Hertz On Demand

Pretty much have an issue every time… As it is mention many times in previous posts… Cancellation from Hertz or relocation of car at the very last minute… Nearly impossible to refuel with gas card… Always need to cough up your own dough and ask for refund… But yesterday was last straw… Waisted 15 – 20 minutes with them on phone to figure out how to solve the problem for refueling car… As I didn’t have cash on me… Couldn’t resolve issue… Returned the car as is… They charged me an additional 20 $ for being 16 minutes late… I’m late… because of you !!! Hertz…
Good news is… They are being kicked out of Hoboken and replaced with Zipcar in two weeks… It can’t be worst than this Hertz’s appalling service

Can I give zero stars? This service is horrific. I literally have an issue every time — from a car being parked in my designated return spot, to the car key not being in the vehicle, to them having satellite issues across the entire state of New Jersey resulting in no cars available at the very last minute. I cannot even put my frustration into words, but avoid this service at all costs. The regular Hertz in Hoboken is fabulous though!

I have had numerous problems with this service since joining a few months ago. Suddenly not having a car to drive 15 mins before you are to pick up, being re-​booked to a car in NYC moments before you are to pick one up in Hoboken, cars in the wrong location causing you to have to hunt them down, having to pay $ 56 dollars to get a car out of a garage because prior renter had no spot to park in and then fighting for days to be reimbursed, no gas card in car and again having to pay and fight for reimbursement.
Believe the other negative reviews here — these experiences are not rare. The last straw was last night — I ended up without a car to go to a friend’s 50^th b-​day party. Stupid of me to count on Hertz for a car.
Yes, zipcar requires a yearly fee and all that, but I have literally never had such an issue with them.
If you really need to have a car, do NOT count on Hertz on Demand. Seriously, they are terrible.

Useless.
Hertz has a great idea here. It has the potential to be SUCH a good service.
The problem is that so very often it just does not work. Cars are moved, are unavailable and you’re always told at the last second, when you have no way of changing your plans.
They have a call center that they say will deal with issues but it is incredibly understaffed. And the people who do staff it… No.

I’ve never Unilocaled before but this service is so poor I had to post something.
After losing our car in hurricane sandy we signed up for Hertz On Demand and have had nothing but trouble. They’ve changed the location of the reserved car moments before we were due to pick it up leaving us walking 20 mins across town (and therefore losing the 20 mins of res time). I’ve had 2 separate occasions where the car wouldn’t start and nobody was available to offer roadside assistance. And today, Easter Sunday, my reservation which I made a month in advance was cancelled by Hertz due to signaling problems. VIA TEXT MESSAGE. TWO MINUTES BEFORE WE WERE DUE TO ACCESS THE CAR. And, being that it’s a weekend, nobody is available to fix it. After approx 1 hour on the phone with multiple customer service reps the best offer they could muster was a car in Brooklyn. We’re in Hoboken. Are you kidding me?
Worst customer service I’ve experienced hands down.

