Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

In August 2010, I rented a car from Hertz (from the US Website) but the rental itself was in Australia.

I returned the car without any damage, refuled and at the date and location as specified in the rental contract. When I returned the car, I was told that 2 days prior someone in a different Hertz location had closed my contract and had charged my credit card with an amount of 1041 AUS $. My rental location also charged my credit card with the actual amount as stated in my rental contract which was 278 AUS $. After my return I contacted Hertz Customer Service in the assumption they would immediately notice this double charge and that they would return the 1041 AUS $ plus Foreign Txn Fee to me. But after 2 month, I am still fighting for some of the money. Hertz at some point refunded an amount of 710 US$ to me (~780 AUS at that time). They never called me, nor did they ever sent a letter why they returned this amount and not the actual 1041 AUS.

I have called Hertz several times but they don't let me speak to someone from the billing department which is handling such disputes. There is only the customer service rep who is writing down (hopefully) whatever I am telling them. But Hertz itself never contacted me at all. Not even applogizing for the faulty charge (even though they must have acknoledged at least some of it due the partial refund).

My question is now, what are my legal rights to get the remaining balance back from Hertz? All the charges and refunds made by Hertz also came from Hertz Australia whih also involves cost to me for foreign txn fees. How am I getting these back?


Asked on 11/08/10, 9:48 pm

3 Answers from Attorneys
Michael Stone Law Offices of Michael B. Stone Toll Free 1-855-USE-MIKE

Please post this to the Hertz forum at flyertalk.com and see if anybody there has any ideas short of (of course) taking Hertz to court here in California.

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Answered on 11/13/10, 9:53 pm
Armen Tashjian Law Offices of Armen M. Tashjian

Dispute the charges promptly with your credit card and ask for identity theft and/or fraud monitoring. Most CC companies will help you if the disputed item hasn't passed the 90 day cut off.

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Answered on 11/13/10, 11:44 pm

The cut-off for contesting credit card charges is 60 days, not 90, from when you are sent the bill the charge appears on. Take this up with your credit card company. They will reverse the charge while investigating it, and go to bat for you with Hertz.

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Answered on 11/15/10, 6:24 pm


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