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Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

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Re: Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

#71
post #58
post #48

Aside from charging to put gas in an EV, the amounts they are charging seem really high. How could filling a sedan with gas cost $200 to $400? That’s like 10x what the actual gas costs retail at the pump.

You're paying for convenience. The deal they make with you up front is that you get to not worry about the tank, but in return you pay a super inflated rate for the gas. Plus you pay for a full tank, even if you return it at 3/4 and it only takes a few gallons to fill it. I get that some people just don't have the time (or executive function?) to deal with refilling before return on some trips, or they're so rich tha…

A lot of car rentals go on a corporate tab. When high-impact employees are traveling, their time is very valuable. An extra 20 minutes for the employee to spend with the customer on the last day could easily be worth $150 to their employer. Some businesses are happy to pay inflated prices for gas just in case their employee needs that extra 20 minutes onsite before returning to the airport.

Re: Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

#72
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was too busy to fight it off, initially called my CC and put stop on charges. Eventually they got my money.

This is a huge feature of CCs that most people don't recognize. You're paying an extra ~3% to credit card companies in exchange for the ability to dispute a charge. If a merchant (in this case Hertz) accepted cash, you would get an invoice in your hand that you could dispute on the spot and just simply not pay. The reverse would be true for Hertz who could try to sue you for not complying.

If you refuse to pay they're probably going to send you to collections…

Re: Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

#74
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be worse - Hertz falsely accused hundreds of people of stealing cars which lead to felonies, arrests and jail time. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa...

Something like this happened to me - I'd rented one of their cars with no return date because I hadn't fully planned out a multi-week trip in the eastern USA. The staff member said this was fine; they'd put in a return date of a week or two and then keep pushing it back. Five weeks later I returned the car and flew back home to Australia. Found letters that had been posted saying that the car hadn't been returned and…

For some of these cases, it was arguably worse. It turns out that when Hertz gets back a vehicle they'd reported as stolen, they might "forget" to tell the cops that.

They'd rented a car for a fixed period, and were arrested and jailed for driving a stolen vehicle. They've shown police the lease agreement from Hertz showing they were authorised to drive the vehicle but police either couldn't or wouldn't verify the information with Hertz.

If being arrested and jailed for this wasn't bad enough, in some cases Hertz managers were slow to respond to police requests for information - so people have sat in jail for extended periods.

Re: Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember, back in the last century, a TV station did a test, where they went to a whole bunch of supermarkets, and brought stuff. Some was on sale, some was not. What they found, was that every (100%) error in price went to the favor of the company. Not one single error was in favor of the customer. Often, the stores were good about correcting the error, but the cashier could never do it. They always had to go to t…

At least locally pricing errors are always decided in favor of the customer. Of course you have to notice it but you're always entitled to the lowest advertised price on any item.

I think you are misunderstanding the comment you replied to. They are saying that whenever a customer at a grocery store checkout was charged an incorrect price, the price was always higher than the advertised price, never lower.

Yes, customers that notice it can have it corrected to the accurate, lower price. But the problem is that whenever there were "whoopsies", it's hard to just believe it was just a bug or well-intentioned mistake when there were never mistakes that would have resulted in a lower price.

Re: Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

#76
post #62

As much as services like Turo and Getaround have their own gotchas[0], this sort of thing is why I try to use them instead of the legacy car rental companies, when possible. I've had nothing but good experiences with Turo (15 or so rentals, ranging from a single day to a 2-week rental). With the legacy rental companies, the best experiences are barely mediocre. [0] One big one is that credit cards that offer insuranc…

Turo is famous for scam fake vomit cleaning fees.

Re: Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

#77

Half of the stories about billing for unused gas are clearly just theft. Why do consumers have no recourse against companies that steal from them? If I made charges to someone's card for services that weren't rendered, I'd probably go to jail.

It could be worse - Hertz falsely accused hundreds of people of stealing cars which lead to felonies, arrests and jail time. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa...

False accusations and convictions ruin people's lives. I'm not sure why these companies are not mandated to pay people's current income and expected income growth over the course of their working lives because it'll probably be hard for these people to ever find a job again.

For instance, if I make $500k today, the company should be obligated to pay me this amount every year plus additional compounding interest on that amount in order to account for inflation and expected salary growth over the remainder of my working life.

The company should be forced to put this money aside in a trust immediately so I do not have to worry about the company going bankrupt. Company resources and equity ought to be garnished, if necessary, in order to accomplish this.

It's frustrating and bizarre to me that people are allowed to ruin others' lives and then they do not have to bear the full consequences of their actions. Surely, if one is found to have ruined someone's life, the least our justice system can do is obligate them to repay in full?

Re: Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

#78
post #62

As much as services like Turo and Getaround have their own gotchas[0], this sort of thing is why I try to use them instead of the legacy car rental companies, when possible. I've had nothing but good experiences with Turo (15 or so rentals, ranging from a single day to a 2-week rental). With the legacy rental companies, the best experiences are barely mediocre. [0] One big one is that credit cards that offer insuranc…

I just found the Turo first time, and the prices seems to be like 4 times more? At least if you rent longer durations.

Re: Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

#79
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be worse - Hertz falsely accused hundreds of people of stealing cars which lead to felonies, arrests and jail time. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa...

False accusations and convictions ruin people's lives. I'm not sure why these companies are not mandated to pay people's current income and expected income growth over the course of their working lives because it'll probably be hard for these people to ever find a job again. For instance, if I make $500k today, the company should be obligated to pay me this amount every year plus additional compounding interest on th…

Lol, fat chance

Re: Hertz Charging a Tesla Renter for Gas Was Not an Isolated Incident

#80
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small claims court. Just depends on your time value of money. Or willingness to screw with them for gigs.

I'd love to see a campaign to coordinate small claims court claims against abusive companies. It could really fuck a company's day up if several hundred to thousand people across the world decides to seek redress from a small claims court on the same day.

I'd be down to help build a service like this.
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