Car return at CDG

Where are you reading or hearing Hertz renters being arrested?

If I’m in UK and Ireland I always rent from Hertz.

The Hertz false reports which result in car renters being arrested is a pretty big story in the USA. Here's a story about 47 cases in a class-action lawsuit:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/15/business/hertz-rental-arrests/index.html

With the costs being sky-high for rentals, I think that the tourist question is not "which agency" but "is a car REALLY necessary?"

Many international airports have car rental locations in multiple terminals, so that doesn’t surprise me. CDG is huge. T1 and T2 are far apart.

I’ve never heard of this scam you mention. When you rent the car, you receive all the rental paperwork, and they tell you to keep it with you. If you have this paperwork, along with your electronic rental confirmation, this should be proof of the rental. As long as you have your ID (passport) and Int’l Drivers Permit, you shouldn’t be scammed.

Terminal 2, Kay. I don't think T1 has reopened yet. You are returning before taking your return flight to the US, I assume.

Folks who are doubting the credibility of this story, which has happened repeatedly with Hertz, need to read the reports. Hertz has had multiple cases in which reports of the car being stolen were not taken off the computer, and then the later renters "inherited" the now-resolved theft report. This is a serious problem for some small number of renters. I believe that 60 Minutes did a story about these false accusations, which led in at least one case to a person losing a job.

"I wonder why these folks didn't just show the police the rental contract, showing they were in lawful possession?"
Guess what, sometimes showing paperwork with "lawful" possession gets you nowhere. I mean really why would you think that the police should believe drivers of reportedly stolen vehicles who say the car is not stolen and let them go? Paperwork can be forged.
The good news is that Hertz reporting cars stolen when they in fact are not does not happen often. Hertz has admitted that it happened and that people have been arrested, jailed, etc. but that it was hundreds out of millions of rentals. Still for a person in the hundreds, it must be an awful experience. A Hertz spokesperson told a newspaper in 2020 that the company does not have a “mechanism” to retract reports of stolen cars and does not do so because “In the rare instances this happens, if you report a crime, and you later say it didn’t happen, then law enforcement tends not to believe you if you retract it or say you were mistaken." I removed Hertz from my list of possible rental car providers when I read that.

Thanks everyone. Thanks, Bets. It seems like there are at least two possible Return locations (I seem to recall it was T2C/D or T2 E/F which I assumed were different locations In terminal 2 at CDG where I could schedule my car return.) This won't be until 2023 so perhaps terminal one will be open by then. It doesn't much matter to me which location I return the car to because I will, indeed be staying at an airport hotel that night. My issue is really that it was so very difficult for me to find the actual place to return the car when I did so in June. In fact, by the time I finally found it the Europe car employees had left for the evening. So I was wondering if there might be an easier location. I believe the location that I was scheduled to return it was T2 C/D. My rental voucher from auto Europe simply said proceed to terminal two, must-have flight info. Since I drove around underground for quite a long time I'm not sure if I returned it to the correct location or not.
Regarding Hertz reporting cars as stolen, Paul is exactly right. My Concern was as to whether they were doing this in France as well as the US. Paul, I also agree about not renting a car unless it is really necessary. Even the cheapest Hertz option is double what I paid last May-June. But I can't figure out how to get around Normandy and Brittany without a car.

Normandy and especially Brittany are difficult without a car, but you do not need to subject yourself to the long, boring drive from Brittany to CDG. If you do not have any other stops after Brittany, return the car in Rennes and take the fast train back to Paris. Whatever dropoff fee you incur will be offset by gas and tolls savings.

The attendants appear to wait for quite a while to check cars back in if they are busy. I found this out when I was disputing a bogus fuel charge Avis assessed against me in in June.

I had stopped at the Total Energies gas station just outside the airport to top off the tank on my way to the return lot. When I got to the Avis lot, the attendants seemed overwhelmed and kept ignoring me. I had to flag someone down just to hand over the key. She told me they would email the receipt before walking away. She did not even glance at the car. I was in a hurry to get going, so I made a video of the car showing the condition it was in at drop off and I headed on my way. I was worried they might say I had damaged the car in some way. I never thought they would charge me for fuel when the tank was completely full.

