North Bend Car Rentals

Pre-existing damage becomes our problem, no instruction.

Pros: The car was cheap on gas, a newer model

Cons: The car rented to us had pre-existing damage resulted in body damage (no walk-around to check car condition) that we are currently trying to settle with claims. We were given the wrong information about who the primary renter and driver was. I purchased the rental and third party insurance through kayak.com, believing I was the renter and driver. At the pick up, we were informed we needed a credit card to place a deposit on the vehicle. I don't have a credit card, so the employee suggested using my girlfriends card--for a refundable deposit. Within minutes, i was handed keys and a receipt and pointed towards the parking lot to find my car. We were never told that she was now the renter and driver! This has become a problem since we initially tried to use the 3rd party insurance I purchased covering myself, but not my girlfriend, who unbeknownst to us was the renter. We discovered this very pertinent information on the drop off day, when I was told I couldn't drop off the vehicle since I was not the renter. Thoroughly confused, i asked the employee how this could be, "I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm just following the rules." He told me. This same person was no where to be found when an incident report was to be filed as I dropped the keys and car. Had someone informed us that using a credit card secures the cardholder as the renter, this mentally taxing and time consuming mess could be avoided as i would have simply added myself as a driver. Perhaps a walk around could have been in order as well to identify the hanging bit of wheel well shell flashing that eventually came off of our car during the trip. I also wish kayak.com had offered hertz coverage first rather than 3rd party insurance. Hertz covers the damage, no questions asked, when their in-house insurance is purchased. Instead, I am working through a bureaucratic spiderweb of waiting for estimates, speaking with adjusters, spending hours explaining our predicament, feeling like a hoax trying to convince our short-stick situation, and ultimately waiting to be charged the full amount for preexisting damage, then reimbursed at some unspecified future time. This has been the worst experience I have ever had renting a car, bar-none. I hope hertz will hear out pleas, absorb the cost for damages, and let this mess be laid to rest.