seetheworld

Regarding existing damage...

Besides the fact that I have, over many years of training, strong observational skills, I was the one packing the car. I also spent some time trying to figure out how to adjust the passenger side front seat. I am absolutely certain that the damage did not exist prior to our trip.

seetheworld

Update...Still no news from the garage (no report) and we haven't heard from Hertz. I'm working on a letter to send to corporate.

Wyatt, I won't hold this against you!

Radiofanatic, what a horrible and disgusting experience you had! I thought that the hotel would reimburse us for the parking, they did not.

Malesherbes, I'm glad the GM's get time off! However, we felt that the acting GM could have been more helpful. I thought for sure that because the attendents wore a jacket with the hotel name on it, they worked for the hotel. If I were hotel management, I would be concerned with how these people handle hotel guests and their property (or in this case Hertz's property).

As far as the Royal Sonesta being a customer oriented hotel, they may be -- if you are a repeat customer with a history. This was our one and only stay. Perhaps that had something to do with the treatment. I don't know. I know that we will not return.

J_Correa, you bring up a very interesting point. Many times valet parking is the only viable option. What's a person to do?

joan

Seetheworld, have you checked your credit card online? It seems to me you are jumping the gun - nobody at Hertz has even contacted you - perhaps they didn't note the damage and you will not be charged anyway...

seetheworld

Joan, yes I have. You are correct, Hertz may not have noticed. But I am giving it 30 days -- I think then I can be certain. The hotel/garage, on the other hand, needs to know how poorly this was handled.

Malesherbes

seetheworld, I agree absolutely, the hotel did a miserable job of responding and the GM needs to know as they don't want this sort of snafu any more than you do. There should be, and most likely is, a procedure in place for handling such incidents, and if any acting GM is unsure of it, they need to get clarification before you leave unhappy, not after! Unfortunately what could and should be, isn't always what happens...but they do want to know!

Good luck. Hopefully you will never hear from Hertz! We had a rental car door blow open in Wales, smashing into the rocky cliff face we were parked next to, putting a good sized dent in that piece of tin. We said nothing when we returned it and never heard a thing back. We brought the car back as dirty as possible, not hard in Wales, to make it less noticeable!! With any luck, you will be as fortunate.

padams421

It's not the same siutation but we had a car stolen that was parked by a valet company at a restaurant. We filed a claim on our insurance policy, thereby letting our insurance company fight it out with the valet and the restaurant as to who should reimburse the insurance company (as we were paid by our insurance company). In the end, the restaurant paid.

P_M

OK, this does it, I'm NEVER going to valet park again!!

LoveItaly

Seetheworld, your post reminds me of a time a friend and I went to SF for a day of shopping. At the end of the day I drove to North Beach and was going to park in the small parking lot next to the restaurant where we were going to have dinner. But there was a car blocking the driveway so I was stopped (sort of doubleparked) in front of the restaurant waiting for the car to move. A young guy opens my door and said something like "how many hours do you think you wil be?" I said "oh about two I guess". He holds the door all the way open, I got out, my friend got out and away this guy drives in my car. We walked into the restaurant and then both of us stopped and stared at each other and had the same thought "we just let some guy steal my car"..this restaurant had never had valet parking in the past. I almost passed out, I could only imagine what my DH would have to say, LOL. But it turned out he was doing valet parking for the restaurant and all was well, but sure had a panic moment.