Hertz - London Stansted Airport

Best car hire place at Stansted by a long way. Courteous staff, polite and good cars.

Although I cannot recommend Hertz, the other car hire companies I have tried in the UK are even worse. So if you go armed with the knowledge below, you should manage to get the car you booked without additional hassle.
Hertz consistently try to oversell their 'upgrades'. Like most Hertz locations in the UK the Stansted Airport location will often give you a bigger 'upgrade' car even if you say you don't want it, and often without informing you. A warning sign if is they say they are supplying you an automatic. If you refuse this 'upgrade' they can quickly become very unfriendly.
On the last occasion at this branch of Hertz I refused to take a gas-guzzling, hard-to-park SUV, twice before the agent went off to get keys for the small car I'd actually booked (group B). Nevertheless he came out with keys for a much bigger car (group E) without telling me, saying only that it was a Nissan. When I asked what group it was he wouldn't tell me. Eventually he told me it was group E and I then had to refuse four more times before he eventually agreed to give me the car I'd booked. This, unfortunately is very common practise at Hertz.
They will also often try to push extra insurance on you, even if you refuse it. A good tip here is to get independent car hire insurance before you travel, it is a fraction of the cost of the hire company, even for an annual policy. Search for 'car hire insurance' on Google. Check the car carefully before you take it and mark even small damage on the damage sheet before you drive away, they will often say there is no damage when in fact there is lots, although in my experience they generally ignore small paint chips and scratches, but pay more attention to windscreen chips. Also check all the accessories that they say are present, like the spare wheel and wheel locking nut. Quite often these will in fact be missing.
Another recommendation is to try and avoid taking a car in hours of darkness. In some locations they have an area with flood lights that you can use to inspect the car, but if not you have to take it without being able to inspect it, and report any damage by telephone the next morning. When this happened to me, I tried to report damage in the morning but the number they have to call did not answer and it was not possible to leave a message. They tried to charge me for the damage when I returned the car but eventually accepted my arguments that I could not contact them when I showed the call log on my telephone.
Hiring from Hertz is often not a pleasant experience but it is not unusual for the UK and if you stick to your guns and refuse additional extras you don't want you should be okay.

Gold club customer. Treated like royalty. Fast convenient and a brand new vehicle.

Avoid Hertz! Tried to charge me or my colleages three times extra by now! Unbelievable.
Returned the car on time. Employee was busy with new customers. I told him that I am in a hurry and if I can leave the key with him. He says no problem, he will drop the key for me in the box outside. Now I see that they charged me one day extra for returning the car late. I have proof with gas station bills, pictures of the car, train tickets, etc. that I returned it on time.
Last time they claimed that the gas tank was not filled up...proved it with the gas station bill. There is a system behind this. So avoid them.

The flight was delayed so I could not make it in time to collect the car. I took a taxi to get to my destination. I tried to contact them in the following days - dozens of times at any hour of the day - no one ever answered the phone. Ended up renting a car from another company where I was staying. Customer service is not bad - it's non-existent. I would rate them minus 5 if I could.

Hertz consistently try to aggressively oversell their 'upgrades'. Like most Hertz locations in the UK the Stansted Airport location will often give you a bigger 'upgrade' car even if you say you don't want it, and often without informing you. A warning sign if is they say they are supplying you an automatic. If you refuse this 'upgrade' they can quickly become very unfriendly.
Although I cannot recommend Hertz, the other car hire companies I have tried in the UK are even worse. So if you go armed with the knowledge below, you should manage to get the car you booked without additional hassle.
On the last occasion at this branch of Hertz I refused to take a gas-guzzling, hard-to-park SUV, twice before the agent went off to get keys for the small car I'd actually booked (group B). Nevertheless he came out with keys for a much bigger car (group E) without telling me, saying only that it was a Nissan. When I asked what group it was he wouldn't tell me. Eventually he told me it was group E and I then had to refuse four more times before he eventually agreed to give me the car I'd booked, as they are obliged to do. This, unfortunately is very common practise at Hertz.
They will also often try to push extra insurance on you, even if you refuse it. A good tip here is to get independent car hire insurance before you travel, it is a fraction of the cost of the hire company, even for an annual policy. Search for 'car hire insurance' on Google. Check the car carefully before you take it and mark even small damage on the damage sheet before you drive away, they will often say there is no damage when in fact there is lots, although in my experience they generally ignore small paint chips and scratches, but pay more attention to windscreen chips. Also check all the accessories that they say are present, like the spare wheel and wheel locking nut. Quite often these will in fact be missing.
Another recommendation is to try and avoid taking a car in hours of darkness. In some locations they have an area with flood lights that you can use to inspect the car, but if not you have to take it without being able to inspect it, and report any damage by telephone the next morning. When this happened to me, I tried to report damage in the morning but the number they have to call did not answer and it was not possible to leave a message. They tried to charge me for the damage when I returned the car but eventually accepted my arguments that I could not contact them when I showed the call log on my telephone.
Hiring from Hertz is often not a pleasant experience but it is not unusual for the UK and if you stick to your guns and refuse additional extras you don't want you should be okay.

