A “longtime” Hertz customer says he is “done” with the car rental company after he claimed that the AI-powered damage detection system improperly flagged a nonexistent mark on the vehicle — even though video that he filmed immediately afterward appeared to back up his claim.
When angry customers sought to dispute the claim, they were unable to immediately reach a customer service rep.
“The link they send you does NOT allow you to submit a dispute. Calling customer support? Useless. They said they can’t do anything, even when I told them I have clear video evidence of the car being undamaged at the exact time the damage was claimed,” one customer said.
I don’t understand the point of this. Minor scratches and dings are a cost of doing business. Driving away your customers over a nickel or dime will leave you in bankruptcy. It’s bizarre.
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I don’t know, this would probably create an actionable issue with my company.
Is that even illegal?
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Ah, if they’re pretending to be a company they legitimately do business with, definitely illegal.
The point is to make money. Specifically to make a lot of money this year and get a bonus. Bankruptcy will be a problem for the next CEO.
Also I’ve rented enough scratched, pitted and dented cars to know that no way are they spending that $650 on fixing them.
Hertz went bankrupt during the pandemic and came out of it 4 years ago.
There just isn’t enough real competition in car rentals. There are lots of brands, like Alamo, Enterprise, National Car Rental, Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, Firefly, Budget, Avis, etc. But, that’s just 3 companies. Avis Budget Group ($CAR), Hertz Global ($HTZ) and Enterprise (private).
Admittedly, I’ve had great experiences with Enterprise in the US. It blows my mind how expensive it is, but I’ve never had any issues like what OP posted.
They all end up costing roughly the same in the end. Enterprise is just more honest about it.
Enterprise used to be the best by far, but ever 2020 or so, prices are way up, their cars are all old clunkers, and most of their employees are very young and don’t know what they’re doing.
There are some other alternatives like Turo
But what if you turned the cost of doing business an opportunity for profit? All they know is squeeze.