Overcharged
Complaint
A. Caradonna
Country: Canada
June 2009, we rented a car from Auto Europe for 12 days in Italy. We prepaid the car rental with Auto Europe( based in Portland Maine)on the internet with our credit card. We picked up and dropped off the car at Rome Fiumicino Airport. We picked up the car at 12:30 pm but on their form they noted that we picked up the car at 11:56 am which was incorrect. We unfortunately, being tired after an 8 hour flight, did not notice this error. The drop off time was 1:00 pm. On the day the car was to be dropped off, we knew we were going to be an hour late, so we were forced to keep the car an extra day and dropped it off the next day. Just to be on the safe side we dropped off the car 1/2 hour earlier than our 1:00 pm time with a full tank of gas. We also checked for scratches and any damages and noted none. Our mistake was not getting a written confirmation by the front desk with a stamped time and with this information shown.
To our surprise we were shocked when we got our visa statement and found that we had been charged for 2 days instead of 1 and had to pay $471.00 Canadian. When we complained to Auto Europe (the original supplier) about the charges they said that we dropped it off late on day 2 and that was why we were charged for 2 days instead of 1 (totally false, since we dropped it off 1/2 hour earlier than our contract time)
In the end, after numerous emails and phone calls with Auto Europe, we were successful in getting 1 day credited back on our visa, with an email statement that Europcar was not mistaken about the time and that they were doing this out of goodwill and customer service.
Almost 6 months later, we again were in shock to find another charge on our visa from Europcar for 108 Euros (171.40 Can $) for no apparent reason or explanation. When we called Visa to inquire about this unauthorized charge from Europecar on Dec 14/09, they said that they would investigate. When I asked how a company could out of the blue charge your credit card without prior notification or authorization, they basically said that a car rental company has up to 1 year to charge a customer's account for charges or corrections that were missed on the original contract!!! Needless to say, I will NOT be dealing with Europcar or Auto Europe in the future.
To our surprise we were shocked when we got our visa statement and found that we had been charged for 2 days instead of 1 and had to pay $471.00 Canadian. When we complained to Auto Europe (the original supplier) about the charges they said that we dropped it off late on day 2 and that was why we were charged for 2 days instead of 1 (totally false, since we dropped it off 1/2 hour earlier than our contract time)
In the end, after numerous emails and phone calls with Auto Europe, we were successful in getting 1 day credited back on our visa, with an email statement that Europcar was not mistaken about the time and that they were doing this out of goodwill and customer service.
Almost 6 months later, we again were in shock to find another charge on our visa from Europcar for 108 Euros (171.40 Can $) for no apparent reason or explanation. When we called Visa to inquire about this unauthorized charge from Europecar on Dec 14/09, they said that they would investigate. When I asked how a company could out of the blue charge your credit card without prior notification or authorization, they basically said that a car rental company has up to 1 year to charge a customer's account for charges or corrections that were missed on the original contract!!! Needless to say, I will NOT be dealing with Europcar or Auto Europe in the future.
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