Nightmare with Hertz - can anyone help?

Dannyboy83 · 20-01-2009 1:22pm

I just found this in my junk mail.
Now I am really, really starting to get angry.
Especially the last line, this just has me fuming.

Ref. No:

15/01/09
Rental Agreement #:

Reservation Id.

Dear Mr DannyBoy83,

Thank you for your email.

I have reviewed your query, and I have escalated this file to my Team Leader. I can confirm that all the damage documentation from Lithuania has been provided as per procedure. Therefore you are liable for the damage as the damage to the vehicle happened while it was in your possession. Also the vehicle was due to return on 06/09/08 however our records show that the vehicle was checked in on 07/09/08 therefore the branch charged you for an extra days hire.

I trust this clarifies things to your satisfaction. We hope we have the opportunity to serve you again in the future.

Yours sincerely,

UK Customer Services Department

Our man in Havana · 20-01-2009 1:34pm

Now it is time to talk to Joe.

John_Mc · 20-01-2009 1:35pm

Now is the time to ring your CC company and dispute the charge!

Dannyboy83 · 20-01-2009 1:47pm

Here is the reply I sent back:

Dear ,

Unfortunately this does not clear anything up at all.
I regret to inform you that you are rather badly mistaken or misled by Hertz Kaunas.

The photographic “proof” was taken 5 days after the end of my rental service, on the 12th September 08, as I have already clearly pointed out.
If you have photographic evidence or any evidence at all to show that the damage occurred prior to the 12th of September 2008, you need to present this to me ASAP.
Thus far, no evidence has been presented to myself or my solicitor which confirms that the damage occurred during the period of my rental and insurance, which ended on the 7th of September.

Can you confirm that the vehicle lay in state for 5 days in an open, unguarded and unprotected airport car park?
Or can your confirm that the vehicle was re-parked by a Lithuanian CS agent between 7th and 12th September?
Or can you confirm that the vehicle was rented subsequent to the end of my contract on the 7th of September?

I spoke to the head of European Customer Service on the telephone last week, Chris Deviney, and I am awaiting a telephone call from her regarding this matter.
I suggest you add this to my file and let the matter rest with her.

As stated, please forward any evidence to show the damage occurred during my rental agreement period, if such evidence exists, as I am currently preparing legal action with my solicitor through the new European Small Claims court system.

I have already lost more money on this issue than the original sum for “damages” which were taken from my credit card without my authorization.
And I have wasted countless hours on the telephone and writing emails.
I feel as though I have exhausted correct procedures without satisfaction until I spoke with Chris Deviney who is overseeing the matter personally.

You can trust that I will be both satisfied and clear as a crystal when I receive a refund for the “damage” which I didn’t do or failing that, when I have the chance to expose the “Hertz Kaunas” concept of Customer Service in the European Courts to the rest of Europe and North America.
Even if only one other person is saved from such extortion, then it will be a satisfying result

Thank you for your response,
Regards
Dan

Dannyboy83 · 20-01-2009 1:49pm

Bond-007 wrote: »

Now it is time to talk to Joe.

No, I'm going to play fair.

First, I'm waiting for Chris Deviney's response as she assured me she would oversee the matter personally.

When I receive her response, then I will definitely go ahead with legal action and possibly Joe too.

I'm really so frustrated and flabbergasted at this stage, they have just annoyed me beyond belief now.

Our man in Havana · 20-01-2009 1:54pm

That email was from a goon with a pre-programmed response.

I would get back to Chris Deviney to and put it to her. Charging you for extra rental is an insult under the circumstances.

Gran Hermano · 20-01-2009 2:02pm

LolaDub wrote: »

Well i certainly wouldn't use hertz after reading this!

Same here - and I've already informed my colleagues to not use them either. We use a lot of rental cars when visiting clients overseas.

Our man in Havana · 20-01-2009 2:07pm

I think the main problem here is that the rental place was closed when the OP returned the car.

babaloushka · 20-01-2009 11:48pm

After reading this intriguing and damning thread, I will definitely never use Hertz. I have been telling as many people as I can about what I can only describe as a calculated scam. The photo/date evidence is a classic!
Do Hertz not care that this abysmal tale, which reflects so badly on them, is being read by thousands and showing (them) up on Google? There's no point in bleating that it's a separate franchise - ALL of Hertz business at home and abroad is/will be taking the hit for this person's experience of Hertz Kaunas. Much, much more cost effective to have settled the issue to the OP's satisfaction long ago.

