Don't Rent From Hertz

Photo credit: Nolleos

Today was the day we planned to get our resident visas and Tim's SoFi (Dutch social security number). To accomplish this, we had to go to Rijswijk and Den Haag (the Hague), both near the city of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe. That's normally a 2 hour drive from Venlo. It took us a little longer.

We left home at 7:30 am, dropped Hanna (aka Elizabeth, more on this later) at school more than 30 minutes early. But we had a 10 am appointment and didn't want to be late. Through a series of unfortunate events, we were quite late - arriving at the first office after 3 pm. This is where Hertz comes into the picture.

At 9:45, about 20 km from our destination, in stop-and-go traffic, the rental car overheated. Suddenly. On a major motorway. We immediately pulled over to the side, which was good, because the car then turned itself off. Okay. Now we are stuck by the side of the road, late for an appointment at a government office. Tim calls the rental agency. So far, so good. Except the car is under warranty and Hertz wants the Renault dealer to solve the problem. We give our location and phone number to Renault and wait.

After 30 minutes an incident response tow truck stops, loads the car and us, and hauls us off the motorway. This isn't related to our call; it's a government service to keep the roads clear of disabled vehicles. En route, the driver calls Hertz again, this time in Dutch, to let them know where the car has been moved to.

We wait. And wait. And wait. After about 60 minutes we call Hertz again. They say the Renault service truck had been to our initial location, didn't find us, had the wrong phone number for us, and gave up. They will try again. Repeated phone calls over the next hour produce no results.

After 2 1/2 hours, the Renault service truck appears. The mechanic does not speak English, but shows us by gestures that the radiator is damaged. We are invited to use his phone to talk with the dispatcher who explains that the car cannot be fixed on the spot, needs to be towed to the shop, and that they don't know when it will be working again. Hertz still can't help us - the car is under warranty and Renault is responsible for fixing it. The Hertz rep says "I'm sorry about your problem". Our problem? We are thinking this should be Hertz's problem. Guess not. We ask Renault to take the car off our hands - it's not doing us any good and looks like it won't for a while. The dispatcher isn't sure the mechanic can stay with the car (which has been parked at a bus stop for the past 3 hours, something the bus drivers didn't like at all). After some negotiations, the mechanic agrees to stay with the car so we can move on. At this point we've been delayed more than 3 hours.

Since Hertz is still refusing to assist us, we call a cab to get to our much-delayed appointment at the immigation office. The cab takes 45 minutes to arrive. Fifteen minutes and 44 euros later, we arrive at our initial destination and in another fifteen minutes have our visas, thanks to the very helpful relocation specialist Michel. Michel has been waiting so long his car radio has drained the battery, so his car is dead too. Fortunately, Hertz has relented and sent a car for us. It's about 5 hours after our car died on the motorway, but hey! who's counting? We hop in the car with Michel at the wheel and head over to the tax office for another 15 minute appointment. As that is wrapping up Michel learns that his car has been restarted and is waiting in the garage at the immigration office, with the engine running to charge the battery. We run Michel back to the immigration office garage and say our goodbyes, everyone happy to have a working vehicle again.

Now it's just after 4 pm, we are near the coast, we live on the other side of the country, and we need to get through Rotterdam on a Friday afternoon. Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands, with a metro area of 1.3 million people who all want to go somewhere else for the weekend. After nearly 3 hours of grueling traffic, driving a subcompact with manual transmission, we arrive home.

The happy ending: We got to cross the cool bridge in the photo, twice. We made it home safely, if a little tired. The girls reported good things from their first day of school. They had a long walk home (about 3 miles) but they were able to navigate just fine, which is pretty amazing, all things considered. We walked downtown for a delicious Indian meal, with something for everyone (lamb vindaloo, chicken tikka masala, naan and a yummy vegetarian dish). Then a pleasant walk home to Florence Nightengalestraat. It's starting to feel like home. Now to find some bikes ...

P.S. In his final conversation with Hertz, Tim was asked for the Renault dealer contact information - Hertz has lost track of the car. We never contacted Renault directly; Hertz patched us through every time. Tim's answer was "I'm sorry about your problem". He's learning fast!