We had a bad experience with Tri color to say the least. Our car was making horrible noises and we were scared to drive it, they assured us it was ok. We called the next day to request a switch, my boyfriend works on cars and diagnosed it as dangerous to drive.

They refused to come help us, and said that we had to try and drive it to them in Liberia. We did, on the way our 4 wheel drive went out and we were stuck in a ditch during a downpour, I was very scared. We finally pushed the car out and made it to Liberia.

We got a new car but were nervous about them charging us for the problem. However, they assured us that it was their fault the car was damaged and not to worry.

THis morning there is a $4000 charge on my credit card (we had insurance so even if this were our fault we shouldnt be charged over our $1200 deductible)

If any one has any advice on how to dispute this please let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Call your credit card company. Your best hope is to dispute through the credit card company. Sorry for your
trouble.

I thought Tricolor was a reliable company!? The only companies I have used were them and www.wild-rider.com . I wish you good luck ag123!

Wow ($4,000.00)

Thats is too bad because Tricolor got good reviews here on this forum.

Hmmm , make you wonder now.

Percy

Something is missing here - what did your boyfriend "diagnose" as the problem with the car?

How did the lack of 4WD cause you to crash into a ditch?

I'm curious... Have you contacted Tricolor about the charge? What was their response?

Yes, contacted TriColor and am waiting a report from them - they were supposed to email it to me by last night but I don't yet have it. There is a bit of a language barrier so I am thinking she perhaps got my email address wrong.

I am hoping this is a mix-up since the reason I chose them was because of their excellent reviews! $4k is more than my entire vaca cost.

Sean - We didn't 'crash' into a ditch, we got stuck in one. When trying to drive up a large hill the 4x4 went out (we think - we obviously can't be sure), the wheels started spinning about halfway up. Realizing we weren't going anywhere we put the brakes on and the car slid backwards onto the side of the dirt road, in a ditch. I don't really know much about cars but from what I overheard there was gear-oil leaking and a problem with the transfer case?? When I said dangerous I didn't mean it would explode or something like that - I meant that it could break down in the middle of nowhere.

We had insurance on this car, so even if we had crashed it we should not have been liable for over $1200. We were assured by Tri-Color that the old contract was void and that once we paid our credit card number would be shredded. I am sure there are precautions we did not take (like making sure the number really was shredded), and we are kicking ourselves for it - but we still will never return to Tricolor we feel very misled.

How did this end up?

Keith

ag123, please do let us all know how this turned out. I feel sure it must be an honest mistake and would be very disappointed to find out otherwise.

Remember I mentioned to you the guy who is so helpful at the airport location? Cristian? There would be no language barrier with him. Please give him a call and see if he can be of help to you.

Ok, so we are still in the middle of this but here is an update.

A friend of mine speaks Spanish and called Tri Color and said they were friendly, but still havent provided much information. They said that we hit something that ruined the gear box and if the car had been damaged when we picked it up we would have returned it sooner (we called everyday trying to return it sooner!).

They said they would fax over all the paperwork relating to this charge, it took 5 days and 2 more phone calls for them to fax a paper that said parts were $3700 and labor $200 with the total on the bottom. Nothing was itemized and it wasn't from a repair shop - on TriColor letterhead. There are 2 problems here:
#1 TriColor told us that our CDW insurance "deductible" covered $1200, but the charges shown on the paperwork are the same as what our credit card was charged
#2 Our first few conversations with TriColor they made it clear we were talking about damage to our first car, a blue one. On the paperwork sent to us, our 2nd rental agreement # and a white car are what was referred to.

My Spanish speaking friend is on holiday and I'll ask her to call TriColor and point these discrepancies out when she gets back, and also alert Washington Mutual (they are investigating).

I personally would never rent a car in Costa Rica again.

I was charged to replace a tire which has incredibly worn and went flat despite having "complete coverage".

Costa Rica is the most corrupt and dishonest country I have ever traveled to.

