Hertz Car Hire Fuerteventura Airport

[timelord]

I nominate Hertz car hire at Fuerteventura Airport the worst rental company ever. I used them for the first time
at the end of August and was given an old banger which had scratches on the bodywork and bumpers and had no wheel cap covers. The car was filthy and had never been valeted, worse still at the end of the rental despite assuring me there would be no further charges on my Visa I later discovered they deducted a further £200 from my account without prior notification or explanation. Their customer service department are just as bad as I have sent numerous E Mails and made several telephone calls but they continue to body swerve dealing with my complaint and despite several requests to speak to a supervisor have been unsuccessful to date. I have checked several review web sites since and have found that I am not alone and was astounded to find that a company such as Hertz seems to have a policy to fleece customers and provide really poor customer service. Please be warned I would never use them again and would rather pay a bit extra to go with any other rental company.

[Can the Man]

Dear Timelord,

I feel for you, I read somewhere on this forum that the Hertz in Furte is only a franchise and not the genuine Hertz.

I would strongly recomend that you research car hire in advance for any country that you hire in.

I travel a lot with my job and hire cars around Eurppe and US, and again I will research in advance, even though my company have regular car hire companies.

I know what you are saying that Hertz is a world wide recognised name etc.....

There is a very good section on this forum, and you will see who the good guys and the bad guys are.
Personnaly I recomend Payless.es, they have NEVER let me down in over 7 years now, and i think you will find all comments about them are positive. other recomended companies include Cicars & Cabrera Medina.

I hope you bad experience has not put you off coming back to the beautiful island of Fuerteventura.

[dagwood]

Again used them once. Scrap merchants and gangsters.

[woe10]

I would never use Hertz or Avis. They´re the most expensive, and the worse service.
Reps here used to push Avis ( I think they were on a cut ). They would tell clients not to use others as they wouldn´t be insured properly 

[Magoo]

Put the matter in dispute with your CC company. On Fuerty, I would recomend Cicar, used them twice with no problems, & no BS like "Bring it back empty" & sky high 2nd driver fees.

However, if you think Hertz are bad, you just have to try Orlando (If they are still about) Once rented a $hit heap off them that packed up 45 klicks west of bugger all

[chinahand]

Hertz on Fuerte are 'an affiliate' this seems to let Hertz international off the hook, used them once in Fuerte, only got any reasonable service when we threatened to cancel our contract with Hertz on mainland and phoned our contact on the mainland ..................NEVER EVER EVER use Hertz in FUERTE

[gymackem]

Can't imagine any car hire being worse than Orlando - absolutely dreadful cars and service 

[KWC]

Can't imagine any car hire being worse than Orlando - absolutely dreadful cars and service 

Here here

[cllrcollins]

Best bit of advice is to load your DEBIT card with the bare minimum to cover the cost of the car hire. When you pick up the car, your DEBIT card will be validated as being genuine but then they have no scope to plunder your account with any extras as your balance is zero!

I nominate Hertz car hire at Fuerteventura Airport the worst rental company ever. I used them for the first time
at the end of August and was given an old banger which had scratches on the bodywork and bumpers and had no wheel cap covers. The car was filthy and had never been valeted, worse still at the end of the rental despite assuring me there would be no further charges on my Visa I later discovered they deducted a further £200 from my account without prior notification or explanation. Their customer service department are just as bad as I have sent numerous E Mails and made several telephone calls but they continue to body swerve dealing with my complaint and despite several requests to speak to a supervisor have been unsuccessful to date. I have checked several review web sites since and have found that I am not alone and was astounded to find that a company such as Hertz seems to have a policy to fleece customers and provide really poor customer service. Please be warned I would never use them again and would rather pay a bit extra to go with any other rental company.

[djk99]

Best bit of advice is to load your DEBIT card with the bare minimum to cover the cost of the car hire. When you pick up the car, your DEBIT card will be validated as being genuine but then they have no scope to plunder your account with any extras as your balance is zero!

