Hertz Car Sales Houston — Local services in Katy

Was trying to get a car from their Rent-to-Buy program. Last week, I found the car I really wanted, but it wouldn't be available until today 10/14. No problem. I scheduled the day off work and booked the first appointment to pick it up, which was at 9 am. The salesman called to tell me not to actually show up at 9 though because they've gotta finish cleaning and inspecting the car once it comes back from being rented. Okay, cool.

So this morning rolls around and I don't go because the salesman said he's got to make sure the car is ready first. Now it's 10 am and I haven't heard from him yet, so I call to check in. Some guy answers the phone there and says my salesman doesn't even come into work until noon today, and he can't tell me anything about the car because "nobody can see my information except that specific salesman," and I can call back at noon. He's totally unhelpful and dismissive, so I ask if there's a supervisor available. He flatly says no. I wasn't sure I heard correctly so I ask again. He says no, they're all in a meeting. I tell him that I'd really like to talk to somebody and he hangs up on me. Nice!

So I call back and get a different guy who apologizes about guy #1 and, incredibly, IS in fact able to see my information. He says the car hasn't been returned yet but it should be back today. Well crap, okay, I'll wait then, thanks. I send an email to the salesman to let him know I'm checking in.

Salesman calls me when he comes in at noon and confirms that the car has just made it back in, and should be ready for pickup tomorrow or the day after. I'm like "Wait, what?" He's apologetic but says it usually takes a day or two to inspect, service, and clean a car once it's returned. So I ask if the car was due back today, or was it due earlier and they just extended the rental? He confirms it was due back today. So then my question becomes "If it normally takes a day or two for a car to be ready after it's returned, why is it being listed as available on the day it's actually returned?" He apologizes again and says that's not in his control, which I totally understand, but in that case I'd like to talk to a manager or somebody who could at least receive the feedback that maybe it's not best practice to tell customers they can pick up cars 24-48 hours before they actually can. Salesman transfers me to another number.

A woman picks up and I explain the situation. She kind of gets this attitude and basically says I should've read the fine print that says the reservation time/date may change. I tell her I saw it, and I understand if the time/date changed because the person renting the car wrecked it, trashed it, or simply extended their rental time. That's not something anybody at Hertz has any control over. What I'm unhappy about is that there is no possible way, short of the renter returning the car at least a full day earlier than expected, that the car could have been ready anywhere near the appointment time. If Hertz knows it takes 24-48 hours to have a rental car ready after it's returned, why would they state that the car can be picked up far earlier than it really can be? The woman on the phone basically just told me that that's just how they do it. I asked if there was anybody I could speak to about that because that doesn't seem like a good business practice. She just says no, there's no one I can talk to. There's this awkward silence while I'm trying to grasp the idea of a major company being THIS bad. Finally she lamely says she can tell her manager when she sees her later. Like wow, yeah, I'm sure it'll get escalated to all the right people then and thoroughly addressed! Lol Gtfo. I just told her I was going to resume looking for a car elsewhere and she's like "Ok." Incredible, award-winning team Hertz has got here! 👏 👏 👏

Waiting a day or two is annoying and inconvenient, but the bigger issues are the poor management, abysmal customer service, and general "Well whaddya want me to do it about it?" shoulder-shrug attitude. If I find another car before this one is ready,...

Itzy the mechanic who has fixed the cars in my family for over 40 years recommended that if I wanted to buy a used car I buy it from other CarMax or Hertz. CarMax prices were too high for me although he says their warranty is one of the most useful ones so I limited my choices to cars rented by Hertz.

The salesman truly are low pressure . They are equally helpful whether you do the rent-to-own option or buy a certified car off the lot and will also answer questions for each other. One caveat, if the salesman says someone is looking at the car, it's true! I waited until the next day. The car was still there but the guy had dropped off a check and called and finalized the contract while I was test driving it. Also, the criticism that only one key is given is true for all of the Hertz cars but you will also be given the name of someone who can cheaply reproduce your key. Mine will be about $15 each for a couple of plain keys and another hundred if I want an extra remote.

