Rental car company charges customers for Tesla ‘charges’

US News

By Chris Harris

Customers of one of the nation’s largest car rental companies are feeling the pain after renting Teslas only to pay hundreds in free fuel costs – and then being denied refunds.

Hertz, which recently announced plans to offload 30,000 used Teslas, was accused of charging a customer a “Skip the Pump” fee of nearly $300 for failing to return the electric vehicle with a tank full.

Of course, electric vehicles don’t require gasoline.

A customer who recently rented a battery-powered Tesla Model 3 was charged $277.39 for gas he couldn’t have pumped into the car.

The customer was initially told the fee was non-refundable, but Hertz ended up returning the money after an article appeared on The Drive.

A separate report cited a $340.97 “Skip the Pump” fee charged to another customer, Evan Froehlich, who claimed he was unable to even reach Hertz customer service to request a refund.

Another Hertz customer, Toan Le, told the car culture outlet that he prepaid $329.83 for a week with a Tesla Model 3 and returned it without a full charge.

Instead of a $25 refill fee, Le was charged an additional $690.32, including a $475.19 fuel fee.

Le was also asked to pay a “chargeback” fee of $125.01 for use of Tesla’s Supercharger network.

Excessive and unjustified fees are nothing new, according to reports.

Hertz was singled out on Facebook last year by a user who paid nearly $60 in refueling fees for his leased Tesla.

Hertz acknowledged a problem with an unknown number of customers and blamed its computer system.

“Some customers who rented electric vehicles from us were charged refueling fees inaccurately, due to a system error,” the rental giant said in an emailed statement.

“This should never have happened and we have fixed the issue that caused it. We also proactively contacted affected customers and refunded the incorrect charges. To compensate them for their inconvenience, we offered them a credit for a future EV rental.