BOS Boston Compact Hertz

[Colfax]

$21.95 doesn't sound like a great deal for a compact, especially for a weekend rental from Thursday to Monday, but this was the best price I could find. With taxes and fees the total was $122.66. The best conventional rate I found was $182.10 including taxes, from Thrifty.

Until today Hotwire had been asking $30.95/day and I'd been rejected on PRICELINE up to $22 for a compact.

Today when I saw that the HOTWIRE rate had dropped from $30.95 to $21.95 I tried bidding $18 on Priceline and got rejected. Rather than wait 24 hours to try $19 or $20 on Priceline I snapped up the Hotwire deal. I've been bidding this daily for a week and wanted to be done with it.

Purchase was made through BetterBidding's HOTWIRE link.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your win!

While more than i'm sure you would like to have spent on a rental, at least the rate did drop last minute and the price went down substantially.

Thank you for sharing your win and using our PRICELINE link... have a good trip.

[Colfax]

This was the first time I've rented a car that had a FastPass transponder for paying tolls. At checkin Hertz said I'd be billed for tolls separately. I was expecting a charge to the credit card I'd given as security, but yesterday I recieved a paper invoice in the mail.

The tolls are itemized, plus a $2.50/day administrative fee for every day I passed through a tollgate. (That $2.50/day fee was never disclosed to me by Hertz.)

The invoice came from Scottsdale, Arizona. I'm supposed to send the money to St Louis, MO. And this is for driving on the Massachusetts Turnpike!

[thereuare]

Were you given a choice if you wanted the transponder or not? Are you going to question the $2.50 daily charge?

I assume the transpoder was already in the car... as (at least around here with "EZ Pass") the transpoder is car specific and can't be moved from car-to-car.

[Colfax]

I meant to say "EZPass", not "FastPass". FastPass is at Disneyland.

Anyhow no, I wasn't asked if I wanted a transponder. It was already in the car. Maybe Hertz has them in all their Boston cars?

The transponder is on the front windshield. It slides in and out of a mounted plastic casing. At each tollgate you decide whether to use the transponder or pay cash. If you want to pay cash you push the transponder back in it's case and the toll sensors don't read it.

This company called PlatePass does billing for Hertz's toll charges in Florida, Colorado, Texas, and EZPass in the Northeast. The $2.50 "Daily Usage Fee" is capped at $10/week. My bill was $22.25, of which $12.25 was tolls and $10 was "Daily Usage Fee". I'm a little miffed at the idea of someone charging me a fee to pay a tax. Will I complain to Hertz? Over $10 probably not, although the fee was never disclosed to me in advance or printed anywhere on the transponder case, not that I saw anyhow.

The back of the PlatePass invoice includes a PlatePass FAQ and I was amused by this question/answer:

Q: "Why was I charged a Daily Service Fee?"

A: The daily service fee is assessed in addition to the incurred tolls for each day in which a toll road was used. The maximum weekly service fee is $10.

That response doesn't answer the question "Why?"