Hertz

Sorry, long message below:
I recently booked a 5 day Hertz rental out of Boston Logan Airport from Expedia. (I could not access my gold plus account on line because my account was incorrectly linked to a Dollar account.) When I arrived at the rental counter, there were 3 agents working, none with name tags. It was the afternoon of a holiday, and the building was busy. I observed a Hertz employee arrive to a work station and state to another employee that she just wanted to go home. I did not blame her. I have worked in service positions my entire life and always disliked working holidays.

When it was my turn at the counter, this unhappy-to-be-working employee greeted me and asked for my info. She then asked for the credit card used to make the reservation. Unfortunately, I did not have this card with me as I take only a bare minimum when traveling. I asked if I could use a different credit card (the one linked to my gold club account) and she told me I could not. She told me since I booked thorough a 3rd party, I need to speak with them to resolve the issue and the told me to move away from her work station so she could help other customers. I was dismayed at how little assistance she was offering and how rude she was being to me. I was traveling with my children and although they are not young, they were dependent on me (as I was) in obtaining our prepaid, reserved vehicle.

So, I did step out of the line to call Expedia. The agent who took my call was very kind and set about trying to correct the situation. He informed me that Expedia could not change the form of payment since they only take the reservation, and not receive payment for it. He stated that Hertz would have to change the form of payment and it shouldn't be a problem. I believed the Expedia agent and got back in the rental line. Unfortunately, when it was my turn, I got the same unhelpful agent as before. She again refused to help me and stated that she could not change the form of payment and told me she couldn't help me. She again told me to step away from her line. She offered no suggestions how to resolve it and argued with me that Hertz wasn't responsible for the payment. I agreed that it was my fault for not having the proper card with me, but stated I couldn't understand why I couldn't change the form of payment with proper identification. I wasn't refusing to pay. I had identification and a Visa with me.

As I had remained on the phone with the Expedia agent this entire time, he overheard the exchange and was willing to even speak to her directly, but she refused. I stepped out of the line again and continued to talk with the Expedia agent. He was as appalled as I was at the lack of help I was receiving and placed me on hold to call Hertz corporate line directly. After a long wait, he came back to the call with me and said he had never dealt with a rental company who refused to honor their reservation for form of payment change before and was informed by Hertz customer service that I would need to cancel the current reservation, pay a $100 penalty for doing such, and then pay walk up price for a new rental. We were both shocked by this! I then stood in line at 4 other agencies' rental counters to inquire about a walk up rental, but each told me they were sold out.

I admit that at this point, I began to cry. I do not like to fly and the day was already stressful. I thought I had reduced potential problems prior to traveling by reserving ahead of time and now Hertz agents were refusing to help me obtain the vehicle I had already reserved. I had a vehicle, but I just wasn't allowed to use it.

The Expedia agent cancelled the reservation for me, I was charged the $100 cancellation fee and I got back in line at Hertz. I knew they should have a vehicle available because I had just cancelled the one reserved for me.

In the meantime, my daughter spoke with an agent at a rival agency counter and was informed that they did have a car available, but that agent suggested to us that we speak with the manager at Hertz because she stated that her company (Thrifty) would allow to change the payment or offer a discount in some way to make up for the problem. Essentially, Thrifty would try to help me.

Back in the Hertz line, I got in front of a different counter agent and explained that I had not been able to pick up my reservation and had cancelled it but now wanted to obtain a new, walk up rental. I told her what the Thrifty agent said and asked for the manager. This Hertz agent stated that there was no manager available. I began to raise my voice because at this point, I had been trying to rent a vehicle from Hertz for 90 minutes and really just wanted to leave and not deal with rude Hertz counter agents.

The counter agent got another person (not dressed in Hertz clothing) to come to the counter and the first (who wanted to go home) agent for some reason got involved and began to explain to her (the non Hertz employee) what the issue was. I told the non-Hertz employee that all of that didn't matter and I didn't need the previously unhelpful agent's assistance to talk. I just wanted to rent a car. The non Hertz employee walked me to the Thrifty counter, where the helpful agent there (the same who had suggested I speak with a Hertz manager) rented me a vehicle at full walk up price which was double what I reserved.

So instead of a Hertz vehicle at approximately $300+, I paid over $600 In addition to a $100 penalty. I also paid in an hour and a half of wasted time and unfortunately, I cried in public in front of my children.

In summary, the agents at Enterprise, Budget, Avis and Thrifty attempted to help me and were kind to me even though they were not receiving any business from me. The phone agent at Expedia was super helpful and was shocked that a company that they contract with would be so unhelpful. He was actually worried that I would stop doing business with Expedia because of the experience, and the fault was in no way Expedia's. I admit I made a mistake by not bringing my credit card with me. But the Hertz agents were not helpful, were repeatedly rude and your company's apparent policy of disallowing form of payment really makes no sense in a technological age.

I am horrified that I essentially had to pay and extra $400+ to rent a car from Thrify because of Hertz employees and policies and I already canceled my gold reward account.

I will be telling everyone I know and posting on social media sites about the horrible customer service provided to be my Hertz and the Hertz counter at Logan airport.