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Sixt has not paid agreed out of pocket expenses. What to do next?

Posted by on

On Friday, 9 May, we rented a car from SIXT at Nice Airport. On our way to Turin, Italy, we experienced a flat tyre and contacted SIXT to request assistance. Since it was after 5 PM, we were told that a tow truck would collect our damaged car the following day. The truck from SIXT Italy arrived after lunch the following day, and we were instructed to collect our replacement car from Turin Airport on Sunday, 11, in the afternoon. We had to stay overnight at an albergo in Bardineto, forfeit one day of accommodation at our Airbnb in Turin, go by taxi from Bardineto to Turin, and again to the airport to pick up the new car, in addition to meals.

Since we returned (end of June 2025), we have lodged a claim with SIXT France, including a spreadsheet and receipts, at least 4-5 times. Each time, we received a polite email requesting that we resend the receipt PDFs because they "could not open them". Is this a result of SIXT's complete incompetence, or a delay tactic to avoid a just reimbursement? To date Sixt has not honoured its agreement.

Where else can we go/what can we do to be reimbursed in Australia or Europe?

Posted by
5951 posts

It's difficult to answer your question without knowing the format that you're sending the receipts in and/or the software the Sixt office is using to try and read them. Essentially this is not something that anyone on here is going to be able to answer.

Sixt is a large, reputable organisation and on the face of things I don't believe that this is obfuscation on their part.

Are you able to scan the receipts and save them as a JPG which will likely be easier to open?

Posted by
284 posts

Is there not a different format you can use? Spreadsheets means Excel and I suspect that in some places they don't use it. Can you send PDFs as JPGs? Sorry, I feel hampered by lack of knowledge of file extensions, but clearly they just can't use the ones you have been sending, as this is what they keep telling you.

Lavandula

Posted by
284 posts

Ah, we were cross-posting - but yes, essentially same advice!

Lavandula

Posted by
1249 posts

This is the kind of question that posting to a forum like this is like searching for a needle
in a haystack.

I would either call a Sixt office in Australia (as I assume this is where you live), or call a
Sixt office in France or Italy.

Sending the same info which they cannot process (for whatever reason) 4-5 times and
expecting a different result is not likely to end happily. If nothing else, as noted, send
PDF's, jpegs, all in the same mail.

I doubt Sixt is being dishonorable here, but, what seems picky to me or you is standard
operating procedure to them.

Posted by
1158 posts

"Where else can we go/what can we do to be reimbursed in Australia"

Sixt Australia is a franchise owned by a subsidiary of the NRMA - your claim is with an entirely different legal entity.

It's worth going back to Sixt Italy (the entity with which you have the rental agreement) and asking them what format they want the claim documents in.

Posted by
4564 posts

First: send a new PDF by opening your PDF and print it as PDF, so a new PDF with different settings is created. Send the new PDF. Also the idea of creating a JPG from PDF can be an idea.

Next step: If this cannot be opened by Sixt send it to Sixt Germany (HQs) to offer payment by them without involving third parties.

Next step: register a complaint at ECRCS.

Posted by
1341 posts

I´m, sorry to read this, because I have been using SIXT for the past five years or so, on all my European rentals, and they've done the maximum in cases of trouble.....and I've been recommending them on travel forums..

SO, I am very curious as to which insurances you took when you booked...I´m wondering if you took the full insurances and if not, would that have affected the issue you are having...(??)

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