rental car drop-boxes

Some travelers posting here have reported problems returning a rental car in Italy using a drop box when the rental location is closed: either no drop box, or there was one but there were unpleasant surprises once they got home, such as unfounded reports of damage and extra charges. But other travelers have reported no problem using drop boxes in Italy.

Last year we had to use a drop-box to return our rental car at the Edinburgh (Scotland) airport. We had a very early flight out of Edinburgh, before the rental office opened. When we received the bill, they had charged us for an extra day. We wound up getting the extra day's charge reversed, but only because we had saved our boarding passes, which proved our departure date & time from Edinburgh. Otherwise, we didn't have a leg to stand on to prove our case. We had used autoeurope.com for the rental, and the rental company was Europcar. Autoeurope was very helpful with our dispute. My takeaway was to always return a rental car when the office is open, if at all possible.

Thank you, Tom and Kent. I did have some of the concerns that you mentioned in your responses. I will just have to make sure I get the car returned to Siena rental office before they close on Saturday at noon. From Castellina in Chianti, I hope that won't be too much of a problem. I think there's a couple of choices for rreturns in Siena through Autoeurope.
Thanks again for your input. Really appreciate it.

Castellina is fairly close to Siena, I think about 15 miles north. But allow extra time to get to the return location before the early closing time on Saturday, especially if you don't have a GPS. Assuming you have a choice of return locations (I think there are 3 in Siena, but not sure?), you may want to avoid the one (I think it's Avis) that requires going even a little bit of the way into the Maze that is the historic part of Siena. Picking one of the other return locations on or near a major street could be a good move. Even better would be having a GPS with the address of the return location entered in.

I'll post that I've had no problems with using boxes. They have allowed me to return the car on Sundays or very early in the morning before the airport rental offices open. Of course, I share a concern that something could go wrong. But I always book through Autoeurope and they use reputable agents. I take the precaution, though of photographing the car from every angle once parked in the return garage so I have a digital record of its condition. But, again, I've had no problems.

Call that rental return office as soon as they re-open and confirm with them that your rental has been checked in properly and confirm the total charges with them. They are not as likely to cause you any problems if they know that you are on top of things and are likely to follow up.

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'll try and return the car before the rental office closes on Saturday to avoid any potential problems with drop boxes. I would like to avoid the "maze" in Siena and am wondering if anyone knows whether or not Autoeurope will let you choose a location. Does anyone have experience with the rentals in Siena? Which are the easiest to return cars to? We will be heading to the train station after returning the car. For me, the easiest would be the least traffic and easiest to navigate. I'm not worried about the distance from the station as a taxi to the station wouldn't be a problem.
We will be coming from Castellina or Poggibonsi direction to Siena.

Marge: (You probably already know that) AutoEurope is a consolidator, they'll put you with one of the major car rental companies. When you go to the AutoEurope website and input Siena as the return location, you'll see the return locations, I think there are three in Siena. The AutoEurope site doesn't map the return locations for you; but if you copy & paste the addresses of the return locations into either Google Map or Google Earth, you'll see where they are located in relation to the train station. At least one of the three return locations is close to the train station and on a major street. That's good, you don't want to get off on the small streets in the Siena "maze." Best is to have a GPS and input the return location address into it before getting to Siena. Doing anything with a car in Italy takes longer than you think, so allow extra time before the early closure time on Saturdays.

Thanks, Kent. That makes a lot of sense. I'll input Siena on the Autoeruope website and access the locations of rental car offices and use Google Map as well. I'm wondering if, as a broker, Autoeurope gives you any choice in the three locations or if you're just assigned one regardless of your preference. If so, I might think about renting directly from an agency of my choice (instead of through Autoeurope) to make sure I get a really easy return location. I've heard great things about Autoeurope, though.
Thanks again for all the helpful suggestions.

We will be returning a car in Siena to the Europcar rental at Viale Europa 23 before it opens because of an early train departure to Venice. Does anyone know if there is a dropbox for sure? And, what is the likelihood of getting a taxi from there to the train station at 8:00am?

When you rent through AutoEurope they do give you the option of pick up and drop off locations. Note their days and hours of operation, as not all locations are the same.

Hertz in Siena at Viale Sardegna 37 is very close to the train station and has a handy drop box. Avis is closer to the city center. Hertz is very easy to use if you're getting on a train.

Thanks Celeste. We did decide on Hertz at the train station. We will be dropping off before opening time so will take lots of pictures inside and out.