Warning - Autovia car hire, Bergamo Airport

WARNING - DO NOT DEAL with Autovia Car Hire at Bergamo Airport under any circumstances. if you go through an internet broker for car hire (I used Holiday Autos via one of the links on the MSE site in the car hire section) and they offer you Autovia, do not use. They are scammers.


I hired a Fiat Estate for four days from them back in October. I refused their excess insurance because I had my own policy, pre bought in the UK. They ascertained this during the registration procedure at car pick up. They duly blocked 1600 Euros on my credit card.
When I went to pick up the car in their pound in the airport car park, the girl gave me a form to sign which showed only one paint scuff as pre-existing. I did my own inspection and found THREE more prominent ones, which I pointed out and insisted she add to the form, which she did.
When I returned the car, having had an incident free four days, I expected a formality. How wrong can you be!
It was a different girl at the Autovia pound for the return. She came out to do an inspection and literally got down on her hands and knees to inspect the car with a fine tooth comb. I was expecting her to bring out a Sherlock Holmes style magnifying glass. I though it was a joke at first, but soon became alarmed when it became apparent she was looking for ANY miniscule blemish she could blame on me.
She duly pointed to a hairline mark on a wing which was hardly visible to the naked eye, and a 1 mm paint chip on the top of the rear bumper sill, which looked like ancient damage caused by a suitcase dragging across it. I forcibly made the point that I was responsible for neither and refused to sign the form. I took photos of the so called damage. She said it would be up to her boss what further action they would take.

Sure enough, two weeks later, a claim for 545 Euros damage repair appeared on my credit card. I protested to Autovia, I wrote to my credit card company, also to Bergamo Airport Management, to Holiday Autos, to my excess insurance policy issuers and even e-mailed the Italian financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, although the latter haven't responded.


Interestingly, Autovia supplied photos of the damage to the claims company, which I have seen, and they have clearly doctored the scratch after I left to make bigger. The photographic evidence is there for all to see! It is surely no co-incidence that the repair invoice came from a company in Palermo! We've all seen 'The Godfather' and 'Goodfellas'.


I think car hire company scamming is reaching epidemic proportions, if the internet can be believed. Surely it's time for someone to investigate - Martin, are you listening?