slo007

I was checking out my credit card statements on January 1st, and realized I had been charged by a car rental agency in Italy for two traffic violations. Turns out I drove through an area in Bologna I wasn't supposed to... on July 7th, 2006. It took the company 5 months to charge me for it! The worst part is that the violations are literaly five minutes apart -- I was obviously lost...

Anyhow, I can't see a way to appeal, so it's a loss of $230...

Except that the car rental agency charged me another $100 Euro in paperwork fees to handle the tickets (US $130)!! Is this normal? Can I fight it?

I sent an e-mail to the company, but was ignored. I'm wondering if I should appeal to my bank, or VISA...

Anyone have experience in this area?

Street Spirit

Did you read the rental agreement? It might have listed the steps the rental agency has to/will take on the behalf of out-of-town clients in such situations (eg: paperwork fees for non-residents in order to clear the ticket for you). I'd check that out first to make sure the charges you want to dispute are actually invalid.

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

That's international man. I have no idea. Laws are way different out of the US.

mrdeeno

i'm confused...are these traffic violations where you get "tickets" or fines from the police or something? Or is it from the rental car agency?

2nd, how did they know you were at places you weren't supposed to be?

I think if you have time, you should try to get it reversed if it's a charge by the rental car agency. There should be safeguards in place for you to appeal charges like this...otherwise they would be free to charge any other "foreigner" for being in places they shouldn't, whether the driver was actually there or not.

First I would call the credit card company and have them reverse the charges...you would probably ahve to write a statement to the CC company which they will then send to the rental company to respond to. And then that should kick off them not answering your emails or calls.

jlukja

5 months later? That's Bull!

slo007

They sent me copies by mail of the citations. They were the electronic type, where a camera catches you doing something wrong, but since you are a tourist, you don't know any better. (They did not include the photo, however).

I read the fine print in the contract... it allows "$25 Euro minimum charge for paperwork related to traffic violations"; but they charged me $50 per violation.

I'm sending them a letter stating that if they want to keep the costumer, they should waive all or at least a part of the fees.

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

Don't forget the conversion rate.

Today, 25 euros = $32.33 US dollars.

leedogg

you could always look into getting a lawyer over there as well.

mrdeeno

I'd say negotiate down the fee they are charging. The tickets obviously you can't negotiate down, but someone should be able to do something about the fees. but i guess your problem is they aren't responding to your emails, and phone calls can be costly. I'd say give it a try on the phone (or Skype or something cheap).

You can appeal to your bank and they'll credit you for the time being, but I think in the end with the agreement/fine print in your rental contract, it would jsut get reversed back to them anyway.

slo007

You won't believe this!!

I got another mailer from the car agency saying I received another traffic ticket, this time for entering an area in downtown Florence on July 21! Gosh, I entered that area about 30 times while I lived there last summer... and I don't recall any sign saying not to enter. At least not in English.

I called VISA and blocked my credit card. I intend on fighting every citation; otherwise I'll go broke!