Autovia - taking advantage?

4stringsb

Hi everybody,


In September 2018, we visited Genoa, Italy and rented a car (Smart car) through HolidayAutos. The car was provided by Autovia, a small Italian car rental company.


During the rental period, everything went fine and there were no incidents.


After we returned, an email turned up to say there was a small scuff on the bumper and that my credit card had been charged £240.42. I challenged this, but they would not budge. Luckily, I had taken out car excess insurance which covered this loss.


Shortly afterwards, another email turned up to say that they supplied the car to us with 5/8 of a tank full, but that we returned it 3/8 full. For this missing 2/8 (1/4) tank of petrol, they charged my credit card £52.33.


Due to MS, I am disabled and drive with a blue badge. In driving around to find spaces on various days, we inadvertently drove into ZTL (historical areas of the city which are monitored by camera and restricted in terms of car access) areas in Genoa on 3 occasions. Autovia were then contacted by the Italian police on 3 separate occasions to provide details of who was driving the car at the time. Autovia provided my details and then proceeded to charge my credit card €60 3 times, emailing me to tell me that it was an 'administrative' charge and that this was covered in the contract's small print at the time of collection. The 3 actual fines have yet to turn up from the Italian police and apparently can take over a year to be generated!


I was incensed at these 3 repeated admin charges, and contacted the credit company (Barclaycard) to dispute the 2nd and 3rd admin charges, accepting the first charge. Barclaycard cancelled my credit card (to stop further charges by Autovia) and reissued a new card. They then contacted Autovia's bank and refunded €120 to my account. Since that time, I have received 3 emails from Autovia insisting that I pay them the disputed €120. I have ignored all 3 emails, but their latest email speaks about the matter being referred to external debit collectors.


At this stage, my 2 options are to either pay the €120 or call their bluff and not pay.
I'm interested to hear about other people's opinions on this.



By the way, this company seems to get very bad press in that there are loads of articles on the internet about people's bad experiences with them and how they were ripped off with excessive charges.


Having read other articles about Autovia, the lessons I have learnt are:
1. Stay away from these small, cheap and nasty car rental companies. Deal with the big operators such as Hertz, Avis etc.
2. Take plenty of photographs of the car on collection before driving away and upon return.


Many thanks,








bern

k3lvc

4stringsb wrote: »

Having read other articles about Autovia, the lessons I have learnt are:
1. Stay away from these small, cheap and nasty car rental companies. Deal with the big operators such as Hertz, Avis etc.
2. Take plenty of photographs of the car on collection before driving away and upon return.

So you damaged their car and wondered why they charged you ? This was then sorted by your insurance.

The fuel issue is fairly normal - either you follow the rules or they charge you excessively for fuel

For the ZTL zone why shouldn't you pay - you entered it 3 times and they've charged you 3 times. Not sure why you CC should refund you given you signed the T&C's to rent the car and then broke the rules in it.

Be prepared to pay the proper 'fines' when they turn up otherwise you may well have a big bill waiting for you next time you try and enter Italy

mattyprice4004

As above really - I’m not sure how your disability is relevant to any of it, but if the 60 Euro charge is in the terms and conditions you’ve not really got a leg to stand on.

Did you read the various charges before taking the car, or just blindly mash through the tick boxes?

biggmick1

4stringsb wrote: »

After we returned, an email turned up to say there was a small scuff on the bumper and that my credit card had been charged £240.42. I challenged this, but they would not budge. Luckily, I had taken out car excess insurance which covered this loss.
bern

Hi.
Sorry for your stresses but one of the silver linings of your experience seemed to be that your Car Hire Excess Insurance paid out OK.
I wonder if you can let us all know what Car Excess Insurance you had?
Did you have a separate policy or did you use one from the hire company or from a car hire broker?
Which company was it with?
Also how was the claim experience, any problems, delays, how bureaucratic was it?
I've had a separate Car Hire Excess Insurance for a couple of years now but I've always been a bit concerned about whether it would pay out OK.