Hertz Rent A Car

Hertz Gold membership makes the rental process remarkably easy, and it was convenient to arrange my rental with a San Francisco in-​town office (on Mason). The car and service were fine. My only complaint has as much to do with SF as Hertz. Unlike every other Hertz arrangement for tolls, I was required to call a city number and pay my Golden Gate bridge toll separately, and this had to be done within 48 hr. or Hertz threatened a DAILY $ 5.00 penalty. It took me 6 tries to get through by phone (dropped several times). I also tried the website, but the instructions were unintelligible. Come on SF Hertz ! Make the toll payments automatic!

I can deal with eh customer service in exchange for a cheap car but not for getting charged for things I didn’t agree to so that’s my problem.
Two stars because I didn’t have to wait in a long line but they tried to push the scam insurance on me and gave me attitude when I denied it and they never gave me my rental agreement.
Also, they never did a walk through of the car which was «brand new» and I found some scratches on it that I took pictures of while holding another phone with the time and date just in case they tried to blame that on me.
When I returned the car, the man thought it was strange that I didn’t get a rental agreement and that’s when I realized it was (and they didn’t email it to me either). So when I went to return the keys I asked that everything is ok, trying to make sure I won’t be charged for anything later, and they said it was fine, I wouldn’t be charged for anything else and I was good to go. I’m so paranoid that I even phone recorded our conversation, based on other reviews, and made sure they said I wouldn’t have any surprise charges.
Well I just saw a charge, 22 dollars so it’s not as bad as other people, but for a ‘plate pass’. I never agreed to this and if they had asked me if I wanted it, I would have refused it. I looked it up and a plate pass is something they give for tolls. Now, I didn’t go through ANY tolls and I said I don’t want ANYTHING. This is extremely frustrating and I will be calling them and update this review in accordance with what I am told.

Horrible customer service, will never rent at this location again. I was barely acknowledged, even though I was the only one in line. There was a huge back up for even those considered part of their ‘#1′ club.

Horrible!!! Made a reservation and they had no cars available. There were 15 – 20 others in same situation. Not sure how hertz allows reservations if no cars are available. Bad customer service yelling at customer. Ended up getting car at Alamo after our plans were already ruined for day. Would give 0 stars if possible.

The clerk named Wanda is a heinous roach on the loose. We were in line when she let an older gentleman cut us, claiming she will only serve gold members first. Despite being a gold member myself, I waiting patiently behind. At this point, she yelled at our entire group to stand behind the yellow line, as if we were her tiny toddlers misbehaving. I responded that we were within our limits, waiting our turn, while she had the audacity to let another customer cut us. Her nasty response was that we should have spoken up louder. Then she refused to serve us, claiming we were hollering at her. We went and spoke to the manager, getting a car before anyone else as a result. Please avoid this crazy creature and go to the manager directly if her hair gets prickly on you.

This place is consistently horrible. It’s unfortunately the only hertz that has reasonable pick up hours so I have to come here often to pick up cars but I truly have a visceral reaction every time I come here. The people working at the counters are painfully slow, nothing is automated, the level of competence is so low it makes for a horrible customer experience. Always expect to waste 1.5 hrs of your life coming to pick up a car here.

I would never use this Hertz location ever again. Avoid this place at all cost! Terrible management and the worst customer service in the whole world wide.
AMANDA, WHY ARE YOU STILL WORKING HERE! You talked to me like you owned that place and threw papers at me. and said i can’t do math. What the?! I work with numbers everyday at work. HOW DARE AND RUDE OF YOU. You’re just an employee, it doesn’t hurt to treat customers nicely. And seeing your grumpy face and bitchy attitude at 6am on a Monday was the worst way to start my week AND my vacation.
Anyways. They had no car on the day of my rental and gave me a Sentra. Extremely unsatisfied because the wipers were broken and I had to drive that in the rain ALL the way to LA. I almost couldn’t see anything in the heavy storm. The car also smelled like weed. In the end, I only got a $ 25 discount for my next rental. What the… $ 25 only for a BIG inconvenience.
Back again to the customer service, not only is Amanda rude, everyone that works there is rude as hell. They all look like they hate their job. On the day of returning the car, they never gave me a receipt. When I returned 4 days after, I asked for a physical receipt of my rental and they blamed on me that I should have already receive it. Haha, ok. Why would I come all the way to downtown for a receipt if I already received one. Please please don’t blame customers for your loss of responsibilities. I was charged without an explanation of what I paid for.
Sorry to say but if this terrible management continues, I don’t think anyone would ever come here. I always rent from hertz, but I would never come to this location again.

