Hired a car from Hertz but they supplied an unwanted electric car

400ixl

Simple answer is they should have refused the car and waited for a suitable vehicle if they did not want an EV.

Couple of years ago we had booked a full size SUV. We did the pre allocation and they allocated. pickup. As we were doing a road trip with suitcases this would be unsuitable. When we got to the pickup we told then this and they re-allocated and SUV. Yes, it meant it took and extra 40 minutes to get sorted, but it was done with no fuss.

Once you accept the vehicle, you are pretty much done. They could have taken it to another pickup point and asked for it to be replaced with something more suitable once that had understood it was not going to work for them.

What outcome are you hoping for seeing at the hire has been completed?

Veteransaver

sidewayssyd said:

Thanks Pedaller - they couldn't find anything above a 150watt charger and at one point as they were getting low, they had to come off the motorway and go into Stafford to find one. The car stopped charging at 50% - maybe that was lack of knowledge on their part but they didn't know what to do but drive on and go somewhere else. They were given a Hertz card to swipe at the chargers to pay, but it didn't work. They were at their grandparents for 3 hours but they had no charging point of course so with normal mains supply, the battery went up by 3%. As they got back in the early hours, 5.5 hours after the Hertz office closed, they dropped it off at 7.30am and were gone before the office opened as they had a day trip booked before flying home, so no chance to complain in person. Incidentally, on the morning of the hire, the Hertz woman was incredibly dismissive of another customer who came in reporting that they had trouble with charging their electric car - they'd phoned the Hertz helpline who told them to go to their nearest office and get it changed. Heated seats! No, i've just asked them and they had no idea.
Tacpot - thanks for your comments too. Maybe they would have rejected it if they hadn't received assurances of how quick it was to charge and how easy. This was anything but the case. And this was a trip to see her grandfather, almost certainly for the last time. If Hertz had only one car available, would others at St Pancras have any, how long would it take to get one and no other car company desks were open anyway. With 550 miles to do in one day, they had to get on the road.

Are you saying they passed lots of chargers under 150kW? That doesn't really make sense if they were at risk of running low. There wouldnt be much difference time wise if they just used a 50kW one but most now are 75kW plus. I don't think a polestar will even charge anywhere near 150kW for a lot of the charge session anyway.

sidewayssyd

Silverware - blimey, talk about victim blaming. "Plenty of people own EVs and do that sort of journey in a day without issue." - those who have owned and used a Polestar for some time, maybe. These had never even sat in an electric car before. "it may take slightly more effort to plan your stops than it would to top up with petrol, it is straightforward." They were presented with this car minutes before a 270+mile journey. The Hertz website for the Polestar says 'range 250 miles'. And another thing...the hire includes only 300 miles. Extra miles are charged at 24p per mile. They were going to see her dying grandfather - they didn't want to have to **** around sitting waiting for the bloody car to charge and when it wouldn't go beyond 50% on the way back was the last straw. That meant more stops. They used their credit cards to pay and yes, the total charges for the day were just short of £120. "A lack of familiarity wouldn’t be that different to driving a brand of car you haven’t used before." Well done you

Back to rejecting the car - they had booked the car about 3 weeks before and were obviously expecting the petrol Mercedes SUV, or SIMILAR. I think it's reasonable to say that an electric car is not similar, in terms of how it requires you to interact with it during the hire, and especially so on a long single day journey. The information from the Hertz woman that charging was easy and available everywhere set their minds at rest, but that was patently not the case. What were they to do if they rejected it? Hertz St Pancras had no other cars and other hire companies there probably wouldn't have cars hanging around. People pre-book so they bring cars in. They had no choice

sidewayssyd

400ixl - people keep saying they should have refused it. They had no choice - weekend at 8am, at St Pancras. Not a huge airport site with plenty of other opportunities. I've already mentioned the sad family aspect of the journey which was their over-riding objective of the day. They were assured the journey would be no trouble. How could they know how it would turn out. Why do you think Hertz are getting rid of 20000 Teslas in the US and cancelling orders for GM and Polestar (heard on the BBC recently)? The CEO who oversaw orders for about 70000 Teslas and 175000 GM/Polestars has gone. Because people don't like them for hiring, they don't want range anxiety and the hassle with charging versus a simple petrol fill up. Hertz underestimated this and also underestimated the cost of servicing and damage repair. The woman on the desk made no mention of the range of the Tesla being 250 miles on a full charge on an ideal weather condition day, nor that only 300 miles were included in the hire. What am I looking for? A full refund is my starting point. Re charging points. We logged on and looked at availability as they were coming south - we saw very few 150kW sites listed as available. None of you were there on the day, seeing the range left, seeing how quickly the range went down, seeing the charging stop at 50%, with no experience of using an electric car. It was a shambles, all the responsibility of Hertz. In their reply to me, Hertz said 'we could have handled the situation better'. 

jimi_man

Despite what people might glibly say about ‘plenty of owners doing that type of trip routinely’ the reality is that in winter, few EVs will make it from London to the Lake District on a full charge. Which is fine if you’re used to it but for those of us whose cars will easily get there and back on a full tank of fuel it can be quite unnerving, especially if you hadn’t had any experience of EVs (and they are different).  So I do sympathise. 

Chalk it down to experience and don’t use Hertz again. It’s unlikely to make any difference but it might make you feel better!