You have a point…but I drive a larger car and my wife drives an SUV. It was a mid-size for all I knew at the time.
Nothing was said at the desk other than “you car is in spot 187”. I still think they are obligated to give me the car I contracted for.
FWIW, I attempted to dispute the fuel charge I mentioned above with American Express.
Their site walked me thru the process of identifying the charge as being from a car rental company and for a fuel charge. The automatic response was… “you agreed to the terms when you rented the car and your dispute is with the agency this dispute is resolved”…ot something to that effect.
I did complain to HotWire in this case and we’ll see what happens. I’m not holding my breath and won’t lose any sleep over it…but I will probably dispute the charge on my credit card (not AmEx) if I don’t get anything from HotWire.
I would stop right there and dispute it with my credit card. You tried, they denied it, move up a tier.
Tell the credit card company that you paid for a midsized car and were given a sub-compact, you emailed Hotwire but they refused to help so you want to dispute the charge.
As for the posters saying you should have said something right away, if I were in the OP’s shoes, first of all, I doubt the CC company will even say that, but I would probably respond with “I assumed I’d get a refund” or “I didn’t realize how small it was until I got in and my head was touching the ceiling. I’d never heard of a ‘sonic’ before. When I looked it up later I saw it was the smallest car Chevy makes”.
But, like I said, I doubt they’ll ask all those questions. You got ripped off, plain and simple and the CC company usually goes out of it’s way to protect it’s customers.
If by “they” you mean Hotwire, you are correct. If by “they” you mean Hertz, you probably aren’t. You don’t know what Hotwire paid them for.
Complain to Hotwire. You’re their customer, not Hertz’ (and I would hold out for a full refund less the 10% voucher you got, though really you shouldn’t get anything because you should have called them on the spot to sort it out.)
To nitpick, the Sonic isn’t a subcompact (it’s classed as a regular compact) and it isn’t the smallest car Chevy sells (that would be the Sonic, which is a subcompact).
To the OP, just for fun, I just tried making a car reservation with Hotwire and the option for midsize car says “Toyota Corolla or similar.” The Sonic is clearly in the same size range as a Corolla. I agree it’s misleading to call either car a midsize, but I seriously doubt this dispute is going to go anywhere, especially since calling cars of that size “midsize” appears to be standard practice in the rental industry. Plus the difference is, what, a couple of bucks a day? Just live and learn-- apparently next time if you want an actual midsize car from Hotwire you need to pick the “standard” car, which is the Ford Fusion or similar.
Huh?
:smack:
That would be the Spark, which is a subcompact.
The Sonic is the second generation Aveo. It’s definitely not a Corolla rival; that would be the Cruze, which like the Corolla is ~180 inches long and ~60 inches wide. The Sonic sedan, the longest version, is 170 in. long (but approximately the same width.)
From here (a Chevrolet.com page)
So it’s really not surprising that the 2014 Chevrolet Sonic 5-door hatchback received the “Highest Ranked Vehicle Appeal among Sub-Compact Cars Two Years in a Row”† by J.D. Power.
But even if it was compact, the OP still paid for a mid-sized and even if that’s ‘only a few dollars’ he still didn’t get what he paid for and deserves a refund which Hot Wire flat out refused to do. The next step is to dispute the charge with his credit cart company.
The Sonic is definitely not a rival to the Corolla in quality, but it is in size. I sort of suspect the OP is so upset about this because the thing is a very crummy car that probably feels smaller than it is.
Let’s see if this works: Compare Side-by-Side
Hmm, sort of. Hit the “specs” tab.
Granted, Toyota has gone and muddled things by making the 2014 Corolla a true midsize car, but the 2013 and earlier have 92 cubic feet of passenger space and 12 cubic feet of cargo space. The Sonic has 91 cubic feet of passenger space and 12 feet of cargo space.
And yeah, Joey P like I mentioned earlier the car makers’ marketing departments often have different ideas of what to call a car, but in the quantifiable terms that the EPA uses, it’s a regular compact.
So, ignoring, compact vs sub-compact, shouldn’t the OP get some kind of compensation? He paid for a mid-sized.
