🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi there,
I sypathize with you guys but in my opinion you should have called
Hertz's national office in France before you left that car in the
parking lot with keys inside ! Was that part of your contract ? Also 
your letter does not mention anything about your oblogation if
the car is stolen/damaged. Eventhough Hertz acted creepy, taking your
money from VISA without informing you, remember you signed a blank
slip with "some" agreement with them !!!....Anant.

Irene Abi-Zeid (irene.abi-zeid@drev.dnd.ca) wrote:
: Our story is quite incredible but true. Three years ago, my husband and 
: I travelled to France. We rented a car from HERTZ in Deauville, 
: Normandy, for a week. When we came to return it, the garage was closed, 
: they closed on wednesdays, a fact of which we were not aware. We had a 
: train to catch for Paris, so we parked the car at the train station, put 
: the keys in the glove compartment, locked the doors, and left a message 
: on HERTZ's answering machine regarding the car.

: Two days later, before taking the plane home from Paris, we called HERTZ 
: to verify that everything was in order, and HERTZ informed us that they 
: did not find the car. We went to the Police station in Paris to make a 
: declaration of theft, we were not too worried since we had purchased 
: full proof insurance with no deductible.

: A couple of weeks later, we received a call from ROYAL BANK VISA 
: informing us that our credit limit had surpassed 7 000 dollars (where it 
: was supposed to be 2 000). We learned that HERTZ had tried to pass 5 000 
: dollars on our VISA. Of course we refused to pay, since we could not be 
: held responsible for 7 000 where our limit was only 2 000 dollars, and 
: VISA refused HERTZ's transaction. However, on the next bill, we found 
: out that HERTZ was able to pass 1200 dollars on our VISA. All throughout 
: the month, HERTZ kept on trying different decreasing amounts until one 
: of them got authorized by VISA. We had to pay that amount because we had 
: signed a blank VISA bill (you must do so if you want to rent a car, even 
: here in Canada).

: The story only gets better. Apparently, HERTZ found the car, it had been 
: in an accident. So they sent us the bill for it. We refused to pay, they 
: sued us in France. We hired lawyers in Canada and in France, and we 
: lost. We were condemned to pay 15 000 dollars (the value of the car), 
: plus the interest on that money on a 2 years period, plus HERTZ's lawyer 
: fees. We decided to appeal. So far this has cost us over 4500 dollars in 
: lawyers fees and it will cost another 3 000 dollars. We are hoping that 
: the decision will be reversed.

: HERTZ Canada (Customer service in Toronto) has always refused to help us 
: or to intervene. We would like to bring our story to the attention of 
: the public, because this could happen to anyone.

: -- 
: Irene Abi-Zeid
: email: irene.abi-zeid@drev.dnd.ca