Kerry

We have just returned home from Europe and there was a bill from Hertz waiting for us saying they were going to charge our credit card an extra 3290.67FF. As we pre-paid for the car before we left home we cannot understand some of the charges. I'll write it exactly as it appears on the statement. <BR> <BR>VL francais vers etranger 1200FF (this one I know is for drop off in foreign country and this is O.K.) <BR> <BR>Garantie Vol (TP) 42.29 <BR>Super CDW - acceptation 376.20 <BR>Service pour essence 33.00 (we returned the car full) <BR>Jours a heures sup. 250.00 <BR>Sup. de franchise (CDW) 103.65 <BR>Assurance complementaire 746.25 <BR>TVA (tax) (voir detail) 539.27 <BR>Carburant 0.01 <BR>Total 3290.67 <BR> <BR>I know we owe 1200 for drop-off charge and 376.20 for CDW but for the other charges I am at a loss. We were assured at the time of pickup that these were the only extra charges that would be put onto our credit card. We even returned the car a day early. What do I do now?

adina

I can't help you with the bill but why don't you call Hertz customer service and speak to a supervisor who will probably be able to sort it out for you. If you get nowhere with them, call corporate headquarters or write a letter.

Kerry

Yes, I intend to speak to my travel agent today (but as they were pretty hopeless before the trip I expect their aftersales service to be zero) and also to Hertz but I wanted to hear from anyone who could decipher the bill so I knew what I was talking about before I started banging on tables.

Katherine

The words jours a heures most literally mean days to hours. The TVA(tax) says to see detail. The service pour essence (charge for gas) only equals about $5 or $6 (I don't know the current exchange rate), but I haven't the slightest why the fee was incurred. I will consult with another to see if they can be of any assistance with some of the words I can't comprehend. Sorry I couldn't assist you more.

Christina

I can tell you what some of these mean, but haven't rented a car there so don't know the customary charges, which would probably help. "Garantie VOl (TP)" is Theft Protection insurance. "Sup. de francise CDW" is supplementary CDW insurance. "Assurance complementaire" is "additional insurance". TVA is, of course, the tax (I think in France it was about 20 pct). "carburant" means fuel, but that doesn't seem to really have a cost anyway. I would interpret "service pour essence" as gasoline servicing. I'm guessing that "Jours a heures sup." means days at extra hours--in other words, it looks to me like they think you returned the car late and are charging you for extra days at a supplementary hourly rate or something (they do that in US if you return a car a few hours late) and then are charging you extra for various types of insurance, perhaps because of that or insurance it sounds like you didn't want (theft protection--42F is the price for about a week of that). The "sup de franchise (CDW)" of 104F also looks like an extra day or so of CDW insurance. The other additional insurance of 746F, who knows, it could be personal liability insurance which is also an option to buy when renting a car in France. It looks like the tax on the bill for the TVA is probably the tax on these extra items, not on the amount you prepaid. I don't know what is covered by TVA in France, if it's only objects or can include services, as it looks like that should be tax on about 2500F of stuff, which is about what that bill amounts to (dropoff fee plus all insurances and extra charges), so if you solve the other fees, you will adjust the TVA tax. You would have to pay TVA tax, though, so you should expect that on the dropoff fee if you did not prepay that, they can't not charge you that (I'm pretty sure that in France, you cannot get refunds of TVA on car rental fees, only on goods). The insurance fees that you didn't agree to and possible extra rental day are the problems here. Who knows about the gas charge, that isn't much money so it could be they think it wasn't quite full or have some mandatory fee for that anyway, even if it is full; car rental agencies try to charge you for everything. Maybe someone real accustomed to French rental car bills will have different answers on this puzzle.