As I write this, I'm sitting in a hotel in Rome, trying to figure out how a vacation supposed to be so lovely turned sour so quickly. We used our Avios points for what was supposed to be a dreamy vacation in Italy with my husband. We are sharing this experience to get some fewedback as to next steps to take and to inform anyone and everyone who may consider renting a car in Italy.
A company posing as Autonoleggio, Auto Euro, Auto Europa, Sicily by Car, etal was booked as our car rental place after we booked our reservation through Thrifty via Orbitz. Given that I travel extensively for work and that I always let car rentals companies take out a deposit (this time, on Mastercard), I didnąt think twice when they took out a deposit of £1,100 (on statement is shows as $1,489.68 USD) for a 9 day reservation on a smart car. After a horrific last 2 days, I have come to realize that this is a company with a history of scamming customers and applying unlawful charges. There are hundreds of online reviews documenting their criminal activities. Here is just one of those links:
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews252941.htmlOn Saturday, October 12th, 2013 at 2:34 PM at Venice Airport in Italy, we rented a car from Auto Europa. The reservation was booked from 10/12 (pick up in Venice) to 10/21 with plans to return the car in Naples for a total of £307 (equal to £34.11 daily based on a 9 day period).
The car worked well up to Monday, October 14th, 2013 at 2 PM. The car unexpectedly started to make noises. At which point, we safely pulled over to a gas station and proceeded to turn off the car. We then inspected the exterior of the vehicle and found no external signs of trouble. Upon trying to restart the car the vehicle would not start. We then proceeded to ask locals to let us use their cellular phones to contact the car rental company for support. Around 5 PM, we were finally able to get confirmation that the car would be picked up and taken to a shop. If the shop would not be able to fix it, we were told, we would be provided with a replacement vehicle.
Upon arrival at the shop, we were told that the car would not be able to be fixed at the time. The car rental company advised that we needed to get to Verona (300 km away). By this time, it was 7:30 PM and it was impossible to find a taxi that would make such a drive. The car rental was told this and they refused to provide any solutions.
At this point, we were stuck in the middle of rural Italy without a phone and our safety was at risk. We proceeded to take a taxi to the nearest station and headed to Rome as this was the closest city where we would be able to find safe housing for the night. During this ordeal we incurred over $200 USD to get to Rome.
We did not arrive to our hotel until 12 AM (now Tuesday, October 15th) and we then again tried to get in touch with Auto Europa to no avail. It is then we made the call to MasterCard to warn about the situation. Both Chase Sapphire and MasterCard said nothing can be done until whatever charges they have post to our account.
So here is a summary of the actions we have taken to try to recoup some if not all our losses.
1. Called and emailed Chase Saphirre about the situation to warn them to block the hold and any future charges from this company. Does Chase tend to side on the side of the customer just like Amex does? What are our chances they will just drop all charges?
2. Called and emails MasterCard about the situation to warn them to block any claims taken against us from this company
3. Called Auto Europa and was insturcted to email their customer support center to get reimbursed for yesterday's expenses. We emailed but we are not expecting it to work based on people's review we have read. We were also advised that they will charge us £113 for the usage of the car for 3 days. Firstly the car was rented for only 2 days so the total really should be £68.22. They want to penalize us for having turned in the car rental early. We did not turn in the car rental early. We wereexpecting a replacement in a timely manner which did not happen. Is this something that we would be able to take up with Chase as well? We have requested they take this up.
4. Emailed Thrifty about the situation to try to recoup the $200 that we had to spend last night to get to a safe location as we are assuming this company will not reimburse us
5. Emailed Orbitz about the situation to try to recoup the $200 that we had to spend last night to get to a safe location in case Thrifty refuses to cover it
6. Posted here to see if there is any further action we can take
We would appreciate any feedback as to what else can be done. We are in Italy for 6 more days and hoping to leave this behind us and get back to our lives wqhen we return rather than based with an insane bill with no protection from Chase or any other party.
