T&Cs that are given to me (in paper or via e-mail) are very short. In the past, they would give me a document at the exit gate that was about 10 pages long with everything included. Now I just get two pages, the first listing the details of the rental (e.g., car, mileage, time) and the second including the arbitration clause and how to opt-out. None of the T&Cs that are given to me cover the fees for using PlatePass.

So, after my last rental, I'm waiting for the PlatePass charge to come through, and I plan on disputing this charge because it was never disclosed to me in advance in the T&Cs I was given when renting the car. Does anyone know how Hertz handles it's T&Cs now? Are they going to try to argue that there are some "global" T&Cs that govern all rentals that I'm somehow supposed to be aware of?

It has been a few months where Hertz provides a contract summary upon checkout and email full contract. I like this change as two page summary is all I need and I can refer to full email if I need details.

A company does not have to hand over a copy of the full T&Cs with each purchase for the T&Cs to be applicable

Nothing like a nice post of planned obtaining goods or services with the intent to avoid payment for a friday morning

I disagree with this (I am a lawyer). The law generally requires full disclosure and/or a contractual relationship. They may not have to hand over the terms as the renter drives out the gate, but they have to provide them to the renter in a reasonable manner. At no time when I rented my car did I receive the terms and conditions. And, while I did receive an e-mail during my rental that said "Hertz Gold Rental Agreement," the e-mail did not contain the terms, nor was there a link to where I could find the terms. Bottom line--I tried to find the applicable T&Cs and I was unable.

As proof of what I'm saying, all you have to do is look to the suit by San Francisco against Hertz relating to toll fees. In that case, the renters DID receive T&Cs disclosing the toll fees, but the city is arguing that the terms governing the tolls was buried too deep in the T&Cs. So, if this is deceptive, then clearly not receiving ANY T&Cs is worse.


I wholeheartedly disagree with this characterization. Do you like hidden fees and gotchas that only show up on your bill after you use/consume a product? All I'm asking for is to pay the fees that I was made aware of up front. In this case, I was never made aware of the PlatePass fees. You may argue that in past rentals I've paid this, but this is irrelevant--Hertz changes their T&Cs frequently, and in fact, has different T&Cs at different locations (indeed, I've never rented a car at this location before). Given this, I think it is fair to say that past rental T&Cs are not a true indicator of what future rental T&Cs are.

The email contains a link to full contract document that would normally be printed out at rental, so you are receiving exactly the same details you would as if you had received the full printed contract.

If you don't want the short version, just ask for the full version - they will happily print it out for you, even if they have already printed the short-form version. I do this whenever I'm returning to a HLE (especially if after hours) as the short version doesn't include the return form.

Specifically for PlatePass, my emailed version includes over a page worth of details on tolls and platepass under the heading "IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING TOLLS".

Interestingly my emails don't link to that, but instead the jacket link takes me to this.

I have some recent ones with that link as well. That looks to be the newer of the two. I think they are in the process of transitioning to that one.

One of the agreements listed above is from a Gold customer. When you sign up for Gold you already accepted the T&c. Gold customers receive a different document compared to non Gold

Mod Note

I moved the posts regarding PlatePass to the appropriate thread
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hert...pass-scam.html

Please continue the discussion of PlatePass there

Thanks!
Jason8612