Car Services
Jul 15th, 2006, 07:49 AM
#1
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Car Services
A word to the wise. Cooking Vacations had booked us with Sea Horse Car Service from Rome to Ravello and the driver stopped for himself at an Auto Grill on the autostrade to get something to eat. He encouraged us to come in and get an espresso. We were gone 9 minutes, it was during the day, we were parked out front, and it was a Mercedes sedan with tinted windows. We assumed the driver locked the car. Our luggage was in the trunk, but two pieces couldn't fit so my expensive laptop and one small piece was in the front seat. Yup, you guessed it, we came out after 9 minutes and my laptop was gone, vanished! The driver said he locked the car. We asked why the alarm hadn't gone off. He said none of their cars have alarms . I thought they were standard in Mercedes!
After 3 weeks of calls, emails and letters and a face to face meeting (and 5 hours reporting this to police the day it happened mid-June) neither Cooking Vacations nor Sea Horse will pay anything, and say that Italy has no insurance available for items inside vehicles. So we are out over $3,200. We warn everyone now, do not use Sea Horse Car Service. Do not ever stop on autostrade as we found out afterwards from people that tourists and their vehicles (rentals or car services) are targeted. We want everyone to be forewarned.
After 3 weeks of calls, emails and letters and a face to face meeting (and 5 hours reporting this to police the day it happened mid-June) neither Cooking Vacations nor Sea Horse will pay anything, and say that Italy has no insurance available for items inside vehicles. So we are out over $3,200. We warn everyone now, do not use Sea Horse Car Service. Do not ever stop on autostrade as we found out afterwards from people that tourists and their vehicles (rentals or car services) are targeted. We want everyone to be forewarned.
Jul 15th, 2006, 02:35 PM
#2
My cynical nature leads me to wonder if the culprits were connected in someway with the driver? Were the police at all interested?
Did you have any travel insurance, as that may cover it, or even your houshold contents policy, if it has an "all risks" section.
Did you have any travel insurance, as that may cover it, or even your houshold contents policy, if it has an "all risks" section.
Jul 15th, 2006, 03:47 PM
#4
If you want more people to see your warning, you might want to re-post w/ a better title. I only opend your thread because I thought it might be asking about a car service from LHR in to London.
If you at least have Rome/Ravello (and the name of the car service would even be better) in the title - then folks looking for a car service in Rome will see your information . . . . .
If you at least have Rome/Ravello (and the name of the car service would even be better) in the title - then folks looking for a car service in Rome will see your information . . . . .
Jul 16th, 2006, 02:02 PM
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I am new to this forum, can I re-post to change the title?
Also, the police were not interested, spoke no English, autostrade police took 30 mins. to hand write a one page report that the driver gave him since they spoke no English, they never even got out of their police car to look at our car or anything! Then told us we had to go to another police station to make the report to get into the system since they didn't do that!! We went to 2 police stations that said there was no one there to take the report so driver took us back to the car service office in Sorrento (clearly 90 mins. out of our way) and manager went with us to Sorrento police station where he gave report and it was typed in Italian of course, police spoke no English. We have an original stamped copy at least. and it sort of says what happened.
Yes, in retrospect we think the driver had something to do with it. He had many cell phone calls about 30 mins before we stopped both on personal cell and company cell. When we asked police if they wold dust for prints the manager of the car service said "this isn't CSI Miami, we only do that for murders!!
Also, the police were not interested, spoke no English, autostrade police took 30 mins. to hand write a one page report that the driver gave him since they spoke no English, they never even got out of their police car to look at our car or anything! Then told us we had to go to another police station to make the report to get into the system since they didn't do that!! We went to 2 police stations that said there was no one there to take the report so driver took us back to the car service office in Sorrento (clearly 90 mins. out of our way) and manager went with us to Sorrento police station where he gave report and it was typed in Italian of course, police spoke no English. We have an original stamped copy at least. and it sort of says what happened.
Yes, in retrospect we think the driver had something to do with it. He had many cell phone calls about 30 mins before we stopped both on personal cell and company cell. When we asked police if they wold dust for prints the manager of the car service said "this isn't CSI Miami, we only do that for murders!!
Jul 29th, 2006, 06:02 AM
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Thanks I reposted under new title so hopefully more people will see. Someone asked if the Italian police were helpful. Absolutely not. The autostrade police did not even get out of their vehicle to inspect the car or see if any forced signs of entry (there were none). And then after one hour hand writing the report while we stoof beside their car they told us we had to go to a nearby police station and report again! We tried two stations (which are behind electric gates and you need to get buzzed in by intercom!) that we could not enter because there was no one to take report (all of this supposedly translated by our driver since we speak almost no Italian). So finally reported in Sorrento near Sea Horse Car Services main office and although the reporting officer spoke no english he typed the report and gave us a copy stamped officially which we can use for our travel insurance. All in all a pretty dismal experience.
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tashak
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Mar 23rd, 2005 10:21 AM
