> In a court hearing Wednesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath ordered the annual theft numbers to be made public, siding with advocates for 220 people suing Hertz who argued that more details about Hertz’s internal anti-theft program should be public.
The reason there aren't good numbers is that Hertz did not release them. It was ordered by the court to do so as the above paragraph from the article shows. From that decision and the CBS broadcast referenced in the article there's evidence that a non-trivial number of innocent people were arrested due to Hertz' incompetence.
Personal story: As a tech consultant I travel (or traveled, pre-pandemic) weekly to clients all over the country. Back in 2018 or 2019, I went on a business trip, picked up my rental car from Hertz on Monday, returned it on Thursday on my way back to the airport, and didn't think anything of it. Usually my receipts hit Concur within 2-3 days and then I submit them for reimbursement. A week later my Hertz rental receipt still hadn't showed up so I called them. They had no record that I returned the car and told me to call the local Hertz. I did and they said I never returned the car and apparently was still racking up charges by the day. Then they put me on hold and came back a few minutes later and said they searched their systems and apparently the car was rented out to someone else the day after I returned it, so they apologized, marked it as returned, adjusted my bill, and sent me the receipt. My worry at the time was that I would be billed for extra days I didn't use, I had no idea there was an actual risk of arrest.
14 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 38.6 ms ] threadSure, accusing folks of car theft unfairly is wrong. But it seems easy to resolve: present the contract.
The reason there aren't good numbers is that Hertz did not release them. It was ordered by the court to do so as the above paragraph from the article shows. From that decision and the CBS broadcast referenced in the article there's evidence that a non-trivial number of innocent people were arrested due to Hertz' incompetence.