The customer service was Poor and extremely slow. It took approximately 2 hours to finish the paperwork. I was taken off-airport to another site to complete the paperwork. There I was told the booking was not with Hertz but with another company called "Firefly." These people appear to running a sub-standard rental service with old and salvaged vehicles with the Hertz brand as cover. The car provided was an old model year Toyota Corolla that looked like it was salvaged from an accident. They made an effort to clean it but it still had a weird smell and it looked battered. Despite the substandard look of the car, I took it anyway in order to remain loyal to Hertz as Gold Plus member and gain some points. On the drive to the hotel I noticed the car was extremely mis-aligned, it had a significant drift to the right. The engine struggled the whole time for the 10 mile trip that was mostly flat. I intended to travel across the island and I had serious doubts the car would be able to make it especially over the steep hills of Jamaica. I knew for sure it would be difficult if not unsafe to drive it at highway speed due to the mis-alignment so I returned it with the intention of getting a newer, better car. Upon returning to the airport, they had a newer model Toyota Corolla on the lot but they said it would cost me more because the newer car is a Hertz vehicle while the older car with the lower rate is the "Firely" rental. There was no documentation during the booking process that showed any reference to Firefly, I thought I was booking a Hertz rental. I feel I was SCAMMED. I asked to be given the newer "Hertz" vehicle for the same rate but they refused. Five hours after landing and beginning the rental process I'm still dealing with a rental car issue. Luckily, I also had a reservation with Island rental car. I asked Hertz to void my current rental because I will be going over to Island car rental to get a car, They were not fazed by that threat, they did not seem to want to keep the business which I found odd. They voided the rental after a significant amount of that persuading them that I should not be charged for the day because the car was in bad mechanical shape and I did not use apart from driving to the hotel and back. I then walked over to the Island Car rental counter and about 15 minutes later I drove away in newer Toyota Corolla. Note that the Island rental rate was less that the Hertz rate but I had chosen to go with the Hertz brand because I know them and rent from them while on business trips in the States. This event has tarnished the Hertz brand for me. When I am renting again in Jamaica I will avoid Hertz. I will definitely recommend and use Island Car Rental again.
The whole experience was terrible. The process is too slow. The operation runs like they are in the 1980s. Why are they using so much paper and carbon copies in 2017? If this is a true Hertz rental facility they need to update their operations processes - it should not take two hours to complete a rental contract.
