I was warned by friends and co-workers. I didn't listen. "It won't happen to me" I thought. Spoilers: It happened to me.
- Two weeks before a long road trip, I booked a Cadillac Escalade on the Hertz website. I PRE-PAID for the rental instead of paying at the counter.
- A week before the trip, I called the local Hertz office to confirm the reservation. "Yes! I see you have Cadillac Escalade for XYZ dates." Ah, peace of mind. Just making sure everything is in order!
NOTE: I want to say, the Hertz employees at this location were polite the entire time. They tried their best to be helpful in spite of being setup for failure by Hertz's business model. I want to thank them for helping me through this frustrating time for something that appeared to be 100% not their fault.
- Day of pick-up - 8AM. I show up to pick up the car I reserved as scheduled. I walk up to the front counter and I SH*T YOU NOT they say "We don't have any Escalades here. LAX has them all." I say "Well why did the site let me book an Escalade here if you guys don't even have them?" The employee responds with "I'm so sorry, this has been an on going problem with our system". Oh...okay.
- Since they don't have an Escalade, I ask if they have a car in the same group/class? Like the Lincoln Navigator? "Umm...we don't have those here either. Right now we have Tahoe". A Tahoe. A car in a completely different class than I reserved. THEY DONT CARRY PRESTIGE GROUP P6 VEHICLES AT THIS LOCATION EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN BOOK THEM ON THE WEBSITE.
- While I appreciate the suggestion of giving me a vehicle of comparable size, I note that the Tahoe was $300 cheaper than the car that I booked. I ask if I could get a portion of my rental payment refunded to make-up the difference of what I had pre-paid. They said that since I pre-paid for the rental, I have to call the Hertz 1-800 customer service number to get that resolved. Great.
- Meanwhile, I still don't have a car, so the local Hertz staff is still offering olive branches, though flimsy and brittle they may be. They say "We have an Mercedes GLS scheduled to come in at noon today. Will that work?" I say yes. At this point i'm running out of options and time (I'm putting off my trip for this). They say "okay, come back at 12 and we'll have the Mercedes ready for you".
TL;DR - Booked an escalade on the website at my local Hertz. Local Hertz doesn't even carry them. Bait and Switch.
=INTERMISSION (Call with Customer Service)=
While I wait, I call Customer Service at Hertz.
- My first phone call to customer service immediately ended in me being transferred to reservations because my issue was with a reservation I had made.
- The reservation rep said that my issue was a customer service problem because the car I booked wasn't the car I got, so I was transferred back to customer service.
- This is adding insult to injury and honestly, I'm pissed off. I get back to the customer service dept. and speak to another representative. I explained the original situation (again) and note my frustration about being bounced around. The rep apologized and said "We'll call around to see which Hertz locations have Escalades". I said that you can try that, but I already was told that only LAX had Escalades and they were sold out for the weekend. I explained that I felt that I was bait and switched.
- The customer service rep then noted I was getting a Mercedes SUV at noon. I explained that, while that is correct, that is not the problem. My problem was that the car that I booked wasn't even carried at that location, and that I pre-paid for said car. I felt that i was bait and switched and wasn't offered any discount on my rental.
I asked her "Whats the cost difference for the Mercedes vs. the Escalade that I booked?" "We'll keep the costs the same for you" she replies. But are they the same? What if its cheaper? I'm paying you more for a car I didn't want". I SH*T YOU NOT the rep responds with "But you're accepting the Mercedes at noon. It's not what you wanted?".
I'm not gonna lie. At this point I got frustrated. I lost my cool. I didn't curse, but I was upset. I asked for her supervisor, and she put me on hold. I was on hold for 40 minutes. It was almost noon and I needed to go back to pick up my car, so I hung up. Issue went unresolved.
= ACT II =
-Called local Hertz. Guess What? The Mercedes wasn't returned by the renter on time, so it will be late. "Around 2pm" they say. This is now 6 hours later than I was originally scheduled to pick up my car. They offer a $100 voucher. This is moot because I won't be using Hertz ever again.
= ACT III =
At 1:30 or so, the car was finally ready. I pick it up and go on my way.
EPILOGUE:
-The car turned out to be a 10/10 drive. Would definitely purchase.
- Even though Hertz bait/switched me, the local employees were always polite and tried to be helpful.
- F*ck you Hertz. I hope all the bad things in life happen to you and only you. read more