Excessive Car Hire Charge from Hertz.

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone can help me with the following.

I booked a car hire through the ryanair web site tuesday last 7th May to pick up a car on wednesday morning 8th at Leeds Bradford airport for one day. The rental contract (with Hertz) which I signed stated the price to be stg£30.19 as long as the car was returned full of fuel and undamaged.

On checking my credit card on line yesterday I was floored to see hertz charge me the sum of stg £1481 for the day's hire.

I immediately contacted Hertz Uk on this matter and was told that I had made the booking from dublin airport and not leeds airport which hardly seems plausible as when I presented to pick up the car at leeds I gave their rep my booking ref no and he proceeded to process the hire. The lady at Hertz uk stated they would consider my appeal sometime within the next 10 working days. I told her this was totally unacceptable and asked to speak to a manager, where upon she told me there was none available. When I gave her my number to ring she informed me they were unable to call Irish mobile numbers. I gave up at this stage in pursuit of a different course of action...

Any advice greatly appreciated!!!!

Get your credit card company to reverse the charge as it is clearly unreasonable.

If that don't work you will need to sue Hertz in small claims.

+1 - Get on to your credit card company immediately to start the process of disputing the charge

Presumably you've got a copy of the booking you made and a copy of the receipt/contract that you were given when you picked up the car ... That should be ample evidence to dispute the charge if it's as you described

The CC card company will insist that you contact Hertz first I imagine , but by notifying them of your intent to dispute the charge it should start the process if Hertz don't cooperate.

Was there a damage excess on your rental? I used to work in this sector and quite often people are not aware that there is an excess to be paid should you damage the car - usually around 1200, however some buy additional insurance cover with their rental to bring this amount down.

Dont panic yet though! Most rental companies will do a pre-authorisation of the 1200 on your credit card - this is to ensure that if you DO damage the car, they will get their money. Its all in the Terms and Conditions agreed to when you make your booking, but naturally not many people will actually read them. We often had to turn away people who didnt know about this when the preauthorisation wasnt approved by their bank.

If it is the pre-authorisation (and your bank can confirm this for you), it should reverse in about 5-7 (time is dependent on your bank).

Take a look online and at your confirmation booking to see was there an excess, and how much, and that might help clear things up. Still, I do think there may be some additional charges there too - did you take out extra insurance, a Sat Nav, etc? These are all charged per day, so can add up.

Also, I know some companies also do a pre-authorisation for the tank of petrol (again, to ensure they get paid if not returned full). That could be about 40-80 of the charge, depending on the tank size.

Found this on their website, so find the car size you rented and you'll see the excess in Euros. I reckon from what you were charged you had a small car, which could explain the 1400 charge:

http://www.hertz.ie/rentacar/byr/index.jsp?targetPage=rentalQualificationsView.jsp#

What and how, does booking the car from Dublin airport, justify £1400?. Did you get the car signed back to the company damage free? If so, there is clearly an admin error here. I dont understand where you, or Hertz explain the increased cost..

dmos87 said:

Dont panic yet though! Most rental companies will do a pre-authorisation of the 1200 on your credit card - this is to ensure that if you DO damage the car, they will get their money. Its all in the Terms and Conditions agreed to when you make your booking, but naturally not many people will actually read them. We often had to turn away people who didnt know about this when the preauthorisation wasnt approved by their bank.

Click to expand...

Yes but a pre-auth shouldn't show as a charge on anyone's credit card - it should just be a hold against the credit limit (which you'd probably see reduced) ... it wouldn't show up on a statement.

LS400 said:

What and how, does booking the car from Dublin airport, justify £1400?. Did you get the car signed back to the company damage free? If so, there is clearly an admin error here. I dont understand where you, or Hertz explain the increased cost..

Click to expand...

I assume Hertz were trying to claim that RPC757 booked the car as a one way rental picking up at Dublin Airport and dropping at Leeds Bradford Airport

That would attract a ludicrous one way charge alright (cross border one way rentals do since they then would have to drive the car back)

IF this is what happened it's obviously a screw up by Hertz in the booking somewhere and should be easily rectified since it would be pretty obvious that the car was picked up and dropped at LBA airport.

EvilDoctorK said:

Yes but a pre-auth shouldn't show as a charge on anyone's credit card - it should just be a hold against the credit limit (which you'd probably see reduced) ... it wouldn't show up on a statement.

Click to expand...

Depends on the card used. Internet banking tends to show the pre-auths all the time. I've seen and heard of them all showing it.

dmos87 said:

Depends on the card used. Internet banking tends to show the pre-auths all the time. I've seen and heard of them all showing it.

Click to expand...

Maybe so ... not on any of my credit cards (you can see pending charges on some, but that doesn't include pre-auths I don't believe.) ... but I guess depending on your bank / credit card provider it may be different.

As a semi related aside the only car rental company that actually charges the deposit (and then refunds on return) that I know of is Enterprise ... all the other Major companies just do a pre-auth in my experience.

Aah, that one way rental would throw up silly charges, although, if it were allowed, there would be a lot of paper work to be signed taking a car from one Country to another.

LS400 said:

Aah, that one way rental would throw up silly charges, although, if it were allowed, there would be a lot of paper work to be signed taking a car from one Country to another.

Click to expand...

Thats true. We used to charge 57.75 for just leaving the car back at another depot.

The only person who can answer all these questions is the OP, who I recommends checks their paperwork received at the collection desk as that has everything outlined. Any questions, shout.

