Sorry, but as much as it pains me to write this (and trust me, it REALLY pains me to write this), I'm on Hertz's side on this one.

This paragraph really did it for me:

Hertz said that Paixao could have purchased the company’s in-house insurance policy prior to rental, which likely would have covered the damage. But Paixao told The Post that she could have had her own insurance cover it — but refused to submit the claim out of principle.

Paixao told The Post she declined Hertz’s optional insurance coverage at the time of rental.

“I believe I opted out of the additional insurance,” she said, adding that her coverage is through her employer. “Although it probably would have been covered, I did not want to submit it as I still believe their price gouging is ridiculous.”
What a bitch. And guess what? It appears she's not morally in the right, as Hertz sent the NY Post pictures demonstrating that she really did scrape the wheel:


BEFORE:





AFTER:





So what does she expect here? That she can damage the car and Hertz just has to eat it? She even has her own insurance through work which would've paid for this, but won't utilize it "out of principle" of the $440 being too high. What? $440 isn't a lot of money to fix a sizable scrape. It's not like they're charging $4400.



I'm sure Hertz fucks a lot of people (they even fucked me somewhat, in the story I told a few posts above, though it wasn't about damage). But this wasn't a good example of it.

BTW, this chick was renting the car with "her wife".