I preferred the certified cars on the lot because they are checked over by a contracted mechanic (Pepboys in this case) who is motivated to find and fix everything before you get it but to have a larger choice of cars, I switched to the rent-to-own option even though those cars are to checked out by your own mechanic only, and not guaranteed to have small removable parts like the cargo cover and floor mats. Also they have to be brought in so you don't get them right away. There is a date when each will become available though mine was ready several days before the expected date. That created a problem because there is a $300 discount for Triple-A members but you have to have your permanent card and I had just ordered mine. My salesman, Brian Garza (the I10 location...great guy!) worked around it and also scrounged a cargo cover up for me and even covered the two tiny scratches on the car for free resulting in me getting an absolutely flawless car inside and out including the undercarriage and under the hood validated by my mechanic he said normally he can find something wrong with any car and it was almost embarrassing that he couldn't find anything at all with this one at 35,000 miles.

I think the threads on the web about misuse of rental cars are a boogeyman that is unlikely to affect the average buyer. We rent cars all the time and the only ways we don't take as good of care of them is possibly harder braking, a few hard accelerations just to see what they can do ( many if they are underpowered and we need to pass cars on grades). My car had had a brake job even though it was relatively young and had new tires in front but my mechanic says otherwise cars are meant to be driven and a little hard work won't hurt them and if there is actual damage, Hertz normally sells them at auction.

And a quick plug for the Kia Soul. Small, cheap, fun to drive, good for tall families and carries a huge amount of stuff including a big computer desk with a swing out worktable, another desk plus other stuff in the same load!

Adding on...I read the other reviews and should mention I also had a problem with actual vs inventory. The pic was a red car and the inventory said white. The lady at the rent-to-buy phoneline said believe the inventory but offered to check the invoice. The car was red. I decided to order it anyway and it turns out to have an even higher Edmunds value in that color so I can't say I was harmed by the mistake and I wouldn't have had to take the car if I didn't like it but it does confirm the reviews that say their data isn't...

Recently purchased a vehicle here...never again!!! Run from this place!!! First let me start by saying the web inventory and actual quality of the vehicles is not accurate by no means. Upon getting there the salesman seemed really friendly yet not knowledgeable about his job. He showed us some cars within what we were looking to spend. The first car had a 70 point Hertz Certified Inspection Tag hanging from the rear view. Now we didn't even take this car out of the lot because it sounded and drove horrible just from the parking space. We let him know and he suggested another car. I actually fell in love with it even though the miles were high for a 2012. While we were driving it I noticed it didn't have the tag on the rear view. I asked him if all their cars were Hertz Inspected....He stuttered and said YES! Now here comes the real zinger....When I asked if this car we drove off the lot was inspected he said Oh Yes ALL CARS ARE BEFORE TAKEN OFF THE LOT!!! Later on his supervisor said it was NEVER INSPECTED AND WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TEST DROVE IT! Mind You I'm Pregnant...If anything would have went wrong while test driving that car.... I can't even imagine! So the Manager said they would have the car inspected and ready the next day. In my Opinion they did a halfa** job just to make the sale with no regards that you are selling this to a family with young children. So we started the paperwork and the car was ours already. Well the next day we started getting harassing phone calls because we weren't there early enough. We explained since the don't take checks, debit or credit cards we have to pull out the cash; which took an extra day. Immediately the salesman is blowing up our phone threatening to sell the car people are looking at it etc. Yet we had already started the paper work loan process. There was and still is several things wrong with the car. All of which they knew about. We even mentioned one of the things they said they fixed yet never did. So I go to get my oil change approximately a month after we purchased the car to find more problems with the car. ALL the TIRES ARE DRY ROT/BARELY ANY TREAD, BAD BRAKE LINES/HOSES, TRUNK LEAKS, THE WINDOW PANEL ON PASSENGER SIDE FRONT & REAR ARE MESSED UP, MY BRAKES GRIND!! While all of this is going on our salesperson (who by the way got a bad survey) was texting my husband threatening messages because we hadn't physically brought in the insurance. We had already texted him the info. Yet he goes on to say that he called the finance company and that at any moment they were going to repo our car??!!! Really Wtf!! Now they are trying to say theres nothing wrong when i have documented proof from Midas. We have hired a Lemon Law Lawyer!!! If you want a quality vehicle & a company that really cares RUN FAR AWAY FROM...