My personal vehicle was totaled in Hurricane Sandy and my fiancée and I decided to subscribe to the Hertz On Demand program rather than replace our car. The pricing seemed a bit better than ZipCar so we decided to give it a shot. It has been an awful experience and we’re canceling our membership immediately. Here’s what happened to us to push us over the edge.
2 weeks ago we had planned to visit my brother and his family in New Rochelle to celebrate Christmas together. We’d booked a car in advance under my fiancees account and the night before they cancelled it on us. When we called they said there were mechanical issues with the vehicle. They couldn’t get a replacement vehicle for us, the best they could do is find a car in Paramus for us to use (how the heck am I going to get to Paramus to get this car?). After screaming at their customer service rep we were offered a $ 25 credit for our inconvenience (gee thanks). Had to cancel on my brother and his family because the Path was still down and taking a bus to Port Authority then train from GCT just was too much for us, we needed the convenience of the car.
So today we finally had rescheduled to visit my brothers family and celebrate Christmas, and once again, Hertz on demand comes through in the clutch with a giant let down. Our car we booked for today, which we booked last week was scheduled to be on First and Washington. My fiancée received an email stating it would be in the parking garage at 215 Hudson (no problem I understand last night was New Years Eve and people parked wherever they wanted in town). So we went to the garage at 215 Hudson and we searched up and down all 5 floors of the garage 4 times, and our car was not there! My fiancée called customer service and they said «our GPS is indicating the car is there, sorry». After searching one more time up and down 5 floors, all while carrying heavy Christmas presents for my nieces, we did not find our car. My fiancée is really ticked at this point so I call customer service to deal with this. I asked them to put me in another car in Hoboken «Great no problem, there’s a Jeep on 1^st and Jefferson I can put you in. The difference for this vehicle is an additional $ 58.» Ok why should I have to pay more than my original booking? It’s not my fault the car I reserved isn’t located where it should be, so I’m being penalized an extra $ 58, I could’ve just rented a car from Enterprise for the day if I was going to spend $ 108. The customer service rep replied «I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do in the system to credit you, and it’s not our fault your car isn’t there, it’s the previous driver’s.»
Ok at this point I didn’t care about anything I feel like I’m running out of options and I just want to go see my family, brace yourself your going to be amazed with the quality customer care from these people. I told the rep to just book it, whatever I’ll pay the additional $ 58, I just want to go see my family. «I’m sorry I can’t book this for you unless you have another form of payment because our computer won’t authorize 2 bookings at once.» So due to their archaic booking system I couldn’t even book another car to replace the reserved one that didn’t exist. So I asked them to book it under my account and this is the best part of the whole story, the customer service rep replies «Ohh the existing reservation you’re trying to find is not under your name? We’re sorry, for security reasons we’re going to have to suspend both you and your fiancées accounts.» I was merely speaking on her behalf because she was crying hysterically because nobody was helping us to see our family. The only people acting fraudulently are the customer service reps.
As somebody who works in customer service I couldn’t believe how worthless these people were in helping us. Not to mention were subscribing to this program as people who suffered the loss of our car after Sandy, and trying to get together with family for the holidays, it’s not like I just needed the car to go grocery shopping. After trying to explain our situation to the customer service rep she simply replied, «I’m sorry Sir there’s nothing I can do to help you».

If Unilocal would let me, I’d give Hertz 0 stars.
Completely unreliable and poor customer service.
For the specifics, read my email to their customer service center below:
To Whom It May Concern:
I live in Hoboken, NJ and I usually reserve a Fiat from their 15^th Street/​Hudson Street location. Most of the time I reserve a car I receive a text message while on my way to walk to the car saying that my reservation is cancelled.
The most recent incident was this past Thanksgiving. I reserved the Fiat about 1 – 2 months before Thanksgiving. A few days before Thanksgiving, I had to run some errands so I reserved another car at the 12^th Street/​Grand Street location, but was sent a text that my reservation had been changed to a more expensive vehicle. I called in and spoke to Chelsea from the Oklahoma Call Center and was told this happened because there was something wrong with the initial car selected (Since that car has mechanical problems, it should not be an online option for people when making their reservation.) and that my account has been charged for the original vehicle selected as well as the more expensive vehicle, but would be credited back the difference so that the final charge would reflect the original car reserved. So at this time I had a couple hundred dollars on hold from Hertz and was told it would take several business days for the funds to be released. Before hanging up with Chelsea, I asked her about my Thanksgiving reservation and asked for a guarantee that I would have a car. She assured me that Hertz has other vehicles in the area for emergency situations and told me that if I needed to take public transportation that Hertz would reimburse me the cost. I asked if they would cover cab fares. Without thinking, she said yes they would cover that. I asked her to double check. She returned saying that they only reimburse up to $ 50.00 and that basically anything over that would be out of pocket!
The day before Thanksgiving I received a text saying that my Thanksgiving reservation has been cancelled. I called in and spoke to Rich from the Oklahoma Call Center. He told me it was because of insufficient funds and need to call my bank. While I was on the phone with him, I checked my bank account and confirmed with him that I had sufficient funds for this reservation. I also pointed out that if I didn’t it was because Hertz is always changing my reservation at the last minute and holding hundreds of dollars at a time and I had to wait for it to be released. He still urged me to call my bank. When I asked to speak to a supervisor he said they do not have one there. Really? A major corporation such as Hertz does not have any managers on site? My fiancé used to work for AT&T’s call center and said that there are always managers on site to assist with escalated problem calls. Basically, this representative was just reading a script and that the managers did not want to talk to anyone. Frustrated, I got off the phone with Rich and called back.
This time I spoke to Keisha from the Oklahoma Call Center. She told me that my reservation was cancelled due to the car’s mechanical problems. (Rich tried to put the blame on me saying I had insufficient funds.) I asked her if I can speak to a supervisor and she said she can put my name and number down for a call back from one of them. She said that either Keisha McManus or Deborah Reyes would call. After we hung up, she called back a few minutes later and told me how she felt bad that I didn’t have a reservation for Thanksgiving and that she had found possible cars for me in that area. I would just have to walk to the other part of town to confirm. (Even though she was being polite, I still had to do the legwork for a messed up reservation???) She was the only person I spoke to that was polite and had a human side. This told me that she in fact spoke to an on site manager who instructed her to call me back to try to resolve the issue or she was just better than the other customer service representatives and went the extra mile.
The Friday after Thanksgiving (11÷23÷12) I received a call from a man named Charles. I didn’t want to deal with this issue over the holiday weekend so I returned his call on Monday (11÷26÷12) but he didn’t pick up so I left a message. I still have not heard from him, Carla McManus or Deborah Reyes.
It was only after I sent that email that I spoke to a manager, Lawanda, who was very polite and apologized for the issues I’ve experienced. She also gave me $ 50.00 driving credit. Thanks but at this point, it’s not about the money. It’s about having the peace of mind that I will have a car when I need one. Unfortunately, I cannot have that with Hertz.

