Norway Hertz rental - I got unfairly invoiced

How long has it been since you contacted the parking agency? Sometimes those contact forms can take a while to get a response. I might wait to see if you hear back from them. If not, I would try contacting them again. I'm assuming that you told them you have a paid receipt from their agency?

You also might consider calling the agency if you don't hear back via email.

Hertz is just the messenger, your dispute is with the parking company. But there is probably something in the fine print that says that Hertz will charge you a fee if someone asks them about who you are.

Regarding the invoice and the parking fee, it's hard to say anything without knowing more details.

Hello Mardee, yes I emailed the paid receipts to Hertz CS, and they told me to take it up with parking agency. I also submitted a dispute with parking agency- but the form didn’t have the function to upload the parking receipt. - I just gave them date and time of the receipt with transaction number printed on the receipt.

And yes, phone call would be helpful - but I’m in US now and don’t have international calling plan

Hi Badger, yes I realize Hertz is just a messenger but their fees and tax makes up majority of the invoiced amount.
As I mentioned, I don’t really care about $53, but it’s the principle.
If I dispute this with credit card company- anybody know the consequences of this?? Would they ban me on future rentals??

Look at the contract you signed with Hertz. It probably says that if someone contacts them and ask for your details, they will charge you for it. Or something similar. If you dispute that with the credit card company, it might be considered fraud and I wouldn't be surprised if Hertz doesn't want to do business with you again. This might also mean that a bigger fine is on the way.

I can understand the principle, but the big questions in my opinion are: Where did you park? When? What does the letter from the parking agency say? What does your reciept say? It's odd for a parking agency to contact the owner later, so I suspect there might be something else here. Especially since 127 kr is a bit odd. Parking without paying usually costs 660 kr in Norway.

Hi Badger,
To answer your question

The invoice is from "Finter" (parking agency) see below.
I copy and paste the invoice, so not sure how it is being formatted.

Registreringsnummer:
Gratisbesøk hos Briksdalsbre Fjellstove
06.06.2025 17:40:26 til 06.06.2025 17:58:36.
Parkeringsavgift hos Briksdalsbre Fjellstove 64.00 1.00 16.00 (25.00%) 80.00
06.06.2025 15:37:43 til 06.06.2025 17:40:26.
Lagring og oppslag 47.20 1.00 11.80 (25.00%) 59.00
Fakturagebyr 16.00 1.00 4.00 (25.00%) 20.00
Sum eks. mva 127.20
Sum mva 31.80
Sum inkl. mva 159.00

This invoice does not include, Hertz administration charge on 300NOK along w/VAT of 75NOK, along with another VAT of 31.80NOK for original parking fee.

See my original receipt - again copy and paste
Salgskvittering
06.06.2025 17:50
Kasseid: 3309-30
Kunde: Souvernir (1 0008)
Vir ref: Stine M
Parkering Dag
{ 1 x 75.00

This invoice went to Hertz rental - and they forward it to me with associated fees which bloated my fine to over 534NOK..
Would you be able to make heads and tail out of this??
thanks.

This is the reply I sent to Hertz, when they provided the link to parking agency to submit my dispute.

Subject: Follow-Up on Invoice Dispute Submission
Hi,
Thank you for providing the link. I’ve submitted the dispute information to the best of my ability using the form provided. However, I wasn’t able to upload a receipt of payment through the contact form, as it doesn’t appear to support attachments.
Additionally, I’m unable to call the phone number listed on the site, and it seems the only available communication channels are the phone number and the contact form.
Would you be able to follow up on my behalf to confirm the status of the dispute? I’d also appreciate guidance on how I can submit the payment receipt to support my case.
Thank you again for your help.

In the rental agreement, to which you agreed when you rented from them, Hertz does have an article about them charging you an administrative fee when they have to give your details to the authorities in case of a fine. This is a fixed fee, regardless of the amount of the fine. As is evident from the fact that you received the fine from the parking agency, Hertz did perform the “service” of giving your details to the parking agency. This means they have the full right to charge you for it. Disputing these charges could be seen as an attempt at fraud by both Hertz and your credit card company. You did receive the service after all, whether you like it or not.

Try calling them through Viber or What’s App.

Thank you! The formatting is horrible, but now I think I have an idea about what happened. The parking invoice is 159 kr and not 127. Finter is the company behind a parking service that uses the brand Youpark. It works by having cameras that read the licence plates as you enter and leave a parking lot, and if you haven't paid the parking fee in some way after 48 hours, they will send an invoice to the owner of the car, which is Hertz. Adding a 59 kr fee for looking up the owner and a 20 kr fee for sending the invoice. And they have been critizised for those fees, which I can agree with. And if you paid for the parking, they should not have sent an invoice. Did you write down the car's registration number anywhere when you paid?

