Hertz's own administrative failures led to my car being recovered without warning

I have rented cars internationally for decades and have never experienced anything remotely like my treatment by Hertz South Africa.

I have been renting continuously from Hertz on a monthly basis since May this year. This was not a new or unknown customer relationship. Hertz had already had vehicles returned by me after month long rentals in perfect condition and I had remained in regular communication with them regarding extensions and the ongoing rental.

Yet after a series of administrative failures, contradictory information and disputed charges on Hertz's side, Hertz ultimately sent an armed vehicle recovery team to my take the car without warning me that recovery action was immanent.

This is important :

I was not a customer who stopped paying, disappeared with a vehicle and then complained when Hertz recovered it.

I had paid to extend my rental through to Sept 11th this year. I was communicating with Hertz. The events that ultimately resulted in recovery followed administrative discrepancies that I had repeatedly attempted to resolve.

During the rental I received conflicting information about vehicles from Hertz, extensions and charges. One more than one occasion I was told that the vehicle had been sold and needed to be exchanged only for the position to change - once after a round trip of 3 hours to the nearest branch.

There was then a dispute concerning additional waiver charges which Hertz sought to impose retrospectively after errors by their own staff who had provided with with incorrect information and pricing.

Rather than these discrepancies being properly investigated and resolved, the situation somehow escalated to Hertz sending the armed recovery team.

I was given no warning that this was about to happen.

The recovery team themselves behaved professionally and courteously. My complaint is not with them.

My complaint is with Hertz and the extraordinary administrative chain of events that resulted in them being sent in the first place.

Perhaps most astonishingly, despite my subsequent complaints, Hertz has still not substantively addressed the administrative failures and contradictory information at the heart of my complaint.

They simply appear to be ignoring them.

And this is where an administrative disaster become something much more serious.

I live on a remote farm in Tsitsikamma where having a vehicle is not a convenience but a necessity. Since Hertz took the car, we have had a medical emergency involving a pregnant member of our household/farm community who is currently in hospital and who will require ongoing medical and midwifery care. A neighbour was fortunately able to provide emergency transport on this occasion but he cannot provide an on-going transport service.

I am now desperately trying to secure another vehicle on extremely limited funds.

Meanwhile, Hertz continues to hold money that I urgently need in order to do so.

At the time of writing I am still waiting for :

-the return of my deposit; and - the unused portion of the rental I had already paid through 11 September.

I have formally demanded that Hertz confirm when these amounts will be returned and, if it intends to withhold any portion of them, provide the precise contractual and factual basis for doing so.

I have also lodged a formal external consumer complaint and provided supporting documentation.

What should concern prospective Hertz customers is not simply that a dispute occurred. Disputes happen.

What should concern you is what can apparently happen when Hertz's own administration goes wrong.

I was an established customer who had been renting continuously for months. I was in communication with the company. I had paid for the continuing rental. There were unresolved administrative discrepancies and disputed charges.

And then an armed recovery team arrived to take the vehicle.

No warning that recovery action was immanent. No opportunity immediately beforehand to resolve whatever Hertz believed justified such drastic action. And subsequently, no satisfactory explanation addressing the administrative failures that had led to it.

This is what is completely unacceptable.

A multinational car-rental company can make an administrative decision and move on to the next care. The customer has to live with the consequences.

I will update this review publicly as matters develop - including Hertz's response to the administrative failures, the return of my deposit, the refund of the unused prepaid rental and the outcome of my external consumer complaint.

Until Hertz provides a convincing explanation for what happened, my advice to prospective customers is simple :

Do not assume that because Hertz is a major international brand, an administrative problem with your rental will necessarily be identified and corrected before serious action is taken against you.

My experience suggest precisely the opposite.