This is a terrible experience. I didn’t find my car in a spot and it took about 1 hour to hold on the line to talk to a representative. Yes, I spent an hour in the street under the rain with wife and a little baby to know that somebody parked a car in a different place. If they know this, why I don’t? Why nobody said me that??? And these guys think this is OK.

I have had a long, extremely complicated relationship with car-​sharing. In fact, so long and complicated I now own a car. I used zipcar for most of my car-​sharing life because they had the overnight special when Hertz did not. Zipcar also had the app for android and hertz does not. I maintained a Hertz membership ONLY because there were 0 membership fees. I only used Hertz for Fiat 500’s and when there was an awesome special going on.
Now, I will recommend Hertz to anyone not really that invested in car sharing. It’s a «Why not?» kind of thing. If you don’t plan on making the most out of your membership, just get a free membership… and whenever you’re out with your smartphone maybe the mobile site will happen to be working and you can rent a car spontaneously! I rented one in Chicago for an amazing rate (camry, 50 $ a day for the weekend!). I love the freedom of it. The lineup they have has truthfully improved. I wrote a review for their previous iteration (Connect by hertz) saying all their cars were dirty/​disgusting. They were, but I haven’t seen a gross one in a while. The past 4 – 5 I’ve been in were immaculate, but also new (9k miles max). We’ll see how that changes.
If you plan on renting very regularly, go to zipcar. If you want the freedom to have the option of a car in many major cities without committing 60 $/​year, this is the better choice.

Pros: Cheap, no membership fees like ZipCar. Supposed to be easy.
Cons: Wayyyyyyyyy too long wait times for calling and dealing with issues. Technology is not connected in a way that actually provides information about the car’s whereabouts to the customer looking to find the car.
4:30: About two hours earlier, I made a reservation for 4:30 near my apartment for a car at Clinton & Newark. I show up, there’s no car there… I wait a few minutes and call customer service to wait on hold for 10 minutes — way too long to wait when you need help with an on demand service. The rep tells me that it seems the last person to use the car did not park it in the correct place, and it’s at 2^nd and River. I lament to the rep — There’s GPS in the car; you know where the car is, how come I don’t? Why didn’t something just tell me when I made the reservation that the car was actually somewhere else? The technology to perform this is already in the car, why is the information not connected to the system that tells me where to get my car? The rep did not care one bit about my frustration, and just waited for me to finish. Can’t you tell your boss and maybe they will tell the right people and fix this?
4:50: Ok, I’m annoyed but that’s not so far, I’ll walk over there — it’s nowhere to be found! I walk around the block, i’m looking for a red fiat 500 so it should stick out. Nope! I call in again and the lovely automated prompt tells me that the wait is between 9 and 14 minutes. AGAIN??? But wait — there is an option to leave my number and have the system dial me again when some one is available. Well, I have to wait but at least my rage won’t be multiplied by a bad experience and ridiculous wait times.
5:15: Woohoo! call back from an unknown number, must be them. But wait — I’m greeted by another automated prompt and ultimately waited another 5 minutes to speak with a human. FURIOUS! The rep on the phone with me this time was more helpful and not an idiot like the first. She informed me that the car was actually in the municipal garage 1.5 blocks away, but some one would have to pay in order to get it out, so that was not going to work. I don’t care — just give me a car already! I should have already been where I was heading!
5:25 Ok — she has succeeded in reserving me another car — the same model, and she has confirmed that it is where it’s supposed to be. The problem: it’s at 4^th and Harrison. WTF!!! Now I have to walk all the way back in the other direction to get the car. It better be there! She confirms that it is, and says that they will gladly reimburse my cab fare to get to the car. That’s nice, but I’m in Hoboken, not manhattan! I can’t just get a cab on the street, and I need to get going already! Ok, now they are giving my a free hour. Well, that would be nice but since the car is only $ 10/​hr, it’s not nearly enough to compensate for my time and frustration.
5:35: Success! Finally! I have arrived safely at 4^th and Harrison and get in the car without a hitch. It’s an hour after I was supposed to be on my way. My girlfriend is not happy about walking all over the place and we’re running quite late but at least we are on our way.
Moral of the story: Hope you don’t have a problem because if you do, you’re hosed. Call and double check when you make a reservation that the car is where it’s supposed to be, because you can’t trust the system to tell you if the car is actually where it says.

