Car hire problems in USA

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Not a Mercedes issue, but one that fellow motoring enthusiasts may be interested in or even able to advise on.

In January 2011 I rented a car from Dollar Rent-a-car in Miami for a 2 and a bit week tour of Florida. They took details of my debit card (had to use it because my credit card was stolen just before we left the UK) and off we went. We had no problems with the car (a Ford Taurus, but please don't tell anyone!) and enoyed all our time including a week in Orlando.

But then in December I noticed that Dollar had taken $435.20 from my bank account! I wrote to them to ask why and a week or so later received a letter saying that it was for payment of a red light violation.

The alleged violation was recorded as being on 18 January in Miami - half way through the time we were staying about 230 miles away in Orlando. Of course by this time I had thrown away receipts that I had had for purchases made in Orlando during that period. All I now have is the bank statement showing limited information. I know for a fact that I wasn't in Miami that week, but it's hard to prove. I've even emailed the stores and attractions we visited in the hope of getting some proof, but none has responded.

I've now checked the website for the Clerk of the Courts in Miami Dade County, but that said the penalty (for the offence I didn't commit) was $293.00. I eventually found out from Dollar that the fine was increased by over $100 because it wasn't paid in time - by Dollar!!

I'm guessing that either the police officer who recorded the incident took down the wrong registration number, or it was being used illegally on another car. But that doesn't help me because I have no proof. Neither the Miami police nor the Miami court has replied to my messages to them about this.

I've sent a copy of my bank statement with details of payments made in Orlando at the time of the violation, together with a request for them to explain why they took so long to pay and thus lead to even more charges to me. So far no response. In the meantime I'm out of pocket by £288.52 for something that I had no control over. :wallbash:

Looking carefully at the T&Cs from Dollar, it appears that they are legally entitled to take money from my bank account without any warning and for as long as they wish - or at least they could have done if I hadn't now cancelled that account!

I fear that I'll just have to put this down as yet another holiday expense. I'm not even holding my breath that Dollar will at least admit that it was clearly their fault that the orinal fine was increased and refund me that bit. But I have learnt from it to be very careful about handing over my credit/debit card to car hire companies. I've also learnt not to ever use Dollar again.
 
If the card used has the VISA symbol on it, take it up with VISA themselves. It used to only be their credit cards, but now covers debit cards too. They might fight it on your behalf.
Worth a try.
 
Im sorry to hear about your financial loss - but could you prove by the hotels you were staying at that you were no where near where the traffic violation happened, what happened to the hotel car park CCTV. would that not help? the hotel you were staying at will still have records of checking in so even if you have lost your reciepts etc they will still support you interms of paperwork.
 
I think you'll find that all the car hire companies have terms and conditions which allow them to take payments for traffic offences after the end of the hire period. As for them making the payment late - tackling them directly seems to be your only recourse, but it's not easy to do when they're across the pond. As to the actual alleged offence - the only way to contest that is with the court that issued the fine originally - you may have to call the courthouse directly.
 
Sorry I can't help, other than to say that this is an old problem... when presented by car hire company with a bill for traffic offence, you are unable to appeal against it, which is the core of the problem. Even if you did go back to the States, and appealed it through the courts, and (say) won,, it is unlikely that you will actually get the money refunded by the car hire company. The whole system of Credit Card fines is unjust.
 
Thank you to everyone for your comments.

As much as I'd love to fight this case, I know that the cost of doing so would far exceed any recompense I MAY receive. I also know that I'm not alone in having fallen foul of a system that allows this sort of thing to happen. Of course car hire companies have to protect themselves against the minority who would take advantage if their terms and conditions weren't so heavily biassed in their favour. It's just so upsetting when you have to suffer the consequenses of someone else's mistakes.

My insurance company and a motoring club that I belong to both offer legal advice, but both said they were unable to do anything in this instance because it's outside the UK laws. Visa have also said they can't do anything because I signed the standard open-ended agreement with Dollar.

I started this thread to get the thing off my chest and to warn others of possible long-term consequences of overseas car hire. As in most things in life, you just have to be careful not to come unstuck too often.
 
Have you ruled out the chance that your travel insurance might cover anything eg legal charges?
 
Id guess the reason they took so long to pay it was probably because they were trying to contact you and as you are not an american citizen it made the computer get all upset.

In any case, id say its one of those things you have to put down to luck.. chances are you did run the light and you have just had to pay $140 extra...
 
