Hertz Rent A Car

Reserved and confirmed online for minivan at 8 am on Sat before Christmas but said no minivan available when arrived. Said will get a minivan by 10:30 am. Called 10:00 am and said no minivan, will get minivan by 12:00 pm. Needed to be on the road that morning so cancelled and rented elsewhere. My lesson, do not rent from hotel branches because they are not reliable. Also, rent the day before for important trips. I like Hertz but will have to be picky on which branches I will rent from.

Had a wonderful experience at the Hertz John Wayne Airport Location. There was no wait, they honored our hotwire reservation no problem, and Aaron at the Counter had us in and out fast. Even the drop off was super fast and easy. I would rent from there over and over again.

NEVER RELY on HERTZ, I booked a mini van at this branch for a family trip and received a confirmation email from Hertz, then called 2 days ahead to make sure the car is available, then on the departure day after waiting about 15 – 20 min to speak to Hertz counter, I was told mini van is not available and they can’t provide me with any type of car on that day, and just to get rid of me they asked for my cell to call me when they found a mini van… which never happened … I couldn’t believe … all the confirmations and calls means nothing to Hertz … I never ever use hertz again…

A single employee at this branch of Hertz, inside the Newport Beach Fairmont Hotel, turned me from a Hertz customer with smoke billowing from my ears into the happiest of campers. I’d say his name but I don’t want to get him in trouble for providing such excellent service in defiance of what seems to be the Hertz m.o. I understand excellent service isn’t the Hertz way (read the reviews) however, if anyone is looking for an employee skilled in the art of customer service and customer satisfaction stop by and seek him out. I’ll just call him the «Miracle Worker».
After being lied to by Hotwire (that’s a different review, already posted), then wasting 45 minutes at the Hertz counter at John Wayne Airport due to an inept employee, then having to spend $ 10 on cab fare to this location, I was unglued by the time I approached the Miracle Worker. I threw my Hotwire confirmation paperwork his way, told him what useless employees Hertz has at the airport, and asked that he just get me my car stat and let me begin my vacation.
And here is what he did:
* He refunded me my $ 10 cab fare from the airport;
* He upgraded me from the smallest, cheapest car I’d rented through Hotwire to a full-​size car at no additional charge;
* He gave me and my fellow travelers chilled bottles of Fairmont water gratis;
* He told me I could take the Fairmont shuttle back to the airport at no charge when returning the car; and
* He personally walked my family and I to the rental car.
He did all of this promptly, professionally, and courteously. He understood what was needed in the situation and made me right. He actually helped me go on and enjoy the rest of my day. Someone should hire this man away; someone who can appreciate his skill set. Barring that, smart people who want to rent from Hertz should just show up here and skip the airport kiosk altogether. Rentals come more cheaply at off-​airport sites, there’s a free shuttle to/​from the hotel, and this employee, if you’re lucky enough to work with him, will make you leave believing that the customer really is king. That’s how it’s supposed to be, right?
Hertz is a national chain so, unfortunately, my earlier experience at Hertz’s airport kiosk colored my overall impression of the company. Despite 5-​star service from the Miracle Worker I can’t give this company 5-​stars. They seem to have problems that run rich and deep. When I returned home I had to call about additional Hertz (over)charges made to my credit card. Later, in the middle of providing feedback via Hertz’s automated phone survey I was abruptly cut-​off mid-​sentence with a «thank you for your opinions. Bye-​bye.» message. You would think that someone somewhere would listen to my complaint, realize they only heard part of it, and reach out to find out what they could do better. Nope, nada, didn’t.
Oh well. They know now.

I have never experienced such terrible customer service as I have with the Newport Beach, California (4500 MacArthur Blvd) office. Tessa was the employee that we dealt with and she was so charming and friendly so we thought we were in good hands. We were on our way to our honeymoon, camping in the desert so we asked her specifically what steps we would need to take to ensure that we return the car in proper and clean conditions so as to avoid being charged the cleaning fee. She then told us, not to worry about cleaning the car, that Hertz is very laid back with the cleaning fees. She then went on to tell us that they have had customers in the past who have returned the rental cars with dog poop in them and they never even charged for that, so a little dust from the desert would be fine. Well, needless to say, we were charged $ 250. When I called Tessa to remind her of our conversation, she remembered me and apologized for the inconvenience and stated that she would call her manager and get back to me within the week. I didn’t hear back from her ever. Finally, my husband called back many weeks later and still she remembered us and our conversation and promised him that she would get back to him. One week later, nothing from sweet Tessa. So he called back and she gave him the number of the other branch where we dropped off the car and they said they’d get back to us and, as was becoming the pattern, never did. He called Tessa back again 2 more weeks in a row with never so much as a voicemail or attempt at reaching us. Finally today, she told us there was no way we could get our money back because we signed a contract stating that if we return the car back dirty we would be fine. We only did so because she was so adamant that we should not worry about that detail. We then called the region manager Joe (at the Anaheim branch) and my husband began to explain our situation to him and he quickly cut him off and said «look you went off road with the vehicle and it’s in the contract, you’re not getting you money back» And when my husband, respectfully told him he would lose our business Joe said «It’s all good, man! No worries!» I wish I had taken the time to read the reviews on the overall customer satisfaction of Hertz instead of basing it on the good deal we got through a discount. Reviews such as these would have been a great indicator to steer clear of this awful business: