Rental Car Warning.
We recently booked a car rental in Italy. I thought I would share what happened to us and a word of warning. We booked a car through Auto-Europe, a large wholeseller of rentals. They were great to work. We booked a small 4 door compact with AC and a manual transmission. We ended up with reservation at rental company called EuropCar. It was picked up in Rome and dropped off in Venice 15 days later. When we picked it up, I requested our rental car as reserved and specifically asked for NO upgrades. I was assured that our rental car was as reserved and it did not come with any additional fees or charges. (Mistake #1) The car was rented on Festa della Repubblica (a national holiday) so the rental counter was closing at noon. As a service to the other customers I did not take the time to read and translate the entire rental agreement as it was close to closing time. After a quick glance over the mice type and balance due that day, the rental agent said to "sign here" so I did as requested.
Over two weeks later, we dropped of the car in Venice. The attendant checked over the car, the mileage, and checked the gas then told us that we were good to go. I asked “don’t we owe a remainder for the road tax?” He assured us that it was all included in the original charge and we didn’t owe anything else. I asked about final paperwork. The attendant said, since I didn’t own anything, and that they would send me an email in a day or two with the final paperwork attached. This sounded strange to me but he said that this was the way they always did it. (Mistake #2- I should have asked for the final paperwork.)
We flew home from Venice. Two weeks later a charge of $184 shows up on my credit card. I called EuropCar and they said it was an added charge for being given an upgraded class of rental car. I protested the charge stating that my car was not upgraded and asked for it to be removed. Several days later I got an email from them stating that this charge will be maintained as “you have signed the rental agreement accepting this charge.” I then called Auto-Europe, since they were company I booked the rental through. Since they would have more clout with EuropCar, I asked them to intercede on my behalf. A week later I got another email from EuropCar stating that upon further review,(Thank you Auto Europe!) they would be refunding me $121 for the upgrade charge. The remaining $63 was about what I had estimated for the road tax due so it was now correct.
My recommendations from this story are….
(1) book through a consolidator. Auto Europe was great to work with and handled my problem promptly.
(2) I was mislead at the rental counter and at the drop off location. Always, always, always read the fine print.
(3) Always get a hard copy of the rental agreement when you turn the car in.