My experience with Hertz

I have rented three times from Hertz in the past and have had no problems with them before. One time I was in Chicago for a wedding (hi Joel and Tracey!) and the location at O'Hare International Airport gave me a car with a dirty ash tray. While walking through downtown, I randomly came across another Hertz location, went into complain, and the woman immediately upgraded me to a Kia Amanti.

This past weekend in Miami, however, my experience was mixed. I originally made reservations for a Ford Taurus with SIRIUS Satellite Radio for $27/day for three days, had a "one day free" coupon, and the total came out to around $92. When I picked up my car at the airport, I was told that the coupon was a "three days free" coupon, and I was only going to be charged the taxes and fees for the three day rental. They were also unable to find me a Ford Taurus, and gave me a Ford Five Hundred Limited Edition (with no satellite radio) instead. I didn't complain because the Five Hundred is a much nicer car than the Taurus.

So I was pretty happy, I was going to be driving around Miami and Key West in a Ford Five Hundred and paying only $18 for it. The Five Hundred drives very well, the leather seats were very comfortable, and my car still had the feel and smell of a new car. I drove to South Beach, which has a ton of nice cars before. I have never seen so many Jacquars and the BMW 6 in one place. I was beginning to think I scored myself a pretty nice ride, until the "red light" came on.

I put "red light" in quotes because it technically was not a red light. It was a message on the LED display that normally displays the mileage. The message reads "oil life 4% please change soon." That night on my way to the hotel by the airport, I brought it back to Hertz and did what they call a "transfer exchange." I ended up getting a Taurus with no satellite radio, but with the HertzNeverLost navigation system.

The Taurus performed exactly the way you would expect it to, bland and boring. It's the type of car that gets me from point A to point B, but I would never get excited about getting into a Taurus. While driving back to the airport Monday morning, it was raining and I felt water dripping from the area behind the dashboard onto my left foot (I was wearing my sandals from Thursday). I later opened the glove compartment and saw that the Hertz documentation (when you're driving a rental car, never announce that you're from out of town by putting anything from the rental company in full view of anyone looking through the window) I had stored inside were wet. But the most annoying thing about the Taurus is the seat belt indicator. Some of my co-workers will testify that I don't always wear my seat belt when driving short distances. On the Taurus, unless the driver's seat belt is clicked in, a very intrusive alarm comes on every 60 seconds.

The navigation system was nice to have but caused a bit of confusion. While returning to the Miami International Airport, it told me to take the exit for 874 (Don Shula Expressway) while the highway signs with the airplane logo wanted me to remain on Florida Turnpike. I decided to follow the sign and when the navigation system realized that I did not make the turn, it immediately recalculated a new route. When I got real close to the airport, I again received conflicting information between the navigation system and the signs on the road. But this time, I chose to listen to the navigation system because I realized it was giving me direcitons to the Hertz garage instead of the curb drop off at the airport.

When I returned the Taurus and the attendant printed out my final bill, I saw that Hertz was charging me $50 for having returned my Five Hundred on Friday with the gas tank only three quarters full. I informed the attendant that when I brought the car back on Friday, I was told by that other attendant that I would not be charged for not having a full gas tank. She said that the attendant reports how much gas you have left in the tank, but has no control over waiving the charge for not having a full tank, and what I should have done was to talk to the people at the counter on Friday. I went up to the counter, was greeted by the same very nice woman that gave me the Five Hundred on Friday morning. I explained my case, she said the most she could do was to give me a $50 coupon. I complained again and she called a manager, and raised the value of the coupon offer to $60.

I had to catch a plane and had no time to argue, so I took down names, email addresses, social security numbers (just kidding), and business cards. Before I left, I did ask how I could have been charged $50 for having used one quarter tank of gas, the woman at the counter did not have an answer for me. When I got home, I emailed Toni Ziccardi, Hertz manager for the city of Miami. She got back to me by the afternoon and said I was not going to be charged one dime for the weekend.

Does this mean I still get to keep the $60 coupon? ;)