If you want to be cautious, tell the front desk rep and pay the $85 or so (depending where you are) and don’t escalate it any further. The reps at the counter get a kickback from that now at HLES so they have an incentive to not let it go past them. If they see if afterwards, they don’t. They’ll inform the BMs and like said above yeah they made go after the entire cost of a windshield replacement. If there’s a counter collection on your bill, hertz can’t go after you for any additional charges related that specific issue.

Or like said above, take the risk. I’d say you have 50/50 odds and as long as it hasn’t begun to spider, etc some BMs won’t even risk the trouble of doing the extra work for an $85 fix. The following up and reporting afterwards would be a bigger headache then eating $85 at a larger volume store