Id guess the reason they took so long to pay it was probably because they were trying to contact you and as you are not an american citizen it made the computer get all upset.

In any case, id say its one of those things you have to put down to luck.. chances are you did run the light and you have just had to pay $140 extra...
I'm putting it down to BAD luck!

I know I didn't run the light because I was over 200 miles from where it was alleged to have happened at the time. I know I'm a fast driver but that's ridiculous!:rolleyes:
 
Success - I think!

Had an email from Dollar that included:

I reached out to the court regarding all the information that you provided to us and to compare to the information that we had available. We asked for a copy of the original citation to compare the information to what was shown on their online site and found they made an error. The citation was issued on the 23Nov2010 at 1326 and online it shows 01/18/2011 which is the day they received the escalation of the original ticket and input the wrong date, this then cause you to be identified for the citation.

We are very sorry for the error. I am glad we were able to get this all right for you. I am issuing the refund ($435.20) today please allow 5-7 business days for the credit to post back to your account.

Persistence pays. Just have to keep an eye on my bank account to make sure the money gets there.

Good thing I wasn't being prosecuted for murder in the States. I may have been sat in the electric chair before they discovered they'd made a big mistake! :eek: :rolleyes:
 
The problem you now have is that the refund will go to an account that is now cancelled according to your previous post?
 
The problem you now have is that the refund will go to an account that is now cancelled according to your previous post?
Nope, not a problem. I'm still with the same bank and they have assured me that it's OK. They keep records of all old accounts. It's nothing unusual for them.
 
Good-- my fear was that it might be automatically bounced back to the states or the transaction would be blocked at their end somehow.
 
Thanks for the concern guys. Money arrived safely in my account this morning :thumb:

Only problem is that I finished up just over £15 worse off because of two lots of exchange rates and bank charges. I've written back to the lovely Sherry at Dollar asking for this, but I'm so happy to get the bulk of it back (£273) that I'll probably let it go if I don't hear anything again.

So in summary, my experience with Dollar Rent-a-Car in Florida was:

  1. Easy booking and good price
  2. Crap service at Miami airport desk
  3. Helpful attendant when selecting car from a good choice
  4. Excellent car (despite being a Ford) with no problems
  5. Some difficulty finding return area at end of holiday and then they didn't want to spend any time with me checking that I hadn't damaged anything (thankfully nothing untoward appeared out of the blue!)
  6. Money taken from my account before being notified as to why (because they only set a letter instead of email)
  7. Difficult to find the right person's email to contact about my problem
  8. Once I had established a good contact, the customer service was excellent.
During my long hours chasing this up, I found lots of complaints about Dollar in USA. The main one was concerns over their policy regarding toll charges. Florida has recently (in the last couple of years) introduced a new toll payment system that even the locals have struggled with (they are Americans after all!). The computer system can't keep up with personal payments and was regularly issuing fees to registered owners even though they'd paid. Dollar didn't bother challenging any of these but instead simply passed on the toll charge to their customer at the time. The charge was usually only 25 cents, but each time Dollar added $25 admin fee! Some people reported having driven on long toll roads, paying cash at the end booth, only to find Dollar charging them $25 + 25c for every camera they passed, which could be many! Apparently the system has improved now, but still worth checking on before any Florida trips.
 
If all else had failed , you could have got Horatio Kane from CSI Miami to look into the matter for you :)
 
Every time I hire a car overseas I only use credit card and when i get home cancel it and ask for a replacement.
I'd been bitten twice before I got wise, once in Corfu and the second time in Lake Maggiori, I think it's just the accepted practise amongst some holiday car hire companies to charge for something irrespective.
 
Glad to hear that the OP got his money back, or at least most of it. I rent cars quite a bit, but haven't had that many problems, certainly not worth going to the trouble of cancelling a credit card after each one.

A couple in recent years, unexplained charge from a car rental in the US (Hertz from memory), had been booked through the UK website, got in contact with them and as they received no feedback from the US in 10 days, they refunded me no questions. I also got stung with a refuelling charge for a rental in Madeira (Europcar), but as I always keep receipts I scanned and emailed it, and again refunded no problem. I do think they try it on sometimes, but if you challenge them they'll back down.

Stick with the big boys and generally you'll be OK, although having said that I had a massive bust up with Avis about 10-12 years ago and swore I would take the bus rather than put a penny in their pocket ever again..

Cheers,

Gaz
 
A rather tenuous link to this thread lillyallen. How long have you been working for HBC rentals?:rolleyes:
 

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