‘Unlimited miles means unlimited’: Hertz manager calls the police on a customer for daring to argue over staggering $10,000 extra charge

Big businesses are increasingly becoming the enemy in our modern world, as they lie, trick, and price gouge their way onto a broadening number of black books.

Car rentals already pull in huge amounts of cash for various businesses, so when they spike that price even more, it starts to flirt with actual criminality. When the sector is already spiking by a good 4% year over year, it’s not in need of a fresh injection of cash, but try telling that to the outraged Hertz manager captured on video by TikTok user @lifeisfun3000.

In a video that has since gone starkly viral, the TikToker captured an exchange between himself and a distinctly discourteous manager at his local Hertz. The man rented a car promising “unlimited miles” from the company, only to find out that the definition of unlimited has apparently changed. Upon returning the vehicle — which he’d admittedly put a huge number of miles on — the consumer was slapped with an eye-watering $10,000 in extra charges, and all because he took full advantage of that “unlimited” promise. 

Now according to the Hertz manager, our boy somehow managed to clock a whopping 25,000 miles during his month with the vehicle, which is undeniably impressive. I’m truly awful at math, but according to some calculations done by a much smarter person over at The Drive, that would amount to a near-impossibility. “If you drove at a constant 70 mph for 10 hours a day, it’d still take you nearly 36 days to cover that distance,” according to the publication. Even though that math isn’t quite mathing, its not really the point — the issue is Hertz’s refusal to honor its own policy, and arguing the definition of “unlimited.”

The conversation between the customer and Hertz manager is heated from the start, but it escalates as the too-short clip continues. The manager seems to think that @lifeisfun3000 somehow violated the agreement by driving far more than Hertz anticipated, but — as both the TikToker and dozens of commenters pointed out — “unlimited is unlimited.”

As the video rolls to a close, the increasingly irate manager demands that @lifeisfun3000 leave the premises or talk to the police. When he actually begins to dial — refusing to continue the conversation despite failing to provide proper resolution — @lifeisfun3000 rises to leave and the video ends. 

The video led to instant backlash for Hertz, and within days the company was stepping in to apologize. A representative for the company told The Drive that “customer satisfaction is our top priority at Hertz, and we sincerely regret this customer’s experience at one of our franchise locations.” Thankfully, it seems the TikToker won’t actually face a $10,000 surcharge for those extra miles. 

“Per the terms of the contract, the customer will not be billed for mileage,” the Hertz statement says. “Our franchisee is addressing the employee’s conduct and reinforcing our customer service standards and policies to ensure they are understood and followed consistently across our locations.”

Hopefully that reexamination of policies and customer service will prevent issues like this from arising in the future. If Hertz doesn’t want to actually offer unlimited miles they shouldn’t offer it, and if they’re upset over excessive miles they’ll need to take a quick look at a dictionary, and search out the definition of “unlimited.”