Boycott Hertz and Especially in Cancun and Playa Del Carmen!

Hertz in Playa del Carmen has shafted me for $277 of "damage" that was done to the car before we rented the vehicle and AFTER we had pointed out the damage to the attendant on the initial checkout. Moral of the story - Avoid Hertz and if you cannot then take a digital video camera with you to the check out.


And now, for the rest of the story. We were staying at timeshare that we own in Playa Del Carmen. We decided to rent a car from the in-house rental car company - Hertz. When I contacted the desk attendant, Maria, she told me the rental rate included insurance. When I asked if the insurance covered all damage to the car, she said yes. I rented the vehicle believing we had full coverage (first mistake).

The next day, we met the lot attendant at the car and I immediately noticed he was sweating profusely even though the day was not that hot (yet) and we were under a huge palapa providing ample shade. As the trunk was open, we threw our snorkeling gear in the trunk. He immediately ran back, said something, and then showed us that there was one of those cheap don't go over 10 miles on this tire if you value your life spares.

We then began going around the car and marking the damage on the check out sheet. The entire front bumper cowling (bottom part of the bumper) had almost continuous scrapes across it (hitting the speed bumps on the freeway too fast) and numerous scrapes and dents over most of the car.

When we got to the left rear of the vehicle, I immediately noticed a major yellow and black scrape mark. The mark started out small at the bottom of the corner, reached its widest point at the top edge of the bumper, and then continued into the rear tail light area including an obvious chip missing from the tail light (See photographs below). The damage was obvious to a two year old and when I pointed it out the attendant, Jorge, said, "Si, si" and pointed at some marks on the paper with a letter next to it. I presumed that he had correctly marked the paper (second mistake).

The wife and I went out exploring to check out the lesser publicized cenotes and now I know why they are the lesser-known cenotes. We still had a fun day and returned late that night after the desk had closed. The next morning I went down to the Hertz desk and Maria, the attendant, was 15 minutes late and by then there were five customers waiting for her. As I was returning the car, she just told me to give her the keys and they would close out the account later. As we were scheduled to go on a two-tank dive in 15 minutes and I was third in line, I gave her the keys and walked away (third mistake). After the dives, we spent the rest of the day celebrating my birthday.

It was not until the next day that I remembered I had to close out the rental car contract. When I walked up to the desk, Maria said that there was damage to the car and that they were going to have to charge me for it and that they had called me the day before about the damage (later found out the resort phone system was not storing voice mail messages so I never got the message). When she took me to the car and point out the black and yellow damage to the car, I almost blew a gasket. I told her that the damage was there when we checked it out and we had specifically pointed the damage out to Jorge. She said they had called Jorge in on his day off and he said the damage was not there when he checked out the car. I was still raising havoc with her so she called the "manager" in Playa Del Carmen, Mr. Dobre, and then handed me the telephone.

His initial statement to me was that the damage was not on the paper so we must have done it and therefore we were going to have to pay for it. I explained to him how the damage was there previously, how the damage had to have come from someone backing into a yellow and that we had pointed out the damage to Jorge when we checked out the car. He blew me off by stating that he would look at the damage but it was clear that his "mind was made up; don't confuse me with the facts!"

Knowing that I was not going to get any satisfaction with Mr. Dobre, we immediately complained to the staff at the Royal Haciendas. One of the staff members went back to the Hertz desk and pointed out to Maria that we owned a timeshare there, were coming back every year, and wanted to know why they were taking some lot attendant's word over ours. Maria explained that it was out of her hands so the staff member finally had Maria call Mr. Dobre back so that she could talk with him. While the conversation was in Spanish, it was clear that she was getting nowhere with Mr. Dobre.

When she hung up the phone, she used a Spanish cuss word to describe Mr. Dobre. The Hacienda employee then went and found the resort manager, Mr. Estrada. Shortly thereafter, Maria, the Hertz front desk woman and the Hacienda employee went into the manager's office. After about 15 minutes, I was told that we could confront Jorge about the damage the next morning. We were told that only through the Hacienda manager's influence did Maria at the Hertz desk finally arranged to have us confront Jorge about the damage.

The next morning, Estella Butron, a concierge at the Haciendas; Teresa, my wife; and I met Jorge in front of the Haciendas to discuss this “damage.” As I speak no Spanish and I wanted an impartial witness to this incident, I had Estella translate for me. At the beginning of this discussion, Jorge showed me the check out paper and I noticed there were two marks near the left rear corner.

When I asked Jorge what the two marks on the page represented, he pointed at a small chip on the left rear quarter panel that did not even go through the color coats much less down to bare metal. When he pointed to this "chip", I immediately stated that there was no way anyone could notice that damage. In addition, the check out paper that he had marked showed two locations and that was only one. He then stated that the damage was only the “black mark” on the edge of the bumper but nothing else. When I confronted him with the fact that the black mark on the bumper edge occurred at the same time that all of the black and yellow marks below the bumper were made, he seemed to be at a loss for words.

