Hertz advertises they must have state compliant car seats at all locations in their Child Seat Policy, stating: “Hertz offers a range of child safety seats that are suitable for babies and children at ALL of our rental car locations ... Hertz voluntarily complies with any state law which requires a child seat for a rental.” and “You may choose from the infant, child, or booster seats depending on the age and size of your child. Our seats are newer, safe, clean and disinfected.” Due to this, we did not check car seats for our one year old or four year old. When we arrived, I told the employee we needed car seats for our children. I was informed by the employee that he didn’t think they had car seats that would work for our children. He called his coworker and requested he ensure “there weren’t any spiderwebs or spiders” on the car seats they had stored and to bring them all down for us to look at. We were shown 2 infant car seats, a backless booster and a dismantled booster missing a base. One of the infant car seats did not have an anchor strap and had a manufacture date of 2014 (4 years past expiration), and the other didn’t have an absorber. Due to the lack of options, we took the backless booster for our 4 year old, who is only 35 pounds and 36 inches tall, and the expired infant car seat. I told the employee the website advertises all locations have state compliant car seats and they should look into getting non expired and complete car seats for all ages, because it was unsafe for our children to be in these seats. The employee told me the manager would be on duty when we returned the rental and to bring up our concerns with him. He was very nice and understanding, but we were still charged a fee for the infant car seat even though it was expired and missing an anchor strap. This is not my biggest complaint as it’s just monetary and my biggest concern is safety, but I do believe it’s worth mentioning. When we left, we immediately bought a car seat for our four year old and used the seat belt strap in the car on the infant car seat to maintain safety as the base couldn’t be properly anchored to the seat. When we returned the car on 9/3, my husband spoke to the manager, Freddie Roberts, and expressed our concerns. My husband also requested we be reimbursed for purchasing the car seat (we retained the receipt and left the car seat it in the car so they would have the car seat), and Mr. Roberts said he would not reimburse us for the seat and “you chose to take the seats”. He did waive the car seat rental fee, but his only comment on our concerns for the safety of our children and others who may attempt to rent car seats from the branch was “that’s all I had at the time”. We ended up retrieving the car seat we purchased and checking it so it could be sent back home with us following the conversation with the manager. This isn’t a monetary complaint as my concern isn’t reimbursement, but one to bring to light false advertising and a massive safety concern for the wellbeing of children. Our concerns were dismissed by the branch, and the corporate office is impossible to get ahold of via phone. I spoke with a representative for the company who told me they would forward the claim to corporate but would not provide me with a phone number to speak to a corporate representative and instead provided an email. I explained that I don’t have concerns about our bill but instead have concerns about the policy and safety violations and dismissiveness of staff. We also contacted the Nebraska Department of Transportation and filed a report following this interaction.
Front Desk Staff Member was polite and helpful.
Added a credit card "franchise fee" of $250 on my credit card even though I paid for the entire rental 2 months in advance and Hertz had my money. It was later removed from my credit card. Agent had no idea of what I purchased regarding insurance plan because it was an internet purchase. He was basically clueless!! Will never go back to this Hertz again and will rethink ever using hertz again. There are MANY other rental car agencies available! Painful experience!!!!!
Cons:
Be transparent about rates and charges.