“I’m going to have to pay for this out of pocket.”
A man was on his way to parents’ weekend at his son’s university when his plans were derailed by the tires in his Hertz rental car. Here’s how it happened and why Discount Tire is involved.
TikTok creator @parev99 posted a video with details about the situation. “There’s a reason that travel sucks these days, and it’s because of travel horror stories like this. Let me tell you what happened,” he says to start the video.
Picture it: It’s parents’ weekend at his child’s university. @parev99 says he rented a car from Hertz at the Dallas airport and began driving it toward Waco.
According to @parev99, “About halfway down, we start getting a low-pressure indicator on one of the tires. So we pull over, and I put air in the tire. And I can hear the air coming out as fast as I’m putting it into the tire.”
He says he called Hertz emergency roadside assistance and says he was told to put a spare on it. After waiting about 20 minutes, he says he was directed toward a nearby Discount Tire.
“So Hertz sends us to this Discount Tire. And Discount Tire has been absolutely helpful and very, very good,” says @parev99. “This is not about Discount Tire. This story is about Hertz.”
He explains that the Discount Tire location closes at 6pm and that he arrived at about 4pm. Not only that, but @parev99 says Hertz led him to believe that the Discount Tire would be expecting him. But the employees there, he says, denied knowing anything about the situation.
At one point, he says he thought everything was resolved, only to learn that there was yet another snag in the system. “Have I mentioned Hertz set up a ticket, but they didn’t approve anything?” he says.
Then, according to the man, Hertz wanted to get a cheaper pair of tires. The only problem? The location didn’t have them in stock. All of that back-and-forth led to @parev99 being forced into a quick decision in order to salvage his evening.
“I’m going to have to pay for this out of pocket,” he says. “Thanks, Hertz. Amazing job.”
@parev99 also has a problem with the tires themselves. “By the way, these tires are totally shot. The actual cords are showing on both tires. The tires should not have been rented in that situation. Hertz, do better,” he says to close the video.
In the comments section of the video, viewers discussed what could’ve happened to cause this situation, and the service @parev99 says he received from Hertz.
“I’m guessing someone rented the car and swapped out their worn tires for their new ones,” one person said.
“Note to self: Check rental car tires before leaving the lot,” a second person wrote.
“Hurts don’t it!” joked a third person. “Couldn’t resist.”
Yes, they do, and it’s important to note that this is theft. Basically, a person or criminal operation rents a car, takes off the tires, replaces those tires with worn ones, and then returns the car. If the rental car company doesn’t catch the swap for some reason, this scenario could be one of the results.
Of course, it’s not usually difficult to determine who did it, considering that rental car businesses take deposits from and the personal information of their customers. “With a rental, that’s the problem,” one Reddit user commented in this thread. “You have to show your ID and driver’s license beforehand.”
That’s why it’s especially important that you take photos of rental cars at pick-up and drop-off so that you can avoid being held responsible for damage—or vandalism—done to it by other drivers.
Motor1 contacted @parev99 via TikTok comment and direct message for comment. We also contacted Hertz via press email for comment.
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– The Motor1.com Team