If you are renting a car abroad then check your travel insurance as it may cover any excesses. The one I just bought for the UK covers up to $5000 excess so exceeds the CDW. Of course I always do a once around the car with the phone before and after rental which I am sure everyone does these days
A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
11–20 of 72 posts
Re: A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
#12Classic MBA scam. Hertz dont own the cars outright, they borrow money to pay for them. So they have an interest in driving down the value of the cars so they can refinance at lower costs. Then, on the income side, they'll be gouging customers for fees to cover damage (or take out curiously expensive damage insurance). It's a continual shakedown and I imagine there were high fives all around when the Finance intern came up with the idea.
Of course, Hertz has been a dumpster fire of a business for the last five years. Burning billions on electric vehicles, torching the share price, switching CEOs, not to mention falsely accsuing customers of theft. Maybe best to stay away from them for a bit.
Re: A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
#13This is being framed all dystopian, but I'm not so pessimistic.
The current process is ridiculous - a random teenager in a vest with 15 minutes of training inspects the car when you check it out, and then you get a former drill sergeant when you check it back in. The current process is no less fair and Hertz is no less evil - but in this case its at least impartial and the scans are transparently available.
Re: A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
#14The Hertz from this article is a company you should never do business with, unless you like getting falsely accused of a felony, arrested, and imprisoned for no reason: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa... I personally use other companies when I rent a car... but I'm also paranoid about the kind of nonsense described in the article, so I just buy the damage coverage when I rent the car. It…
All three times I’ve attempted to use hertz since 2021, I’ve shown up with a reservation only to be told they have no cars. Their overbooking policy appears to be “yes”. Even without this bullshit they aren’t worth touching.
I don’t think they even know what a reservation is!
Re: A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
#15An act of civil disobedience that I absolutely wouldn't condone might be causing significant damage in the parking lot before you get to the outbound scanner, or after you pass through the inbound scanner.
How would they handle that?
Re: A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
#16The past two times I rented a car, I later received a bill from the rental company for supposedly unpaid tolls (plus fees) that I had most definitely paid.
Renting a car with any liability exposure is a recipe for frustration. As far as I'm concerned, these scans mean that one will be billed if they legally can be. Regardless of actually accruing damage.
Re: A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
#17The Hertz from this article is a company you should never do business with, unless you like getting falsely accused of a felony, arrested, and imprisoned for no reason: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa... I personally use other companies when I rent a car... but I'm also paranoid about the kind of nonsense described in the article, so I just buy the damage coverage when I rent the car. It…
I've always been told while renting a car that any dent/ding smaller than a golf ball was considered wear and tear, and I've never had a problem over at least 50 car rentals.
However, I've always noticed that Hertz is very dependent on the particular branch you rent from, and I generally avoid them unless I have met the general manager for the location and gotten to know them. In that case, it's been the _best_ company I've used. Otherwise, I stay far, far away. Enterprise seems more consistent.
Re: A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
#18This will obviously settle down into something reasonable over time, it’s as bad as it will be right now. Renting cars is a competitive business and to the extent it isn’t (mostly via the chokepoint of airport parking garage leases), that's always been true.
(Of course, NYT writing an article and people being mad is part of that settling to reasonableness process)
Re: A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
#19The Hertz from this article is a company you should never do business with, unless you like getting falsely accused of a felony, arrested, and imprisoned for no reason: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa... I personally use other companies when I rent a car... but I'm also paranoid about the kind of nonsense described in the article, so I just buy the damage coverage when I rent the car. It…
I've always been told while renting a car that any dent/ding smaller than a golf ball was considered wear and tear, and I've never had a problem over at least 50 car rentals. However, I've always noticed that Hertz is very dependent on the particular branch you rent from, and I generally avoid them unless I have met the general manager for the location and gotten to know them. In that case, it's been the _best_ compa…
I wonder if Hertz will someday pivot into making donuts at this rate.
Re: A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car
#20Lest there remained any question as to whether one should do business with Hertz...
Remember when they were a prestige brand?