Hertz.com is a Waste

The past two days haven’t been so good for me on the customer service front. Yesterday my flight to New York was canceled after waiting in the airport for 3 hours. Today I am really frustrated after trying to reserve a rental car for my vacation this week.

My Hertz.com Rental Car Experience

While I am a member of the Hertz #1 club I rarely rent cars through them. I decided to give Hertz a try because Randy recommended that I book my car through an american rental company for my trip to Costa Rica. While I normally use Orbitz for all my travel I decided it might be easier to book on Hertz.com since this was an international reservation. I went online with my Hertz ID, selected my destination and vehicle, and landed on this page.

Apparently “online booking” isn’t really online. I have to call a phone number to complete my reservation. I dialed the number and was greeted by an automated system.

System : Are you a Hertz #1 Club Member?
Me : Yes
System : What is your number?
Me : 527XXXXX
System : What is your last name?
Me : Murphy
System : I’m sorry, I can’t find that. Your member number is “2”. Is that correct?
Me : No
System : I’ll transfer you to an agent.
Me : It wasn’t like this on the Jetsons.

Five minutes goes by, then I get someone on the phone. She asks me for the exact same information I just entered in the Hertz.com site. She then proceeds to tell me that my rental will be over $400. I explain that there must be a mistake. Perhaps she has selected a nicer vehicle for me. She begins to read me a list of American vehicles to choose from and I reply that none of those vehicles were presented to me when I made the online booking. I want to roll in a Hyundai Tuscon (or similiar) for $58.00/day.

We go back and forth for 10 minutes or so. I ask her if I can send a screen shot and she tells me that she can’t recieve it. She asks me if I have a discount code. I tell her I have an AMEX platinum card. She tell me the AMEX card will save me 12%.

After a little more time she finally tells me the best she can do is around $360. I tell her that isn’t going to work. She informs me that she has to transfer me to the web operations people.

I now go through the process of sharing my destination and dates a 3rd time. The web operations person tells me she need to walk through the website with me. At this point I decide to bring up Orbitz and see what they have to offer. To my surprise the prices are even cheaper than what I was originally offered on Hertz.com with my #1 Club discount.

Finally The Web Ops person tells me the price I have is wrong and it will be around $320.00. I laugh. Hard.

Web Ops : Why are you laughing?
Me : Because I tried to book this online for one price and now I call and you give me a completely different price. It is a joke. It is bait and switch.
Web Ops : This is the price.
Me : I am on Orbitz right now and the prices are cheaper than your original quote with my #1 discount. What is the point?
Web Ops : (hung up on me)!?!?

I should have just stayed with Orbitz to begin with. I spent 30 minutes of my day with Hertz and all I got was this stupid blog post.