So maybe not all their fault b ut fed upp all the same. Had to fly my wife and kids back to the UK two weeks ago on a family emergency and at short notice. Booked a hire car through Hertz, rang and agreed a price for all the cover we needed and pre paid to get the best price – some 250GBP for 10 days hire – my wife – admittidley not a seasoned traveller (and after 18 hours travelling alone with three kids) collected the car and signed the collectin form, okay she thought car suits and all that. Today I get a bill today for an additional 400GBP for additional costs, extra insurance, personal liabilty coverm, tyre cover, glass cover the whole flipping heap ,ffs i could insure a car for a whole year for 400pounds.
Now wife more upset and not in good form anyway she says she thought she just signed for what was on the prepaid agreement (that I arranged).. I know its partly my fault for not explaining it all to her, she is annoyed and I’m thinking i should just get onto Hertz and fire a few choice words into them along the lines of misselling and letting them now my general displeasure.

A ny ideas how this will go? Should i take a breath and ring them with calm head on and try to wing my way out of some of the charges, hoping I get through to someone in authority and willing to listen to my predicament? Or should I just go in all guns blazing, knowing that the wife did sign for the extras, that Hertz are in their right to charge me, but at least I will get a chance to vent my spleen at them?

Ta

1/10

Sorry your chances of getting your money back is zero. You signed the contract I’m afraid and there’s not much you can do.

Whatever you do don’t blame the wife – sounds like she was seriously stressed at the time.

I’d put it down it a learning experience. I’ve hired cars many times before and you cannot ask enough times about additional costs – it’s the way the hire companies make money. You have been a little naieve (sorry to be blunt) to think that you were going to get all in 10days hire for £250

contact hertz and threaten to post all about the experience on a forum with 10’s of thousands of visitors if they don’t play ball.

Yeah I know, hence the reason to vent on STW rather than the wife. Though my #1 reason for prebooking the deal and speaking to a human being when I booked it was so that I knew exatly what I was going to pay (ie the basic insurance, the airport location premium, local taxes, etc) even to the point of refusing the extra stuff (full insurance, GPS) when making the booking so not to leave those decisions to the wife when she picked up the car.

To top if off I know have a Hertz banner ad at the top of my STW page..

That sucks. I know they actually ask me every time if I want any of those extras at Enterprise. And they’re added onto the invoice when I collect the car if I take anything. And you have to sign specifically to say you’ve declined the extra insurance.

I’d guess after a long haul flight your wife probably zoned out, understandably so. If there’s evidence of what you booked and on the receipt/collection note there’s no signature on the extras it might be worth a shot.

Yeah, I knew from experience they would try the selling tact at the point of collection and tried to avoid this very situation by having it all prearranged and prebooked. I have raised it formally (and politely) with Hertz and they have promised to look into it, my only hope now is the lack of signed reciept, though I reckon they will have it somewhere. Failing that I will just have to suck it up but will make sure they understand my annoyance, not that it will help but I will feel better anyway.

It’s not much use to you but thanks for the heads up as it’s definaely something I will look out for, just looking at getting a hire car at the moment.

Also Google have started to use your search history to tailor web adverts such as the sponsored ones on this site. If you had been looking at other products the banners would change to those.

Where was this? The US?

They screw you over for stuff like that there.. but there is actually a reason why it’s like that.

It was booked in the US for travel to the UK, so yes I am well used to the ticket price never reflecting the price you pay, hence my (failed) attempt to agree it all up front. I am going to persevere with Hertz more out of principle than anything else

In the US quoted prices are without insurance other than some basic legal minimum third party thing, and full insurance costs as much as the rental typically. However the reason for this is that most US people’s own insurance covers them for driving any car, so they can just use that and they don’t need the additional stuff. As tourists we don’t have this luxury so we either need to cough up OR buy supplemental insurance from http://www.insurance4carhire.com which is something like £99 for the whole year and is hence a massive saving over the car hire company’s cover even if you only rent for a few days!