jamikins

Here's one of the discussions on this forum about this issue:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...n-florence.cfm

gatorbill

Interesting story about the fines in Firenze. I've used Autoeurope to rent cars in France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, and Italy (and I drove in and thru Firenze) and never had anything but good experiences with them.

--gatorbill

evbe

Thanks for the answers and the links. Apparently, we're not the only tourists that have experienced it.

Now that I've read some things about the system in Firenze, I agree that the pictogram on the road sign is clear, and also the hours mentioned. But when you're about to pass such an indication in a busy city like Firenze, you really can't read all the information: there's a serie of exceptions. And you should think that rental companies warn you for things like that. Probably we've seen the road signs, but they seem to refer to zones, which you don't know as a tourist. We absolutely didn't want to violate rules: we paid parking tickets in Firenze, just because we wanted to avoid things like these. We spent one day in the city, and I wanted to see it again but now I doubt we will ever visit it: for probably 500 euros, you can book a citytrip without car!

And the fact that we've got these fines is indeed not the fault of autoeurope, but the administration costs they ask are wayyy too high.

tedgale

I agree that the admin penalties are outlandishly high. I thought so when we were charged a fee related to a speeding infraction in France.

Basically, the police ask the car's owner (Hertz, I think) for the name and address of the renter and the rental company -- not AutoEurope -- supplies it to them.

(.....At which point the police usually decide not to bother trying to send you a ticket in a foreign country and the matter drops)

Your irritation is understandable but jamikins has it right: It has nothing to do with AutoEurope.

The admin fees you were charged are set by and remitted to the actual rental supplier, not the broker. The rental supplier is the one you should avoid in future.

I also suggest you provide the name on this board, so others can do the same, if they choose.

BTW, you CAN tell Autoeurope which rental companies you do NOT wish to patronize -- it's easiest to do so by calling their 1-800 number, rather than attempting an online booking.

StuDudley

When we visited Florence from southern Tuscany, we drove to Buonoconvento, parked the car by the train station there, took the train to Florence, stayed 2 nights, then returned to Buonoconvento. This avoiding driving in the City.


>>And you should think that rental companies warn you for things like that. <<

If an Italian tourist was visiting my home town (San Francisco), I would not expect the rental clerk to explain local rules & regulations to the person renting the car. I've even received tickets for parking in Golden Gate Park with the right wheel on grass, and making a U-Turn on a street that has more than 50% commerce (as opposed to residential).

Stu Dudley

bellebabble

After we returned to Australia we received notification from Europcar that 180 Euros would be deducted from our Mastercard for GPS hire and drop off fee. I tried for 2 months to contact Europcar Customer Service in Germany to say we never hired a GPS and disputed the drop off fee. They eventually admitted to an error with GPS but would not refund the other. I asked for an explanation as to how the extra charges could have occurred and they replied that 'no further correspondence would be forth coming"!
How convenient to add extra charges after the customer flies home and cannot query the charges. Sounds like a rort to me.
Do yourself a favour, NEVER use Europcar

Paul1950

Car rental companies are like airlines. If you use them enough times, they will all eventually mess up. If you start crossing companies off your list, after a few years you won't have any companies left to use.

arizonaa

ekscrunchy just saved us $500 US! I had reserved a car for Italy through autoeurope.com. Checked the autoeurope.it site -- then called .com and they honored the far lesser price on the .it site. Thank you ekscrunchy!

Texastrips

Again autoeurope is a broker - we've rented through them often and are happy with them - but you can't compare them to a car hire company per se. You might easily (as we have several times) book through autoeurope and the rental car maker they set you up with is europcar...

Administrative fees for all rental car companies for whatever (if you let them fill your car with gas, for instance!) are very high - this is nothing to do with autoeurope, with Italy etc. You'd find the same thing if you got a ticket with a rental car rented in the US.

sheri_lp

I just had a very bad experience with Autoeurope - I also was told that there would be no charge for picking up my car at Waverley Station in Edinburgh but that was a lie and they did charge me.

Their agent also misquoted some other details regarding my insurance coverage in Ireland - so BEWARE and don't believe what the first person tells you.

Paul1950

sheri--Autoeurope didn't charge you, the company that Autoeurope brokered the deal with charged you. Did you call Autoeurope's toll free number to have them handle the complaint with the actual car rental company for you?

roarcamp

Just returned from France, had a very bad experience with Europcar. Had more than one email confirmation before we left for an automatic transmission rental, but received a phone call from the local office on the day we were leaving the US (about 3 weeks after the last email confirmation) to advise us they would have no automatic rental car for us. Said the confirmations were mistakes, that there was nothing else they could do. I asked them what I was supposed to do now as we were about to leave for the airport. Fortunately, I was able to arrange a last-minute substitute vehicle through a broker, but had to waste a day and 2-hour train ride to get the car (for significantly more money). Europcar told me they would not charge for the undelivered rental, but the full charge showed up on our last credit card statement anyway and has not been reversed almost 3 weeks later despite demands to reverse the charge. I would not do business with this company as its written confirmation of a rental reservation is evidently meaningless.

Paul1950

No car rental agency guarantees any particular model car with any particular features.

They will hope to give you the car you want with the features you want, but they aren't going to hold one for you if someone else wants that particular type of car a day or a week before you get there. Too many people make reservations and never show up or cancel at the last minute.

Also keep in mind that the rental location might have a car with the features you want scheduled to be returned the evening before you are to pick one up, but the prior renter might decide to return it elsewhere, or keep it longer than expected--or they might turn it in needing a new transmission.

Now they are certainly messing up big time by charging you after they said they wouldn't. It's inexcuseable--but next time get it in writing if you can. Or send them an email in which you state what you were told on the phone, and then stop by their desk at the arrival airport if possible to confirm.