Hertz Uses Lube

Ok, I really don’t know what I did to piss off the car rental gods in some life, but I must have done something really terrible. I think when you break it down to an ass-reaming, the car rental companies are far worse than the airlines. If you want a good ass-reaming just go rent some cars.

My trip has been a little rough mostly because of dealing with Hertz. I flew into San Jose on Tuesday. Now, I know better than to fly into San Jose without a car rental reservation. If you don’t have one, you may or may not be able to get a car. If there is one available, be prepared for that ass-reaming I was talking about. Lube is optional, but certainly not provided by the car rental companies.

The flight was OK, but when I get to the car rental company there are about 25 or 30 people in line, and only TWO agents working the counter. To make matters worse, there are another handful of people standing and sitting around. After waiting my turn to get to the counter I get to find out why. Despite the fact that all of us had confirmed reservations, there are no cars available. Not that the car you wanted wasn’t available, there weren’t any cars available.
So after dicking around with them for about 2+ hours I finally get a car and am on my way. I drive down to Salinas (CA) and make my first day of class. Let me tell you, there is freaking nothing in Salinas, CA. It’s the lettuce capitol of the world. All the lettuce and cabbage comes from Salinas. You can drive for five miles and see nothing but lettuce and cabbage. And the town? Think of Trader’s Village that just goes on for miles and miles. Really, there just isn’t much here.

But that evening I hit a Japanese place that the students / clients had suggested. It was surprisingly tasty and they had some of the best sushi I had eaten in a while. I go out to the car and it won’t start. Nothing. The engine won’t turn over. I dick around with the gear shift lever and a few other things that could cause this type of behavior, but it won’t turn over. I’m thinking electrical / dead battery. It’s about 7:00ish so I call Hertz and they send out someone to jump start the car.
This guy shows up in his power diesel and hooks up some cables. No luck. It still won’t turn over. It won’t even try to turn over. But this guy was only called to jump the car so he takes off. I have to call Hertz again. Hertz says they want to tow the car to San Jose and that I can get a new car there. San Jose is at least 1.5 hours away. I tell them I’ve already had to dick around with waiting for the car, now I’ve been stranded an hour, and that I am not going to spend the next three to four hours dicking around and that they need to bring me a car. They inform me that there isn’t any place open at this hour and I’ll have to wait until morning. Fine, tell the tow truck drive to give me a ride to the hotel (which he did) and get me a car in the morning.

The next day, starting at 6:00am, wasn’t much better as the first agent I talked to said I would have to go pick the car up. I told her in no uncertain terms that was not the agreement that we had and that it would be in Hertz best interest to proverbially kiss my ass and make things right or I’d never rent from them again.

I end up getting a cab to my client’s site because they can’t get me a car in time. Later they give me a ring and tell me I can come pick up the car. Again, I have to explain that they are supposed to bring me the car. They explain that it will be “a little longer” because they are busy. I call them again at 5:30 and ask where my car is. It’s on it’s way.

The guy shows up in the car and asks “where is the other car.” I told him that Hertz had it towed and I hope he isn’t expecting me to take him back to wherever he came from. I think he took that well. Finally, 22 hours later, I had another rental car.

I haven’t written Hertz, yet, but you can bet that I will. I want an apology, and I don’t want to have to pay for an entire day of car rental that I didn’t get to have. Somehow, I am still not as mad at them as I am at Budget. Maybe it’s because Hertz used lube….