Our man in Havana · 21-01-2009 12:04am

Now this thread is 4th and 5th on google when you search for hertz kaunas.

Dannyboy83 · 22-01-2009 2:26pm

Updating this thread, I received a reply from Chris Diviney today.
Note the difference between Chris Diviney's responses and a customer service agent's response.
i.e. Chris Diviney doesn't appear condescending and actually makes you feel as though you're complaints are being taken seriously.

Dear Mr. -,

Further to our conversation last week as promised I am just emailing to let you know my investigation is going and will take another few days. I hope to be in a position by Friday to have all the facts and respond to you with a final and comprehensive answer to your query.

Thank you for your patience.

Kind regards
-

-
Manager Customer Service
Hertz Europe Service Centre
Swords Business Park
Swords
Co. Dublin
Ireland
PH: ---

Anyway, I'm hoping she will come through with a result and make it easy on both of us and I can put this thread to rest.
Otherwise this thread will likely go on for months while I go through the European courts to get my refund.

Climate Expert · 22-01-2009 2:36pm

There was talk of getting some europe wide small claims court going which would really help in cases like this.

What sort of European court are you going to use?

Dannyboy83 · 22-01-2009 2:50pm

Exactly that mate, it was in the Sunday Times Business section last week - new European small claims court.

I have to make up my mind wheter I go with my solicitor here or my girlfriend's mother's solicitor in Lithuania.

My brother is a solicitor himself so free legal advice at least:D

Climate Expert · 22-01-2009 2:59pm

I didn't think it was up and running yet. You should do it without a solicitor, thats the whole point. Keeps the costs and complexity down.
Most companies will just concede when they get the first letter in from the court registrar.
They didn't in my case but sadly for them they lost during their day in court.

derry · 23-01-2009 1:35am

To the best of my knowelege credit card companies are very much able to reverse charges and reinburrse your account if they so wish to.If the company that overcharged you wishes to contest it and get the funds returned they can pay a penalty charge of typicaly ~€30 just to inquire the issue.All the CC account holder has to say is fraudulent activity and that usuly makes the fund return to your account.If the funds are returned to your account then cancell the account and take new one with another outfit .Best to have as many tpyes of CC as possible so you can lose a few in these messes

Saves all the leg work .Bummer is less likely to work against the big outfits like Hertz

Are you sure the piture is of the same car that you rented .Its easy to get in another same colour same make from another branch outfit with a damage and ask them to piture it.Then email the pic to the the branch where you left in the car and they can claim your car was damaged.Both branches win in the scam .Could be good for you if several people in the same time period were all shown that piture and all charged for the same damage .Pop the piture up on other forums like germany consumer rights in case they have the same photo up for similar scam

Best CC for disputs they say with rented cars is AMEX who seem to take the CC side of the story of the punter

Sounds to me every which way you got scamed by HERTZ

Unfortunatly Joe Duffy doesnt for sure take every story presented to him as there are scams every where and also eastern europe doesnt rate very big with the Irish for holidays and car rental

Sounds to me you need to drop the car back one day earlier than you fly out so you can ensure there is a open attended office to drop the car to.

I will se what info I can find out from my sources some of it I might have to PM you as might be to traceable where I got it if put on the public net

anyway good luck and hopefully it works out good for you

Derry

WicklowRacer · 23-01-2009 10:05am

I travel a lot to Croatia/Slovenia and I always try to schedule my flights so that I can fly into Italy, rent a car there and drive over the border into Croatia/Slovenia. The reason being is that my perception of the car rental business in these countries (for all franchises) is inherently corrupt and its only a matter of time before I get seriously ripped off.

I had always thought (naively probably) that by using a global brand like Hertz that I would have better customer service in the event of dispute. Fair play to the OP for not rolling over on this and its great to see Hertz getting a well deserved shafting from cyber people power.

As a marketing exec., I am grimacing at the damage this thread is doing to the Hertz brand :eek:

busman · 23-01-2009 10:56am

For the indo on Jan 2nd.

http://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/latest-news/ripped-off-in-europe-heres-how-you-can-fight-back-1589235.html.

