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Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports
- thelastgallon 4y agoFrom the article: In its release, Hertz says they believe “a meaningful portion of the settlement” will be covered by insurance so ‘no big deal’ to them what they did to customers, at least for investors. Meanwhile their CEO shrugs in an included statement saying they “will not always be perfect.”
- xaerise 4y agoi hope the insurance company takes a look in the documents and tells Hertz to go f** themselfs... No way that the insurance company would cover negliance and fraud...
- jeffbee 4y agoEvery business is insured against claims of negligence. It is totally standard and I imagine universal that large businesses are so covered.
- phonon 4y agoMany business policies don't cover gross negligence/punitive and exemplary damages.
- remram 4y agoWhat does that change? The company paying a fine is still the shareholders or (most likely) the customers paying a fine.
- nerpderp82 4y agoI don't think insurance should apply in criminal behavior.
- aj7 4y agoReally? Hertz HAS $168M?
- snapcaster 4y agoThis is so awful it's hard to even believe. It does feel like there needs to be some threat of a company being completely dissolved in cases like this or Equifax or other problems this big that the organization has shown no interest in stopping
- annexrichmond 4y agoat what point is the punishment worse than the crime, such as if hundreds or thousands of people lose their job?
- pessimizer 4y agoThis is dumb. If Hertz closes down, other car rental companies will take up the demand, and Hertz employees will apply for jobs at those companies. edit: and if people aren't punished at Hertz, those other car rental companies will see that the money to be made through bad behavior more than makes up for the costs if caught.
- ipaddr 4y agoAmount of people employed should not factor in to decisions like this. Otherwise the government should prevent Amazon from laying off 20,000 if that's all that matters.
- infamouscow 4y agoConsequentialist arguments aren't very good for punishing actors for bad behavior. For example, we don't let murders free just because the lives of their children are forever impacted if the murder goes to prison.
- annexrichmond 4y agois it not an argument against capital punishment?
- ergocoder 4y agoPaying fine doesn't seem enough. Someone needs to go to jail.
- ccleve 4y agoPrecisely. Nothing happens until the individuals responsible pay a penalty. If an exec knowingly, or through negligence, causes a person to be arrested, that person needs to pay up personally. If they did it to protect their own position, then jail time is appropriate. Falsely reporting a crime is a crime.
- bombcar 4y agoQualified immunity makes some sort of sense for actual cops, perhaps, but makes absolutely ZERO sense for a corporation and its executives.
- adql 4y agoShould be on the CEO's head unless they can prove it was someone's malicious action without their knowledge. At least that would partially exclude the ridiculous compensation
- gnicholas 4y agoJust to be clear, corporations and executives do not get qualified immunity. They just get to pay with someone else's money (insurance, or shareholders) instead of their own. I don't know why judges don't insist on jail time for someone in these situations. It might not make sense for a mistake that happened once, but after they knew it was happening and didn't fix their systems, the behavior was knowingly reckless.
- bombcar 4y agoThey get an effective form of “qualified immunity” even if it’s not codified. Any individual doing what Hertz is doing would be facing prison time.
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- nickvanw 4y agoThese stories are awful - this wasn't just an administrative headache for people, they served real time and has real consequences. Filing a false police report is a crime, it would be nice to see that enforced against the company in one way or another.
- HarryHirsch 4y agoBut... intent - Hertz had no intent to have customers locked up or threatened by out-of-control cops, so it's all good. When it comes to life-and-limb matters like this intent really shouldn't matter because it's nothing more than a get-out-of-jail card for executives who couldn't care less about the impact of their policies. No one important at Wells-Fargo went to jail either - they set policies which were expected to have certain outcomes, but top brass could not have possibly have foreseen the outcomes. I'm sick of plausible deniability, especially when it isn't even plausible any longer, the complaints go back years.
- fallingknife 4y agoIntent always matters. And it is absolutely plausible that a rental car could be marked stolen through a bureaucratic error. If fact, in this case, it's more than plausible. It's pretty much inconceivable that a rental car company would intend to just say "fuck you in particular" to a few customers and try to put them in jail. Those customers should obviously get their judgment money, and Hertz should pay a heavy price (maybe even such a heavy price that they go bankrupt), but no one should go to jail for filing a false police report unless they intended to mislead the police.