I got a good deal with hertz in the past when i flew into a british airport. Realised a few weeks later that there was an extra 400 pound sterling charged to my credit card. When I enquired about this I was told it was because i never returned the car keys (which i had popped into the return box in airport). I was quite unhappy that they didn't ring me when they couldn't find the keys and had charged my credit card without informing me. In the end it took a few weeks, emails and several calls but the money was returned.

I wouldn't panic about this.

I booked a card with Ryanair through Hertz recently. I left the car back and they checked it in, which I assumed to mean it was ok.

They subsequently charged me €63 for damage which I disputed.

They said they would get back to me within 10 days which they did, and cancelled the charge.

Did you make an error in the booking, saying you would pick it up in Leeds and leave it back in Dublin? But even if you did that, surely they would have flagged the charge in advance?

So it's most likely their error and they will reverse it.

As it will take up to 10 days, you might pay it on one CC bill and have it reversed on the next. Flag it with the CC company and they will probably do something for you.

Thanks for all the replies.

Just an update on the situation. I contacted hertz once again this afternoon and stated I would give them till 5pm tomorrow to receive confirmation they would refund my CC or else I would be contacting a solicitor on the matter. They informed me that they will credit my account with the full amount charged within 48 hrs and accepted the error was on their side.

Although I appear to have reached a satisfactory conclusion to this I am still extremely annoyed they charged me this amount. Like Brendan I have had on many occasions smaller extra sums charged to my card (mostly related to fuel not been topped up). On each occasion I have always been able to prove the charge incorrect and had the money reinstated. My message to others is to retain all documentation and receipts and above all watch those extra charges on your car rental account.

Another very important thing is to take plenty of photos if possible timed and dated on collection and return.

Everybody wants to access your cash, more and more in this economy I am hearing and experiencing this, I think I may yet burn my credit cards....glad it has worked out for you and thanks for raising it as an issue..

I won't hire a car from any of the big companies in the UK anymore. Have been screwed over on the last two occasion for damage I didn't do. On the first occasion there was nobody there to sign a car back in on return, even though they had promised there would be, so no return receipt from an agent on the ground. Got charged for damage to bodywork. On the second occasion (with a different company) I insisted I was only hiring on condition there would be an agent to receive the returned car. Again I was promised there would be, again there wasn't. There was a sister company with a desk nearby and I insisted on getting someone out to inspect the car and give me a receipt for returning it undamaged. Made no difference -- there was a charge for damage on my credit card the next day anyway for "irreparable tire wall damage". Only subsequently did I realise the first and second companies were part of the same group, along with several others. Nowadays I only hire from small independent companies through online brokers. It's cheaper, friendlier, better service, and not rip-off city like the big boys.

I've never ever seen a pre autorisation on my credit card for 1200. We use Hertz in Ireland regularly and this doesn't arise. It's an Amex credit card if that makes a difference.

The excess nowadays is very large. And the cost of the extra insurance is nearly 10 Euros' a day. I recommend a company called

http://www.insurance4carhire.com/

for this insurance. It's an annual policy, you can quite easily recoup the cost on just one weeks car hire.

dub_nerd said:

Nowadays I only hire from small independent companies through online brokers. It's cheaper, friendlier, better service, and not rip-off city like the big boys.

Click to expand...

Not to defend Avis/Hertz etc. too much but it depends on what you're after ... normally they tend to be much better for things like one way drops , extended opening hours and fast pick up/ drop off for frequent customers - In general they have cars located closer to the airport terminals and you can get a faster get away , shorter drop time on the return etc.

Touch wood, but I've never had any unfair charges posted from the major guys .. the one bad experience I had was with an Italian local firm , but it was sorted in the end - and I hire cars very frequently in may different places.

I used to find that you always got cheaper prices through online brokers like AutoEurope/Argus etc. (who often end up with the major companies anyway) .. but increasingly I find that this isn't the case any longer and booking direct with Avis/Hertz is just as keenly priced.

Agree on the excess reduction policies .. if you hire cars at all regularly it pays for itself pretty quickly

Glad to hear it worked out okay for RPC757 in the end

EvilDoctorK said:

Not to defend Avis/Hertz etc. too much but it depends on what you're after ... normally they tend to be much better for things like one way drops , extended opening hours and fast pick up/ drop off for frequent customers - In general they have cars located closer to the airport terminals and you can get a faster get away , shorter drop time on the return etc.

Touch wood, but I've never had any unfair charges posted from the major guys .. the one bad experience I had was with an Italian local firm , but it was sorted in the end - and I hire cars very frequently in may different places.

I used to find that you always got cheaper prices through online brokers like AutoEurope/Argus etc. (who often end up with the major companies anyway) .. but increasingly I find that this isn't the case any longer and booking direct with Avis/Hertz is just as keenly priced.

Agree on the excess reduction policies .. if you hire cars at all regularly it pays for itself pretty quickly

Glad to hear it worked out okay for RPC757 in the end

Click to expand...

I agree with this. I hire cars in the UK quite frequently (around 30 times a year) and I find Hertz excellent. I’ve had a few pricing issues but they’ve always sorted them out quickly and with minimal hassle. I also find them very good at dealing with last minute changes to bookings and they generally have the car you specify. For example their medium range car is usually a petrol Opel Vectra. I hate Opels and as I cover high mileage I want a diesel so I ask for a Diesel Focus when I book and they always have what I’ve asked for.