Terrible service, check in and processes

Overall it's pretty good. The car pickup was quick, and car exchange was also relatively fast. There was no forced insurance upselling.

Excellent

I rented a car for two weeks this time. It was my first time renting a car in the UK. Hertz was quite reliable. I originally wanted to rent a Juke, but since there were no cars available, they upgraded me to a Mercedes directly. Returning the car was super fast. I was supposed to return it on the morning of October 12th, but I was worried the return process would be complicated, so I returned it on the evening of the 11th instead. The return process was incredibly fast. Not sure if it was because I bought full insurance. I asked if there would be any additional penalties or fees, and they said no, all done. I hope there won't be any extra charges later. Overall, I'm quite satisfied.

Pre-check prior to hire was not rigourous enough - this resulted in me being charged for stowed tyre inflator. This was apparently missing on my returning the van. So it was missing when I drove the vehicle off - unbeknown to me. For stowed (therefore hidden) parts, rental companies should have checklist of items renters need to check before leaving the forecourt. Wholly unreasonable for hire companies to expect renters to have mental list of all hidden equipment (spare tyre, jack, high viz jacket, triangle etc etc) that they need to check before leaving so that they do not get charged excesses on return! I contested this with Hertz and they waived the charge fortunately. But unpleasant.