Help! My Hertz car rental is infested with ants -- and now they're charging me extra

There's a rule in the Travel Bible that your rental car must be insect-free. But the folks at the Hertz location in Palo Alto, Calif., forgot to study their scripture on the day Miguel Lopez came to town. And they handed him the keys to a car infested by ants.

Ants in a rental car? Yep, that's a first for us.

Not only that, but when Hertz replaced his car, it added a fuel surcharge to his bill, which it refused to remove.

"Hertz gave me a car infested with ants and charged me for something I declined," he says.

Now Hertz has reported him to a collection agency over the matter.

His case raises several questions:

• Do rental cars come with an insect-free guarantee?
• Can a rental car change your contract when it exchanges vehicles?
• How do you get a car rental company to drop a surcharge you specifically declined?

But first, let's find out what happened with Lopez's car.

A vehicle crawling with bugs -- and a surprise surcharge!

Last year, Lopez picked up a vehicle from Hertz in Palo Alto that looked fine. But it wasn't.

"It turned out to be infested with ants," he says.

Let's stop right there! In all my dealings with car rental agencies, I've never come across a case of a vehicle being infested with ants.

Oh sure, we've had squirrels in a rental car. But ants are worse. You may not see them until they are crawling all over you while you're driving. And if they're red ants, you could also be covered in bites by the time you notice anything.

It's happened to me. They got me while I was asleep in bed. (Related: Help! Hertz hit me with an $850 repair bill six months after I returned my rental car.)

Anyway, Lopez immediately contacted Hertz. A representative agreed to swap out the car. Lopez returned the vehicle to the Palo Alto location, received a new, insect-free vehicle, and finished his trip without incident.

But when he received his final bill -- surprise! -- there was a $109 charge for fuel. Lopez had declined the fuel-purchase option on his first rental, as he always does. He assumed it would carry over to the replacement. (Related: Strangest car rental case ever: Hertz banned my father. Why can’t I rent a car?)

"The staff mistakenly closed the contract, and after a few hours they reopened it, except this time with the fuel charge option despite declining it," he says.

Hertz refused to remove the $109 charge, so Lopez disputed the charge on his credit card.

"After almost a year of trying to resolve the issue in good faith, they forwarded my debt to a collection agency," he says. "They have yet to remove the extra charges despite several emails, calls and documentation. I've been told I'll get an email or call back from a supervisor, but I have yet to receive communication other than a demand for payment."

Wow, talk about adding insult to injury. So can Hertz atone for its sins? Before we answer the question, let's find out if Lopez's expectations were too high. 

Do rental cars come with an insect-free guarantee?

Hertz implies that its vehicles will be clean, if not also insect-free.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, it introduced a Hertz Gold Standard Clean guarantee. It involves a 15-point cleaning and sanitization process that followed U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

The process includes cleaning all contact surfaces, including the steering wheel, consoles, and door handles, with an Environmental Protection Agency-approved disinfectant for use against the virus that causes COVID-19. It would be difficult to imagine an ant infestation surviving such a cleaning, but it's possible. (Related: Hertz billed her for eight extra days on her car. Where’s the refund?)

Hertz does not specifically guarantee its cars will be bug-free, so I guess it's possible for the company to deliver a rental vehicle with insects that still complies with its Hertz Gold Standard Clean guarantee.

But it's highly unlikely.

Other car rental companies follow a similar formula. They don't specifically guarantee that their vehicles will come without bugs, rodents or bad smells. But that is certainly implied in all of their promotional material, and it's safe to assume every rental will be clean and free of any pests.

Can a rental car change your contract when it exchanges vehicles?

If you swap out your car, do you have to complete new paperwork? Usually, yes. The car rental company must return your vehicle to its inventory and give you a new vehicle. That means you'll need to do some paperwork.

And that's the problem. You know how you need to study your contract when you rent a car to make sure there are no surprises? You have to do that again -- otherwise, you might be agreeing to something you didn't mean to, like a fuel-purchase option. (Here's our guide to renting a car.)

It's easy to see how the problem with Lopez's car exchange might have happened. He was in the middle of a trip, discovered the ants, returned the car quickly and picked up a new vehicle. Everything was done in a hurry, and he assumed the rental contact would be the same. So he just signed it, and off he went.

It wasn't.

There's a lesson for the rest of us: Never assume anything in a car rental contract. Read everything carefully and ask questions if you are unsure of something. That said, there are ways of fighting a sneaky surcharge with your car rental company.

How do you get a car rental company to drop a surcharge you didn't want?

You don't have to accept a surprise surcharge. Here are the steps to follow:

• Take preemptive measures. Read the rental agreement before you sign and drive away. Those little boxes where they ask for an initial? Review those carefully. If you disagree, say something then and there.

• Read your final bill. Car rental companies like Hertz will give you a printout of your bill -- or email it to you -- when you complete your rental. If you see a problem with it, ask for a manager immediately. Don't wait until you're home. The sooner you say something, the likelier you'll get it resolved.

• Appeal through channels. You'll need to show you gave the system a chance -- in writing -- as you work your way through the system. So send a written message to the car rental company through its site. Keep all records. Do not skip this step.

• Send it up the chain. If your first contact with the car rental company says no, and it probably will, then escalate this to the next level. For example, here are our executive contacts for Hertz. Send a brief, polite email with your previous rental agreement and request a review.

If none of those work, you know how to reach our advocacy team. We're always here for you.

But what about Lopez?

"Next week will mark a year since the start of this incident"

Lopez did pretty well using the Elliott Method. He reached out to Hertz, which agreed in writing to remove all the charges. Inexplicably, it then sent his case to collections.

For several months, Lopez asked the car rental company to honor its agreement, and it just sent him emails asking him what the case was about. It's likely Lopez was dealing with some kind of AI, because a human would have immediately been able to connect his case to the previous correspondence and fix it.

I contacted Hertz on his behalf.

A few days later, Lopez contacted me with good news.

"This morning I received an email from Hertz stating they will be waiving all charges as well as removing me from collections," he told me. "As you know, next week will mark a year since the start of this incident, and I'm glad it has finally come to a resolution. Thank you for the advocacy work you and your organization do for consumers."

You're welcome. I'm sure Lopez will never again sign a car rental agreement without reading it carefully. I know I won't.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can't. He's the author of numerous books on consumer advocacy and writes three nationally syndicated columns. He also publishes the Elliott Report, a news site for consumers, and Elliott Confidential, a critically acclaimed newsletter about customer service. If you have a consumer problem you can't solve, contact him directly through his advocacy website. You can also follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or sign up for his daily newsletter. 

This story originally appeared in the Elliott Report under the headline, Help! My Hertz car rental is infested with ants -- and now they're charging me extra.