I see folks upset about bad service or cars that weren’t ready upon arrival. Ha, I have you all beat! I just received a bill for $ 920 in the mail. Apparently, after I left my car without issue, they «rinsed off the mud» to find that there was «damage.» Here are more details:
** A month ago I rented a car for 24 hours, driving it solo one hour each way. There was no hard rain and certainly no incident to report.
** 4 hours after returning it, in fact, I walked back to retrieve the phone charger I had left in the car. They had it for me, we all smiled and I went on my way.
** Later I received one voicemail after my vehicle return indicating that after the mud was washed off there was «damage» found on the car.
** Certain there must have been a mistake, I called back and left a voicemail. No one returned my call. I assumed theirs was an accidental call to the wrong Mazda driver.
** Today, a month later, I received a letter in the mail from a billing agency requesting nearly $ 1K in damages.
Isn’t it exciting?! The guy at the franchise indicated that there was a «fresh crack across the bumper,» which wasn’t noticed until 8 hours post-​return. This after I finally got someone over there on the phone. I’ve just spent 2 hours calling this franchise, which had me call the main Hertz offices, then calling the company who mailed the bill, then calling my credit card company for insurance purposes.
The best part: THERE IS NO CAR WALK THROUGH. You know how you usually walk through a car before and after driving it off to note any pre-​existing or new damage? They don’t do that. I thought it odd, and now I am kicking myself for not having insisted that this be done. I have no pictures, no way to verify the damage was actually attributed to me, and a hefty bill for something I didn’t do. The supposed damage could have been done by the driver before me, or even by an employee while maneuvering in their cramped parking garage. I only have hours to spare calling an endless array of 800 numbers, don’t you?
Do not rent a car here. I repeat: do not rent a car here. Don’t. Do. It.

Rude, abrupt, even nasty. Not true for all Hertz locations, but definitely true for this location.

Very bad management and customer service. I was at the counter 9 Am for reservation done 3 weeks ahead. NO cars my size available at this moment upon clerk’s comment (Amanda). What ??? She said that there is a lot of demand and I might have to wait an hour may be 2 or 3. WHAT???
After 1 hour waiting, I decide to go to the garage and … Supprise… 6 full size cars waiting, took pictures with my phone and got back to Amanda.
She offers me a compact car (for the same prince !!!) and answers me take it or wait again. At the beginning of the process, I clearly stipulated that we travel 4 with suitcases so a full size is mandatory to store 4 large suitcases in trunk. She tells me theses cars (on pictures) do not belong to Hertz… Lie… Lie… The garage clerk told me 5 minutes ago … During this waiting time, I saw clients registered after me leaving with full size car when I was in the garage… Frustration… So i decided to start arguing Very Very loud at reservation desk until the supervisor came to me .
He solved the situation in 15 minutes after 2.5 Hours waiting and lots of measleading information volontarely given by their clerk…
Shame on you Amanda and Hertz, 325 mason st, San Francisco

Horrible customer service. Waited in line for 40 minutes for a 9:00 reservation, then had to wait for my car another 45 minutes, not receiving my car until almost 2 hours after my reservation. Get here way early or better yet don’t come here at all.