He paid for what the car rental industry calls a midsized, which is a Corolla-sized car. Assuming he saw the same listing I did, it even said “Toyota Corolla or equivalent.”
Now maybe he could say he looked up the Corolla and saw that the 2014 one is an actual midsize car and was expecting that, but FWIW the picture is of an earlier generation Corolla which is the exact same size as the Spark he got.
…the same size as the Sonic he got. :smack:
The OP hasn’t heard from Hotwire, yet, so maybe they’ll make it right, which would be refunding the difference in rental rates (if that can even be established); not a full refund.
In looking at the Hertz website and this unofficial but trusted source about the Hertz car line-up, it doesn’t appear that Hertz even uses “midsize” as one of their rental categories; they have compact and intermediate. That ambiguity probably leaves much open to interpretation, that and the “OR SIMILAR” disclaimer that both Hotwire and Hertz use.
The range of vehicle types within the compact class is pretty wide and for Chevy includes the Sonic, Spark, and Aveo. Intermediate includes the Cruze. The difference in trunk space between the Sonic and Cruze is .1 sqft and 3.3 sqft both favoring the Cruze. So technically, the OP got one tier lower car but in practice the difference in size was minor. Furthermore, the OP states that he didn’t know the difference and the OP doesn’t indicate that he was harmed or inconvenienced in any way by the rental he accepted. Yet, the OP says the rental was a “failure” and he’ll dispute the charge with his credit card if he doesn’t get anything from Hotwire, on top of the 10% off coupon already received from Hertz.
To the OP, it sounds like you’d benefit from doing a little more homework before you rent again, and be sure to read the small print. I’d also suggest searching around for some discount codes; many give free upgrades and discounts that would probably put you close to what you paid Hotwire and if you’re booking right with the rental company they at least have to pretend to try and make you happy.
Excellent feedback…thanks all.
FTR, I’m not all that upset about it but I may as well get what I can if I can.
The whole thing is a good learning experience and I will definitely be wary of renting via Hotwire or comparable site again.
In the “Heads in Beds” book, the author claims that if there’s a lousy hotel room that needs to be assigned, (the unrenovated one next to the icemaker and elevator and has a view of the back wall of the factory next door) if you booked with a opaque online travel agency like Hotwire, you’re going to be one that will get it, compared to someone who booked through the hotel. The person who booked through an OTA picked the hotel because it was the absolute cheapest price, and will pick the competition next time if they offer the lowest price, but the person that booked through the hotel presumably checked the web site for amenities and location and wants to stay there, and thus might stay there again if they have a good experience. Wouldn’t surprise me if rental cars worked the same way (As for airlines- well they’re different because basically all the seats are equally lousy).
I agree with the above, the salesperson “mistakenly/on purpose” gave you the wrong car to see if you could tell the difference. But imho:
On that one hand, that makes sense (for both hotels and cars), on the other hand, that’s a good way to get a lousy online review and make sure I don’t use your service again in the future.
If I LOVED your hotel, maybe next time I’ll skip Hotwire and be happy to pay $110 a night to book directly with you instead of $85 a night to roll the dice.
If I had to listen the elevator all night or look at a brick wall 15 feet away, maybe I’ll write a scathing Yelp review (embellished of course, because I was still mad when I wrote it), then be sure to pay $110 a night for anyone but you next time instead of $85 a night to roll the dice.
Things are very different nowadays with social media. Word spreads much faster than it did 20 or even 10 years ago when all I could do was tell a handful of people. Now, my Yelp or TripAdvisor review goes out to thousands of people. Whether I spend $110 or $85 or $20 a night, it’s in your interest to give me the best experience possible since someone else might read it and say “Honey, maybe we shouldn’t do Hotwire, this hotel sounds like the best bet and I don’t want to get this other crappy sounding one”.
Same goes for cars. Someone in the OP’s position might be off steaming somewhere writing a review about how he rented a mid-sized car and and when he got there his knees were bumping into the steering wheel and he couldn’t fit all his suitcases in the trunk.
Where/when did you see the list…when reserving on-line… when you picked it up?
If someone has to be put in that room, because they are otherwise full, are you suggesting it should the person who paid $110 instead of $85? Maybe that’s you, the second time you’re staying there.