Hertz Car Rental - Downers Grove - Ogden Avenue - Downers Grove, Illinois

Daniel Tozzi

I rented a vehicle from this location in October 2024 for a business trip, and will never use them again. My overall experience was awful and the customer service from this location as well as Hertz's corporate office was the worst I have ever experienced.

I arrived 20 minutes early for my reservation, but ended up waiting 45 minutes to get my vehicle because the associate (same associate who helped me when I returned the vehicle) was arguing with another customer. When I finally received my vehicle and was about to leave, I was informed that if I park my personal vehicle in their parking lot that I would be towed. Their suggestion was to try my luck at a hotel across the street but that they would have me towed. This was my second time using this location; the first time I used it I was told to park my car in a Hertz designated parking spot, which is the same as I have done at any other location.

Due to not being allowed to park, I had to drive back home and my wife drove me back, further delaying my trip. When I returned back to Hertz I was questioned by the associates on why I left my rental vehicle in the parking lot, even though they had just told me to find another location for my personal vehicle. Overall my trip was over an hour delayed.

As if that wasn't bad enough, my experience after returning the vehicle was much worse. The same associate was working when I returned the vehicle. He was assisting other customers and had me hand him the keys and said he would email me a receipt. I never received my receipt, and the following week when I had to find the receipt on their website to submit for work purposed, I noticed I was charged an extra $400 smoking cleaning fee, and sure enough my credit card was charged an extra $400. I do not smoke and was the only person to use this vehicle, so I called this location to have the issue rectified but never received a call back (still have not).

Without hearing back, I filed a complaint online with Hertz customer service. A week later I received a generic email back thanking me for being a customer, but that the branch manager confirmed there was evidence of smoke and ashes in the car, and per company policy I have to pay a $400 fee. I asked for pictures since the vehicle was not inspected in my presence and I know full well I have never smoked, and to date never received a response. As a result, I disputed the charge with my credit card company and did receive the $400 back, but this took over a month and is not something that any reputable company would make their customers go through.

Anyone who uses this location needs to make sure they stay for the inspection after returning their vehicle and receive a receipt in person. It's clear to me that if you don't, they will hope that you don't check your credit card statements, or in my case assume if it's a work trip that it gets charges to a company card that no one looks at, and add on frivolous and fraudulent charges, and then when you call them out the company will double down and defer to the location manager, which will result in having to dispute the charge and waiting even longer. To date I have never received a call back from this location, and never received any responses back from the company's customer service to my follow up questions after receiving their initial response, so I'm sure they do this to everyone and hope that people will just give us and stop contacting them because it's very time consuming. It's unfortunate you had to click on a star to make this post, because this location and overall company deserves a 0/5.

ZUHAIB SHAIK

I called them to pick up the car and told them I’d be there at 6. The person on the phone assured me they would accommodate my request. However, when I arrived, the guy said they couldn’t do it. I had to drive 30 minutes for nothing, which isn’t right since they promised to help. The response at the door was just, “Yeah can’t help,” which was very disappointing.

Jordan Holwell

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS LOCATION. At first I thought this would be a great experience. I Had to drop off a vehicle at a different location. they have me two locations in Antioch, I went to both. ONE was the back road to a private airport no access the other was a office building at waukegan airport. After driving around for 90 minutes they said go to kenosha, which wasn't open. I made arrangements with this location to have the kenosha location pick it up. 7 days later and they've still not picked up this vehicle. I've called repeatedly and no one cares. they say their manager spoke to kenosha, so it's their problem. I've called corporate to complain. Th get said they'd handle it. The dealership is going to have the vehicle towed and they don't care. If you want to get ignored, yelled at, lied to and hung up on.... this is your branch. If you want better customer service go to enterprise or turo!

Tristan Ruzich

I use Hertz about once a month to go visit family for a week at a time..I NEVER have problems..except this time. The staff at this location is rude & profiled me based on my morning travel attire told me "you do know they run a credit check for this".. then I requested if he could give me a bigger car of course if not available this is fine but just asking, he started to raise his voice & tell me I get what HE decides..he gave me a sedan, outside was dirty & scuffed with burn holes & scuff marks,and holes in the dash boards..mind you while at least 8 perefectly fine SUV rentals were sitting in front..then I was charged over $100 for a "hold" I never received back but they claim I did..fine I let that go bcus I enjoy using Hertz..but then again this morning weeks after I used Hertz I get yet ANOTHER charge WAY over the amount of tolls I went through. I'm sorry but I use this service MONTHLY without issue. Now I'm switching my business to another service because HERTS DOWNERS GROVE is a scam. Save your time.

D Walter

Never. Again. Booked a specific vehicle online and prepaid. Arrive at location to be told that booked/ paid for vehicle was not available. Had a receipt AND confirmation email, showing paid. Was told the closest vehicle in price was an upcharge of $15.00 per day (6 day rental, so not an insignificant amount). Not a price OR a vehicle we wanted, but were afraid we would not find anything else on such short notice,so took the vehicle and paid the additional charge. The vehicle was non-smoking but had a cigarette burn in the seat and smelled like cigarettes. EV vehicle, which we were not familiar with, and staff/owner never bothered to ask OR explain features. To me, PREPAID CONFIRMATION NUMBER means you GET what you paid for with NO additional charge. Not sure if this is illegal or just unethical, but I AM sure I will never use Hertz again. Hertz Company reached out to me once, based on my survey response, then never responded after hearing about our experience. Terrible follow up-what was the survey point?

C J

Came in 45 min. earlier, and they charged an extra hour without saying what I am being charged for… they used to calculate the return time 24h after you show up as long as it is around 1 hour of appointment, and wasn’t that strict before…

Greg K

The process was a bit confusing and the rules regarding under 25 renters is not clear. I was told on the phone that I could not use a debit card, but then was told that I could; however there is a $500 hold. If you’re under 25, make sure you read all of the policies for clarification.

The vehicle I got was nice, pretty new, and a good drive for the price. They helped me out in a pinch.

Khadija Yusuf

Had a great experience. Usually when I rent a car the people are either cranky, overworked, or generally not happy. This location was above and beyond. They made the entire experience very pleasant. Booked an electric rental the night before and they had the car available for me no problem ( in the past, at other locations, I had to accept a car I didn’t reserve because they didn’t have the electric car available). On the day of return, I misread my return time as 11am when it was really 10am. Totally my fault. When I called, they told me it was fine and even if I didn’t charge the car entirely they wouldn’t fine me. Received my receipt and no extra charges and the staff was beyond great and understanding. Will use them again!