Hertz Rental Cars

[RTH10260]

Hertz leaves bankruptcy, a year after the pandemic devastated the car rental business.

By Niraj Chokshi
Published June 30, 2021 Updated Oct. 25, 2021

Hertz, an early victim of the pandemic, officially emerged from bankruptcy on Wednesday. Its return coincides with and was made possible in part by a red-hot market for rental cars.

It is a remarkable turnaround for a business that was bloated with debt and struggling to survive just 13 months ago. But a quick economic and travel rebound in recent months set off a bidding war to revive the company, which is more than a hundred years old. The winning group of investors, led by Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management, provided the company with $5.9 billion in capital.

The resolution of its bankruptcy allows Hertz to shed more than $5 billion in debt, including all of the corporate debt of Hertz Europe. The company also lined up access to nearly $10 billion in loans, credit lines and other debt.

“It sets them up very well,” said Hamzah Mazari, an analyst at Jefferies, an investment bank. By reducing its debt load, Hertz can make much-needed investments like modernizing its technology and buying cars, he said.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/busi ... upcty.html

[RTH10260]

Dozens of customers allege Hertz had them falsely arrested over rental cars reported stolen: "It was just terrifying"

NOVEMBER 4, 2021 / 2:34 PM / CBS NEWS

A bankruptcy court judge was set to hear arguments Thursday regarding claims filed by dozens of Hertz customers who say they were falsely arrested — and in some cases jailed — because the company reported the cars they had rented as stolen.

The car rental giant, which recently emerged from bankruptcy, insists virtually all of the claims are "meritless" and says they should not be allowed to proceed for various technical reasons.

One of the claimants, James Tolen, said a surprise traffic stop in Houston late last year turned into a frightening police encounter that made him fear for his life. After completing a project for one of the customers at his renovation company, Tolen was heading home Dec. 23 in a pickup truck rented from Hertz.

He and his fiancée, Krystal Carter, who is also a claimant, say they had rented from Hertz about a dozen times last year — but that didn't prevent him from being stopped by police for driving a car reported stolen by the company. Around 10 p.m. that night, police pulled him over and ordered him out of the car over a loudspeaker, telling him to lift his shirt and back up toward them.

"As I turn around, I see both officers train the guns on me," Tolen told CBS News' Consumer Investigative Correspondent Anna Werner.

"It was just terrifying. It was bad. Actually, I was really thinking that I wasn't gonna make it home," he said.

Tolen said officers handcuffed him, then told him he was driving a stolen car.

"I was like, 'That's impossible. I rent from Hertz. I'm a contractor,'" he recalls telling police.

Tolen begged the officers to look at his rental contract, in which he says he was listed as an authorized driver. He says after seeing the document, one of the officers called Hertz and told the company it needed to get a better system.

Carter and Tolen say they later found out the car rented had been reported stolen by Hertz three months earlier.

"I was hot. Hot," Carter said. "Like, we rented several times from them that year. Several."

Tolen and Carter are two of 165 Hertz customers nationwide who have claims pending in bankruptcy court. The claims have been on hold through completion of the company's bankruptcy case.

Hertz declined to do an interview but issued a statement saying that it "cares deeply about our customers, and we successfully provide rental vehicles for tens of millions of travelers each year.

"Unfortunately, in the legal matters being discussed, the attorneys have a track record of making baseless claims that blatantly misrepresent the facts," the company said. "The vast majority of these cases involve renters who were many weeks or even months overdue returning vehicles and who stopped communicating with us well beyond the scheduled due date. Situations where vehicles are reported to the authorities are very rare and happen only after exhaustive attempts to reach the customer."

As to pulling back police reports once payment is made or the vehicle is returned, Hertz told The Philadelphia Inquirer last year that the reports were valid when they were filed and that "it's up to law enforcement to decide what to do with the case."

Another claimant is Philadelphia-area contractor John Ayoub, who rented a truck from Hertz in April 2019. He said he told Hertz agents it would be a long-term rental and was told to call each week to extend it, which he says he did.

"I would call. I would extend. They would charge it. I would see it. And they would say, 'You're good to go till next Monday,'" he told CBS News.

But on May 28, Hertz filed a theft report, just four days after putting through a charge of $2,300, according to court documents. And even though the $2,300 showed as paid in Ayoub's bank account the next day, Hertz didn't pull that police report back, he said.

On June 2, he was arrested right in front of his house and was charged with a felony.

"Everything turned into a mess, just disaster," he said.

After learning Ayoub had paid for the car, his lawyer says, prosecutors dropped the charges.

In its defense, Hertz also claimed the attorneys representing the claimants "have a track record of making baseless claims that blatantly misrepresent the facts."

In response to Hertz' allegations of misrepresentation of facts by the opposing side, claimants' attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy said it is Hertz "trying to hide" what he calls "a corporate disaster."

