Do not Rent from Hertz Mauritius
I made a booking for a Honda Mobilo vehicle for pickup at from Hertz Rentals/ I got to the car rental counter and was told that the vehicle I booked (A Honda Mobilo MPV) was not available and was instead offered a VAN to drive away to the hotel. I told the representative that 1) This was not the vehicle I booked and the alternative been proposed was not acceptable 2) most importantly, I had never driven a VAN before and for safety reasons did not think it was a good idea to use the roads of a country I have never been to learn how
to drive a VAN as this wasn't safe for myself and the family. To my surprise, the Hertz rep was very unhelpful and said its either I take the VAN or he would have to say I cancelled the booking and record me as a NO SHOW (which meant I would not get a refund of the amount I had paid). Several times I requested to speak to his Manager at hertz(as the individual was alone at the counter) and he flatly refused to allow me to speak to them saying that they were not interested in speaking to me. I even asked for him to call the toll free number of the Hertz office which was displayed which he also refused. Based on the unprofessional and rude way I was been treated, I told the rep that he had givenme no choice but to start recording our conversation and I needed evidence to
show how he was treating me (very rude and unprofessional). To my surprise, the Rep then proceeded to call the airport POLICE on me. Safe to say when the POLICEarrived and saw that I had done nothing wrong but was only insisting on the terms of the hire contract
to be honoured, they had no choice but to leave me and adviced I rent another vehicle so that I could get my family to the hotel after a long trip. At this point I tried to call Auto Europe directly using my UK phone (and incurring roaming charges) and had to wait 20mins each time to talk to their reps. The first rep kept me on hold for another 30mins and after loosing the call, I had to call again. The second rep I spoke to said she would call me back to give me an alternative to get myself and the family out of the airport. After waiting 2 hrs at
the booking desk without hearing back from the company and mindful I had been kept waiting after a 12hrs flight from London (with a 5 year old in attendance), I had no choice but to make an alternative and very expensive booking of over £800 with EuropCar. Now obviously I have a lot to be aggrieved about but firstly my concern is to
recover the amount I had paid for the booking as this was not honoured and I ended up paying a very expensive rate at the counter as I was stuck with no help from Auto Europe/Hertz