This was the worst customer service I have ever experienced in my life! Multiple people behind the desk continue to stare at our group with terrible mean looks. We reserved the car, and had to wait hours in a sweaty, warm waiting room with at least 15 other people also waiting. One worker said I should not ask her questions on the wait but ask who helped me. No kind words, no reassurance, no special offers, the accuracy of the wait time is completely out of proportion. If I could give them zero stars I would. What does it mean to reserve a car in advance without any guarantee that we can receive the car anywhere close to the reserved pick up time? We waited around for hours on our vacation, while the workers could care less about our well being. Terrible experience, DONT EVER RENT A CAR HERE!!! @hertz

I usually love Hertz. We (my fiancé and I) have been renting from hertz for 20 plus years. They’ve usually been super helpful and timely.
But this location is awful. Absolutely horrible customer service, wait times are horrendous, and they tell you one thing on the phone and another thing once you actually get there.
We had to rent a car for Sunday to go see my fiancé brother down in San Carlos. It was a last minute rental, and by last minute, I mean the day before. We called and asked if they could give us a little bigger car, because we had a newborn, literally only a week old, in a rear facing car seat, and we needed a car with enough room to accommodate both the car seat and a stroller. The guy on the phone was very pleasant, and said «no problem! We’ll take care of that for you.»
Great, problem solved, we get a car that fits our needs, you get a five star review.
Nope. We get down there at 11:00, and no one seems to have any idea what they’re doing. We have to wait for almost a hour to get our car. When they bring it out to us, it’s tiny. A Chevy Spark. We asked them «Hey, we asked for a slightly bigger car, and you guys said no problem» the lady just shrugged and said «That’s all we have»
EXCUSE ME??? «That’s all we have»??
You really expect me to load my newborn into that death trap on wheels???
To give you an idea of how freaking tiny this car was, think a little bit bigger that a smart car. With not even a foot of trunk space. To even fit the car seat in the back, I had to move my seat up so much that I was pretty much smashed against the glove box. No problem if you’re short, you would probably fit. But I’m not short. I’m almost 6 ft, not to mention, I’m trying to recover «down there» so any cramped position causes immense pain.
We ended up strapping the stroller to the roof, because it wouldn’t fit in either the car or the trunk. And then we were late to our family dinner, and I was in pain the entire way.
At least the baby slept like a baby.
Thanks Hertz, for making something that was supposed to be a fun outing into a stressful, painful drive through hell.
If I could, I’d give you zero stars.

Rented here twice in 2 days. Booked online first then called to confirmed open/​close time. I’m a gold member and was in & out in under 5 minutes for pickup & 2 minutes on return.
Don’t walk up to book. Do it on
first. 10+ offices in SF.

This was the worst car rental experience I have ever had. I call my reservation in advance and show up to pick up the car. I book a full size car and they give me a compact car. They say the wait was 15 min and in reality it’s over 1 hour. They say they have a car ready when in reality they don’t. No knows what’s going on or how to check the status of your vehicle. If you have all day to spend waiting for a car, rent with Hertz. Worthless car rental place.

Had a terrible experience. I rented a car for 7:30am and it wasn’t ready until several hours later. I will never come here ever again

The worst hertz in the whole wide world. They didn’t have a car for my reservation and I had to wait 40 minutes. I’m also a Gold member but you’re just clumped in and not given any priority. I generally like Hertz but I’m never using this location again.

I needed a car to make an appointment in Marin and didn’t want to have to worry about public transportation. With my appointment at noon on a Saturday, I reserved a car online for pickup at 10:30am. I arrived via public transit at 10:15 and they told me they were putting me on the «waiting list», that the car was not ready, but not to worry, I wouldn’t be charged for the time… It’s now 11:35 and it’s still not ready and I will probably have to cancel my appointment.
No discounts, upgrades…
Needless to say I cannot recommend this place…

