Alin G.

Had the worst experience possible at the Hertz desk in the Austin airport.

Had made a car rental reservation via a 3rd party website (CheapTickets.com) - CheapTickets itinerary ************** for a Tesla Model 3 (Hertz CONFIRMATION K*******B2). For this reservation I had paid in advance 168.45$ of the total $221.93 due for a 3 days period.

When I arrived at the Hertz desk in the Austin airport, I gave them all the documents (confirmation #, driver's license, passport, credit card). I was told by the lady at the counter that because I am renting a Tesla this would be considered as a special car reservation and therefore her manager came and told me they would need to make a check on my credit card + drivers license. He went back in his office with my documents and came back after 10-15 minutes telling me that after checking, my driver's license was found to be "fraudulent" by Hertz's internal compliance team. When asking what does "fraudulent" mean for them, he said that unfortunately he cannot tell me as this is the resolution he received from an internal team; he also told me that he cannot give me any other car because of this resolution and that I will be able to get a full refund. In conclusion I lost more than one hour to go through this entire process waiting at their desk.
I was really surprised by what he said specially because I had used Hertz for renting a car back in June in New York city using the same credit card + drivers license and did not encounter any issues.
I then moved to the Avis rental counter which is next to Hertz's one and was able to rent the same car (Tesla Model 3) using the exact same documents (passport, credit card, drivers license) in less than half an hour.
The biggest surprise and disappointment however came now when trying to get a refund from the 3rd party website (Cheaptickets.com) for my Hertz reservation. Their message was that Hertz rejected my refund request because I did not provide a valid driver's license. So in conclusion, I lost 168.45$ without ever benefiting from the rental car service. I am never renting from them ever again and would recommend a high level of caution when dealing with them! I wish I only would have read all the reviews found here beforehand.