Hertz did the trick...
Written: Jul 27 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Charges excatly as quoted! No pressure on ins or gas, straight forward & new car.
Cons: Could be very expensive if you don't catch a good deal!
The Bottom Line: Would not think twice about Hertz after this!
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| ejohan's Full Review: Hertz |
Last March (2006), I booked a road trip. My family and I caught a flight from Vancouver (on the West Coast of Canada) to Montreal (in Eastern Canada). We drove to Quebec City a few days later (3 hours), then we continued down to Boston (8 hours) and back to Montreal again for our flight back.
When I was doing the reservations for car rentals, I figured out one thing.. Car Rentals are REALLY EXPENSIVE in Montreal ($35-65/day after discount) compared to Vancouver ($15-30/day after discount).
All we needed was an economy car (we own a Corolla and Protege at home and fit fine in them)...
The first few quotes I got were $500 - $550 from Budget and Avis at the airport.
I quickly realized it's MUCH cheaper to book the car in downtown and it was no problem to return to the airport with any of the companies.
The cheapest quote I got was $199/wk (CDN$) (taxes included) for a Chevy Cobalt or similar with my Entertainment Club Card at Enterprise in Downtown MTL. I happily booked that car considering how much cheaper it was than the Budget/Avis quotes.
After reading the small print, I realized, they weren't going to let us take it down to the US! That's strange, being an American company! I called Enterprise to double check and the lady confirmed that they didn't allow it. She kindly told me that only Hertz, Budget & Avis would allow it.
I had already gotten quotes from Budget and Avis (remember those $500 ones? so I tried Hertz with my Entertainment CDP#.
The rate came up at $210 (taxes included) for a Ford Focus ZX4 or similar. I booked it. I was happy to see that Hertz allows you to collect Air Canada Aeroplan points (I got 1250 of them for the week too (usually it's only 1/$!).
I checked back a month later in April and I was shocked to see the rate for the exact same rental (w. the same CDP code) had gone up on Hertz' site over to over $100 more expensive. I was worried after reading reviews here that they weren't going to honour their price they had quoted me. It did say "this price is guaranteed" at the bottom of my confirmation, so I decided I'd just stick to it.
On my third and final day in Montreal, we walked from our hotel to the Downtown Hertz location. It was located in the oldest part of Downtown Montreal. Hertz basically had a little corner of a building adjacent to an open paved parking lot.
When I arrived the single clerk on duty was busy helping another customer. He looked over at us and said "Hello, Bonjour, monsieur. Un moment si vous plait. One moment please." (got to love the bilingualism in Montreal hehe)
After helping the other customer, I told him that I had a reservation... he grabbed my reservation (must have been the only one!) and confirmed my name, etc. I showed him my driver's licence and Visa card. He went through the charges (same as my reservation printout! amazing!), confirmed everything, asked if we needed insurance (we said no... he didn't try to push it on us!), he asked if we wanted their gas package (he made sure to point out the fine print saying tax wasn't included), we said no (again, no pressure).
He told us that he had the car inspected about an hour ago and there was no damage, but if we see anything let him know. He handed the keys and we were off.
Car was a 2006 Ford Focus ZX4 with 32,000kms on the odometer. Ran great throughout our trip.
Return at PET/YUL Airport in Montreal was very easy and straight forward. Again the charges were exactly as quoted!
Very happy with Hertz and I would defently rent there again!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ejohan
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Location: Vancouver, BC
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
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