Unfair Treatment

I rented a car Hertz in Sandton as I had a trip to East London. When I had just got out of Queenstown, I unfortunately hit a dog and the car was not drivable (the radiator was damaged and the cooling water leaked out). Hence I say the car was not drivable.

I called their emergency number and I was connected to their East London Manager. The manager (a white woman), tried to force me to only make use of white owned towing services in and around Queenstown. These companies (she told me) will charge me between R10K and R12k to tow the vehicle to their depot in East London. When I challenged these amounts as being too high, she asked me if I couldn't ask someone to lend me the money. When I protested, she said only their approved towing services are allowed to tow their vehicles. I went out of my way and called towing services in and around Queenstown. To my surprise, the quotes I received were between R3k and R4.5k. I called her back and told her that I was not going to allow her to bully me and I was more than willing to write a letter if complaint to her CEO. That is the only time she allowed me to use my own towing company.

When I got to East London, I was told that to get a replacement vehicle I should pay another R4600.00. My contract with them included a Super Waiver Cover (whatever damages on the vehicle, I will not pay more than R4000.00 as my liability). Here I was being charged R600 more. When questioning this abuse, the lady assisting me said it's for Vat. I tried to challenge this but the lady told me that she'll be in trouble if she doesn't charge it.

I thought my nightmares were over with Hertz, only to realise that they had just begun. The replacement vehicle they gave me had over 35000 kilometers. The tyres were not balanced and the alignment was totally out (the car was pulling towards the left side). Also when engaging the reverse gear, the gears were grinding. I had to force it to engage. The carpets were not properly secured, there were scratches and stone chips all over the body as well as the windscreen. Also, the car had a very bad smell inside. I went back to them and complained about the vehicle and they took almost two days to exchange the vehicle.

When I eventually got them to exchange the vehicle, on the 3rd of October I headed to Cape Town to attend a funeral. On the 4th of October (around 07:00 in the morning) I was woken up by a call from Hertz claiming that I was over speeding the previous night. The guy (who was very rude and authoritative) instructed me to take the vehicle to Hertz at the Cape Town Airport. I disputed his claim that I was over speeding but told him that I don't have any problems in returning their car if they so wish. I then told him that I needed them (Hertz) to process my refund so that I can find alternative mode of transport to get back to Johannesburg. He told me that as soon as I return their vehicle, my refund will be processed.

Up until today, I still haven't received my money from Hertz. I had to borrow money from my friends to book a flight back to Joburg.

Today (10/10/2023) I wrote to their debtors department demanding my refund and there was no response from them.

Hertz is a very bad and ****** company that people should stay away from. It is very sad that they seem to be in a marathon of swallowing all the smaller car renting companies, which is going to leave people with very few choices.