Additional car hire charges after holiday

beefster

I had same thru Dollar but they sent me a letter explaining it was for Toll violations in Miami. We where unlucky to travel into Miami on the day toll charges changed to pre pay on one expressway.... no toll booths anymore.... No one advised us of this and we got done for not paying 2x 75 cent tolls.... 2x $25 fines. Dollar charged £50 for sorting it out plus the fine obvioulsy.

Possibly that sort of thing but they should have sent you a letter.

Goldust

beefster wrote: »

I had same thru Dollar but they sent me a letter explaining it was for Toll violations in Miami. We where unlucky to travel into Miami on the day toll charges changed to pre pay on one expressway.... no toll booths anymore.... No one advised us of this and we got done for not paying 2x 75 cent tolls.... 2x $25 fines. Dollar charged £50 for sorting it out plus the fine obvioulsy.

Possibly that sort of thing but they should have sent you a letter.

This happened to me last year in Miami and it's a total con.

We went with Budget and picked the car up from Orlando then drove down to Miami for our first week. Most of the toll roads have a barrier or express system so you can pay cash if you don't have the pass however there was one small stretch of road which was barrier free tolls (there was a word for it which I can't remember) and I when I got to the next toll booth on our travels I enquired and the leaflet implied you either have a sunpass account or they find your address from the car registration and send you a bill.

So when the car went back I mentioned this and they then gave me no explanation and gave me a print out explaining that the cars were enabled with a Sunpass and you get charged the fee plus an admin fee plus a fixed fee for every remaining day of your rent. I didn't have time to complain there and then due to needing to check in for our flight home so thought I'd wait and see what happened.

Sure enough we got charged £22 for a toll which would have cost them no more that 50 cents. I sent several emails to the hire agent who we booked through saying that the hire company knew we were going to Miami (I told them) and they should have given me the print out beforehand not after as I couldn't avoid the barrier free toll routes if I knew it was going to cost me money. Also moaned that it was excessive and that I wasn't even in Miami for most of the time they were charging me! Even threatened to ask the Credit Card company to reverse the transaction but just gave up in the end. The hire agent (think it was Carhire3000) were helpful enough but they said that Budget weren't even entertaining doing anything about it.

So in summary, avoid Budget and avoid the Miami barrier free toll road!