Challenges with Hertz customer-no-service

Travel
1

I have been a Gold customer with Hertz for over 30 years. The customer service in the past couple of years is NOT the same as it once was, and qualifies firmly in the category of “customer-no-service”.

Twice now, I have attempted to contact Hertz re: an issue, but have discovered that it is impossible to reach a real person, despite trying multiple options and numbers. The first time was a billing question/dispute, but there was no option provided to speak with someone to ask a question about a bill for a completed reservation.

Most recently, I made a reservation using some of my Gold points toward free days. The documentation when I made the reservation said that if I had to cancel, I would need to cancel within 24 hours to have all of my points fully restored to my account. I realized I’d made a mistake in the dates, and tried to cancel within 12 hours of having made the reservation. Long story short, it took me about 2-3 hours including a drive to a local Hertz location and alot of determination to get the reservation cancelled.

Details: The website links to cancel did not work, even after trying multiple different browsers (to eliminate an individual browser bug). I attempted to call the 800 number, but it only directs you back to the website. The original confirmation email had a link to cancel, but it took me to the same web pages that didn’t work. I attempted to call the rental location, multiple times, but there is no answer and the phone eventually disconnects. I finally drove 1/2 hour from my work location to the nearest Hertz, and went in, in person, to have my reservation cancelled. The employee first tried to give me an 800 number to call, but I told him he would have to call that number, since it had not worked for me. It took him 10 minutes or more of trying different ways to reach a person, at which point, he handed the phone to me. Initially, the individual on the phone was trying to get me to change dates rather than cancel the reservation. I had to firmly insist on the cancellation, with my points fully restored to my account. He finally did this, but when I asked for a confirmation email, I was told that they do not send cancellation confirmation emails. I asked him to hold while I checked my account online, but I was suddenly unable to log on. I asked the Hertz employee who was in front of me (who’d made the phone call) to bring up the reservation on his system, and he was able to capture a print-out showing the reservation cancelled. The individual on the phone was impatient, and not wanting to wait for me to see this confirmation; he was anxious to get me off the phone. I politely reminded him that I had been working for over two hours to cancel this reservation, and I hoped that he could wait a few additional moments for me to verify the cancellation, since they were unable to email me a confirmation.
My reservation has been cancelled, but two hours later, back at my office, I am still unable to log in to hertz.com with my Gold account, so unable to verify that my points were restored.
Sigh…
If there is a way/place to offer constructive feedback to the leaders within Hertz on this painful process, I would be happy to attempt to do that. Sadly, I’m not sure it will make a bit of difference.

2

I have found that a last-resort strategy that works well is to start with a phone call to the support line and escalate from there. Get names from each person you talk to, they will usually give you a name they use as a complaint desk respondent, and keep presenting your problem and when they say they can’t fix it, ask to speak to their immediate supervisor or next level of support. Take notes along the way.

When you reach the end of the line and they won’t escalate further, state your case clearly and tell the person that they are forcing you to take your case public. Tell them in detail what you plan to do and ask for their name again. Putting up YouTube videos pleading your case in detail can be an effective deterrent for non-cooperative retailers. And threats of formal complaints to regulators might useful as well. If you have the time, make a project out of it, it can be kinda fun. Stick to the facts, tell the truth and if you don’t want to make the video yourself find a friend that likes to make videos, some kids love that stuff.

You have to be an annoyingly squeaky wheel, the loudest one wins.

1 Like
3

I have managed to call the actual airport locations of Hertz in Europe and get the local desk.

4

Thank you for that advice. But I haven’t found a support line that gets me a person on the phone, which is why I drove 25 minutes to the nearest Hertz location to be able to speak to a human being, and let them know (politely) that I wasn’t leaving until I was able to resolve the issue (cancel the reservation). Unfortunately, since they cancelled the reservation, I have been locked out of logging into my account online, so cannot tell whether they restored my points correctly or not. Nor can I make another reservation.

5

Yes, I tried calling the actual airport location where my reservation was for, but on all five attempts over a period of time, the phone simply rang and then disconnected. This was in Albany NY. The same thing happened when I tried calling them in October to ask about something relative to my just-completed reservation at that time – no answer and then a disconnect.