Looks like it is the same as making a claim in Ireland. Just fill out form and fill it with the registrar of your local District Court!

The article states the Denmark is the only EU country that has opted out.

Climate Expert · 23-01-2009 11:21am

derry wrote: »

To the best of my knowelege credit card companies are very much able to reverse charges and reinburrse your account if they so wish to.If the company that overcharged you wishes to contest it and get the funds returned they can pay a penalty charge of typicaly ~€30 just to inquire the issue.All the CC account holder has to say is fraudulent activity and that usuly makes the fund return to your account.If the funds are returned to your account then cancell the account and take new one with another outfit .Best to have as many tpyes of CC as possible so you can lose a few in these messes

Saves all the leg work .Bummer is less likely to work against the big outfits like Hertz

Are you sure the piture is of the same car that you rented .Its easy to get in another same colour same make from another branch outfit with a damage and ask them to piture it.Then email the pic to the the branch where you left in the car and they can claim your car was damaged.Both branches win in the scam .Could be good for you if several people in the same time period were all shown that piture and all charged for the same damage .Pop the piture up on other forums like germany consumer rights in case they have the same photo up for similar scam

Best CC for disputs they say with rented cars is AMEX who seem to take the CC side of the story of the punter

Sounds to me every which way you got scamed by HERTZ

Unfortunatly Joe Duffy doesnt for sure take every story presented to him as there are scams every where and also eastern europe doesnt rate very big with the Irish for holidays and car rental

Sounds to me you need to drop the car back one day earlier than you fly out so you can ensure there is a open attended office to drop the car to.

I will se what info I can find out from my sources some of it I might have to PM you as might be to traceable where I got it if put on the public net

anyway good luck and hopefully it works out good for you

Derry

In my case I thought you couldn't issue a chargeback if its passed the time of your cc bill but I might be wrong on that. And CC companies in Ireland like AIB are very reluctant to issue chargebacks and will tell you to dispute it with the company.

If anybody has an Amex card then these lads are meant to issue chargebacks very quickly.

In future if I was renting in a dodgy place I would always take pictures of the car, any messing with the bill email the pictures wait for a few days and then go straight to the CC company and forget the hassle of dealing with some scammers abroad.

Dannyboy83 · 23-01-2009 1:28pm

I don't have a chance to reply to the latest posts as I'm at work at the moment, however, I just wanted to briefly Thank everyone for such strong support here.

I'm really surprised to be honest, I expected a lot of people would be indifferent, but I seem to have such huge support behind me in the real world and here, so many people are really hanging on the outcome with Hertz to see if they will do the honourable thing and refund the charges, or if they will let it go to court.
Their reputation really has taken a big hit in Ireland and the UK boards too.

I was thinking if I make a webpage about this, I will need a name, here are some of the ones I was thinking about last night:
Hertz
Hertz help
Hertz hell
Hertz nightmare
Hertz kaunas
Hertz Kauno
Hertz Lithuania
Hertz Car Rent Lithuania
Hertz Scam
Hertz Rental
Hertz Fraud
Hertz Extortion
Hertz Specialūs pasiūlymai
reservations@hertz
hertz.lt
Hertz Sveiki atvykę

Lithuania Scam
Lithuania Rental
Lithuania Fraud
Lithuania Extortion

Car Rental Scam
Hertz Rent a car
Hertz value
Hertz Car Rent Lithuania
Hertz Car Rent Baltic
Baltic Car Scandal

dahamsta · 23-01-2009 2:38pm

Go with the old reliable, hertz-sucks.com. It's available.

(Bizarrely, Hertz used Mark Monitor to register hertzsucks.com, but not hertz-sucks.com. How stupid is that?)

adam

Dannyboy83 · 23-01-2009 4:04pm

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen

,

I just received a telephone call from Chris Diviney, Head of European Customer Service.

I'm going to be receiving a full refund for the "damages" of which I was wrongfully accused.
I'm also going to be receiving complimentary voucher for my next rental due to all the drama and the stress, I think I'll donate the voucher to a charity raffle as I don't fancy renting any more cars for a while but I do appreciate the gesture nonetheless.

I want to give a massive Thank You to Boopolo for pointing out that the photographs were taken 5 days after the rental ended.
I knew I was innocent but I had started to doubt myself until the camera trick was pointed of to me and I would have had a very hard time trying to prove my innocence without that evidence.

I want to give a massive Thank You to Sharkman for providing me with Chris Diviney's details.
If I had to deal with the customer service anymore, I would have lost my mind and definitely have sued.

And lastly, I want to give a massive Thank you to Chris Diviney, the Manager of Customer Service for Hertz Europe Service Centre for personally overseeing this matter and for helping me to resolve it without having to go to court.
Chris is the reason that this issue has been resolved and that I'm not going to court.
Hertz should be grateful that they have her in management, she is a true professional and it took a huge weight off my mind when I was speaking with her because she was completely fair and at no stage condescending or dismissive.

I made my point clear to Chris that the primary reason I chose Hertz was to avoid this type of drama as I had been warned by friends and family in Lithuania about the dangers of this thing.

Lastly and above all, I want to thank all of the readers and contributors who have read this journey and supported me along the way.
This journal on boards.ie and all of you who contributed here had the main impact in ensuring Justice was served.

I'm glad I can finally put this thing to bed.
Before I finish, I want to say:
1. If you rent a car, be certain that you have Zero excess, I had (expensive) daily insurance on the car which was bypassed completely.
To be honest, it should be mandatory with any car rental.
Even though I've never been in a car accident, I'll never again leave myself exposed like that. There is just as much risk "off" the road, as there is on the road;).

2. If you rent a car, ensure there is an agent or representative present at the desk and ready to inspect the car and sign off on it before you return it. Otherwise, you are completely vulnerable to exploitation.

3. Take pictures/film of the car and fuel guage before you return it.

4. Don't underestimate the power of the internet

Our man in Havana · 23-01-2009 4:08pm

Well done and fair play to hertz ireland for resolving the matter.

Mr E · 23-01-2009 4:10pm

Well done.... perseverance paid off, and if anyone googles Hertz Lithuania, they'll find this thread. Job well done! Great result.

mimmi · 26-01-2009 6:38pm

Just read this whole thread - what an eye opener. As an occasssional car renter, I assume I have been lucky but then I have only hired in the UK and US.

No fear, next time - who ever I book with, I will take onboard all the advise from this thread.

Greenman · 26-01-2009 9:15pm

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

1. If you rent a car, be certain that you have Zero excess, I had (expensive) daily insurance on the car which was bypassed completely.
To be honest, it should be mandatory with any car rental.
Even though I've never been in a car accident, I'll never again leave myself exposed like that.

Well done, you were like a dog with a bone, I'm the same.

This Zero excess, what is the cost per day?

Thanks.

Davy · 26-01-2009 9:20pm

Greenman wrote: »

Well done, you were like a dog with a bone, I'm the same.

This Zero excess, what is the cost per day?

Thanks.

this might be of interest to some people.

http://carhireexcess.com/ from €2.99 a day or €59.99 for an annual policy

Dannyboy83 · 03-02-2009 3:56pm

Just a quick update to this.

Last week I received a letter informing me I would receive
- a $100 voucher
- full refund of the damage charges

Enclosed in the letter was a $50 voucher

As of yet however, there has been no refund to my credit card.

Does anyone know how long these things generally take?

Dannyboy83 · 03-02-2009 3:58pm

Greenman wrote: »

Well done, you were like a dog with a bone, I'm the same.

This Zero excess, what is the cost per day?

Thanks.

If I recall correctly, the Zero excess costs 16 Euro per day.
This is for a cheaper rental of course.

If you rent an expensive vehicle, your looking at upward of 25Euro per day I would guess.

Rent a car at Kaunas is 73 Euro per day
So for 7 days, it is 416 Euro
Pay the Zero excess (Super Collision Damage Waiver) and it costs E566.92
So the zero excess costs 150.92 for 7 days or 21.56 per day on an Opel Astra

Paulw · 03-02-2009 4:00pm

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

As of yet however, there has been no refund to my credit card.

Does anyone know how long these things generally take?

As far as I know, a refund to a credit card takes 3-5 days.

Dannyboy83 · 03-02-2009 4:12pm

davton wrote: »

this might be of interest to some people.

http://carhireexcess.com/ from €2.99 a day or €59.99 for an annual policy

Wow!!
E3 per day, Hertz charge 700% more than that per day!?

That is amazing

Have you used this service?

Nightmare with Hertz - can anyone help?

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