Like others, I booked a rental for 8 days through Hotwire where you do not know the rental company until you pay. My rental was for a Standard Size SUV, 5 passengers, 3 large suitcases, 3 small cuitcases, Jeep Grand Cherokee or similar. Once I found that Hertz was the contracted rental agency, I looked up the standard size SUV on their website and found it should equate to a Chevrolet Equinox, 5 passengers, 3 large suitcases, 2 small suitcases or similar and felt that I would get an equitable rental... WRONG!!! After traveling all day, we arrived at the Hertz rental counter at SMF, showed our Hotwire confirmation which also detailed the class of vehicle we rented and the computer system at Hertz was down and they could not confirm our reservation. Seeing my written confirmation, the agent told called for a Q4 to be brought up. I questioned what a Q4 was and was told a Jeep Liberty which I immediately protested as it was much smaller than what I had contracted for. The agen informed me that since we booked thru Hotwire, the vehicle classifications Hotwire uses were not the same as Hertz and which equated to their class Q4 (which I later found was their mid-size SUV's), still protesting, they me a choice of the Jeep Liberty or a Ford Escape or Toyota RAV4). I showed them my reservation stating that is should be similar to a Jeep Grand Cherokee but they would not budge off what I was being offered. When I protested and we showed them Hertz's own web page that they were offering us a mid-size SUV, they stuck to their position that Hotwire's classifications were different than theirs and that the Chevrolet Equinox, a higher class vehicle, was in high demand and would incur an expensive upgrade charge. We tried squeezing our luggage and family into one of their Q4's relizing immediately I would either have to leave luggage or a family member or two behind with a 2 hour, nighttime drive thru the mountains to Paradise, CA in front of us. I called for a supervisor and only received the same story. They finally offered me a Chevrolet Traverse, a class L4 vehicle, at a "discounted" upgraded charge of ONLY $25/day. I had to agree to this in order to get out of the airport with a vehicle that would handle our family and luggage. When I returned home, I contacted Hotwire and was told, after their research, that since I agreed (albeit coerced) to the upgrade charge, there was nothing they could do as the upgrade charge was not covered by their committment to me unless I could prove that they downgraded me. I contacted Hertz customer care and found out that our Hotwire reservation translated to a Class L and we should not have been charged an upgrade and to contact a location manager at SMF to resolve as all they could do is offer a $150 credit towards my next Hertz rental (which would have cost me $215.50, adding insult to injury). After trying for 14 days to work with a location manager mostly leaving unreturned messages, I finally went back to Hertz customer care and requested someone that could resolve the issue, demanding a refund of the upgrade charge and associated taxes. They did claim there was a slight upgrade from the Chevrolet Equinox to the Traverse, but their own website shows the weekly rental charge is identical. I reminded them that Hertz's own policy is to provide a free upgrade if they do not have what is on the rental agreement. Moreover, Hertz's own website only shows about a $70 upgrade charge between their Q4 and L classes at full retail, less if paid in advance. I was charged the "discounted" charge of $200. I am still waiting for a response from Hertz's claims department. BTW, I did get a free add-on for a second driver unlike another report. Hertz used to have a good reputation, but not anymore with me.
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