At this time, Estella began explaining (in Spanish) that the damage to the bumper below the line was caused by the same accident that caused the damage at the edge of the bumper. She pointed out that the damage below the edge of the bumper had the same width and same black markings in it that the line on the edge of the bumper had on it.

She showed him that there was damage above and below the bumper edge and that whatever had caused the damage at the edge had ALSO caused the damage above and below the edge. Although Estella and Jorge were speaking in Spanish, I could see Estella pointing out the damage and could pick up words here and there. Further, Teresa, my wife, was standing there listening and understood the conversation between the two since she is fluent in Spanish. As Estella was confronting Jorge with these facts, he AGAIN changed his story and stated that the damage to the bumper was there when we checked out the vehicle but not the damage to the tail light.

Estella told me that Jorge had changed his story AGAIN. She stated that he was now including the damage to the bumper but not the tail light. I pointed out to Estella that the damage on the bumper and tail light both had the same black and yellow markings that move horizontally across the damage. In addition, the damage at the top of the bumper is EXACTLY the same width as the damage to the bottom of the tail light. Further, it would be impossible to damage the tail light without damaging the bumper

From my years of experience in accident analysis, I can tell you that the damage to the bumper and tail light were done at the same time. The damage is consistent with someone backing the vehicle into a yellow pole as the rear of the vehicle is moving to the right (Does the Hertz lot in Playa have yellow poles?). I told and showed Estella why this had to be what occurred whenever this damaged occurred. Estella then confronted Jorge with this analysis and Jorge stated in Spanish (per my wife), “Now they are going to make me pay for the damage.”

Teresa, my wife, immediately asked Estella in English why they would make him pay for the damage if he was not driving the vehicle. Estella asked him if he drove the vehicle to the Royal Haciendas and he said no, he just checks the cars out. While it was never made clear why he would have to pay for the damage for what we thought AT THE TIME was a mistake, Estella talked with Jorge about trying to buff out the damage or take other steps so that he would not have to pay for the damage. At this point, Estella told him to go back to the Hertz counter and work something out with Maria (fourth mistake by not going in with him).

Estella, Teresa, and I talked for several minutes and then went back inside. Estella went over to the Hertz desk, talked with Maria or Jorge, and then came back (fifth mistake by not going with her). She told us that we would not be charged for the damage. At the time, we thought the issued had been resolved.

On Saturday morning while were having a leisurely morning preparing to leave, I thought I would quickly check my e-mails. When I was done, Teresa was still in the shower so I figured that I would check my credit card account to make sure we were only charged the $50 rental fee. When I logged on, I was livid when I saw that Hertz was charging me $327 for the rental. We immediately cleaned up, packed up, and headed back for the Hertz desk. When Maria refused to budge on the charge, we became very vocal and demanded to see the Hacienda's manager. I explained my background, showed him the photographs of the damage to the car, and he said he would talk with the owner of the company.

Two weeks later we received an e-mail from Hertz telling us that they were standing by their manager's decision. Even thought in our confrontation with Jorge, we caught him in outright lies about whether that damage was present when we checked it out and that he was clearly attempting to cover for himself or some else he knew had done the damage, Hertz did not care. When I pointed out as a retired police officer, when a person under questioning is continually changing their story, it is a clear indication that they are lying and they still did not care.

In this case, either Jorge intentionally left the damage off the check out sheet to protect someone at Hertz or to intentionally charge us for damage that was previously done by another renter. In either case, Hertz has at least one, and, I suspect, multiple employees who are making it a practice to charge tourists for damage that was already charged to someone else. In California, we consider fraud and send people to jail for that.

After searching on the web, I believe that Hertz, especially in Mexico, a practice of ignoring the truth and going with what will give them the greatest amount of money in the short run. Unfortunately, Hertz’ actions are very short sighted for multiple reasons. First, I will never rent from Hertz again, not just in Mexico, but anywhere in the world. Second, I will be posting on Trip Advisor, travel and tourist blogs, other forums on the internet, and anywhere else that I can, warnings to other people that Hertz tries to scam tourists and to avoid renting from Hertz both in Playa Del Carmen and worldwide. Hertz recently tried to cheat another tourist (see this link:

http://www.playa.info/playa-del-carmen-forum/49299-ripped-off-hertz-highway.html)

There is a saying that business people here have regarding customer service:

“A happy customer will tell one or two additional people; an unhappy customer will tell a dozen people.”

I have already told dozens of people this story and will regularly mention how Hertz ripped us off for as long as I can remember. Over the rest of my life, I can almost guarantee you that I will tell hundreds of people that I come in contact with to avoid Hertz because of the unscrupulous people they employ and their dirty tactics, especially in Playa Del Carmen.

Sure, Hertz mad a whole $277 from me. Had Hertz been honest with me, however, I would most likely have rented a car from Hertz once or twice a year for the next 30 years. So to make a couple of hundred dollars of quick profit, Hertz has lost my good will and the thousands of dollars that I would have paid in rental fees over the next several decades. I hope that the money Hertz stole from us is worth what it will cost Hertz and Mexico in general over the following years and decades.

If you have read this far, you now know why I said boycott Hertz and if not doing so, at least protect yourself by videotaping the check out of the vehicle.