Excellent excellent excellent. Couldn't have been nicer. The guy on duty the day we hired was fantastic and professional even going as far as making sure our car wasn't too far to walk to with cases and kids. Hertz is a fantastic Car Rental service and the service here only solidifies that opinion for me. Car was spotless (cleaner in the car park even chatted with us about how proud he was of his work...brilliant!) The bill is never a shock, everything is explained up front, no hidden extras unlike the cheap renters. Bus trip from terminal was very quick with friendly Hertz driver and the pick up and return area was super efficient.

So nice to rent from a proper company, been using the really cheap ones like Easirent and Green motion for ages which is hours of endless misery and charging you for scratches you didn't put there.... With Firefly (hertz) took about 3 minutes to pick up, new smart forfour, no damage. Drop off took about 1 minute from a guy in the car park with an iPad and mobile printer. Deposit was back in my account instantly..

This is how car hire should be...

If you want to be charged for no reason, with no proof and receive shocking customer service - then go to Hertz!

I have spent many times on the phone, on email, on Twitter... and nothing was resolved!

We hired a car with no damage, and returned it with NO damage. Myself, and the Hertz employee both signed to say so and my deposit was returned.

Then 3 days later, £137 was taken from my account with no notice/email/letter/anything explaining why!

I called the branch, and because it was on a Saturday, I was told to call back on Monday.

I called back Monday and they said they took it because of damage (couldn't tell me what) but because it happened when I had the car, I was definitely liable.

After many phone calls, emails, Twitter conversations - it emerged that I had apparently cracked the window screen on the driver's side. Yep, a crack!

I asked for CCTV to be checked because I am astounded that no one noticed such a huge crack when I dropped the car off/when I got my deposit back... then the branch manager Lena started shouting at me. She called me a liar and that she trusts her team so will not check CCTV!

They said they have a copy of a document where I signed to say that I accept responsibility, but I have never received this after multiple requests.

All I can say is, head to Europcar! I have used them since and were brilliant. Avoid Hertz, avoid Lena the branch manager and don't look at their cars in case they spontaneously crack.

What ever you do DON'T USED HERTZ!!!! Or if you do DON'T USE THEIR STANSTARD AIRPORT BRANCH! Not Only did we not get the initial specific vehicle we had booked for our wedding and honeymoon, we were then lumbered with a damaged vehicle which their paper work did not say was damaged but before leaving the yard we insisted they make note of it the guy typed something on the computer saying it's all been "documented" and putting a squiggle on our paper work saying it was his signature so we signed remaining paper work ..... On our return with the vehicle they then say it was never documented and same guy refuted it was his signature denied we made him aware and refusing to let us leave the lot making us feeling bullied and demanded we pay more money to have car repaired....which my now husband eventually did to avoid further confrontation and delay as we were against time before going on our honeymoon he then wrote to the head office on our return explaining what happened insisting on a refund for the money we were demanded to pay! To today receive a email saying tough luck we signed papers so we agreed we had damaged the car..... WE NEVER SIGNED ANY SUCH DECLARATION OUT OF SHEER PRINCIPAL SO THIS SIGNED AGREEMENT DOESN'T EXIST EITHER THAT OR THIS PAPERWORK HAS BEEN FRAUDULENTLY CREATED /DOCTERED BY HERTZ STAFF.....

What a totally shameful company shame on you!!!!!!

Quick booking, excellent costumer service, great car, best price. Highly recommend.