This might come as a surprise to Gen Zers, but there was once a time in America when companies went to great lengths to earn the trust and loyalty of their customers. “The customer is always right” wasn’t just a catchphrase—it was a guiding principle for major department stores, widely attributed to retail pioneers like Harry Gordon Selfridge, John Wanamaker, and Marshall Field in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
American consumers used to carry a healthy skepticism when buying goods and services. In turn, companies would do nearly anything to avoid bad publicity and the tarnishing of their reputations.
Then came the technology revolution, which flipped the balance of power. Automation and offshoring made it easy for corporations to ignore customers—or bury them under so many obstacles that many would simply give up. At this very moment, I’d confidently bet thousands of Americans are languishing on hold, listening to elevator music “due to unusually high call volumes.”
I’ve been railing against this shift for years. Back in 2017, I warned that if consumers continued tolerating mistreatment, companies would keep pushing the envelope until abuse became business as usual. Sadly, my warning has aged all too well.
Hertz rental mugging
Let’s begin with Hertz—a rental car company once revered for clean vehicles and attentive service. Thanks to the magic of private equity, it has morphed into something closer to a consumer-terror operation.
Years ago, Hertz falsely reported more than 360 customers for stealing vehicles they had legally rented. Then came its forced EV push, dressed up in eco-marketing about “lower emissions,” when the real motivation was profit. The company believed electric vehicles would be cheaper to operate and yield fatter margins. When that didn’t pan out, Hertz abruptly dumped thousands of Teslas, abandoning its performative green energy commitment.
Last month, I wrote about Hertz’s latest revenue-generation scheme: running returned vehicles through a scanner and charging customers hundreds of dollars for minor scuffs and dings long considered routine wear and tear. I thought that was a new low—or a high, if you work in corporate revenue extraction—but I didn’t fully appreciate the obscenity of Hertz’s practices until I read some of the customer backlash.
Turns out the scanner isn’t always accurate. Customers are claiming they were charged for damage that didn’t occur during their rental. One such case was shared on Reddit by a user named Akkasca, who rented from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. According to him, the scanner flagged damage that didn’t exist.
One possible reason? Water glare. It was raining when he returned the vehicle.
The shake-down process
What strikes me as borderline criminal is the way Hertz handles these disputes. Akkasca said the company notified him of “damage” while he was already on his way to the airport shuttle. He returned to the lot and filmed a video showing the car was damage-free.
And the Hertz employees on site? Completely unhelpful. They told him to call customer service—even though they could have looked at the vehicle themselves.
It took multiple attempts and escalation to a supervisor before the issue was resolved.
“The link they send you does NOT allow you to submit a dispute,” Akkasca wrote. “Calling customer support? Useless. They said they can’t do anything, even when I told them I have clear video evidence of the car being undamaged at the exact time the damage was claimed.”
By my back-of-the-envelope estimate, Akkasca spent at least two hours disputing a charge that never should have been issued in the first place.
According to CarScoops, his experience wasn’t unique. Other Hertz customers have reported being hit with erroneous damage claims, and Hertz’s customer support has been consistently useless in resolving them.
Rest assured: that’s by design. And despite continuous bad publicity, Hertz’s stock is up 75% this year, which is all the former Delta executives running the company really care about.
What happens in Vegas… gets billed to your room
Travel blogger Gary Leff recently reported about a guest at MGM’s Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas who was charged $26 for a bottle of water. At least the guest received a tangible product.
One of Leff’s readers claims she was charged $50 for unplugging the cord connecting the minibar fridge—just to charge a laptop. When the guest complained, the front desk clerk said she couldn’t reverse the fee because it was charged by a third party. She had clearly dealt with this issue before; she even had a picture of the minibar sign warning about the $50 fee.
Presumably the fee exists because unplugging the minibar disables the sensors that detect item removal—potentially allowing guests to take something without being charged.
Whenever I read about minibar fees, I’m reminded of a scene in the film The Dictator in which a despotic general reacts with disbelief at hotel internet and minibar prices:
“And they accuse me of being an international criminal?”
There have also been reports about long lines checking in at Las Vegas hotels, some as long as seven hours. High rollers who qualify as “invited” guests are whisked in.
Outrageous fees aren’t limited to Las Vegas. The CBS Chicago affiliate reported on a couple and a friend who booked a five-night stay at the city’s Ambassador Hotel, only to find out they’d be charged an additional $138.43 per night “resort fee” on top of the $931.66 base charge.
They tried to cancel. After hitting a wall, they hired a lawyer who sent a formal letter to the hotel. The response? A printed message stating:
Your client booked through some obscure website that then routed their reservation through Expedia.
The kicker? It came back with a handwritten note on the back:
“Kindly wipe your a* with this letter next time you need toilet paper!”*
The Ambassador denied the message came from them, claiming the letter had been “intercepted and returned by an unauthorized party.”
The U.S. airline cartel
No commentary about fleecing travelers would be complete without the airline industry—specifically, the four major legacy carriers that have turned gouging into an art form.
This piece was triggered by a report involving American Airlines, which mistakenly debited a loyalty member $3,674—an error the airline acknowledged. Yet months passed without a refund. The airline’s excuse? Its size and volume made quick resolutions “impossible.”
Only after blogger Gary Leff reported on the issue did American refund the money it never should have taken in the first place.
Let’s not forget Delta, which has recently bragged to Wall Street about plans to use AI to determine how desperate a customer is to fly to a certain destination—and then charge them accordingly.
For the U.S. airline cartel, the sky is understandably the limit when it comes to fleecing customers.
Is airline travel still worth the hassle?
Air travel today—especially if it involves renting a car from Hertz—is increasingly not worth the time, cost, or indignity. Airlines now suggest arriving three hours early for domestic flights. Renting from Hertz might mean additional hours of filming your vehicle and disputing phantom charges. And once you endure the wait and finally check into your hotel, you can expect a menu of junk fees to drain you further.
I don’t believe the airline and hospitality industries are run by especially smart or capable executives. Eventually, American consumers will revolt—not with protests, but with avoidance. In fact, there are signs they already are. Las Vegas tourism in June was down 11.3% from the same period a year earlier. Bookings in steerage—what airlines now call economy—are also dropping.
I know at least one visitor Las Vegas has lost for August: me. I was planning a mid-month trip but canceled after reading too many horror stories. It’s one of the reasons I moved to California—there are spectacular places I can drive to in my Subaru, and avoid what used to be called highway robbery.
I’ve coined a new term for the modern-day travel experience: Getting Hertzed!