hertz.ie

STAFF ARE COMMISSION CONMEN AND…

STAFF ARE COMMISSION CONMEN AND HUSTLERS. AVOID! AVOID!I've been hiring cars from Dublin airport for the last 30 years. The early noughties were the wild west years where every company would try to con you for insurance or damages. In recent years it seemed this was over however the Hertz/ Thrifty branch have a strong taste for nostalgia.The front desk staff here are hustlers and conmen, plain and simple. They are on commission for the insurance Hertz/ Thrifty sells on cars and will do everything to not accept your credit card so they can get their commission. Below I outline how they tried to con me and what you can do if you find yourself in a similar situation.Special mention goes to "Stefan", in case that's not his real name he's the short, squat little man with the very loud dublin accent and a demeanour that threatens to break into outright aggression. If he's there you'll definitely hear him before you see him. Also look out for "Lelisha" who seems to be in on the con as well. If you look through the other reviews you will see numerous other customers have had the same problem at this branch, all of a sudden credit cards which were used to insure the car (and are likely used all of the time) somehow don't work at the office. Well lo and behold the same thing happened to me. But that's OK! Because instead you can purchase Hertz's extortionate car insurance that is upwards of £30 a day there and then (despite insurance already being covered on your credit card that they are pretending doesn't function). This can easily lead to your total car hire fee doubling if not tripling!So how does this work?We had already paid for our car hire and went to the hub to collect the keys. When it came to putting our credit card into the credit card reader to confirm the insurance it kept getting declined, even after having our credit card provider stay on the line and confirming that there were no problems at all with the card.Our provider said that the Hertz office were trying to put it through on chip and signature and they should be able to do so on chip and pin or just signature, "Stefan" claimed this was impossible. He insisted it could only be put through on chip and signature which was being declined. In reality he was doing this on purpose to push you towards paying for Hertz's own insurance.After spending two hours trying to outline how the card was working and the provider being on the phone to verify this, we finally relented and said we would take the insurance so we could start our holiday.However...... when it came to be time to pay for Hertz's insurance we also had to use our credit card as it was the only card we had. CAN YOU BELEIVE IT, our credit card all of a sudden wasn't declined by their card reader and they asked us to put a pin in. Upon pointing this out they panicked and got their manager and in the space of a minute, probably in order to save face, the manager was able to put the credit card through on signature.If this happens to you:1.) Refuse to deal with "Stefan", he knows all the tricks so demand to be served by someone else and ask for the manager.2.) Call your credit card company to confirm that your card is working just fine3.) If you relent and take their insurance, Either use the same or another credit card on the chip and pin and when it comes time to enter your pin, point this out to them that your credit card is suddenly working.4.) If you do have to accept their insurance, you should be able to make a claim for it with your credit card company as the fault is clearly with their card readers. Check with your provider for what evidence is needed.Edit: You give this same reply to everyone. I've provided the staff first names and the branch, what more do you need?

Date of experience: Jul 10, 2023