- jakelazaroff 4y ago"A rental car company" didn't do anything. Humans working at a rental car company did. Maybe it was a "bureaucratic error" that fraudulently reported the cars as stolen. That bureaucracy didn't spontaneously emerge from dust. Humans built it. Why should humans not face legal repercussions for the havoc they've wreaked on their victims' lives?
- jmyeet 4y agoLet's compare this to China where 2 executives were sentenced to death (and others to life sentences) for their role in selling tainted formula (resulting in infant deaths) and concealing it [1] or Jack Ma (of Alibaba) who just disappeared for 3 months [2]. It should be a legal requirement that a human review and sign off on any complaint about a stolen car to police. That personal (and company) should be held criminally liable for making false police reports in addition to any civil damages (including significant punitive damages) they should pay. [1]: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna28787126 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna28787126 [2]: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56448688 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56448688
- vorpalhex 4y agoLet's maybe not copycat a country that abducts people who make gentle criticism of it's flawed banking system.
- lostmsu 4y agoOne should be disputing individual policies. Policies are not all-or-nothing deals.
- fallingknife 4y agoAre you really using China as an example of how this is handled well? From your own source: >Ahead of this, Ma addressed an assembly of high-profile figures with a controversial speech that criticised the Chinese financial system. He was not seen in public again until late January. In the interim, there were rumours that he might have been placed under house arrest or otherwise detained. Some even questioned if he was still alive.
- jmyeet 4y agoThe lesson I would like people to take from China is that government is the only thing that can rein in corporate power. This is one reason (of many) why I either laugh or just roll my eyes at libertarians. Obviously there are aspects of China you don't want to emulate (eg the ethnic cleansing).
- jboy55 4y agoA long time ago I was in a relationship where my SO took my car and refused to give it back. I called the police to report it stolen and they said that since I had lent the car to her in the past, this was a case of someone not abiding by an agreement, and it was a civil matter and I would need to retrieve the car or a PI would. This was California, so other states probably have different laws, but I would have to think for a major corporation this should be in civil court first.
- gamblor956 4y agoThe police gave you bad information. California law does not have any sort of "prior use" exception to theft laws. Letting someone use a car in the past does not give them cart blanche to borrow it again without permission in the future. You ex stole your car. If they police did not do anything, the proper response would be to take your complaint of inaction to Internal Affairs or your local elected representative. And then to take the car back yourself, or to hire a PI to retrieve the car or a lawyer to issue a demand letter for the return of the car.
- dsfyu404ed 4y agoIf you know where your stolen property is your best way to get it back is to let the police know you're on your way to get it back. They tend to react to that because while they DGAF about stolen property they really don't like what it would look like if "serious violence" ensued from them not acting.
- FateOfNations 4y agoCalifornia even has a special "taken without consent" (i.e. joyriding) law for cars where you don't even have to prove the "permanently deprive" part that proving theft normally entails.
- g_sch 4y agoI think your story carries an unspoken assumption that the police understood and/or cared about the law. I wouldn't be too sure that's the case.
- CSMastermind 4y agoI travel quite a bit for both business and personal reasons. This means I'm driving a rental car for 100+ days a year. I've tried all the major rental brands and Hertz is a terrible experience even when they're not calling the police on you by mistake. Their systems don't work quite right, there's a bunch of hidden fees, and their customer service is lacking at best. I swear by Enterprise and purchasing the extra insurance to cover any damages. They've done right by me as a customer across many different cities and locations. I know that some people are always going to just buy whatever is the cheapest or whatever deal gets them the most points with credit card or whatever. And that seems to be where Hertz makes their money. But for anyone willing to pay a little more for a good experience and less stress Enterprise is my recommendation.
- LanceH 4y agoThe last 3 years I've had occasion to use Budget on an "I need a rental now" basis. I've had a good experience because they just don't seem to care. That is, the employees working there just check in/out, sign the paperwork, that's it. I haven't had to spend a lot of time turning down questionable options and upgrades. There haven't been turn-in inspections where they claim that tiny scratch on the car with 160k miles is my fault. They just seem to get me checked in so they can get back to their phone. It's not a premium experience by any means, but it's simple.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 4y agoFWIW I use Avis (same company, higher price tier) and also have zero of those kind of issues.
