I'm clearing out the deadwood from my COT. So, with my chopper in hand...
I'm clearing out the deadwood from my COT. So, with my chopper in hand...
Member since:12.06.2002
Reviews:544
Members who trust:299
Usually, when I fly to Belgium or Germany with Ryanair I rent a car from HERTZ. As a customer of Ryanair you are entitled to preferential rates but I don't go down that road. I don't hire directly from Hertz either but use a consolidator's website, which is: http://www.carhire4less.co.uk/ They will quote prices for Alamo, Budget, Europcar and Hertz and they are generally around 10-15% less expensive than any other source.
So much for the booking advice, what I want to discuss here is my most recent experience with Hertz.
As anyone who has been paying attention will know, My wife and I travelled to Poland and Slovakia in May/June and we did so in a car hired from Hertz. Not all hire companies will allow you to travel to Eastern Europe in their vehicles and indeed Hertz won't allow you to go there with certain makes, for example: Volkswagon, Audi, BMW and Mercedes. The risk of theft is higher with these makes apparently. We informed them of our
travel plans and we were all set to go.
OR SO WE THOUGHT.
I have hired from them many times and have had no problems whatsoever. My only complaint previously was being billed twice. (When hiring through carhire4less, you pay them directly and are given a voucher. Any extra charges being payable directly to Hertz.) However this was resolved very quickly and with no fuss.
Anyway, back to this experience.
We had booked our car in the usual way around four weeks before our journey and promptly gave it not another thought. When we landed at Hahn we adopted our standard 'hit the ground running' procedure. Mrs P. waiting patiently at baggage reclaim to find out if our luggage is joining us, while I nash through to the car hire desk, do the paperwork and hopefully we are on our way in no time flat.
So, there I am, nonchalantly strolling up to the Hertz desk. I give them a big cheesy grin and say, "Hallo, Ich haben eine reservieru ng. Mein name ist Herr Proxam." "Ah, Mr. Proxam, we have a problem." Although he said this in English it actually translates to YOU have a problem. "We don't have a car for you. You must go to Franfurt Main airport to pick up your car. It is because it is the Memorial Day holiday." Now there are two things wrong with this scenario.
1/ This was May 23rd and MD was the 27th.
2/ Unless we boarded the wrong plane, we were in Germany, where MD is not a holiday, and were not the USA - where it is.
Not being one to complain, at least not in a foreign language, I waited for Mrs P to struggle and stagger through with our luggage before engaging the Hertz staff in a full and frank exchange of views.
They wouldn't budge, they had NO cars. We could wait for someone to return a car or take the bus to Franfurt Main. We tried the other car hire firms in the airport but no-one had anything available, so it was going to have to be Franfurt. But not on the bus.
We moseyed up to the first taxi we saw and asked if he would take us to Franfurt airport. "Do you know how far it is?" he asked. "What is this? a quiz?" I retorted - well, what I said was actually more like, "No I don't." Anyway, the upshot is that it is around 80 miles from Hahn so the taxi fare was going to be on the hefty side of substantial. In fact it came to €150 or $150 or 100 of your British quids. Luckily I had a wallet stuffed full of the necessaries. Great start to a holiday.
** Mrs P told me to give the driver a good tip so I told him not to hire a car from Hertz.
All in all it was not too bad. We had to drive through Franfurt anyway so we weren't going out of our way. We hadn't lost any time, I had saved myself the effort of driving to and through Franfurt and we had saved a couple of Euros on fuel. So you could s ay it was a blessing in disguise...you could say that but only if you weren't paying attention. Remember the 100 squidsos for the taxi?
"No treats for you then Mrs P," I said, "like food." She liked that, her smile was as wide as the eye of a needle and twice as warm. Thankfully the bruises are fading now. We managed fine for money though, thanks to those suckers at Visa and Mastercard.
** BTW they had hundreds of cars at Frankfurt Main with no-one to hire them. An excellent example of good forward planning.
___________________________________________
And that draws a line under that part of the review.
In September Mrs P and myself will be returning to Hahn airport and the plan would normally be to hire a car with Hertz again. Should we? Will there BE a car? Is it going to be less expensive just to take a taxi from Edinburgh and be done with it? Will they reimburse me for the taxi fare? Will I stop asking questions? Will this review never end? For the answer to these and many more of life's little riddles, tune in to the next instalment.
--------------------- PART 2 - I'll be back ----------------------
On our return home, I wrote to Hertz and explained what had happened. They asked me to send them details of my hire and any receipts pertaining to it - which I did. It took a few weeks, but without much further ado, I received a cheque which covered the taxi fare. Whoohoo!!! Tonight we eat!
I thought a little extra to cover the annoyance and inconvenience factor would be nice, maybe even an apology, but I'm reasonably satisfied with getting the taxi fare back.
Overall, I thought the staff at Hahn airport were disgraceful. Their attitude was shocking. They knew they had cars hired out, so why not make sure there were vehicles on hand to cover this. It's not rocket science.
Because we were compensated with no hassles, it would be churlish of us not to use Hertz again. But make no mistake, this time if there is no car, someone is going to be VERY sorry.....probably me.
-------------------------- Part 3 - the second leg --------------------------
We flew to Hahn on August 31 and optimistically booked a car through Hertz. This time there was no problem. The NEW staff were very pleasant and professional and couldn't have been more helpful. In fact I was given a free upgrade and we drove off in a sporty little Alpha Romeo.....NICE. What a difference.
FOOTNOTE: The title sounds a lot more clever here in Scotland as hearts is actually pronounced herts. No, you're right, it doesn't sound clever.
The ratings below apply to the first part of the review. the recent hire in Aug/Sept '02 was very satisfactory.
I found that the last time i rented a car from Hertz at Alicante airport in Spian the staff were incredibly slow, and they charged us twice for our excess, but refused to at least look into it. I think Hertz should try and brush up on their customer service skills especially when the chips are down in a recession.
sue.51 01.01.2005 23:30
I probably would haved thought twice about booking them if I had read this first, still at least you got the taxi fair back, but I just hate companies who refuse to say sorry.
Sue
thespurs 28.11.2004 13:30
nice review. not ever had to rent a car before and hertz sound reasonable
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Record Rent a Car is present in the main spanish airports and has a very wide fleet. We offer: exceptional discounts, free additional drivers,
unlimited mileage... subscribe to our Club Record and take advantage of special offers.
Advantages: Excellent prepaid rates, nice car, helpful staff Disadvantages: Confusion over discount rates, high excess if you don't pay the waiver charge
sue.51 30.12.2004 (31.12.2004)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Hertz
Advantages: Excellent prepaid rates, nice car, helpful staff Disadvantages: Confusion over discount rates, high excess if you don't pay the waiver charge
sue.51 30.12.2004 (31.12.2004)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Hertz
exceptional by (3%):
very helpful by (95%):
helpful by (3%):
