Earlier this month, I flew to Fort Lauderdale for an industry convention and then flew with my snowbird grandparents back from their Boynton Beach winter home to Cleveland for the summer.
I nabbed a United first-class award using 15K Turkish miles (13.5K Citi points after rebate), as I wrote about here.
I strongly prefer renting from National in general, but this trip required a return about 2 days and 4 hours after the pickup. That put it into Hertz territory, as the Platinum card’s CDP (211762) gives a 4 hour grace period without charging for an additional day.
Plus, I still have a lot of Hertz points. Thanks to the code, the 52 hour rental would cost just 2 days worth of points, so it would cost 1,900 instead of 2,850 points. And then I just hope not to get hit with bogus fees or wind up in jail.
I have given up on using E-ZPass in Florida, as some charges always seem to bypass my E-ZPass and wind up triggering usurious daily rental car toll fees. Instead, I just register the licence plate with my Sunpass account online for the duration of the rental and get preferential rates with no billing mistakes or rental car tolling fees for the rental.
So far, so good, but the troubles for this rental were on the return. Checking my grandparents in with their luggage took longer than I budgeted, but I still made it to Hertz just within the 4-hour grace period. Unfortunately, there was a massive line of cars waiting to be checked in and I had a flight to catch.
I asked the Hertz check-in agent what to do, and he said they would manually extend the grace periods to make up for the long backlog of cars.
I didn’t trust him, but didn’t have much of a choice, so I went to catch the flight. But first, I took a picture of the time and the gas gauge.
And of course, an hour later, I got a receipt with a $56 charge for an extra rental hour, and fuel.
There’s rarely a good way to speak to anyone at a car rental office, so I just jumped onto X Direct Messaging and sent the 2 pictures to @Hertz, along with a brief description of went wrong.
And to their credit, they took care of it without needing to follow-up:
So, if you ever have to return a car and there’s nobody there to check you in on the spot, just snap a picture or 2. You never know when it’ll come in handy!
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25 Comments On "Hertz: How A Picture Saved Me $56, A Code Saved 950 Points, And Enrollment Saved More Usurious Fees"
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I just had similar situation at Hertz in London. I was charged for fuel, thankfully I had taken a picture of the dashboard when returning, and the picture showed based on the mileage that the tank was full. I got an email to say the charges were reversed and I’d receive some points as compensation.
Just had a very similar experience in MIA.
Didn’t know that ezpass doesn’t register, even though I brought my pass. They gave me 50% back of the admin fee for asking.
Also grabbed a picture of the gas on, and when they charged me, I called them said they’ll adjust. They didn’t.
I guess since it’s common, they include a link in the receipt email to address this issue, and that took care of that.
btw, it seems like you can open a sunpass account for this use without buying a transponder.
https://www.sunpass.com/en/signup/tsignupacknowledge.shtml?acttype=pvideo
Can I use the code even if I don’t have a platinum card?…
How do you find the 15k Turkish miles flight? I’ve searched a few times on multiple routes and dates and I never see it
That happened to me at jfk hertz location. I called the presidents circle line and they took care of it. I didn’t have a picture.
I had a similar story in Detroit last year. I returned the car and then was charged for fuel. Luckily, I had taken a picture of the dashboard when returning and had the location in my gallery so I sent a screenshot together with the location and got refunded
Are you able to post some Hertz deals or tips on getting good rates? I saw on the forums how someone rented a car for like $45 for a week
In Denver Hertz charged me $35 for a pebble mark on the windshield. It was there. After charging me the agent looked up the history and said it was already there before I got it. Told me Hertz to refund me. They never did
Why do you prefer National Car Rental ?
In my experience they are always much more expensive.
Is it worth the possibility of getting arrested?
Similar experience in Orlando MCO airport and Hertz. I pre-paid for the rental but when picking up leaving the Exit, they printed out a receipt with an extra about $50 charge. Since we already exited the lot, said would talk it through when returning.
When returning, I had to ask the rep 3 times to do a walk through. Kept saying I can just leave it and they would do it later. Asked for a final bill, and they reluctantly did the walk through in front of me. Said all good and that I would get an email with the final receipt. Asked about the extra $50 charge from pickup and they said to talk to Customer Service at the front. Went to Customer Service, showed the prepaid email receipt that all taxes were already prepaid for. Said it was maybe an error. I did get to the lot an hour late, and then spent like 30 mins picking a car and taking pictures, but as President Circle, I get 2 hours to pickup.
Lesson’s learned:
When arriving, get a printout thing from the initial Hertz place at the airport and make sure there is no extra charge. They ask for this paper when exiting.
Take pictures before picking your car.
When returning, have them do a final walk through and final bill.
As a rule of thumb, always take pictures of your rental vehicle upon return.
I had a similar situation with Hertz and they refunded me the extra charge just by asking nicely without any pictures.
I found that adding my license helps with SunPass but not epass
Amex chat is way easier, why not just reach out to them to dispute?
Dispute = DNR
That’s why
Brilliant!
Hi Dan,
What code do you use to save on the points
I have had trouble with Sunpass and rental cars in Florida. Each time I have attempted to enroll a rental car license plate, Sunpass says the plate is already enrolled, owes money to Sunpass and won’t complete the enrollment. Then I had to pay the outrageous rental car charges on toll roads. I got a NJ EZpass to try to solve this and use EZpass to register Florida rental cars. I plan to try that next week. Do you think it’s a transponder issue (maybe Dan has an Ohio EZpass?), or a Florida problem?
I’ve always book Hertz through AAA. You get a discount + if Hertz tries to do anything “shady”, One call to AAA will handle it, even when calls to Hertz go nowhere.
I just rented from Hertz at EWR last week and although I took pictures for the record it wasn’t necessary. Seems like they now scan the outside of the car from tires to rooftop on exit and again on return to compare the 2 images and find any damage. I don’t rent much but this was the first time I saw this.
I also had an EZPASS problem with Hertz at EWR last year. I had them verify that their EZPASS box was closed and not transmitting since I had my own Massachusetts EZPASS which I used. Sure enough several weeks after I returned the car I got a hefty bill from Hertz for tolls. When I sent them my CC bill showing the exact same tolls/times they still wouldn’t remove the charges. I had to involve my CC company with the collection agency to resolve it. Now in addition to verifying with Hertz that the box is closed I also take a picture of their box with my own Massachusetts EZPASS transponder next to it. I hope that works.
I had a similar situation with Hertz but I never took a picture and it took a lot of phone calls to get resolved. I was surprised at least in Cleveland that Hertz seems to let the cars just sit there all night and take their time to check them in and then charge you based upon when they finally got to your car.
I actually rent from Hertz all the time in Brooklyn, but when I went to FLL, they charged me for fuel even though I filled up right before I returned the car, they refunded me after I sent them a pic, but why the hassle, following this story I moved to national.