Mar 1, 2025
When Vonecia Sullivan-Hill went on a weekend trip to Atlanta, she rented a car through Hertz and had a great time on her trip. She left early in the morning to catch a plane, returned the rental to the designated spot and thought all was well.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. Shortly after returning home, she received an upsetting phone call.
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"Wednesday, I get a call from Hertz saying you still have our car. We're charging you money still," she told On Your Side.
Sullivan-Hill was concerned because she was in Phoenix and had dropped off the car days ago, but her troubles only continued.
A misplaced rental car leads to collections
When Sullivan-Hill explained to the Hertz representative that she'd already brought the car back, she was told not to worry and that the company would sort out the error. But the next day, she got another troubling call.
"After a few days, I'm concerned,” she said. “You're calling me saying I have a car I don't have."
This process went on for several days until Sullivan-Hill filed a report with the Atlanta police department. That day, after alerting the police, she finally received an email from Hertz thanking her for returning the car. But this still didn't resolve the issue.
That's because the email said that the car had been returned the day the email was sent — a full five days after it had actually been dropped off at the Atlanta location.
Hertz then tried to charge Sullivan-Hill $707 for the extra five days when the car was missing, but she disputed the charges. Fortunately, the credit card company was on her side.
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While she got the charges reversed, she later got a call that Hertz had sent her to collections for the unpaid sum.
That's when she called On Your Side. Once journalists began investigating, Hertz changed its tune, refunding her the money and sending her an additional $100 voucher.
Still, it wasn't without a lot of hassle — and she wasn't the first one this happened to, as Hertz had to pay $168 million in 2022 to settle a lawsuit alleging the company wrongly accused customers of stealing rental cars.
With issues like this happening more often than you might think, everyone who rents a vehicle must take steps to protect themselves to avoid a similar problem.
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How to protect yourself when renting a vehicle
Fortunately, there are a few different ways you can protect yourself to avoid finding yourself in this situation. You can:
- Carefully document every detail of the rental transaction, including the time you pick up the rental vehicle, the car's condition and the time of return.
- Take photos and videos of the car before you drive it off the lot and when you return it — along with the location of the return. Make sure they’re time-stamped.
- Save all of your rental car documents and read them carefully.
- Take notes of everyone that you talk to, especially if you become involved in a dispute.
- Try to return the vehicle to an in-person agent when possible so you can get written confirmation of the return.
- Research rental car companies to make sure they don't have a bad reputation for customer service.
By following these steps, you’ll hopefully have no mess to untangle when you arrive home.
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Christy Bieber has 15 years of experience as a personal finance and legal writer. She has written for many publications including Forbes, Kilplinger, CNN, WSJ, Credit Karma, Insurify and more.
