My travel can be wildly unpredictable. As such, I was redirected from London to Munich with very…read morelittle notice, and happened to land right on the start of Oktoberfest in 2015. Finding myself in a touch of concern upon arriving late at night when all the Uber cars were gone from the airport, I decided to try my luck at the Hertz rental counter because National had already told me that all of their Munich location's vehicles were out (which was actually a mistake, but go read my review on Enterprise in München for the details there).
Being a Hertz President's Circle member, I'd hoped that I could benefit from a little juice in order to get a vehicle, and I lucked out. The counter rep told me that he had a vehicle available, and we then started discussing pricing. I'd suggested using my corporate rate, which he claimed was more expensive than renting under the walkup rate he'd provided me. I shrugged, agreed to return the vehicle within 24 hours, and signed the appropriate paperwork, but did not sign or agree to any additional insurance coverage.
The car that he gave me...well, I can see why it was available for rental. Yes, it was a relatively new Volvo XC90, and loaded with all the bells and whistles that a mom-mobile like that would have. It dinged at me for going over the speed limit, and had such a variety of sensors and alarms that I was surprised it didn't offer to drive me to my destination automatically out of the computer's sheer frustration with trying to reign me in. Unfortunately, it also had dents and dings on every exterior body panel (the counter rep said it had a few scratches), some gunk internally, and was dirty enough underneath that I'm sure the last renter had taken the Volvo offroad. I took copious pictures and went back to the counter to ensure that all of the damage was accounted for, because this rental was starting to feel like a bad idea.
I was back at Hertz 23 hours later (10PM), and dropped off the car. The return section at MUC is shared amongst all the the car rental agencies, and I was told there was no return paperwork. Being suspicious, I took photos of the time and date in the car's dash as well as the return odometer reading. I'm quite glad I did, as I was floored when I got the bill emailed to me. So - I was charged for 2 full rental days, as well as 2 days' CDW/LDW insurance, "Super Cover", and "Diebstahlschutz". To say I was unhappy is an understatement, and I immediately rang Hertz customer service in the US, and they directed me back to Germany to speak to someone locally. After fruitlessly calling around, another local Hertz location gave me the email address to the station manager here, and I sent her a long and detailed note, including the return picture. She got back to me a day later and confirmed that the cameras had recorded my arrival time as stated and that I would get a refund on the 2nd day, but that I was still liable for all of the crammed-on insurance seeing as the rental had already been returned. I'm honestly so done and over this rental that I didn't bother pursuing the matter, but would warn each of you to actually check your receipts for any rentals at this location.
So - why not 1 star? Well, they got me into a car, and I needed it for the night. It could have gone worse, but it should have gone far better.
