It all started out like another adventure with us picking up a car in Hertz Office in Frankfurt for a short trip to Linz in Austria. Everything went fine until three days later when we turned in the car in Munich, where the trouble started.
We were asked to bend down to have a look at a damage they claimed that we had done. A small scratch that was located underneath the bumper, barely visible if not looking closely enough. This was nothing we had managed to see in the dark parking garage when we picked it up, and of course we had to sign a form saying that it was there when we handed it in. We complained at the hand in desk at first, but decided that we would just take some photos and send in a explanation of the situation afterwards. A few days after handing in the car I got billed 800 euroes, where 600 of them were due to the damages they claimed we had done.
We sent in a formal complaint together with the pictures we took, and after over a month we received a rather disappointing response. None of our questions were answered, and all we received was a another damage bill in German together with the pictures below. Our second complaint was responded to with a standard “copy- paste” response where it said that we had accepted their terms and conditions and that the case was closed.
My advise to you if you do rent a car is to check the car properly for damages when you pick it up because when you hand it in they will do their best to find something to charge you with.
Hertz own photos of the damage (lower front) which was not seen at the time of pickup.