Awful experience with Hertz, still trying to get our money back
Awful experience with Hertz. Picked up a car from Munich Airport using a prepaid voucher from Autoeurope. I needed the car from 8am but didn’t want to return it til 11am on the 10th day, so I paid for 11 days. Wasn’t provided with a condition report so I took video and photos of numerous scratches on the car (condition report which was emailed later said there was no damage). When we returned the car (just after 10am), the returns area was very busy and the attendant instructed me to just leave the key in the car. I said I wanted him to check the car in but he rudely ignored me and walked away. Turns out he took another hour to check it in. I heard nothing from Hertz, but several days later noticed a charge of nearly AUD$900 on my credit card. I emailed Hertz Munich a couple of times, but no response. Eventually I emailed Hertz Germany and a week later received a response. They claimed that a) I had returned the car late, and b) there was a scratch that I was responsible for. Weeks of emailing back and forth, providing clear photographic evidence that the damage was already there, they argued the toss, even provided a metadata report for my photos which they thought proved their position, but in fact just proved mine. Eventually, 5 weeks into dealing with them, they informed me of the “good news” that they were refunding the damage amount, but the extra day’s charge stood. Unbelievably, they seemed to be unable to count the days between two dates, because I returned the car within 10 days and 3 hours (as stated on the voucher and agreement), but they kept arguing that this was late (remember I paid for 11 days and had to keep telling them to look at the voucher!) It’s now 6 weeks of arguing with them, they have retracted the damage claim, but I’m still out of pocket $150 for the ‘extra day’, which is complete rubbish. I’m still fighting it, but please be warned, Hertz Germany is NOT to be trusted. I wish I’d read the other terrible reviews here before renting from them. Very good lesson when hiring a car too - take detailed video and photos all round and under the car before you drive away. This evidence is what we needed to prove we didn’t cause the damage. Awful awful company, will never hire from Hertz again.