Probably the best experience I’ve ever had in terms of renting a car — in fact, it was EASIER. Sure, there were a few kinks: The prius I had originally selected didnt come back in time, but hertz was awesome enough to redirect me to the closest garage with a car that was the same price as the prius. Sure, it wasn’t as cool, it was a Mazda3, but it did the job and ended up actually being pretty awesome!
Make sure you have your yellow hertz card when you pick up your car — and always make it a point to check the car for damage. If you dont, it’ll end up getting billed to you!
Also, if you need to extend your time or if you’re stuck in traffic, make sure to inform hertz so that the person after you isn’t inconvenienced (although hertz is pretty awesome at taking care of issues like this)

HERTZ ON DEMAND MAKES RENTING A CAR A PAINLESS PROCESS!
Need to fill your fridge, but don’t feel like taking the risk of having a cop bust you for stealing a shopping cart. Finally there is a convenient alternative to riding the bus while carrying arm loads of laundry bags draped over your shoulder like a sailor on shore leave. You better check yourself before you wreck yourself and sign up for a Hertz on Demand membership card!
Why should you get a card? Because the membership is free, so you lose absolutely nothing by signing up. Call me kooky but I come from the school where it’s always better to have something and not need it than to need something and not have it. And what’s better than having access to a car without having to make a monthly lease/​mortgage payment or pay for parking, insurance, or even gas? If this all sounds just too good to be true, then you can rest assured that every word of it is for real.
How does it work? It’s so simple that a caveman could understand the process Sorry Geico, but it’s even easier than your insurance.
Make your reservation online, pick your car, then go pickup your car at your selected location. It’s really THAT simple! The website tells you the precise corner that the car is parked at for the Hoboken location and the car can be found in a reserved green outlined space. You also get a text message which cofirms the location of your car and the license plate, just in case there are similar cars parked next to yours. The only way they could make it any easier is if they had a Hertz employee standing next to your car waving you in like a jetliner on a runway. But I suppose that would defeat the purpose of being able to pickup your car and bring it back any time of day.
Use the car to your heart’s content all day or 180 miles, which ever comes first with no extra charges. We took our car out to the vineyards and when we were headiing back we realized that we were running short on time and might not be able to drop it off at the scheduled time. But we weren’t worried at all because after a short call to Hertz they confirmed that no one else had reserved our car so they extended our reservation with no extra charge!
On the way home we were running low on gas, but we never needed to dig into our pockets. I pulled down the visor and took out the gas card and filled up for free. Compare that against other car rental options and you should consider that savings when comparing your costs. After backing out the gas charges our entire rental barely set us back $ 20.
For the service and the cost of the rental, the only people that felt hurt were the ones that rented from some place other than Hertz!

Alright. So the day after the «Dude, Where’s My Car» debacle, a customer service rep from Hertz on Demand called me to further discuss.
I explained to her what had happened and what I thought would be appropriate solutions to remedying this issue like indicating on the website that it is in fact parked ON THE STREET and instead of an ambiguous cross-​street that leads to a pay parking lot.
She apologized for my experience and I was given a $ 100 credit towards using their service again. I’ll give it another shot. I need to run some errands around town soon, and that will come in handy.