Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thedrive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 210 posts

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

#131

Post by mendelmaleh »

gdudeman wrote: post #124
coleca wrote: post #89

Hadn’t rented from Hertz in many years until last week. Made sure to fill the tank back up as high as it would go just in case. Get thru security at the airport and already had a $26 charge for fuel. Still working on getting this fixed. Funny how they can charge within 5-7 minutes but they take 5-7 business days to process a refund.

I recommend disputing the charge with your credit card. My credit card refunded my Hertz bill in under five minutes of clicking online.

If they did a chargeback, Hertz might dispute it, send you collection letters and terminate your account.

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

#132

Post by Larrikin »

jerbear4328 wrote: post #118
xvector wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Wouldn't that incentivize people to try to get companies to "ruin their lives"? If someone had a way to get a well paying income, then get a big company to do the bare minimum that counts as "ruining their lives", they live the rest of their lives comfortably without having to get a job. I think that, in theory, compensating people for life-ruining is obviously the right thing to do. The issue is that it relies on pe…

This line of thinking just sounds like being afraid of the mythical welfare queen and other policies enacted to protect wealth for rare occurrences.

It sounds good to make all these measures to make sure the scummiest people can't do their scams but most of the time you end up punishing people who need the protection the most by locking them out of the protection for not being able to legally navigate all the box checking.

Punish scammers harshly when caught, make it some exponential number of any profit gained, and open them up to audits in the past to figure out that exponential number. Opening it up to criminal liability and elimination of certain settlements without admitting guilt seem like it might help too.

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

#133

Post by brailsafe »

SoftTalker wrote: post #92

When people suggest owning an EV for daily use and renting a gas car for occasional long trips, this is exactly why that's not a attractive idea for most people. Even in the best case scenario, renting a car is a time-consuming hassle and you have to navigate high pressure tactics on buying upgrades, fuel, insurance, etc.

I don't own any car and exclusively rent from one of a few companies (probably all owned by Hertz). I've heard a lot of horror stories, but really haven't ever run into a problem, to such an extent that buying another car has not crossed my mind in any serious way in the last 6 years since my last one died. So anecdotally, I'd highly recommend this, because owning a car is a massive pain in the ass logistically and financially, and I'm happy to not have one. Sometimes (maybe one rare time every two years) I need a rental for the same short time on a weekend that everyone else does, and that's a bit inconvenient, but couldn't bother to care so much.

The only thing I'm relatively cautious with is suspiciously high deposits/credit authorizations.

When I run the numbers, it would literally take years for the amount I spend renting to surpass the amount I'd spend on just the sales tax or insurance for a hypothetical viable car. It turns out that owning a car is like owning a McMansion, such that you end up inflating your lifestyle to fill the space or depend on the car.

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

#134

Post by dylan604 »

jjav wrote: post #126
dylan604 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With all of the pitch fork and torches being gathered, who is at fault to point the gather crowd to go after? Is it Hertz for accepting faulty software, or the software devs for designing such broken code and passing it off as production ready? Where was this program made? How many boats will be required to ferry the gathering crowd to the offshored lands? Also, at what point do police stop accepting "stolen" car rep…

> who is at fault to point the gather crowd to go after? Ultimately I'll point the fault at the district attorney, as they are the ones who decide what is prosecuted and what is not. They take unsubstantiated allegations from hertz and put people to jail, but at the same time don't lift a finger to prosecute the clearly guilty corporations for fraud. So yes, while mistakes are made all around, the ultimate guilty par…

Have there been any convictions in any of these false cases due to poorly written software? I get being arrested and detained in jail for any length of time is total bullshit. Unless these people cannot post bail after being arraigned, that should be the end of it. Once a defense attorney challenges the case, the DA should be dropping charges. If the DA continues to prosecute, what jury is convicting? So this "going to jail" sounds like it's getting conflated from held until arraignment versus serving time after being found guilty

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

#135

Post by lolinder »

gdudeman wrote: post #124
coleca wrote: post #89

Hadn’t rented from Hertz in many years until last week. Made sure to fill the tank back up as high as it would go just in case. Get thru security at the airport and already had a $26 charge for fuel. Still working on getting this fixed. Funny how they can charge within 5-7 minutes but they take 5-7 business days to process a refund.

I recommend disputing the charge with your credit card. My credit card refunded my Hertz bill in under five minutes of clicking online.

This is probably important context to include when you make this recommendation (from your other comment):

> Ultimately they sent me a bill for the cost of the rental minus the gas and threatened to take me to collections if I didn't pay it.

This is the always-necessary reminder that credit card chargebacks do not in fact relieve you of the duty to pay for services that you did receive. A chargeback may be necessary to get the merchant's attention, but you do need to be careful to actually pay them the correct amount in the end.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40412246

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

#136

Post by WWLink »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #75
saagarjha wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My favorite is the new "digital coupon" version where just having the loyalty card isn't enough - you also have to have the app, add the coupon to your account, and HOPEFULLY by the time you reach the register that coupon has "posted" and the register applies it for you lol.

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

#137

Post by lolinder »

mendelmaleh wrote: post #131
gdudeman wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend disputing the charge with your credit card. My credit card refunded my Hertz bill in under five minutes of clicking online.

If they did a chargeback, Hertz might dispute it, send you collection letters and terminate your account.

It's funny you should say that, because OP actually tells a more complete version of the story here [0]. Hertz did send them a new bill with a threat to send it to collections if it weren't paid.

Maybe still a win in the end because the incorrect charge was removed, but I get really uncomfortable with how casually people recommend chargebacks on this forum. They're not intended to get you out of charges that the other party can prove you did agree to pay.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40412246

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

#138

Post by throwup238 »

kevinob11 wrote: post #130
DangitBobby wrote: post #2

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.

I wonder about this constantly. Why is there such a legal power imbalance between people and companies, especially large companies? If a company wants to charge me extra they just do it, they don't have to provide proof of anything. If I want to resolve the issue I have to call them or my credit card company, neither is simple and has something like a 75% chance of being successful (IME) even if I'm completely right.…

> I've long thought the only solution to these issues is to levy fines (or jail time if intentional theft) large enough to discourage the behavior. If it is still happening, keep raising the fines until it stops.

We need a corporate death penalty and three strike laws - where three is scaled to the customer base or total monetary damages or whatever. Upon death, any and all assets (including shares of the company, in case of restructuring) go to employee salaries until the company can be wound down.

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

#139

Post by exclusiv »

DangitBobby wrote: post #2

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.

IANA but I understand CLRA in California is very strong for this type of stuff.

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

#140

Post by Droobfest »

throwup238 wrote: post #138
kevinob11 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about this constantly. Why is there such a legal power imbalance between people and companies, especially large companies? If a company wants to charge me extra they just do it, they don't have to provide proof of anything. If I want to resolve the issue I have to call them or my credit card company, neither is simple and has something like a 75% chance of being successful (IME) even if I'm completely right.…

> I've long thought the only solution to these issues is to levy fines (or jail time if intentional theft) large enough to discourage the behavior. If it is still happening, keep raising the fines until it stops. We need a corporate death penalty and three strike laws - where three is scaled to the customer base or total monetary damages or whatever. Upon death, any and all assets (including shares of the company, in…

This would only give employees a giant incentive to tank the company this way…
Post reply on HN