isu_steph

Hi. I'm looking for anyone that may have had experience with receiving a ticket from Italy or anywhere in Europe?? My husband and I received one in the mail this week from our trip in December. We have followed up and checked with our car rental place. They said that yes it is a legitimate ticket (my biggest fear was having it be a scam). I want to dispute the ticket though because the information on their site has the information that is on our ticket, but the picture that they have associated with it is not the car nor license plate of the vehicle that we drove while we were there. Does anyone have any advice?? Auto Europe gave us a number of the Italian Tourism Board and I tried contacting them. They were less than helpful after I had been told that they would be a good source for help in disputing a ticket. Thanks!

Cyberia

You should have a copy of your car rental agreement. Sent a copy of it back with the ticket and explain that they have sent it to the wrong person.

What could have happened is that someone else got that ticket and if they don't pay it, then the car rental place has to, as owner of the car. Unless they can trick someone else into paying for it. Like you.

Christina

Lots of people seem to get tickets by camera in Europe, especially Florence it seems where a lot of drivers ignore the traffic signs that they can't drive in a restricted residential area without a permit. They usually say it's not their fault because they don't know Italian and thus don't know what traffic signs say -- an argument that doesn't sway me at all. Besides the sign (which I've seen photos of) is very obvious a traffic control sign and the language isn't that different in Italian that you couldn't guess what it means. Besides, you can't just ignore traffic signs in foreign countries.

Your case is a different one, though, no one has said the picture wasn't of the car they were driving. I'm not following what site you mean, though, when you say the info doesn't match. If there is some ticket website and it lists a license plate number differerent than you rented, and you have proof of that (which you should, it is in your rental contract), why don't you point that out to the car rental company who sent it to you?

kerouac

Ha! During my last trip to the U.S., I got my AutoEurope car from Dollar and upon my return I received not one but two tickets for not paying a toll on a bridge in Miami. It was like $15 for the toll fee (which was $0.50) and an additional charge of $20 for the Dollar processing charge x 2 = "please send us $80 instantly or there's going to be hell to pay." I e-mailed them back and pointed out that I was given that car a day after those tolls were not paid and that the only reason that I was driving that car was that I had exchanged the previous one which was a piece of junk with a tire that was almost flat. I received an extremely apologetic message in return and was told to ignore their first message.

My god, if you have received a ticket for a car that is not the model you had and not the licence plate, what on earth are you worried about? You have the proof that the car you rented was not involved and there is no way that they can charge you.

Or did you not keep proof?

isu_steph

It's the European Outsourcing group that the Police in Firenze have issued the ticket through. On the actual documentation it does have the license plate number that matches our rental car. However, their supporting evidence (the photo) does not even closely match the car that we rented. I have also sent them an email in hopes of finding some way to contact them since the number listed on our traffic ticket is not working. Like I told my husband I know we do not speak Italian correctly so it would be very possible that we misinterpreted a sign. Our initial fear was that we were being taken advantage of in some sort of scam. At least we have eliminated that factor and know that this is a legitimate ticket.

Dukey

I am not surprised that someone who rented a car FIVE MONTHS AGO did not keep the rental contract.

isu_steph

Actually for some reason I did still have it... with my pile of good intentions to scrapbook stuff from our trip. I honestly did not figure on having the contract myself!

LAwoman

Apparently it is illegal to drive in portions of the historic center of Florence and a lot of people are getting tickets for doing this.

This post on another travel forum might be helpful:

http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a...5/m/6461031724

isu_steph

This link does help. At least to get other people's experience with the European Municipal Outsourcing group. Just hoping to get an e-mail response and we'll go from there then. Maybe we'll be able to get through some loop hole since the associate picture "evidence" isn't correct.