I nominate Hertz car hire at Fuerteventura Airport the worst rental company ever. I used them for the first time
at the end of August and was given an old banger which had scratches on the bodywork and bumpers and had no wheel cap covers. The car was filthy and had never been valeted, worse still at the end of the rental despite assuring me there would be no further charges on my Visa I later discovered they deducted a further £200 from my account without prior notification or explanation. Their customer service department are just as bad as I have sent numerous E Mails and made several telephone calls but they continue to body swerve dealing with my complaint and despite several requests to speak to a supervisor have been unsuccessful to date. I have checked several review web sites since and have found that I am not alone and was astounded to find that a company such as Hertz seems to have a policy to fleece customers and provide really poor customer service. Please be warned I would never use them again and would rather pay a bit extra to go with any other rental company.

Might well work with some rental companies, but not with Hertz here in Fue as they 'pre authorise' the maximum damage amount (usually around €650) BEFORE you take the car away. The amount is ring-fenced until Hertz release it. If there's not enough to cover this they will not rent to you.   

[abhishek0990]

nice information. thank you for sharing it.

thanks
packersm

[amberambler]

O M G !
I've booked them via Economy Car Hire for 2 weeks in Feb.
I shall report back

[zedzedeleven]

Cancel it and rebook with any of the car hire companies recommended on here.

[djk99]

O M G !
I've booked them via Economy Car Hire for 2 weeks in Feb.
I shall report back

You might be slightly better off as you booked via  Economy Car Hire as they usually include 'comprehensive insurance' and a free extra driver. If this covers all the extras, that leaves Hertz one less trick to make extra money from you. Check your agreement carefully to ensure there is no local insurance charge or €650 deposit!!  You'll still pay up front for fuel at a fairly extortionate rate, and get nothing back for whatever remains in the tank     I would still look elsewhere if you can cancel without penalty as zz11 says.

[amberambler]

Well, I have returned from Fuerte and my booking with Hertz was OK!

The fuel deal was basically "bring back the car with the same amount of fuel in it and we won't charge you", which I did.

Insurance- I normally pay the hirers additional insurance which in this instance, cost about £40 for two weeks. (I have paid more with other companies in Spain)

The car was a Polo, was a bit scratched and the passenger door was draughty as it was a bit bent!

(I still check my Credit Card on a daily basis to make sure that they don't screw me for any ficticious additional scratches!)

[djk99]

It's good to hear of someone who had a happier experience with Hertz ! It may have been the result of you booking via Economy Car Hire, as many of the usual extras were already included. Hertz 'Supercover' insurance would certainly have cost you a lot more than £40 for two weeks with a normal rental. I still prefer the simplicity of Pluscar and a few others recommended on here whereby you're not waiting for fictitious charges when the rental has ended.

[NorthernLights53]

I can only add my experience to the "Never,ever,ever use Hertz on FV" camp.

Despite confirming with Hertz in the UK that insurance was included in the daily rate of all of their hires, I had to stump up another €250 when I collected the car at the airport.  The vehicle was a Clio, rattly & with a broken rear parcel shelf, but at least it went & the air con worked.

Just waiting now to see if they have taken any further money from my Debit Card for all of the scratches that the car had when I picked it up!

I have been told that Hertz on FV are a franchise, so I guess that they are free to do what they like - I have been recommended to try Cicar next time that we go out - Goldcar are apparently the worst of the lot!!

[Voldermort]

Nearly right..Orlando are the worst but there`s not much in it 

[Can the Man]

Agreed

[panache]

If I had read Timelord's post before travelling to Fuerteventura I would not be posting today.

I had a very similar experience in April with Hertz Fuerteventura when I hired  for 4 days a VW Polo. There were eight Xs on the contract for the existing significant damages but there could have been fifty or more if all the minor dents and paintwork damage were recorded. The car had 45,000km on the clock and the interior reflected this - it was a shabby old heap that even lacked a shelf to cover the luggage area. However I was going to be making little use of it. In total I drove it for approx 150km and it suffered no additional damage during my rental.

