Don’t Piss Off Your Customers
Hertz is breaking the #1 rule for deploying AI
Last month as I boarded my flight home from Philadelphia, I got a text message from Hertz: my rental car was damaged and they wanted $125.
Six weeks later, the bill has gone up to $238, my wife is getting collection calls, and I’m not sure if I’ve even talked to a human yet.
Hertz’s AI scanning is a textbook lesson in how not to deploy new technology.
Meet Zendy
My car’s damage was detected by UVeye, a TSA-style scanner that I’d driven through at the return lot.
I wasn’t buying it. The photos showed pre-existing damage in the exact same spot. I explained this to Hertz’s AI chatbot, who logged a ticket.
The next day, I received a lovely note from Zendy, the one person at Hertz who seemed to be on my side.
Three weeks later, I hadn’t heard back. Instead, my wife started getting letters and voicemails from a collections agency. I called back and reached an agent named Ruby. She explained that my bill had gone up to $238 because I missed a deadline, and asked me how I wanted to pay.
Then she offered a tip: file a claim with my credit card’s travel insurance and have them cover it.
Ruby was unaware of my dispute or conversations with Zendy. She said she’d call me back.
Six weeks since the first text message, I’m still waiting.
I put Zendy’s emails into an AI detector and it came back flashing red.
So much for Zendy.
Hertz’s tangled web
I’m not the only one who’s been caught in Hertz’s damage-scanning net. Reddit forums are teeming with angry customers comparing notes on how to fight the system.
One customer was billed $440 for a scuff smaller than Hertz’s own one-inch guidelines. Another was charged after a human agent walked around their car and confirmed there was no damage.
Note: My rental was from Dollar. Hertz owns Dollar and uses AI scanning across all its brands. The texts, emails, calls, and letters all came from Hertz.
Hertz claims that UVeye finds damage in only 3% of rentals. That seems small, but Hertz had scanned 675,000 cars by last August. That means 20,000 customers have gotten caught.
And the charge always hits at the end of the rental, so the last thing customers remember about Hertz is a “gotcha” text.
Frustration has reached Congress. House oversight subcommittee chair Nancy Mace and Senator Richard Blumenthal sent letters to CEO Gil West, noting that Hertz is “the only car rental company in the U.S. that issues damage assessments without human review.”
Hertz broke rule #1
Hertz didn’t deploy AI to make renting a car faster, better, or cheaper. They did it to squeeze their customers.
The company needs the money. It still carries $19 billion in debt after emerging from bankruptcy in 2020.
And UVeye’s own marketing brags that its scanners detect five times more damage and generate six times more revenue than manual checks.
They’re also saving money by cutting humans from the process. And it shows.
UVeye’s claims are sent to customers without human review, and Hertz agents aren’t trained to help. Several renters said employees shrugged, pointed to the AI, and told them to email customer service.
Hertz systems don’t talk to each other. Zendy’s promises were empty: no investigation happened, my bill wasn’t put on hold, and collectors kept calling my wife. When I finally reached a human, she’d never heard of Zendy.
Consider what Hertz chose to automate: the explanation, the empathy, and the follow-up were all AI.
The only time I got a live human was when they came to collect.
Sixt does it better
Hertz should take a lesson from Sixt, the only other rental company using AI damage scanners.
Sixt’s AI scanners flag damage. Then humans review the photos and decide which will become claims. Customers who disagree or have questions can request a second look.
A simple reframe would flip the customer mindset. Imagine an email to every renter before they pick up their car:
“UVeye is our new program to keep your rates low. Careful drivers save money because we bill the ones responsible for damage instead of everyone.”
I’m a careful driver. Thanks for saving me money, Hertz!
If you’re going to be Spirit Airlines, say you are
A final chapter in my story. When I picked up the car, the office had a line of 30 people and one agent. A QR code offered automated check-in for $22. I paid up and drove off the lot in minutes.
At most companies, “skip the line” is standard. Hertz is charging for it.
Low-cost service with add-on fees is a viable business model, and Spirit Airlines built a company on it.
But Hertz isn’t priced like Spirit. They’re charging full price for a nickel-and-dime experience, and hoping nobody notices until the gotcha hits.
Their tagline used to be “Nobody does it better.” In the 80s, nobody did.
If Hertz wants to become Spirit Airlines, it should say so.
It’s too late for me, though. They may get their $238, but I’ll never rent from Hertz again.
Dad Joke: Why were the paparazzi let down by the AI damage report? Instead of a Scan-dal it was a Dull scan. 🤣