San Francisco to Los Angeles

Returning the car was simple.

Pickup and drop-off were both convenient, no insurance upselling, no signing required, and no car inspection upon return. However, my credit card was charged $72 the next day with no explanation. Reported to QEEQ and they are investigating.

After registering in line, they told us we could get the car in two hours, but we ended up waiting nearly four hours.

I suggest everyone avoid picking up the car from downtown locations as much as possible. I feel it's almost impossible to get the reserved model. The model offered by the store was very different from the reserved one, which was hard to handle. We finally had to choose a downgraded model (the fee wasn't refundable, and it wasted a lot of time). It's better to pick up the car at the airport because you get more options to switch if you're not satisfied. The service from the car rental platform was decent, but the Asian female staff at the Union Square location in San Francisco was very rude. Thumbs down.

I rented from a Hertz store in downtown San Francisco, located in a parking lot where many rental companies are situated. I booked a RAV4 but was given a Kia instead without any choice. The car was new but didn't have as much trunk space as the RAV4. The front desk was staffed by a Chinese person but they couldn't speak Chinese, and kept insisting that I hadn't bought enough insurance even though I clearly had purchased full coverage. After showing her the information at the bottom of my rental order, she stopped insisting. It seems better coordination is needed between the rental app and rental companies. She said her computer showed that several insurances were not purchased. Not being able to choose a car was really frustrating, unlike Alamo, which probably had better options due to its downtown location and limited car availability.