PHOENIX (KPHO/Gray News) – An Arizona woman says she was sent to collections over a rental car in Georgia despite returning it on time.
Vonecia Sullivan-Hill said she took a weekend getaway last summer to Georgia. When she landed in Atlanta, she rented a car through Hertz.
She said everything was fine during the trip until she received a call a couple of days after her vacation from the rental company saying she still had the car.
“We turned it in on a Monday morning. Wednesday, two days later, I got a call from Hertz saying, ‘You still have our car. We’re charging you money still,‘” Sullivan-Hill said. “I’m like, ‘I’m in Phoenix. I don’t have your car. I left your car in the garage where I’m supposed to with the return cars.’”
The company told her not to worry. But the next day, she received another call.
“After a few days, I’m concerned! You’re calling me saying I have a car I don’t have. That’s Georgia. I’m in Arizona,” Sullivan-Hill said she told the company.
The Arizona resident said she filed a police report with the Atlanta Police Department just in case.
“Magically, a couple of hours later, I got an email saying thanks for returning the car, but they said thanks for returning the car today, five days later, and they charged me $707,” Sullivan-Hill said.
The Hertz customer said she got nowhere with the rental company so she disputed the charge with her credit card company and sent in a stack of information to prove her case.
They agreed Sullivan-Hill didn’t owe the money, so the credit card company ended up crediting her account last September.
However, she said that was not the end of the story.
“Two weeks ago, I got an email from a collections agency that Hertz sent me to collections for the $707 — the money they couldn’t collect. I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me! I don’t owe you any money,‘“ Sullivan-Hill said.
Arizona’s Family reached out to Hertz regarding the situation after Sullivan-Hill said she needed some help as the situation was continuing.
“For five days, I didn’t know where that car was. I was in Arizona,” she said. “I thought it was done. I want it to be done. I need more help. Clearly, they’re not going to go away.”
Hertz responded to the request and a company spokesperson said they had learned the entire thing was likely a case of human error.
At Hertz, rental contracts have to be closed out by an employee. But it wasn’t clear why this one wasn’t.
“At Hertz, customer satisfaction is our top priority. We regret we were unable to resolve this sooner with our customer and have provided a full refund,” the company shared.
Sullivan-Hill said Hertz apologized to her, wiped out the $707, and gave her a $100 voucher for the inconvenience.
“I just want to say thank you so much,” she said.
Experts recommend documenting everything when it comes to protecting yourself the next time you rent a car, from taking time-stamped photos/videos of the vehicle to saving all of the documents involved.
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