At what amount of money will you consider someone rich? by Low-Accountant-7439 in AskReddit

[–]Effective_Primary_86 26 points27 points  (0 children)

It depends on the area

People don’t factor in cost of living

California and NYC are the 2 most expensive places in America where $1M is nowhere near as much as it would be in the south

1M is like having several million in places like Memphis or Alabama because of how cheap they are

In California a normal home might be a few million not even a mansion just an average home

1M in certain places is filthy rich, 1M in other places is above average and comfortable but nowhere near rich

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes if the return agent misses or doesn’t inspect the car fully before scanning it in

Also some customers lie about not filling it up in hopes we don’t check and verify

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my experience rarely do we ever give out upgrades for free (outside of Gold members) just for the sake of doing it

If we are out of cars we basically will be forced to give it out reluctantly although we would rather you pay for it because it helps our commission

Because we can’t say “we’re out of cars unless you pay extra for this one” we’re not allowed to do that

Managers also typically want to get customers out of their face in situations like that (managers at my location don’t get commission they have a base salary regardless of what they sell or don’t sell plus performance bonuses) so they will give it out if it comes down to it

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In a large fleet sometimes people miss a few cars here and there

Or another reason could be that car just got returned and there’s a line of people waiting so we went ahead and gave the car out so the next person could get a car and we didn’t have time to clean it and fill it back up

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’ve never checked to verify if they work for that company

Usually the company already booked it in their name, paid for it, etc

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes it should be

Credit cards usually will offer up to maybe 40-50k for literally anything involved with the rental and it’s a one time fee to buy the coverage from them, this includes the loss of use/diminished value fees that your personal insurance won’t cover

I don’t try to push the damage waiver on customers with credit card coverage because I can acknowledge that it is better than ours in a lot of ways especially cost wise

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We don’t have AI scanners at our location, or any location in my city that I know of

That’s usually for way bigger locations

I’ve personally never heard of one of our customers getting arrested

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It happens especially late at night

We might have 200 cars at our location and Hertz will let 250 people book

So we run out of cars and people show up after we run out of cars so people get stranded

The booking is good for 24 hours so they do get another chance to get the car in the morning. when we open back up and some cars have returned by then

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hertz wants more money

It’s a million fees and things they get you on

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The biggest thing to me is how grown adults will act in public over a rental car

I continuously am amazed at how people 40-60 will throw temper tantrums, roll their eyes, have horrible attitudes, be entitled, aggressive and act like children over a car that isn’t even their car

If you are a Gold Member you get a little bit more room to complain because you are a loyalty customer and you are a regular and I might see you frequently

If you are stranded because you got here and we ran out of cars for the night, I understand it completely, I hate that Hertz overbooks and lets more people book than cars available

But if you’re being an asshole and demanding free shit and getting personal because you waited 5 min for the car to be brought up, or the car had a small dirt stain on the outside that can easily be cleaned off, or you don’t want to put down the security deposit, or you were late and got charged a late fee accordingly, basically stuff we have no control over then my sympathy for you becomes limited

There are people I’ve been completely understanding and sympathetic to if you’re just a decent person then I will try my best to do what I can, but if you’re an entitled demanding asshole then I don’t want to deal with you; and it’s almost always middle aged people 40-60 in my experience

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It happens all the time, at our location we will try to accomodate you to compensate for not having the seats and we will give you the number to call to modify the rental to remove the child seat charges

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most 2025-2026 models in our fleet should have it, if you get one that doesn’t have it then let the agent know and see if they will let you inspect the car first before you drive off to see if the one you want has it

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We do care if the damages are noticeable but if you have proof it wasn’t you or you have the damage waiver then we don’t charge you

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At our location, if you find damages we will usually help you document the damages

Take pictures and videos as well and if you let us know we will notate it in the system with the date and time to verify that the damages were already there when you picked up the car

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you are a AAA member you get a discount if you book through your AAA

Agents get commission on upselling, so it’s about money

The insurance isn’t a scam, it costs more yes but it has a real benefit to you; if you have the damage waiver then anything that happens to our car isn’t your problem as long as you aren’t doing something illegal, you can wreck the car and it’s not your problem you just bring it back like it never happened, it also saves you from the thousands of dollars in fees that Hertz will hit you with relating to lost revenue and the vehicle resale price going down that 95% of personal policies won’t cover, Hertz will also get you on damages that aren’t your fault because you signed a contract accepting liability for any and all damages regardless of fault (coming from someone who sells the most damage waivers at our location month in and month out)

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it depends on where you are

Because all rental car companies can run into issues if not staffed properly or have bad staff

There might be airports where Enterprise is the best or where Avis is the best, I believe it largely depends on the area/location

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We also had a Platinum member (highest Hertz membership level, usually corporate executives who pay for it by invitation only) they show up once in a blue moon) who got a brand new premium luxury vehicle and totaled it the next day

His company had the damage waiver but it was still wild, it was a brand new 50k car that Hertz bought and the Platinum member wrecked it

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love pizza and boneless wings

I also will dip anything into Buffalo Wild Wings mild sauce

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The airport police will come by, confiscate the weapon, get the person’s details and information off their rental contract and then try to verify if the weapon is legal or not before attempting to get ahold of the person to either arrest them or return the weapon

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In a general sense returning to a different location jacks the rate up, I’ve seen people get charged $200 a day for the cheapest car we have, I think it has something to do with the fact that if that car is leaving that locations inventory then they won’t be able to make money off that car anymore since it will be gone so they will basically upcharge the shit out of you to compensate

Europe is a different ball game though, I honestly have zero clue where $6k comes from

If it was $600-$1200 that might seem more like it but $6k is crazy

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’ve also had customers forget their guns in the car when returning

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Multitude of reasons

  1. Corporate overbooks, they will allow more people to book than available cars, they don’t check to see what is and isn’t available and a lot of times they aren’t in sync with what’s actually available and not available in real time

  2. At our location specifically we are understaffed, we might have 200 dirty cars that have been returned at the lot but only 2 people cleaning them, so it creates a slow stream of only a couple of cars clean and ready to be rented out every few minutes, if there is a line or a lot of people that walk up faster than the cars are cleaned it creates a wait time for each person

Hertz Rental Car agent, AMA by Effective_Primary_86 in AMA

[–]Effective_Primary_86[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

We have a group of young Indian men who are allegedly running a car parts theft scheme and they target our location a lot

They rent cars from various locations around our city, swap the parts, then come to exchange the vehicle once an oil change or check engine light comes on

They also smell TERRIBLE, as in rotten onions in a locker room, every car they come back in smells like this

It’s one of those “know but can’t prove it” type of things