🚀 go-pugleaf

In <32009062.2DD3@drev.dnd.ca> Irene Abi-Zeid
<irene.abi-zeid@drev.dnd.ca> writes: 
>
>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



HERTZ should be ashamed of themselves for this ridiculous harassment...