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After booking a car with Hertz Croatia (Dubrovnik and Zagreb) in August 2016, and after a number of serious scams experienced thanks to Hertz Croatia, I want to alert everyone not to fall into the same traps! My booking for the 7-day car rental was made by a travel agency I have been working with privately and professionally for years.

The travel agency paid to Hertz Croatia directly. My wife and I with were traveling with two regular suitcases (20 kg each), so we needed a car which could fit both in the trunk. This requirement was highlighted during the booking, so Hertz contract was clearly mentioning that the car (class D. ), would be able to take the 2 bags in the trunk.

1. HERTZ CROATIA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT PEOPLE While we were waiting in the *** at 35 degrees Celsius for an hour, and an old lady (cca 75 years old) was kicked out of Hertz by the employees because she sat inside the Hertz shop while waiting for her family to pick her up (they also rented a car with Hertz). That was a clear sign that things could go bad with Hertz Croatia. If you have children or elderly people with you, and you were unfortunate enough to book with Hertz Croatia, the best solution is to leave them inside the airport while you wait in the *** and you get your car.

Do not expect any comprehension from Hertz staff. 2. HERTZ CROATIA DOESN’T RESPECT THE BOOKING AGREEMENT AND WILL TRY TO CONVINCE YOU THAT YOU NEED TO PAY EXTRA FOR THE CAR YOU HAVE ALREADY BOOKED AND PAID FOR Despite my Hertz Croatia booking confirmation clearly guaranteed the category which will fit both of the standard check in suitcases, employee of Hertz Dubrovnik, was very rude insisting that we should take the smaller car as there is not so much availability in the tourist season (without any compensation). If we however wanted a car within the D category able to take the 2 suitcases (which we have already paid for), he insisted that we should pay 150 Euros more (!!!) or simply drive one of the bags on the back seat of the smaller car for 7 days.

Hertz Croatia employee also offered another option – for us to leave the Hertz Croatia shop, as he didn’t want to waste any more time with us. The deal by Hertz Croatia towards its paying clients was – take whatever we give you even though you paid for more, if by any chance you are asking for what was agreed and prepaid, you need to pay extra, otherwise you can find another rental company. 3. BE CAREFUL IF YOU ARE OFFERED TO CANCEL THE RENTAL CONTRACT After this disgusting incident which our vacation started with, we checked out the prices of other rental companies, found them cheaper and went back to Hertz Croatia, to cancel the booking as they couldn’t provide the service they sold.

Hertz Croatia employee tried to force me to sign a document to cancel the booking, however he didn’t want to provide a written statement that Hertz will pay back the money for the booking, which means that Hertz Croatia would just keep the money for the rental that they didn’t provide. Finally Hertz Croatia employee called his boss who allowed to give us the car category we paid for. The car was Seat Toledo, quite old, dirty and in generally in a bad shape with several damages. In order not to waste anymore time, because we were already late to our program, we accepted the car.

4. BE CAREFUL IF HERTZ CROATIA TRIES TO CHARGE YOU A FEE FOR VISITING NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES Hertz Croatia employee asked if we wanted to drive outside Croatian borders (for reference, Montenegro is only some kilometres away from Dubrovnik), and if so we need to pay a fee to Hertz of 27 Euros. This is an internal Hertz policy and there was nothing we can do. While Hertz Croatia employee was insulting us in front of everyone in the shop that we were the worst customers ever and that he is losing his time, while his colleagues were laughing at us, we realized that there was a price list on the wall, stating that 1 day by car out of Croatia was 9 Euros.

It seems Hertz Croatia will do anything to charge you more and more money for nothing. Later we have seen online that this is a very common scam with rental companies in Dubrovnik. The Croatian Insurance Bureau claims that there is no need for such a fee. Make sure you are not scammed by this “internal policy”.

5. MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE AMOUNTS HERTZ CROATIA TRIES TO CHARGE AS DEPOSIT Hertz Croatia employee said he will charge 10.000 KN for deposit as a guarantee for damages, while the official price list is 7.500 KN. Always check the amounts. 6.

BEWARE OF HERTZ CROATIA TRYING TO CHARGE THE SAME RENTAL COST TWICE Hertz Croatia employee casually tried to charge us 3500 KN (cca 500 Euros). We have asked why. He claimed his system says we didn’t pay, even though travel agency paid to Hertz days before. We called the travel agency (roaming costs at this time were already over 50 Euros) to confirm their payment.

The travel agency confirms they have paid Hertz Croatia and the employee should check the voucher. The manager blamed us for not showing the voucher. Consequently, if you have prepaid the rental, and you don’t show the voucher immediately (which is in their system), Hertz Croatia will try to charge you again. Hertz Croatia pretends their IT system is very old and it doesn't work well.

The goal is to extract even more money from naive customers. Later we heard from the locals that this is a common procedure for Hertz Croatia for their employees to receive a bonus. 7. HERTZ MAY NOT CREDIT MILES IN YOUR FREQUENT FLYER CARD DESPITE ONLINE THEY PROMISE THEY WILL As Portuguese national airline, TAP, is one of Hertz’s affiliate partners, this was also playing the role while choosing the rental company, as transactions like these add additional miles to the frequent flyer card.