Hertz' fee might be hard to avoid, but if have written to Finter, don't pay them yet.

The big question is when did you arrive at the car park? It seems your license plate was scanned at 15:37 (3:37 pm), but your receipt says you paid the parking fee more than 2 hours later at 17:50 (5:50 pm).
What time did you arrive? Is the arrival time of 3:37 pm correct?

yes, Dutch traveler - I did arrive at 337 PM, and paid when exiting at 5:50pm..
the parking offers first 30min of free parking.
The total cost of parking for one day parking is 75NOK (which i paid) - and yes, I double checked, you pay when exiting and not entering..

And yes Badger, the total invoice of 534K has already been debited from my credit card. - so there is nothing I can do at this point, except asking for advise from a seasoned travelers in this Forum. :) - and no, there is no section on the receipt that has my car registration number. It just has date, time and amount and location of payment..
thanks.

"Should I go to my CC company and dispute the charge?? and what is ramification of that/?"

If you don't mind the aggravation and have the energy and patience, I'd suggest the following:

Dispute the charge with CC company. In the meanwhile, I'd short pay your bill by the amount. I'd send them a note telling them that formally.

If they charge interest on that amount or send you a formal denial, escalate to a supervisor, refuse to take no for an answer and finally I'd close that card and get another if they don't accept the dispute.

They are in a better position than you to dispute with Hertz and/or the parking company. I'm sure finding another CC will be easy and 50 dollar-ish dispute should do nothing significant to your credit.

Years ago, a friend's father did this over an unjust automatic addition to a bill in Hawaii while traveling. Out of principle, he refused to backdown and the credit card company in the end handled the dispute for him and he paid nothing. (I'd note he was lawyer who took several cases to the Supreme Court so, yeah, that may not be you.)

Sorry for your troubles.

Happy travels.

Strange indeed. As I've understood the system, if you paid manually they should have notified Youpark so that you don't get an invoice in the mail. But I might be wrong. From the receipt it looks like you didn't pay in a machine but actually talked to a human? And they didn't ask you for your car's number? What you can do is to send an email to Briksdal and tell them about the situation and ask if they have any idea why you've had to pay for parking twice. It can be worth a try.

“and yes, I double checked, you pay when exiting and not entering..”

Are you absolutely sure? I ask this because I notice that your parking violation seems to have lasted from 15:37 until 17:40. So it started when you entered and ended exactly 10 minutes before you paid. It’s not uncommon for parking lots with license plate registration to give you a 10 minute grace period from the time you enter a parking lot, to find a payment terminal to make the payment. The timings on your fine match the time you entered the parking lot and they also match the time you paid for the parking minus the 10 minute grace period. That could be what happened here.

I have had good results disputing erroneous charges by going through my credit card company, (citi - visa). I dispute the charge via the customer support process provided by the credit card provider. Tell them your story and they may just eat the charge - or - contact Hertz to work a deal. This contact will occur in a business - to - business context. Neither the credit card company nor Hertz has any desire to have this escalate. I predict that some compromise will be reached. Also, you don’t have to jump through any hoops, incur any extra costs or engage in negotiations in a foreign language.
Meanwhile, pay your bill (in its entirety). This prevents further costs accruing. Ask for a credit if the dispute is resolved in your favor.
I agree that right is right and wrong is wrong and it’s hard to justify accepting an erroneous bill. However, your time is worth something; not to mention the international calling fees. Leave this in the hands of the professionals and accept the possibility that you might have to pay a small “cost of doing business fee.”

Hi Badger,
"From the receipt it looks like you didn't pay in a machine but actually talked to a human?"

You are absolutely correct, Badger.. I paid at the gift shop, and she verified the license number on the computer screen, and says, is it this number?, I verified it, and she pressed delete - and voila - the license plate is no longer in the system.. (at least that's what the cashier told me)...

I did email the Briksdal with all the receipts attached, and I am awaiting the response..
I didn't realize Briksdal and Finster work on two different system, and that's how discrepancy may have happened. If I had known that, I should have pay at the kiosk operated by Finster (youpark).. and this may not have happened..

HI Dutch Traveler - what you say may make sense, - there were no signs on parking that says, you have to pay upon entering. It just says first 30min free...

and thank you dpoweron ... I may try that if all else fails.. I too have citi visa.. so maybe that maybe easier.. did you talk to live person, or did you do it thru the website.. how did you submit the documents to support your case??

