Hertz Rent A Car

Our prepaid rental was set to begin at noon. At 11:30am we received a call from the Hertz representative Stephanie Smith at the Sheraton hertz office to let us know there were no cars available to rent. Upon further inquiry we were told to pick up a car at the airport, and that this inconvenience was not a location issue but a corporate issue. I called hertz customer service to check their availability at the airport before we drove out of our way to pick up a car there. After being bounced around to several other people I was told that I would have to cancel our reservation and make a new reservation for pick up at the airport (which would cost more, plus the ‘day of’ cancelation fees). I was then put on hold for 30 minutes while they checked availability and pricing. I have still not once heard an apology from hertz corporate or this pick up location.
We decided to drive to our original pickup location (I am still on hold and it is already past noon). When we walk in Stephanie is on the phone with someone from hertz who has informed her that they will be dropping off a car from the Durham location (meanwhile Stephanie is expecting us to be halfway to the airport). If I could give negative stars for customer service I would. She was so unprofessional. We were told to wait wherever, with a wave of her hand. I am sure that this was meant to be polite. When the car arrives she checks us out. We walk outside to find we had been provided with a compact car instead of the full size car we paid for. We were never once told we were given a smaller car, despite about an $ 80 cost difference between a compact and full size car on a 5 day rental. I went back inside to demand the full size car I rented, informing them I would drive far to get a full size car. I just can’t believe they wouldn’t tell me about the smaller car or offer a refund on the rate difference. She instead said she couldn’t do anything for me and that I would have to call hertz to get the difference refunded. Given we were planning to take a long road trip with 5 people, we needed the bigger car. After we repeatedly requested she do something, we eventually got her to call several other locations to look for a car. Meanwhile I ask my co-​driver to call other rental companies. When we find a car with enterprise, we ask to cancel our reservation and receive a full refund, no cancelation fees, because they do not have the car we PREPAID for. She told me she couldn’t help me and that I would have to call customer service. I called customer service, and they ask me to hand my own phone to her so that they can process the refund. Stephanie’s continued insistence that is wasn’t her problem, it was a hertz problem guaranteed some of the worst costumer service I have ever experienced in any business ever. Her words, «I’m not Hertz, I just work here.»
Needless to say we will never rent from Hertz again. And I will actively suggest people rent elsewhere. We were able to book a rental for 3 pm that same day at Enterprise on Franklin and stopped by to pick the rental up at 1:30. They gave us the full size rental early, for the exact same price that hertz was offering.