When I returned it to the airport Hertz had nobody available to check it out and I didn't think much about that at the time. But 4 weeks later my credit card statement showed an extra charge of €301.90. Needless to say I had heard nothing from Hertz. It took another 10 days and repeated emails before I got a response from them alleging damage to the "forward bumper" and the "plastic of the underside of the engine" and attaching two photographs neither of which identified the vehicle  and one of which might as well have been of the surface of the Moon.

I will not be at a loss financially as a result of this  because I am fully insured for excess damage. However I had associated Hertz with ethical business practice and integrity and this was not what I got.

[djk99]

panache, sorry to hear of your experience........I can only hope a few more people will read it and avoid this company. I see you have insurance cover for excess damage........If it is an annual policy from
iCarhireinsurance or a similar company and you are willing to share your experience when you have claimed, I for one (and hopefully a few others on here) would be interested as I have paid for annual hire car excess cover for a few years, but, fortunately, have never had to make a claim.  Just wondering if it does what it says on the tin !!

[Mr Boo Boo]

Hi

Hired cars from Hertz on 10 occasions now (only use them when I visit Fuerto), got to book the trend here and say we have never once had a problem with them (even got an extra days free car hire in April as we are regular customers), travelled to the Oasis Zoo 2 years ago and parked up in the car park, came back to the car to find someone had bumped into it, took it back to the Hertz office and was given a new car at no expense to me whatsoever.....we use the Hertz office in Caleta (not the airport)...... once used Cicar and requested a VW golf (told that wouldn't be a problem) ended up getting a Fiat Panda (close).......

[panache]

Hi djk99,

I am now able to confirm a satisfactory outcome to my complaint.
Events unfolded as follows:
I got nowhere with the Fuerteventura franchise.
I brought my complaint to Customer Service at Hertz Ireland.
Fortunately I had taken photographs of the car on collection and was able to supply confirmation to Hertz Ireland that the damage was done prior to my stewardship. I was very pleased with the level of service provided by Hertz Ireland who liaised with Hertz Spain. On 20 June my credit card account was repaid €301.90

My excess insurance policy is with insurance4carhire.com
When I submitted my claim to them I advised them of the circumstances and I subsequently told them that the issue had been resolved. I cannot really comment therefore on what type of service these insurers provide as I have not had to pursue a claim in the 2 years I have been with them.
However I was not terribly impressed with their response. They use a company called Jubilee Service Solutions to process claims and without wishing to be too critical I am happy that I did not have to pursue my claim.

I wonder how long Hertz Corporation will tolerate the behaviour of their Fuerteventura franchise.
It is difficult to conclude anything other than that my experience was a calculated attempt to defraud.

[Voldermort]

Hertz have been tolerating their local franchise for too long.. had a `do` with them 10 years ago and they dont appear to have got any better. Their cars were wrecks then. Interesting about Insurance4carhire..I have long had my doubts about this concept at the price they offer..Its too cheap..and I have read elsewhere of some very disgruntled users of their service, which bears out your suspicions...Glad you got a resulkt though...well done..

  Just goes to re inforce folks use Cicar/Payless/Plus Car ...

[djk99]

Hi panache, sorry, I've just seen your reply (of 6 months ago!!). I'll just add my belated congrats on a good outcome and as
Voldermort & yourself  suggest, the jury is still out on Insurance4carhire and similar companies.

[sueandrog]

We came back a couple of weeks ago from the Island and used Hertz at the airport. To be honest we have to give credit where its due. We looked at some of the reports before booking but all had some minus reports or drawbacks, and we definitely like the idea of full fuel tank out, full fuel tank back. We have used Europcar (on line booking collection from the airport car park) many times and found them to be really good (we once took a car back because a side light was out and they replaced the car rather than the bulb!), but this time were too expensive and they wernt prepared to price match. However, no problems with the Hertz service, or car. Fairly new car with a couple of very very minor scratches on it, which is to be expected, paid a deposit against the tank full of fuel on collection and this was returned to my credit card on the day after delivering back. Didn't but their additional excess cover, but that was explained very clearly. We will certainly consider again.