Dozens of travelers— including singer Kelly Price— have come forward to put popular rental car brand, Hertz, on blast after the company put them in some very dangerous situations.
In late May, Kelly Price said the company failed to close out her rental agreement nearly 10 days after she returned a 24-hour rental. To make matters worst, the company then allegedly accused her of having possession of the car and threatened to have her arrested for fraud.
“Mind you, I’ve been speaking to someone every single day,” Price said in a personal social media video. “Hertz has taken nearly an additional $1500 out of my account over the last five days, because they say I still have the car. They’ve double-checked and know the car is there, and they know the lazy young lady behind the desk at the airport is just behind in her paperwork and hasn’t closed out my agreement.”
The singer then explained that an employee of the company harassed her and threatened to have the police come to her house, despite knowing all of this.
For days, she took to Twitter to get answers and publically put the company on blast in hopes of getting some recourse.
Someone running the brand’s Twitter account replied saying, “Hello Kelly, I have followed up with you in the existing DM thread.- Caitlyn.”
Kelly Price isn’t the first traveler to experience this with the rental company.
In March 2019, an Arkansas man filed a lawsuit against the company for falsely accusing him of theft. As of this summer, the lawsuit has been updated and now includes over 130 plaintiffs bringing forth similar claims. The travelers span from Florida, Texas, Mississppi, and more.
This week, Hertz began trending again after travelers on social media shared their experiences after one traveler created a post warning others about the false claims of theft.
Krissy Carter detailed her and her partner’s experience in late 2020.
“On the evening of December 23, 2020, my boyfriend was stopped,” she shared in a blog post. “The officers ordered him, over the speaker, to step out of the vehicle. Complying, he opened the car door to find several officers with their chambered weapons drawn on him. Without telling him why he had been stopped, they ordered him to lift his shirt to reveal if he was armed, they then, with guns still drawn, patted him down, cuffed him, and put him in the backseat of the police car. It was only then that they advised him as to why he was stopped: the vehicle he was driving had been reported stolen.”
She goes on to explain that Hertz had rented him a truck that they had already reported stolen previously.
“To be very clear, the issue my bf experienced was a direct result of Hertz not notifying HPD once their previously reported vehicle had been recovered. They simply put the vehicle back into the rotation while HPD still had those plates tagged as stolen, thus resulting in the arrest.”
Others of all races spoke about having money taken from their account came forward with similar encounters, while some described being accosted by police because Hertz was wrongly accusing them of being in possession of cars they turned in.
According to ABC News, Herbert Alford of Michigan sued the company after being wrongly accused of murder. Alford spent nearly 5 years in jail, but his conviction was later overturned once a judge came across evidence acquitted Alford of the crime.
He says that once he was initially accused, he asked the rental company to turn over a receipt that would have proved his innocent from the beginning. The company failed to do so, despite several attempts. It wasn’t until years later that they finally turned over the document. However, Alford had already spent time in prison.
“Being away from my family and my kids. I had an 11-year-old I was missing field trips with. It was unbelievable. Even though it came out that I didn’t do it, people still look at me like, oh, he’s been in prison.”
With many of the recent claims, and claims over the last few years, Hertz filed for bankruptcy. The company is now working to revamp it’s executive team, according to The Wall Street Journal.
About a month ago, we reported on a Black traveler detailed his experience of having his rental car ‘repossessed’ by Avis without knowledge.