Hertz Do Not Rent List

Sounds like a fee for providing your details to the police following a driving law break - maybe parking but much more likely photo ticket for speeding or bus lane or prohibited area. 30€ is about right for that process.

You drive and make an error and the photo is sent to a human reviewer who reviews the evidence, looks up the registered owner of the car, and sends the ticket to the owner. In the case of rental cars (and other cases where the registered owner wasn't driving the car) the owner either pays the ticket or reports the name and details of the driver. The rental company then charges the renter a fee for the service provided to the police. The renter agreed to that procedure and fee in the rental agreement.

The fee has nothing to do with the renter paying or not paying the fine - that is a separate issue between the renter and the police - the fee is only for reporting the renter's details.

If that was you, you can see why the rental company are so grumpy.

Was all your driving that trip within Germany? You didn't drop down into Italy at all did you?

So you think the reason they haven't provided more information to me is that they don't have any? If I did something wrong, then of course I will pay any fees associated with it. It seems like they could at least provide me the information they received that prompted them to send my name/address to the police. But they just don't respond which is why I ended up disputing the charge in the first place. At any rate, I guess I'll just pay it since I must have committed some traveling violation. Guess that means I can expect a ticket in the mail sometime? Do you know how long that normally takes? It has been over a year now.

I didn't see your last question. I did drive in Italy - was I not supposed to?

It seems Hertz is doing a poor job of communicating what the charge is for, but it does appear to be their fee for responding to a police agency inquiry.

Whether the police agency pursues it is a different matter. They may have decided that pursuing it against a North American(?) was not worth it.

With the bits of info available, it is probably a legitimate charge. Had Hertz communicated better......

Okay - thank you for your reply! Stay safe.

Yes, responding to a traffic violation is the most common. Those of us who rent cars have all had it happen.

Just remember that a credit card chargeback is the nuclear option--truly last resort as it leads to things like do not rent lists. If you can still pay, you should ASAP. I assume they will accept a credit card payment. If not, you can use TransferWise.

six months sounds like Italy. Especially if they had to go through a different country (Germany) to locate you.

You are lucky they haven't escalated the fee.

If you got the charge reversed they may well have a go at your credit rating too.

You may still have a ticket on the way.

Where were you driving in Italy? They have many driving offences you might not know about if you didn't study before you went - such things as ZTL, TUTOR, and several others.

I drove to Venice and left the rental in a major parking lot. I did read up on driving in Europe beforehand, but apparently I did something I wasn't supposed to! At any rate, I just paid the fee. Thank you all for your responses!

... and on this Travel Forum, reports of getting unexpected traffic tickets, months and months after the person returned home, seem to be mostly after trips in Italy. Hope your Germany/Venice trip was good otherwise, and hope Hertz keeps you on their “Good Customer” list. Hope you never see a ticket, or if one ever arrives, that it’s really minor.

+1 on Bets' comment. Even if the credit card company finds in the consumer's favor; there is no federal statute that makes the credit card company's decision legally binding. The retailer can still go after the consumer for the charge if it so desires. The retailer can sue the consumer (unusual unless a very large amount), turn the consumer over to a collection agency, and/or do things like place the consumer on a Do Not Rent list.

Fun Reading from the Christopher Elliott Consumer Advocacy Site:

How someone lost a chargeback case AND got put on Norwegian's Do Not Sail List
https://www.elliott.org/blog/do-not-sail-list-banned-from-cruising/

Hate your shore excursion? This is how a credit card dispute will make things worse
https://www.elliott.org/cruises/hate-shore-excursion-credit-card-dispute-refund/

Why you should never report a credit card charge as fraudulent when it isn’t
https://www.elliott.org/the-troubleshooter/never-report-credit-card-charge-fraudulent/

I highly doubt they’d DNR you for for a small traffic ticket. You generally have to mess up pretty badly to ‘earn’ that honor.

They said they would remove it once I paid. I paid it today so hopefully I'm off the list!

OK, mlachance, so you’re back on good terms with the credit card company, for only about €30. Hopefully, if you ever hear anything from the authorities in Venice, or Germany, or wherever, it’ll be a simple, easy resolution. It would be good if it was just Hertz, without any hurts!

Everyone seems to have settled on a traffic violation, and that is probably it. One other possibility: When I rented from Hertz in 2018, I had to disclose all the countries I would be visiting. Because I was crossing the border out of Germany, I was charged a fee of about $30.00. I have rented a car and crossed many borders, and this was a new fee to me. However, when I researched it, I found it was a new common add on to car rentals. (Adding fees instead of raising prices, I guess). I did disclose I was going to Austria and Switzerland.. I say all that to say this: IF you did not disclose you were going to Italy (innocently, of course, without realizing the need to do so) your car might have "tattled" on you and you could have been charged the fee afterwards. It would appear that Hertz needs to do a better job of explaining what the fee is for! One other idea: many companies have a daily fee for driving on the roads. I have had that billed after the fact as well. If you still have your paperwork on the rental, you might find that explained in the small print. I hope it is one of these options as it will mean you will not be receiving a ticket

Edited: Just out of curiosity, I pulled up my confirmation e-mail from Hertz from 2018. It did not state a Highway Fee (they do have toll roads so maybe they don't charge one) but they did say their traffic violation fee was 35.40 euros per fine. This was in 2018.

