Hertz customers complain of having been charged hundreds of dollars for minor scratches and bumps that have been detected by the new scanner fed by the rental car giant – With little appeal to contest the charges.
Patrick, a client who rented a Volkswagen in Thrifty, belonging to Hertz, at Hertz Atlanta Airport – his first American store to implement Uveye Tech – Tell the reader That he received a “minutes” bill after the return of the car.
Hertz demanded that Patrick coughs $ 440 for a thumb scratch on one of the wheels of the car. The costs included $ 250 for repair, $ 125 for “treatment” and $ 65 for “administration”.
When Patrick connected to the Hertz web application, the damage that has been reported by UVEYE scanners was photographed.
He told the reader that he had offered a discount – $ 52 if he had paid within two days, or $ 32.50 if he had paid in a week. But Patrick was held.
“Save $ 30 to accept responsibility is worth it,” he told the reader.
When Patrick tried to resume the question with a live customer service representative, he found the challenge quite intimidating.
Customers are directed to a web portal where they can display the photos before and after the scanners.
But if they have concerns, their options are limited. A chatbot can point out the problem for examination, but there is no live agent who to talk to.
According to Patrick, the support by email is possible, but the answers can take up to 10 days – well after the expiration of the early payment delivery, according to Patrick.
A frustrated user of Reddit, publishing under the Handle Teachers_Pimpcain, shared a similar experience After returning a car to the site of Atlanta de Hertz.
“It automatically sent me an invoice for this” ding “. $ 195, “they wrote.
“I will no longer use Hertz. Tense to customer service and they said they maintain AI. ”
Many complaints focus on lack of transparency around how the costs are calculated.
While Hertz says that processing costs cover “the cost of detection and estimation of damage” and administrative costs “cover part of the costs [Hertz incurs] Following the treatment of your complaint, ”these explanations considered customers as vague – especially when they have no way of contesting the charges in real time.
In a declaration in the campaign, Hertz defended the system, saying: “The vast majority of rentals are without incident. When damage occurs, our goal is to improve the rental experience by providing greater transparency, precision and speed to the process. ”
However, some customers see it differently. They say that the AI system seems designed to maximize income, not equity. The ability of technology to instantly generate costs – without human interaction and a short window for discounts – is less like transparency and more at pressure.
A Reddit user responding to Professor_Pimpcain wrote last week: “Wow is crazy! Never use Hertz again.”
Earlier this year, Hertz has announced that he is associated with UveyeA company based in Israel specializing in rapid and automated automated inspections It was described as an “MRI for vehicles”.
At the end of the year, Hertz says that he will have more than 100 of the scanners fed by Uveye operating in the locations of the American airport.
These machines perform full -body vehicle scanners in a few seconds, detecting damage such as bumps, scratches and cracked glass before and after a rental.
While Hertz is the only large rental company by largely using the system, Uveye technology is already well established in other car sectors, with customers like General Motors, Hyundai, Amazon and Carmax.
The company’s inspection systems are used in hundreds of dealers, fleet places and vehicle auctions worldwide. Uveye also worked with GM and Mobility connection to inspect cars at dealerships during service appointments, but not in traditional rental contexts.
Uveye would be in talks with additional rental agencies, which suggests that wider adoption could be on the horizon.
Hertz has already faced controversy. In recent years, the company has been criticized for the invoicing of electric vehicle tenants for petrol due to an “systems error” and invoicing a customer $ 10,000 for mileage on a “unlimited” rental.
In 2022, five customers continued Hertz after being wrongly arrested for allegedly stolen from the cars they had returned.
The position asked for comments from Hertz and Uveye.
