How does Hertz treat you

[Beer_budget]

We've had slightly dubious "equivalent" vehicles proposed on general bookings, across most of the major hire companies, but I don't generally expect shenanigans with guaranteed model bookings. I will call them though, if we have to take a Corolla up the D'Aguilar again I might have a mutiny on my hands.

I think the Ford Fiesta offered on an estate car booking at LHR still takes the cake, but I'm pretty sure that was Avis, and they did eventually locate an appropriate vehicle.

 

[Poojou]

We've had slightly dubious "equivalent" vehicles proposed on general bookings, across most of the major hire companies, but I don't generally expect shenanigans with guaranteed model bookings.

I think the Ford Fiesta offered on an estate car booking at LHR still takes the cake, but I'm pretty sure that was Avis, and they did eventually locate an appropriate vehicle.

Ha ha our best one was at the train station Hertz in Venice and we'd booked a fiat 500 arbath and when we arrived the guy just spouted Italian at us and offered us a fiat 595 arbath instead (the fi-ata) - which tbh for my bro and I we were like ehhhhhhhhhhhh not ideal but foreign country etc.

I always feel way safer hiring from airport locations back home, generally lots of inventory and often are corporate sites.

 

[Beer_budget]

I have a rather disappointing update for those curious about the RS3.

First, to Hertz' credit, I must confirm they did actually have the car:

Unfortunately, for this class of vehicle, they absolutely will not release the car without a "video selfie to confirm identity" (never mind Mr Champagne Tastes was standing right in front of them with his licence). He had been asked to do an online check in that required this step, so we waited to check in in the hopes that surely, this would not be required in person. No such luck, and no way for the desk to bypass it even to save a $600+ overnight reservation.

This is already a line in the sand he would not cross, but since that part of their "identity verification" is outsourced to Clear (yes, as in the US company that lets you trade all personal privacy and $180pa to fast track through security theatre), the privacy policy is also not worth the paper it's printed on. Since your biometric data is a password you can never revoke, I fully agree with his position on this, but if you've already travelled through the US, you may already have nothing to lose by playing along so YMMV

So anyway, reservation cancelled, perfectly serviceable Q3 released to our custody for less than a quarter of the price, and we will hope that Sixt replaces their 3 Series BMWs at some point.

 

[markis10]

Gone are the days when you could just hop in a bmw with the keys in and just drive through the boom gate at BNE, pushing the i30 in front with you into the wall opposite, damn security! And yes that happened a few times before they fixed the issue.