I don't understand how an incident with a car rental company on a single trip can lead to such a blanket statement about an entire country, lol.

To the OP - I know so many have used tri-color without incident so hope you can get this settled, good luck.

ag 123 why don't you just dispute charges on the credit which you did not authorized? I have done that couple times and it works well.Let the credit card company do the investigation.

We used a debit/credit card from Washington Mutual, they are investigating but have not given us much reassurance - it took 9 days to get the $3900 to be temporarily put back in our account. They asked for our statement and are investigating, they will let us know by mid-January. My hopes are high - we shall see!

We had a really awful time with this car rental situation, but we plan on going back next summer and will again be renting a car! (prob not from TriColor though!) I think that it was just really bad luck on our part, and now I know to use a Visa card or purchase full insurance ( I thought that we had). I don't think our experience is a common one and still loved Costa Rica.

I just do not understand that you could be charged if you did not authorized $3900 charge,maybe $1200 but not $3900.$2700 is fraudulent charge with out your authorization.Even if you would possibly sue your credit card company,you would have to win.

Oops, I see you used debit card.Not that much help there.

Just came back from CR last night. Rented an SUV from Dollar and had a good experience with them. We were side-swiped by a drunk Tico driver on the way to Arenal in a driving rain. (the police did a breath-test at the accident, and the other driver was drunk). We called Dollar, they called the police for us so we could file an accident report. We reported the accident to our credit card company, who will cover the cost of the repairs. Work with your credit card company to dispute the charges!
I can understand why you were fearful. We were stuck on the side of the mountain in the mud with our young children in the car, in a very dangerous spot. It was pouring, and without the 4-wheel drive, we might STILL be there. Because of the accident, we were forced to complete the drive to Arenal in the dark, which scared me even more. It had been raining so much, the road was nearly washed out in a several places, and there were landslides on the road. Driving in CR is dangerous and not for the faint hearted!

It's got to be very aggravating, this situation that ag123 has gotten into with the rental company. Very frustrating to come home and have to deal with that.

I recommended Tricolor to her (and many others), but will continue to do so. We, and many others, have had such good fortune using them. There have been many posts to that effect. I strongly feel that what happened was a very rare event (and most likely an honest mistake) that might have happened with any company.

For the record, we have no experience with the office in Liberia, which ag123 rented from. Our only experience has been with the airport office, and they have given us a break more than once on things they could have charged us for.

You take Dollar, Poas, Mapache, Adobe, Economy, any of the companies, local or otherwise, and occasionally something is going to happen that shouldn't--for whatever reason. Seems to be part of the risk when renting out of the country.

I sincerely hope the issue will be resolved favorably for ag123 and feel sure it will be. I would still encourage a phone call to the airport to ask for the assistance of Cristian. He might not be able to help, but I do think he would listen and make an attempt to help.

I rented from TriColor (from Dec 29 to Jan 5), and had a good, no-hassle experience. I picked up the car in the locataion near Pavas, and Tricolor picked me up at Pavas. When I dropped off the car at SJO, they noticed that 2 of the 4 hubcaps were missing, and that this had not been noted on the rental agreement when I picked up the car. But instead of charging me for two hubcaps, the person at the SJO office called the Pavas office, confirmed that the hubcaps had indeed been missing when I picked up the car, and did not charge me anything extra. So I was happy with them. I hope ag123 gets her problems sorted out soon...

BTW - we stayed 3 nights in Osa before flying in to Pavas and picking up the rental car. While in Osa, at dinner, the people sitting next to us told us that they had been hit by the "flat tire" scam twice (they had rented from National). Apparently they rented the car, had their tires slashed, replaced the tire, went back to National and got a new tire, had the tire slashed a second time !!, changed the tire again, and had to go to National yet again to get another tire - before they finally made it out of San Jose (this time with a tourist police escort) ! As you can imagine, this worried us - I really did not want to be hit with the "shredded tire" scam on a vaction with kids ! Luckily, we had no problems at all...