I did not receive the receipt as promised and only saw the fuel charge (200 euros) when I later went to the Avis website to track down the invoice. I had all my fuel receipts to show the fuel charge was unjustified, but in sending in the receipts I noticed that the time Avis showed for when the car was returned was not even close to when I actually dropped off the car. I was worried that the time gap might give Avis an excuse to claim I kept driving the car for a while after the time of the last fuel receipt. I had the video with the time stamp showing when I left the car in the lot and I could prove I was nowhere near CDG at the return time they were showing, but it would have been a hassle. Avis did not push back on that, but they did take weeks to process the request. Lesson learned on making the attendant sign off and give me a receipt while I am standing there.

It's a really interesting discussion, but back to your question Kay. One return serves all of T2. It's an open-air area between all the terminals. It's like an internal courtyard.

Yes, Brittany and Normandy are predominently rural, and a car is pretty important. We did rent a car in 2017 to visit friends near Quimper. We drove from Dinan to Quimper, used the car locally, and drove to Chartres to drop off. Rennes would also have been a viable drop-off location.

I returned a Sixt car to T2 in 2015. Super easy. Go to Google Streetview and you can sort of 'pre navigate' to exactly where you need to be. It's really not hard with a bit of advance planning. IIRC, all the rental companies were there.

Here is a satellite photo with the two terminal 2 lots circled. The Sheraton is the structure that looks like a battleship between the two lots. I labeled the terminals (2C, 2E, 2F) as well. Or at least I hope I labeled them correctly. https://ibb.co/vdYxDHd

Terminal 1 is still closed. Terminal 2 is the only place you can return rentals.

Normandy and especially Brittany are difficult without a car, but you do not need to subject yourself to the long, boring drive from Brittany to CDG. If you do not have any other stops after Brittany, return the car in Rennes and take the fast train back to Paris.

I can't emphasize enough what excellent advice this is that Balso has given.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I sometimes wonder how I ever managed to negotiate various European difficulties without the RS site! I think it used to be easier, i.e. before 9/11 and way before Covid. Even then, I needed the RS guidebook! So…
Bets, thanks for your explanation about one return for all of T2. I'm hoping that the next time I return the car to CDG it will be easier. One might think that having done it once the second time would be. Easier, that is.
Balso, Paul, and Kim: we are driving to the Dordogne after Brittany so need to drop off the car either back at CDG or possibly at the rail station in Bordeaux, thus spending one night there before catching a plane back to CDG to stay at the Ibis hotel the night before our return. This is partially dependent on our Chase Sapphire rental car insurance coverage which will only cover 31 days.
Thanks, Paris Amsterdam and SCfamily. I looked at the satellite photos (thanks for circling and naming the two lots) and went to Google to look at the street view. It's not perfect as the car returns are underground but much better than no street view at all which is what I had in June!
So again, many thanks to all.

The drive from Dordogne to CDG is even longer than the one from Brittany. Definitely look at the options to drop off the car in Bordeaux or Limoges (or even Brive, but options there can be limited, and it has fewer trains to Paris than Limoges).

....and the trains take longer because they're slower (not TGV).

Thanks Balso. We made the drive from the Dordogne to CDG in June and yes, it was quite a long drive. We are trying to avoid trains at least the ones where you have to make changes as it's become more and more difficult as we get older to haul our luggage up those steep train stairs. That's why we were considering Bordeaux to CDG, thus avoiding the necessity of taking the RER or other transport from a Paris train station to CDG. We would then spend the night at an airport hotel. All this has to be within the constraints of the card benefits service 31 day maximum car rental for them to provide insurance. That said, we think we could manage a taxi from CDG to the train station in Paris, train direct to Rouen, taxi or walk to hotel for two nights then pick up rental car in Rouen. See some of Normandy and Brittany, drive to the Dordogne, stay for 2-3 weeks then return car to CDG OR return car to Bordeaux train station, spend one night in Bordeaux, take the bus (I understand this is very easy and runs frequently) to the Bordeaux airport, fly to CDG, then home the next day.
Thank you, Kim. Yes, the trains are definitely not TGV and require changes to get to Cenac or Sarlat. Once again, getting a bit old to be hauling bags up those train stairs while frantically trying to make the connection.