So YES, what reviewers are saying about the horrible customer service is true. I came to this Hertz location after reading these reviews and asking myself how bad could it be. Trust me, it really is a bad place to pick up a car.
I went here on Tuesday ¹¹⁄₄ and showed up at opening time 6 am sharp. They made us wait outside at least 15 minutes before opening the doors for us, didn’t apologize or offer any explanation, and handed me the forms without saying a word. Trying to be patient and keep my cool, I completed it and handed it back. It was probably 45 minutes until they decided to actually work on our car, and another hour until we actually got the car. The employees were very unprofessional and plain rude, ignoring us, not responding to our questions, and then elevating their tone of their voices as if they were making us a big favor.
If you are wise enough, you’ll avoid this place and go to another location. Do it, and save yourself the bad experience and headache.

This parking lot is SF’s only Hertz ²⁴⁄₇ (formerly Hertz on Demand) location. I was confident that it would help me staying mobile for my business appointments there.
Unfortunately, my 6 rentals or attempts in 2 weeks brought me more headaches than help.
First example, because the HoD cars are parked in a closed parking lot, the customer has to first go to the Hertz office and get a validated ticket to exit the parking lot. And what happens outside of the office’s opening hours? If there is a non-​validated ticket in the car, the customer can pay at the automatic checkout and hope that they will get reimbursed by Hertz later. But when there is not ticket in the car because the previous driver didn’t leave it inside?
Once, I got notified via email 2 days before that my reservation was canceled, without any specific explanation (and with a standard email text saying «following your request, we canceled your reservation» even though I certainly didn’t request that). No one bothered to call me, no other HoD car was available and no satisfactory alternative solution was offered as I called the customer service, who simply told me that the car’s battery was out of order (does Hertz need 2 days to change a battery?). They did offer me a 50 $ voucher for a taxi ride but this is not a valid alternative when one needs a car to go from San Francisco to Silicon Valley and back. Why not instead a regular Hertz rental car for the same price? That didn’t seem to be possible.
Another time, I went to the parking lot to pick up the car I reserved and got an email from Hertz’ customer service exactly 15 minutes before the scheduled time saying «there is a problem with your reservation». 11 minutes later, another email saying «your car is waiting for you». No other details, no explanation about what happened, unnecessary customer anxiety created… but I rushed to the car before the customer service changed its mind again and could, fortunately, drive to my meeting in Palo Alto.
Another time, I went to the parking lot to pick up the car at the scheduled time (10 AM): no car present. I call the customer service who ends up telling me that the car cannot be localized, in other words, it’s been lost. I wonder when the customer service noticed that the previous customer didn’t return the car on time and why it didn’t tell me earlier. If the car was missing since the previous evening, it’s unacceptable that no one bothered to let me know. I had to take public transportation to the airport and rent a car from there (not from Hertz).
Once in the evening, the car refused to start, the dashboard display kept telling me «key not recognized». I had to use public transportation and came back afterwards to the car (that I couldn’t move) to end the reservation. My email to the customer service explaining the problem and requesting a refund of the rental fees remained unanswered until weeks later.
To sum up, I feel a clear lack of reliability in the system, leading me not to trust it when I have important business meetings. I can understand that HoD is a car sharing system and that cars can break down or that a previous customer can fail to bring it back on schedule. But the indifference with which HoD’s customer service treats these problems, the lack of information towards the customer and the lack of an alternative when things go wrong (Hertz still does rent cars the regular way — so it should be easy to offer a replacement car, especially when a problem is detected a few hours or days in advance!) ruin the inherent assets of Hertz on Demand: flexibility and affordability.
More specifically to San Francisco, it’s a pity that such a large city has only one HoD location and so few cars available, making it even worse when a problem occurs with a reservation.
Finally, the HoD website doesn’t allow me to check my credit balance (knowing that I credited it with 125 € before I arrived in San Francisco) and is frequently subject to failures or service interruptions.
Too bad really, because I believe this is fundamentally a good and VERY affordable system that just needs a better, proactive customer care. That’s why I don’t give the worst note… even though it made me swear (and sweat) more than once.