$10,000 Rental Car Confusion – Unlimited Doesn’t Mean Unlimited?
Who’s right in this situation? When you get a rental car with unlimited miles, how far can you go (unlimited right?). Well someone returned a car to a Hertz counter with 25,000 miles on it. No really.
Here’s the Rental Car Exchange
First off – we’re towards the end of this argument about the rental car. The customer claims he never signed anything related to EXTRA miles on the car (it’s unlimited mileage). The manager is charging him $10,000 in extra fees…and obviously fed up with this guy. Who’s right? Here’s the video:
Here’s part of the transcript to work on:
Customer: “Right here, it literally says I won’t get charged anything. It says miles allowed: Free Miles. It literally says to refer to this if there’s anything extra. I’ve never signed anything saying that I could only go 100 miles a day or anything like that, or that I would have to pay more.”
Hertz Manager: “Right. But you also never, like you said earlier –“
Customer: “You just agreed. Right! I never have signed that.”
Hertz Manager: “You’ve never signed anything to say that, but you also never signed anything saying you were going to — we allowed you to drive 25,000 miles.”
Customer: “No, unlimited is 100,000 miles.”
Hertz Manager: “No, it’s not. No, it is not.”
Customer: “How is unlimited not?”
Hertz Manager: “Dude, we’re done. Just leave, please.”
Customer: “No, explain to me how unlimited –“
Hertz Manager: “You can either leave or I will have you arrested. It’s your choice.”
Customer: “How is unlimited miles not –“
Hertz Manager: “Okay, bye.”
Customer: “Wow. Now you’re going to call the cops on me. Okay.”
Hertz Manager: “Yes. I’ve asked you plenty of times to please leave my office. I’m not going to sit here and argue with you or anything else.”
Bottom Line – Does Unlimited Mean Unlimited?
I asked AI for an answer:
Yes, it is generally legal to put as many miles as you want on a rental car with an “unlimited mileage” agreement, as long as you’re adhering to the other terms of the rental contract. Unlimited mileage typically means that you can drive as much as you like without incurring additional charges based on distance. However, rental companies may still monitor for unusual or excessive use, and some may consider 25,000 miles in a short period as wear and tear outside of typical usage.
Couple of other thoughts:
1. It’s unclear why or HOW the guy drove 25,000 miles in one month. It’s possible it was a stunt to intentionally test the limits. (Although he did not hype any sort of challenge publicly that we know of.)
25,000 miles in one month would be more than 800 miles per day, which is around 16 hours of driving 50 miles per hour every day . . . assuming you’d need eight hours off for sleeping and eating.
That’s so tight that it seems like he COULD’VE been using it for Uber or something, and SHARING IT with at least one other driver to maximize its use. That’s just a guess though. (Hertz MIGHT have an argument there, if they could prove he had other people using the car . . . IF he did.)
It’s more than just a road-trip too. It’s about 2,500 miles coast to coast, so he could’ve done FIVE full roundtrips from New York to California and back.
2. It’s also unclear how the worker decided on $10,000. It just seems like they randomly picked some number . . . to compensate for the wear and tear, and the vehicle’s depreciation. But again, the guy isn’t on the hook for that after all.
This might be a discussion in an upcoming episode of Big Jim’s Garage.