When asked Hertz Croatia to credit the miles, they claimed they are not partners with TAP. After showing them the official website, as seen HERE, it is obvious that there is a partnership, Hertz Dubrovnik informed us that they don’t have to credit any miles. Afterwards Hertz Croatia confirmed they will credit the miles, but in reality even after 6 months the miles were never credited. 8.

NEVER SIGN THE CAR PICK UP CONTRACT WITH HERTZ CROATIA BEFORE CHECKING THE CAR IN DETAIL Before the car arrived, we were asked to sign the pick up contract (different from the car status report). When we took over the car, the fuel deposit was 90 %, even though the contract mentions 100%. Hertz Croatia employee said that this doesn’t make a huge difference!!!?? As we were tired of this behaviour we asked him to write that the deposit was not full or change the contract to state 90%.

Even though he finally wrote on the contract the deposit was not full, he informed us that his note doesn’t mean anything because what is important is the data in the IT system. We even took pictures of the deposit meter. If we wanted a new contract, we would need to wait at least 45 minutes in the line again. We were already late for our program, so we signed the contract even though it meant subsidizing Hertz by delivering the car full even we didn’t receive it full.

As expected, when we returned the car 100% full deposit, Hertz didn’t offer to refund anything (even though the Dubrovnik employee wrote the note with his signature), and another rude Hertz Zagreb employee said that this was our own problem. 9. ALWAYS TAKE PICTURES OF THE CAR WHEN YOU PICK IT UP We checked the car with the Hertz Dubrovnik employee, and spotted many scratches. The employee said it was not needed to point the extension or the number of scratches exactly.

As we do not know the procedure of Hertz Croatia we found it normal. On the right side of the car there was a little damage below the threshold of the back door, which we pointed out, but the employee said he has already marked the area. Later we understood that this was done on purpose in order to extract money from us. We pointed out that there were many stains in the seats of the car, but the employee said for us not to worry because he had no place to document the stains.

He said it was not an area that they check. We mentioned there was a bad smell of inside the car. The employee said it was because it was just cleaned and the smell will disappear after some hours. Upon the car return, employee of Hertz Zagreb accused us for a large scratch in the area which was marked during the pick.

The Hertz Zagreb employee said her colleagues documented things different. So in order for you not fall in this trap, I suggest you always take pictures of the whole car before you start driving, otherwise you may be charged for something you didn't do. We were forced to pay an extra 350 euros for something we didn't do at all. 10.

IF THERE IS A LIGHT POPPING UP IN THE CAR DO NOT BELIEVE IT WILL DISAPPEAR. RETURN IT IMMEDIATELLY When we finally picked up the car and our day was already ruined, we noticed an orange light popped up indicating a problem with the pressure of the tyres. We asked the Hertz employee who verifying the car with us about it, and he says we should not worry about it, as it will disappear soon. For him, this was normal.

I have asked him what would be the correct pressure of the tyres. He didn’t know the answer so he was checking inside the car where was that information and he went inside the office to ask where was that information. So nobody knew where was the desired pressure of the tyres written. It seemed that finally we were ready to go.

We left the rental station around 2:30 pm, knowing that our lunch would be lost but trying to arrive in Dubrovnik on time for our boat trip. While we were driving towards Dubrovnik, the orange light was not turning off. I was expecting that after some kilometers it would turn off as it was mentioned by the employee. Before entering in Dubrovnik city and as the orange light was not turning off, I got naturally worried because it could mean a huge problem in the security of the car and decided to come back to airport, because if we would come later, I am sure that Hertz Dubrovnik would mention it was our fault.

We tried to find the instructions book of the car inside the car but there was nothing. We arrived back in Dubrovnik airport at around 3.45 PM. We go to Hertz rental office, and the manager shows again that we were not welcome. He wanted us to wait in line but we calmly explained the problem and he asked another employee to check the problem.

The new employee talks to him and apparently understands where is the problem and goes to the car and removes the orange light. The other employee mentions now that the orange light needs to be reset every time there is a problem with the tyres and they forgot to reset it. I verified that in reality the orange light is no more popping up, so we were relieved that we would not need to change car again. We asked the Hertz employee to update the hours on the contract, as we actually spent 2 hours during the pick up of the car.

He mentioned that this was not his issue and if we wanted we needed to go to talk with the manager but of course we should wait in line. Probably around 30 or 45 minutes more. At this time we had lost our lunch, our boat trip, we were so disappointed with the treatment of Hertz Dubrovnik that we decided to be blackmailed and decided to leave without any update in terms of the contract, or any apologies by Hertz Dubrovnik. 11.

DO NOT EXPECT THAT HERTZ WILL COMPENSATE OR EVEN APOLOGIZE FOR ANY OF THE PROBLEMS CAUSED BY THEM If due to the problems caused by Hertz Croatia you need spend money for roaming, you need to fill up the gas tank, you need to return car loosing time and gas, you need to clean the car that was not delivered clean...you will get a response that mentioning it is your own problem.

Probably all these issues are related with bonus schemes for Hertz employees who try to charge and benefit in any way they can. At least next time you book a car in Croatia, you know that if you book Hertz you may be running in trouble and extra costs which can easily ruin your holidays.

Reason of review: Poor customer service.

Monetary Loss: $700.

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution.

Location: Ul. Grada Vukovara 274, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

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Guest

We had similar terrible experience today hertz Zagreb. We were given malfunctioning car we returned next day and we're immidiately blamed. This is a scam

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