So I got an interesting update. I emailed Briksdal and they replied with this

**Please send us bank number and name of bank, and we will refund ou the amount 534,-
Sorry about the tecknical crash.

Best regards
Per Briksdal
Briksdalsbre Fjellstove a.s.**

So question is do I send them my credit card number or do they want my checking account number. And is this safe??

That's great news! They should use the same system so once you paid and your car was deleted, it should have worked. But obviously there was a technical error somewhere.

I assume they mean the number of your bank account, IBAN-number and Swift-code. I can't see why it wouldn't be safe, I wouldn't hesitate sending them my bank account number if I was in your situation.

Same old problem for Americans using American banks: US banks don't use IBAN and Swift codes like the rest of the world. OP, you can explain this to the company and ask about a credit card refund.

Or, to get this refund open a WISE bank account in order to receive the refund directly into the WISE account. You can then withdraw it in dollars.

You are absolutely correct, Elizabeth..
I looked into it, and US banks don't use IBAn and other codes to facilitate international transfer easily, it can be done, but unfortunately, my bank charges exorbitant fee for international transfers and conversion rates which would negate the reimbursement amount.
I did ask the company for a credit card refund.. but did express my reluctance to supply my credit card details via an email. (awaiting reply)
Would they be able to refund the amount via a previous transaction I did with them (i.e. previous cc payment for the original parking payment?)
or should I just supply my CC number and cross my finger??

P.S. did not know about Wise bank account.. would have to research that.. thank you..

Wise is great and I would second Elizabeth's recommendation that you use it. I just used it to pay a deposit to an account in Romania, and the process was very easy. And even better, the fees Wise charges are quite small. I was very pleasantly surprised. https://wise.com/login?redirectUrl=%2Fhome

Ok,
just receive an update email from Briksdal, that they would only do refund via bank transfer.
I took Mardee and Elizabeth advise and setup the Wise account immediately (thank you both, greatly appreciated).

Once I setup, they wouldn't give me account information without depositing $20 USD into account.
Once I did that, the IBAN and SWIFT number got generated for my account.
I naturally sent that information to the Briksdal..

So the question is, is IBAN and SWIFT number the only thing that is required for transfer of money to take place?? am i missing anything?
And how do i spend the money on Wise account, once the refund hits my account..
thank you..

Yes, IBAN is an acronym for International Bank Account Number, and the Swift-code (also known as Bic-code) identifies the bank. That is all information you need to send money to the account.

You get a WISE debit card and spend the money. The money is deposited in the car rental company's currency and you are withdrawing it as dollars. So WISE is also converting the money for you, which they do at a near market rate.
Next, you can decide if you want to keep the account for future travel or close it once you've withdrawn the refund.

Ok..
final update.
Once I gave my IBAN and Swift number from Wise account, next morning, I saw the credited amount on my account.
OMG!!
the people at Briksdal really went out of their way to resolve this.. I never thought, once I contacted them, that they would step up like this. Not only they reimburse the parking fee, but the administrative fee from Hertz plus the VAT tax associated with the fee.
The original parking fee I paid was only 75NOK..
The invoice I received from Hertz ballooned to 534NOK ( with all the fees and penalties)
The folks at Briksdal reimbursed the whole 534NOK to me - without any questions or hesitations..

When I tried to resolve this via Hertz - I was told, it is not their problem, and was told to take it up with parking authoritiy (Finter).
Finter never responded to my inquiry.
Upon further review of my receipt from Brisksdalsbre Fjellstove parking - I noticed there was a tiny email address printed. They responded right away, and went out of their way to take care of this.

Just like to thank Badger - for you guidance and information about contacting Briksdal and information about how transfer works in Norway - and also breaking down my charges from Hertz/Finter
Thank you to Elizabeth for showing how international transfer works and information about Wise account (never knew about Wise, and I would've never gotten this refund without it).
Thank you for Mardee for reaffirming what Elizabeth said about Wise and made me more confident about using them.
And all the contributor's to this thread.. they were all helpful and encouraging - it guided my next step... and helped me understand what was going on..

I love it when a plan comes together

but maybe change the title of the thread because it was a screwup - rapidly fixed - by the carpark and Hertz was just doing their job. Once you knew who actually screwed up it all worked out.

Yay

Congratulations!

(I still think you ought to sue Hertz and Norway and maybe even Rick Steves for the aggravation! )

Persistence pays off and hats off to that parking garage!

Happy travels.

Great that you got the money back so fast!