Terrible experience with Hertz renting a car with a child seat
Sep 14, 2017, 1:36 pm
#17
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1
Having installed quite a few car seats on rental cars (all from hertz) i can not possibly imagine how it may take 1.5 hr. OP's frustration is understandable but stems primarily from to assumption that hertz would preinstall seats. USA is the land of lawsuits (some just, some rather frivolous) so unfortunately this is a side effect.. .
Those who push the idea of bringing own seats can perhaps explain how that would be practical for OP who struggled with existing luggage as is...
Speculation that somehow rental car seats are damaged/expired is nothing but fearmongering - we've been through this discussion quite a few times on this forum.
Dirty - possibly although with hertz i never encountered that - they were almost always brought in wrapped in plastic.
Furthermore for OP - using AAA CDP (1 will do) still includes one car seat for free - no need to pay $7-10/day. Posting those questions here ahead of your trip could have made it much easier for you. Cheers.
Those who push the idea of bringing own seats can perhaps explain how that would be practical for OP who struggled with existing luggage as is...
Speculation that somehow rental car seats are damaged/expired is nothing but fearmongering - we've been through this discussion quite a few times on this forum.
Dirty - possibly although with hertz i never encountered that - they were almost always brought in wrapped in plastic.
Furthermore for OP - using AAA CDP (1 will do) still includes one car seat for free - no need to pay $7-10/day. Posting those questions here ahead of your trip could have made it much easier for you. Cheers.
Upon putting my 3 year old daughter in the car seat that we got from Hertz, we went to buckle her in and she sat forward falling out of the seat as the straps broke. I took her out of the seat to find that the car seat straps had been completely chewed through on the underside of the seat by a rat or mouse and the bottom of the car seat scratched up from the animal's teeth. There was also rodent droppings all over the bottom of the seat. Not only is this extremely unsanitary, it is also EXTREMELY dangerous. Had she not leaned forward or I hadn't checked the tightness of the straps, if we were to be in a crash, those belts would have given way and we would be dealing with a very tragic circumstance. Upon returning to the Hertz location, I showed them the seat and they stated that they would get another. No sense of how dangerous this was and the danger they put my family in. I asked if they inspected the seats and they said they just vacuum them out. No inspection. The car seats were stored on a wooden shelf in a shed, no plastic bags, no climate control, no protection from animals or bugs. Children's lives are at risk and I can tell you I will NEVER put my child in another Hertz vehicle and highly doubt I will ever be in one either.
Sep 16, 2017, 5:35 am
#18
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This discussion is very important and far from "fearmongering". I wish I had read this forum before renting car seats from Hertz. I can absolutely GUARANTEE I will never do so again. Luckily, we checked the seats over and found a HUGE issues before we left on the road.
Upon putting my 3 year old daughter in the car seat that we got from Hertz, we went to buckle her in and she sat forward falling out of the seat as the straps broke. I took her out of the seat to find that the car seat straps had been completely chewed through on the underside of the seat by a rat or mouse and the bottom of the car seat scratched up from the animal's teeth. There was also rodent droppings all over the bottom of the seat. Not only is this extremely unsanitary, it is also EXTREMELY dangerous. Had she not leaned forward or I hadn't checked the tightness of the straps, if we were to be in a crash, those belts would have given way and we would be dealing with a very tragic circumstance. Upon returning to the Hertz location, I showed them the seat and they stated that they would get another. No sense of how dangerous this was and the danger they put my family in. I asked if they inspected the seats and they said they just vacuum them out. No inspection. The car seats were stored on a wooden shelf in a shed, no plastic bags, no climate control, no protection from animals or bugs. Children's lives are at risk and I can tell you I will NEVER put my child in another Hertz vehicle and highly doubt I will ever be in one either.
Upon putting my 3 year old daughter in the car seat that we got from Hertz, we went to buckle her in and she sat forward falling out of the seat as the straps broke. I took her out of the seat to find that the car seat straps had been completely chewed through on the underside of the seat by a rat or mouse and the bottom of the car seat scratched up from the animal's teeth. There was also rodent droppings all over the bottom of the seat. Not only is this extremely unsanitary, it is also EXTREMELY dangerous. Had she not leaned forward or I hadn't checked the tightness of the straps, if we were to be in a crash, those belts would have given way and we would be dealing with a very tragic circumstance. Upon returning to the Hertz location, I showed them the seat and they stated that they would get another. No sense of how dangerous this was and the danger they put my family in. I asked if they inspected the seats and they said they just vacuum them out. No inspection. The car seats were stored on a wooden shelf in a shed, no plastic bags, no climate control, no protection from animals or bugs. Children's lives are at risk and I can tell you I will NEVER put my child in another Hertz vehicle and highly doubt I will ever be in one either.
Rodents chewing on CRS straps in personal passenger vehicles also happens. People really need to inspect the car seats they have in their own personal vehicles too. Installation and device flaws in personally owned vehicles is also a substantial contributing factor to vehicular injuries and deaths of children in CRS devices. Most vehicle injury/fatalities of children take place when the children are in their own family's cars and family-owned CRS devices within an hour drive's of their residence.
Traveling with one's own CRS device as gate-checked luggage or as checked-in luggage also poses risks. If people could buy a new CRS device at their destination without leaving the airport, that would likely be one of the safest options. But that's most commonly not all that readily a very affordable possibility.
Sep 16, 2017, 5:54 am
#19
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Given the crazy rates rental car companies charge for car seats, it never made sense to rent them. It was always cheaper to bring our own. Had the advantage of being familiar with it, so installation wasn't an issue.
Sep 16, 2017, 6:38 am
#20
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It is indeed often even cheaper to bring or even buy a new car seat than to rent a CRS device from the car rental companies, and being able to properly install a car seat does make a world of difference in the off chance that there's a serious accident.
Sep 20, 2017, 2:20 pm
#21
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Thank you for taking the time to register and post about your rather shocking experience with Hertz.
Please do come back and let us know what Hertz corporate had to say about this situation at one of their locations (surely you let them know right?)...