Hertz Review

I always used to use Hertz when it had to be right. I thought they were the best company, and I trusted them to get it right the first time with no fuss. Then we went to Barcelona...

We got off the overnoght train from Paris and made our way to the Hertz office to begin our new adventure. We were tired, just wanted to get the car and find our hotel. They had a car ready for us. Without paying too much attention to the car, we loaded our stuff in and started out. It was only when we tried to park that we noticed that they had given us what had to be the largest car they had in the country. This thing was a tank! When we tried to park in a marked slot on the street, the car hung over the back end by a foot. We ended up putting it in a garage, only to dent the fender the next morning by hitting a post on the way out of the garage, since the car was too long to make the turn. OK. no problem, we'll take care of this later.

 We drove the car for two days of our four-day rental, forcing this monster through the narrow streets of Barcelona and surrounding villages. Then I couldn't get it in the garage one night because another car was coming down the ramp I was trying to go up, and I didn't have the required ten-acre field to maneuver in. That took a half-hour, and I came thisclose to scraping the other fender on the way into the parking level. That was the last straw. The next morning we walked into a Hertz office, threw the keys on the counter and told them to just go get it. Neither of us wanted to touch that thing again. They offered us another car, but we were totally through with the car experience. They said they would credit us the remaining two days we were supposed to have the car. They were actually very nice, and we were still thinking that it might work out OK. (Yeah, we're optimists)

The insurance to fix the scraped fender would have been no problem at all since I was covered by American Express, but Hertz refused to send a total  for the repair, telling me I had to call Spain myself to get it. I refused to do this, and finally a helpful customer service rep got it for me (this was after several supervisors told me they weren't going to do it).

Of course they didn't credit me with the two lost rental days, and when I called they said they credited Amex,and I should get it from them. Guess what? Amex didn't have it either! (Big surprise, right?) Finally, after I posted on an online complaint board, they sent me a $50.00 gift certificate. Like I'm going to trust them again after this fiasco. I still have the gift certificate, jsut to remind me that I did win in the end (well, sort of).