this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 272 points 4 days ago (8 children)

I think it's generally a brilliant solution but there are a couple of problems here:

  1. The scanner seems to flag fucking everything and charge for minor damage where a human would probably flag it as wear.
  2. No one is allowed to correct the scanner:

Perturbed by the apparent mistake, the user tried to speak to employees and managers at the Hertz counter, but none were able to help, and all "pointed fingers at the 'AI scanner.'" They were told to contact customer support — but even that proved futile after representatives claimed they "can’t do anything."

Sounds to me like they're just trying to replace those employees. That's why they won't let them interfere.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 132 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Sounds like they want to lose those customers.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 48 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Companies have been fucking consumers since the beginning of time and consumers, time and time again, bend over and ask for more. Just look at all of the most successful companies in the world and ask yourself, are they constantly trying to deliver the most amazing service possible for their customers or are they trying to find new ways to fuck them at every available opportunity?

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 26 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I feel like the go to strategy would be to offer incredible service at first, then once you are big enough to force out competitors and the like, then you start fucking the consumer

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 24 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The word used for that strategy is usually "enshittification". It happens a lot after digital tech is introduced in a new sector.

[–] Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Not many people today remember when Google was actually useful. Once upon a time.

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[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 17 points 4 days ago (5 children)

But they know their competitions are doing to adopt the same type of tech, so where are those customers going to go when they have no choice?

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[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 75 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (29 children)

I'm not sure how you can make the points you make, and still call it a "generally brilliant solution"

The entire point of this system - like anything a giant company like Hertz does - is not to be fair to the customer. The point is to screw the customer over to make money.

Not allowing human employees to challenge the incorrect AI decision is very intentional, because it defers your complaint to a later time when you have to phone customer support.

This means you no longer have the persuasion power of being there in person at the time of the assessment, with the car still there too, and means you have to muster the time and effort to call customer services - which they are hoping you won't bother doing. Even if you do call, CS hold all the cards at that point and can easily swerve you over the phone.

It's all part of the business strategy.

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 98 points 4 days ago (4 children)

It's on brand. I pity the fool that doesn't know hertz is a fucked up rental agency

[–] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 80 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Isn't this the same company that called the police on legitimate customers after they messed up the paperwork?

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 51 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yes. And yes. And a short search shows quite a few blunders.

Edit. Autocorrect

[–] BullishUtensil@lemmy.world 40 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Holy shit. The contract that dude signed had a maximum fee of $35 for EV recharge, yet they charged him $277 and claimed the contract allowed that. Thankfully, the worst I've had from Hertz is they just told me to fuck off and didn't give me my reserved vehicle.

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[–] Impromptu2599@lemmy.world 46 points 4 days ago

They charged me for a broken windshield, which I paid and then wouldn't provide me a receipt for my insurance company. Then to top it off, they turned me into a collections agency because they said I didn't pay for the windshield. I will never rent from them again.

[–] Supervisor194@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

And I will take this as my cue to mention that Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty are all the same company and they will each of them take every opportunity possible to fuck you.

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[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 88 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I will bring this up again like I did my last post concerning Hertz.

While I was in Albuquerque, NM getting off the Amtrak train, I reserved our rental car from their website and went to the nonexistent address with no phone number or anything. After half an hour we called another Hertz and they basically told us to piss off and call the location we booked the car. I have few brands that I boycott and now they will be Nestle products (and sub companies) and Hertz.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 31 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nestle products (and sub companies)

That's a tall order. And just to be clear, not saying we should just give up against those numbers. It's not an all-or-nothing situation.

[–] Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 15 points 4 days ago (11 children)

Just buy store brands and you're 80% of the way there.

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[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 76 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

The term AI itself is a shifting of goalposts. What was AI 50 years ago* is now AGI, so we can call this shit AI though it's nothing of the sort. And everybody's falling for the hype: governments, militaries, police forces, care providers, hospitals... not to speak of the insane amounts of energy & resources this wastes, and other highly problematic, erm, problems. What a fucking disaster.

If it wasn't for those huge caveats I'd be all for it. Use it for what it can do (which isn't all that much), research it. But don't fall for the shit some tech bro envisions for us.

* tbf fucking around with that term probably isn't a new thing either, and science itself is divided on how to define it.

[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 4 days ago (6 children)

It's also the other way around. What was called AI in the past is now called bots. Simple algorithms that approximate the appearance of intelligence like even the earliest chess engines, for instance, were also called AI.