- Insanity 4y agoI will +1 enterprise. Consistently had good customer experience with them.
- mi100hael 4y ago+2, and National which is owned by Enterprise and allows you to just walk into the garage, get in a car, and drive out. It's the most painless process in the industry.
- maerF0x0 4y ago> pending 30 days in jail, where she suffered a miscarriage. Ok this is horrific, and Hertz should be ashamed of their behavior. Now, we dont have any proof the arrest or jail time caused the miscarriage, but to the extent we believe it did, can we also talk for a minute about why our executive branch/jail system is so hard on people (of both sexes btw) such that physiological distress occurs such as miscarriages or suicides? It's completely unnecessary, I'd dare say detrimental, to getting rehabilitated.
- lajosbacs 4y agoOn one hand, I admire the US system where a class lawsuit can punish even the largest corporations, like here. On the other hand, I am terrified to travel there fearing something like this will happen and I will rot in jail for some Kafkaesque mistake.
- mrguyorama 4y agoBecause the police for a hundred years have cultivated a culture of horrific abuse of power, and if you bring it up, half the country calls you a radical. Some people, whether they notice or not, prefer a world where "others" suffer.
- maerF0x0 4y ago> prefer a world where "others" suffer. I did notice this aspect of American mentality. Somehow the culture here really seems to feel that retributive justice is justice served.
- fencepost 4y agoAtlanta Black Star has a nice writeup including some of the more egregious examples. One of the criminal cases didn't even get dismissed despite public statements that it would be, apparently it was finally dismissed when it went to trial in October. https://atlantablackstar.com/2022/12/04/hertz-false-stolen-cars-reports-left-hundreds-of-black-people-traumatized-after-encounters-with-police/ https://atlantablackstar.com/2022/12/04/hertz-false-stolen-c...
- hedora 4y agoOnce we rented a vehicle from them with a flat tire. Also, it had been electronically limited so that it could not drive at freeway speeds. When I called customer support to deal with the issue, they hung up on me three times. (Typical conversation: - Sit on hold for 15-45 minutes - Hello, can I have your rental number? - 12345-XYZ - <click> I told the fourth person I'd be issuing a chargeback and dumping the vehicle in front of the locked gate of their parking lot if they also hung up. They directed us to a location that couldn't accept the vehicle. We ended up paying for one day rental or something, but at least I didn't go to jail. As other commenters said, multiple people (probably management, execs) at Hertz should be serving time in federal prison.
- mjhay 4y agoOnce I rented a Hertz car. A couple hundred miles from where I picked it up, the transmission died. I could only drive in first gear. After spending over an hour trying to get through, the person on the phone actually tried to get me to drive it back - 200 miles, in first gear, on freeways, at my expense. I finally got it towed because I said I'd just be forced to abandon it.
- m3047 4y agoThis. https://viewfromthewing.com/hertz-has-the-most-insane-reason-for-not-dropping-charges-after-false-arrests/ https://viewfromthewing.com/hertz-has-the-most-insane-reason...
- jiveturkey 4y ago> 364 claims while this is indeed 364 too many, this number is still absolutely tiny. there is going to be lots of confirmation bias in this thread -- of bad interactions. whereas the very very large majority of customers are probably happy with hertz. i always have been. don't get me wrong, someone at hertz should go to jail for this. but your chances of being one of those 364 seems absolutely tiny doesn't it? they must do a billion rentals a year.
- aktuel 4y agoThe US is capitalism-porn come true.
- tristor 4y agoIssues like this is why I now have high status with Enterprise/National and I will never again use Hertz. I don't care how much I get discounted, Hertz is not worth dealing with. Their entire business seems to be constructed on financial trickery and malfeasance with a side effect of sometimes renting a car to someone. They should have been fully liquidated during their earlier bankruptcy rather than allowed to continue operating, and I look forward to the day their corporate charter is revoked. I travel a LOT, and there are very few businesses in that industry I hate, Hertz is one of them. My only times using Hertz have all ended in disaster.
- panny 4y ago>an average of just over $460,000 per customer. Says a lot about law enforcement practices when being wrongly accused by them is considered so terrible, that compensation is 10 years of average income in the country.