Hertz: we could have been killed
Written: Sep 07 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: sorry, can not find anything in this caregory
Cons: Expensive, Dangerous cars, Bad service, cheating, Off airport
The Bottom Line: dangerous cars, bad customer service, nothing good about it
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| finetrue's Full Review: Hertz |
Location: Orlando International Airport, FL
Rental length: 17 days from 8/20-9/06, 2009
-- Nightmare started:
From the minute we told the representative at the check-in counter that we were from New York City and we did not drive often, our nightmare started. Basically, the representative did two things during our check-in process.
At first, he wanted us to buy their fuel-purchase plan. To this purpose, he lied to us that the oil price in orlando is over $4/gallon, while through that plan, we could enjoy the rate of $2.51/gallon. We did not drive often but we were not idiots. We gently turned down this offer.
Then he wanted us to sign for an insurance package that cost more that $900, without even asking us whether we need it. Since we were pretty sure that our own insurance company has covered most of the listed things, he started his "persuading tricks" by saying all horrible things about the safety issue in Orlando. For a moment we almost wanted to cancle this reservation since it sounded like we would be killed once we step out of that hertz building. Finally my husband called our insurance company to make sure that we can survive throughout this vacation, and at last we did not buy that insurance plan. Then I saw perhaps the most "disappointed" face I have even seen in my life. We almost ran out of that building to get away from that cold face a.s.a.p.
-- Nightmare continued, and got worse:
We thought the hard time was over, but we were clearly wrong. Our car was a 2008 Volkswagen Beetle, without any manual. We drove that car for 3 days, and everytime the brake was applied, we felt that the entire vehicle was vibrating. Since we still have 2 more weeks to go, we decided to change the car. I guess we were really really lucky for making this decision. We did not go to Disneyworld during traffic hours as usual. We took one day off, and chose to drive back to hertz around noon. However, we did not make it back to Hertz (only 13 miles from our hotel) due to the break failure. Fortunately the failure happened in the parking lot of a buffet. Finally, we called hertz emergency line, and get our car towed back. Thank god no one was injured. One thing I can not stop wondering is, hertz staffs should know that the car had some break problems, since the symptom was pretty obvious to them (although not so obvious for us who had never experienced a break falure before), why did they still rent that car to us who were supposed to use it for 17 days. Were they (or the "disappointed" staff) trying to kill us?
-- Nightmare continued
Anyway, we get a replacement, a 2009 toyota camry. We were in general happy with the car except for the slippery tire when driving in the rain (it almost rains everyday in Orlando during our stay). Since we did not want to go back and change for another car again (with a chance that we might get a even worse car), we tried to reschedule our trip to avoid driving at raining evenings. However, slippery tire was not the only thing wrong with the car. After driving for about 10 days, the maintenance requirement light was on. The engine oil needs to be changed. We could risk driving this car for the rest of our rental days, but we basically did not trust hertz anymore, and we did not want to take any more risk. So we went back to get our car replaced again. This time, the question I am keeping thinking about is, do they ever check their cars? When I returned the camery, we only drove it for about 300 miles. This means when they rented us this car, they should have changed the engine oil already.
-- Nightmare ended (hopefully?)
I really want to finish my story now, but since we haven't received the final bill from Hertz after our trip, I am not sure whether the nightmare has ended already. I do not even want to say how bad Hertz is. I just want to pray for all future customers that choose to use Hertz.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
finetrue
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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