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[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 60 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I am 0% surprised that Hertz would be the first in the US to roll this out. Expecting a Steve Lehto YouTube video about it within the next three days ...

[–] bcgm3@lemmy.world 55 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Oh, so Hertz has gotten wise to... every online platform that exists: Outsourcing all responsibility for their user-hostile bullshit to some vague "system" that cannot be held accountable.

I'm so sorry but the advertised cost has doubled because... Computer says so! No, sir, there's nothing I can do, sir, you see it's the system.

And you can't go anywhere else, because everyone else is doing it (or soon will be) too!

[–] AppleTea@lemmy.zip 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

just wait till they start denying health insurance with it

I'm sorry ma'am I know you're upset, but the AI said it's not covered. The AI is numbers, and numbers don't lie.

[–] DarkSurferZA@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Oh, this is a thing. It's called an accountability sink.

There is a really interesting book called the unaccountability machine by Rory Sutherland (if my memory is working). Worth a read

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[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I once tried to book on their site, and the website froze and it wouldn't go through every time I tried to pay. I checked my email multiple times and checked my credit card statement. Nothing went through. I went and booked elsewhere. 12 hours later, I get a confirmation email from them. I tried to cancel and it wanted to charge me $100 cancelation fee. I had to call to get it resolved. 45 minute wait time. Thankfully they took care of it, but it was a huge headache caused by their shitty system.

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[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 45 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I'd ask for the stupid AI scanning system to scan my car before I agree to renting it. Once they sign off on the 'all clear' notification from their AI scanner before rental, then I'd consider renting it .... but after reading this headline, I'd probably just tell them, I'm spending a few hundred dollars more on renting a car from someone else.

[–] johntash@eviltoast.org 33 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You should also ask for a copy of the pictures or videos it takes while scanning so you can reference when returning.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 11 points 4 days ago

And they will totally provide those to you, no problem.

[–] Clasm@ttrpg.network 27 points 4 days ago

Just spit balling here, but they probably tune the AI for different thresholds between return and rent out so that they can rake in the damage fees for things that "weren't there" during the first AI scan.

[–] Vorticity@lemmy.world 40 points 3 days ago

I get why they'd use something like this to save money and time but, is suspect that correct use would include a human check before charging people.

We need to start pushing for laws on this kind of thing. Automated checks are fine if you, as the company, trust they won't have too many false negatives. If you aren't checking for false positives, though, you should be heavily fined for each false report. $25,000 per false report sounds like a good place to start. Hopefully that would be large enough to not just be the cost of doing business.

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 40 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Sounds like that shit with dodgy smoking detection in a hotel from last week..

[–] BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Yup intentionally using dogy tools to extract more money from people under false pretenses, at this point I'm boycotting any company that claims to use AI, fuck em all

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[–] MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago

Never rent a car from Hertz, check.

[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Okay so...in the rare event I need to rent a car, any suggestions on who to use that isn't Hertz and sister companies?

[–] callouscomic@lemmy.zip 20 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I've had a lot of good recent experiences with Enterprise (in the US). There's some interesting services like Turo, but I can't bring myself to try it yet. Weirdly too personal being other people's cars.

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[–] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 30 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I wonder what a credit card dispute would result in here. Underutilized feature when businesses pull shady shit. Think I've had 6 or so disputes over the years, never failed.

[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (14 children)

Too many people these days don't use or have access to credit cards for services like this. Many people I know only use bank debit cards, or worse, use the debit preloaded cash cards issued by their employers' payroll service provider.

Credit cards motivate banks to help you, because if you won't pay, and the business doesn't pay, the bank has to take the hit.

Debit cards will work as well if your bank values it's reputation - but not all banks do.

And I would not trust a preloaded card provider to assist. You are neither their business partner nor their customer and that puts your interests at the bottom of a very long list. You have to hope some law is on your side or that your issue is so trivial that resolving it is more cost effective then dealing with you.

[–] Underwaterbob@sh.itjust.works 9 points 4 days ago

Huh? I don't think I've ever used a rental car service that didn't require a credit card. Exactly so they can charge for this sort of thing.

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[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (9 children)

You mean an LLM that doesn't have the ability to understand context fails to make decisions that require context to do properly? Shocking /s

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[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 days ago

Hertz is a ripoff and a hassle and little else

[–] baronvonj@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

Aivis. Trai harder.

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 4 days ago

Fair game. Give me a grease pen and let me mark everything I see. By the time I'm done, they'll owe me money.

[–] boaratio@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

"AI is a disaster." Fixed it for you.

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