BOYCOTT HERTZ

If you look closely, you will see a car on a flat-bed tow truck. That's how my Hertz car rental ended on Friday, just one hour after it began.

Or so I thought.

I picked up the car around 10am and began my one day rental. I was supposed to spend the afternoon in the Eastbay with some cousins. As I was merging onto Interstate 880 after crossing the Bay Bridge, the gas pedal stopped working, the dashboard lights went out, the engine revved up on it's own and the speedometer needle dropped to zero. The car behind me had to swerve from hitting me. It was pretty scary.

The Chevy Malibu that I was given had only 25 miles on it, so it's pretty amazing that a car so fresh off the assembly line, failed.

I managed to get control of the car and when I got to my destination, called the Hertz roadside emergency department and they immediately arranged for a pick up of the car. I was told I could go to the Oakland Airport to pick up a replacement, but I replied that I didn't have time and would just take BART home. I was also told they could not issue a credit to my Visa, as I would have to go back to the original rental office to have that done. Fine, not a big deal.

Or so I thought.

On Sunday, I walked to the Hertz office on O'Farrell Street to do just that. Not only was the counter person unable to do issue the credit, they were unwilling to even call to confirm that the car was picked up by their tow service. It was up to me to have the tow reference number, which wasn't given to me at the time of the incident. He did offer to call on Monday morning but only after I made a stink about having to do all the leg work so far. As a Hertz #1 Gold Club member, I had assumed that I would get some kind of dedicated service, but that's what I get for assuming.

I called the emergency road service hotline and they weren't any help, either. They wouldn't even give me the tow reference number and I was referred back to the office where the rental originated. I very tersely responded "why would I do that, they referred me to you. Why can't you just call them and confirm that the car was picked up?" She offered to give me the number of that office again, to which I replied "Sweetheart, I just came from there, I have the number" and hung up.

As of this morning, the charges continue to accrue, since the rental still shows as not being returned. What really upsets me the most about this was that I was given a car that almost caused an accident, and one that could have caused serious injury (or even death), and NOT ONCE did someone say "I'm sorry this happened and I'm glad you're OK. Let me see what I can do for you." There seemed to be more concern about where the car was rather than if I was Ok. Also, I'm surprised that there wasn't something on my rental record that the car had been picked up.

But then, I suppose that's asking too much from customer service, these days.

Today's entry will be updated as the day progresses. I'm sure I will be on the phone more than once later this morning (sigh).