Hertz Rent-a-Car

Recently in Spain, I hired a car from Hertz at the Airport. It was a brand new car - only 25km on the clock. I returned the car 6 days later (about 450 km on the clock), and I verified that there was absolutely no damage to the car. Sadly for me, the Hertz lady on duty at the Return Desk was rather unpleasant, did not want to be polite or pleasant to customers, and did not want to speak English. She was also dealing with other customers at the time, and I did not get a chance to ask her how to return the keys. So, I dropped the keys and documents into a box which was marked for that purpose, and went off to check in for my flight.

Surprise, surprise, I was amazed to find on my return to the UK, a charge for €350 on my invoice. I was told, upon querying this charge that I had 'crashed' the car.

It seems that Hertz can inspect a returned vehicle, decide it's been damaged, and levy a charge on you for this damage. There seems to be no onus of proof on them, it's almost as if they get to define 'damage', and the appropriate cost.

In my case, the vehicle was actually kept overnight in a locked Hotel Garage, and it was never left in a place where it could be damaged by other motorists or passes-by. Certainly, there was no 'crash'. I inspected the car when I dropped it back to the airport, and I took photos. There was no damage whatsoever to the car - the only marks on the paintwork were rain marks, which even if I were liable, would not cost €350 to clean. This fact was also verifed by a second person who inspected the car with me

I think this is shoddy practice by a disreputable company. I am writing to Hertz to complain, and to ask for my money back. If they resist, I will ask for evidence that the car was damaged - we'll see if their photos tally with mine, I want a written estimate for any alleged damage (the car was dropped back Saturday morning, the charge was levied Monday morning). Nice to see that Spanish Repair shops can move so fast. I am pretty confident that a Small Claims Court will rule in my favour, as my evidence that the car was not in the least bit damaged is quite conclusive

Like I say, it seems that Hertz get to define 'damage', and they seem quite liberal with this definition. To their advantage, not surprisingly. Something about the Hertz rep's demeanour when I picked the car up made me wary. I had been asked if I wanted to take out additional insurance (costing over £70) to cover me for accidental damage, etc. I declined, and then was warned that any damage would incur an 'excess'. This is why I was so careful to check the car every day for damage, and to ensure that it was safe at all times.

Please be aware of this scam, and I would urge you to avoid Hertz like the plague. Their service is bad anyway, the staff are very slow, and not at all friendly or polite. The headline Rental Charges are not really what they want to you pay, once they get hold of your Credit Card details, they try to stiff you for as much as possible, even if this extends to inventing damage for which they can charge you.

Please let me know if you have had similar experiences with car rental, and how you got on. I'll keep posting details of my dealings with Hertz until I am successful in reclaiming all of my money, plus interest and expenses if they want to fight it out in court.