"They've been aware of this for years, and instead of doing the right thing and addressing it, they're trying to sweep this under the rug, even through bankruptcy," essentially turning legitimate renters into criminals, he said.

[tek]

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[shimalkharia]

I hate when someone tells me what to think and what to choose. It's a pity that so many companies are going woke nowadays, and I hope this tendency ends soon. There are some signs of that even now, and it seems that the woke mob will get a backlash soon because it's impossible to tolerate that much BS coming from them. I plan to buy a new car soon, and I don't want anyone to mess with my private business. After reading [url=https://www.jdmbuys ell.com/buying-guide/nissan-silvia/]buying guide nissan silvia[/url], I decided to get one to restore it and have fun with this old car.
And I definitely plan to add a ""community safety"" sticker to the car's bumper

!	Message from: Foggy
	I broke the link and banned the spammer.

[Foggy]

So you didn't read the previous posts in this thread?

What does your comment have to do with Hertz Rental Cars?

[northland10]

So you didn't read the previous posts in this thread?

What does your comment have to do with Hertz Rental Cars?

Probably annoyed at Hertz supporting diversity. I myself like a diverse hertz. Without it, music would all be one note. I am sort of found of 16.35 hertz as demonstrated at the bottom of the scale here (which should probably be in the All About the Bass thread):


Oh, this is about Hertz Rental Cars, not just hertz. Well, despite a lack of it being mentioned above in any of the articles, it sounds like somebody does not like companies that champion diversity, equity, and inclusion. Well, that's just too bad.

[John Thomas8]

Oh, this is about Hertz Rental Cars, not just hertz. Well, despite a lack of it being mentioned above in any of the articles, it sounds like somebody does not like companies that champion diversity, equity, and inclusion. Well, that's just too bad.

Rental car companies are dangerous, doesn't matter how "inclusive" they portray themselves to be: reporting to the police the car is stolen when it is still under contract as a rental is a sincerely crappy behaviour. And Hertz isn't the only one doing it.

[northland10]

Oh, this is about Hertz Rental Cars, not just hertz. Well, despite a lack of it being mentioned above in any of the articles, it sounds like somebody does not like companies that champion diversity, equity, and inclusion. Well, that's just too bad.

Rental car companies are dangerous, doesn't matter how "inclusive" they portray themselves to be: reporting to the police the car is stolen when it is still under contract as a rental is a sincerely crappy behaviour. And Hertz isn't the only one doing it.

Yes, it is crappy behavior. I was just being snarky about the woke comment.

[John Thomas8]

Yes, it is crappy behavior. I was just being snarky about the woke comment.

All good, didn't think you supported the stupidity.

[Foggy]

Yeah, we had a hit-and-run-away! Or sumpin'. Could be a setup, but I got my eyebones wide open.



IMHO, those who are not woke are asleep. Or maybe they just need covfefe.

I dunno.

[Foggy]

Ah, the truth emerges, as it usually does.

Look up, at shimalkharia's post. He has finally edited the post to include a link, the sneaky little spammer. But since he's still in the moderation queue, I was notified.

That was cute, a totally innocuous post and then you go back three days later and add a spam link to it.

However, Mr. shimalkharia is now pining for the fjords, and won't bother us again.

[humblescribe]

Ah, the truth emerges, as it usually does.

Look up, at shimalkharia's post. He has finally edited the post to include a link, the sneaky little spammer. But since he's still in the moderation queue, I was notified.

That was cute, a totally innocuous post and then you go back three days later and add a spam link to it.

However, Mr. shimalkharia is now pining for the fjords, and won't bother us again.

I thought Hertz rented all makes of cars, not just Fjords.

[Foggy]

[Azastan]

Ah, the truth emerges, as it usually does.

Look up, at shimalkharia's post. He has finally edited the post to include a link, the sneaky little spammer. But since he's still in the moderation queue, I was notified.

That was cute, a totally innocuous post and then you go back three days later and add a spam link to it.

However, Mr. shimalkharia is now pining for the fjords, and won't bother us again.

Just for the fun of it, and because it was an unusual username, I performed a Google search for this miscreant.

What do you know? There were several brand new accounts, all in the name of the aforementioned miscreant, all made on the same day! Incredibly, these accounts just happened to be made the same day as the account here was made.

At least one forum had already determined that the holder of the new account was a spammer and had wielded the ban hammer.

[Frater I*I]

Ah, the truth emerges, as it usually does.

Look up, at shimalkharia's post. He has finally edited the post to include a link, the sneaky little spammer. But since he's still in the moderation queue, I was notified.

That was cute, a totally innocuous post and then you go back three days later and add a spam link to it.

However, Mr. shimalkharia is now pining for the fjords, and won't bother us again.

Ohhhh sure, you ban the spammer that actually puts work in here, but yet to have a whole thread dedicated to your own personal spammer, whom does not put work in around here....

I'm sensing a double standard here....