I’ve always been very selective about where I rent cars from, but on a recent trip I decided to try something new and rent from Hertz in Dayton. The rental car agency was away from the airport so they didn’t charge airport fees and I heard good things about the company. They also offered a discount for AAA members and since I use the card for hotel rooms and attraction discounts, I didn’t see any problem. I booked my car online, using their system and reserved a compact car for one week. I also made backup plans just in case something went wrong.

A week later I headed off to the agency, ready to pick up my car and start off on my trip. I found a line of eight people in front of me at eight am and only one woman working the counter. By the time I finally made it to the front, it was already 8:45. That’s when I discovered that Hertz charges a $250 deposit on top of the rental car price. My credit card rejected the charge and the employee tried to explain that there was nothing they could do about it because that was their system.

After several minutes I finally decided to rent from somewhere else and that was when the worker changed his mind. He claimed there was something he could do to “fix” the situation. Instead of renting the car for a week, he would charge me for two days and let the system automatically update my rental. He told me that at the end of the week it would charge me for a week’s rental and take off my discount. He also assured me that I could drop the car off early in the morning when I got back and they’d get it around 7-8 when staff came in for the day.

I headed outside to pickup my car and found a Mazda 5 (an SUV/mini-van type vehicle) waiting for me rather than a Ford Focus, which I reserved. He explained that they didn’t keep compacts on the lot. Had I known that, I definitely would have gone elsewhere.

When I got home, I discovered that Hertz billed me $650 for the week long rental instead of the $218 I was quoted. That included an additional late fee because I dropped the car off at six am and no one picked it up until noon that day. It also included other late fees for keeping a two-day rental past the cutoff. I did manage to get my bill down to $350, but it was still a lot more than I planned. I personally think Hertz is worthless as a rental car agency and I’ll never go back there again.

Rating: 1