I hope I don't get a ticket, but if I do, so be it. I do think I am going to steer clear of Hertz in the future, however. Their repeated ignoring of my requests for more information was quite frustrating. In the end, though, we had a wonderful trip and I can't wait to go again!

So you turned in the rental car at Venice? Or did you park it there while in Venice and then drive it back to Germany to return it?

Did you by any chance drive into Venice proper to the parking garage there? Across the causeway? That thing is notorious for having 3 speed cameras that do not allow any leeway. I have heard of people getting speeding tickets from all three cameras. Hopefully this is not the traffic violation they are looking at with you.

just wondering of Hertz's replies wound up in your spam filter email because it didn't recognise their email address or balked at the content..... computers are wonderful that way (and for unwanted spell-check)

I won't go into full detail here. But after my last European rental with Hertz, I had absolutely horrible customer service. Unexplained charge for extra 250 Euro on my cc statement, could not get any response from Hertz as to what it was for, despite repeated polite attempts. Found it impossible to actually talk to a person. They insist you submit your question via web chat, and then they just reply with a generic form letter that made no sense. When I responded politely that their letter didn't seem to apply to my situation, they just sent me the exact same form letter again!

I do think I am going to steer clear of Hertz in the future,

Do be aware Thrifty and Dollar are part of Hertz.

I had a great experience renting from Hertz in September 2019. Five day rental from Avignon and returned there. We were in a bad accident, car totaled, and Hertz was amazing. They sent a taxi to accident site to take us 40 min to our hotel. Then another taxi later that night from our hotel to Avignon rental place to pick up a replacement car - which they upgraded significantly. All this at no cost to us.

I drove the car to Venice and parked in the Autorimessa Comunale. Later I drove it back to Germany. I did check my spam to verify that Hertz's emails didn't go to the spam folder.

They insist you submit your question via web chat, and then they just
reply with a generic form letter that made no sense.

I haven't done it with Hertz, but I've found that writing something like "Hertz sucks" (or some other derogatory statement) tends to get a live person to pop onto the chat.

Just for the record, I have no financial interest in Elliott Advocacy, which is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. I just think they do good work!

Here's a good advocacy tale related to Hertz and the Do Not Rent List:
https://www.elliott.org/travel-problems/do-not-rent-list-prepaid-car-rental-refund/

Also for the record, I have rented primarily from Hertz in Europe and never had a problem. I have no financial interest in Hertz, either. 🙂

I got hit with the charge. It's a service charge for looking up the license plate records on who had the car at a specific time and date--for a police department.
I got a certified letter from the Venice Police Dept. almost a year later asking for payment for going 1.7 mph over the speed limit on the causeway going out to Venice. They have radar-cameras mounted on telephone poles and there's no leeway. They wanted payment wire transferred to their checking account in Euros. I actually found a bill payment service in Europe online that charges in U.S. Dollars and makes the payment for a fair service charge.

Radar-cameras are an industry in Europe, especially in Italy.

@mlachance: Let's assume that you were fined on October 30, 2019 and that Hertz gave your name and address to the cops at the last possible second, on March 31 2020 (worst case scenario). If so, cops should mail a registered letter to your address before midnight of March 26, 2021 .

and there's no leeway.

As already explained again and again, There is always a 5% leeway and, In Venice, there are bilingual signs before and over each camera.

The limit on the Libertà Causeway is 70 km per hour. Add the 5% leeway and the 2.7 km/h mentioned in the letter and you get that you were driving at more than 76 km/h on the only road bridge connecting Venice and the mainland.

Since driving at more than 76 km/h implies a stopping distance of +52 meters, they should have arrested you on the spot and kept in for couple of days.

I just realized another advantage of short-term leasing, as I received notification of a ZTL infraction in Reggio Emilia, Italy (no traffic zone), and I did not receive a corresponding charge from the leasing company. It turns out that the hotel within the ZTL area had neglected to notify the local authorities of our departure the next day. I called the hotel and they assured me that they would take care of it, and after some period of time, I received notification directly from the Municipality that the matter was settled. Italians are very strict on their use of ZTL's in the core areas of their old cities, but they are also supportive of the local hotels and allow guests to drive to the hotels. The website referenced with the notice of infraction also included a website, where I was able to see the photo of the rear of our car and the license plate clearly visible. Know the rules before you go, and driving in Western Europe isn't much different than in the States. If you are using a car for more than something like 15 days, the short-term lease programs supported by the French Government are an affordable "luxury".

Since driving at more than 76 km/h implies a stopping distance of +52 meters, they should have arrested you on the spot and kept in for couple of days.

The concept of being jailed for 2 days for doing 45 mph in a 40 mph zone is incomprehensible.

To be clear I don't know if I was speeding on the causeway - as Dario seems to think (and thinks I should have been arrested). I wasn't the one that posted that. I don't know what I did. I guess if they send me a ticket I'll know.

@Dario because you had "@malachance" when addressing that person, but no indication of the author of the indented phrase in the second part of your answer, it wasn't clear to me either. It appeared to me, also, that everything was directed at malachance.

Pas chance, cher malachance.

Thank you, Bets. Glad it wasn't just me. And to Dario - I'm sorry I didn't understand what you intended. I am new to posting on forums. I wasn't sure if the charge I was receiving was legit and since Hertz wasn't answering me I reached out to this group. Thank you again to all who were so kind to answer my questions!