Mrs A
Mrs A got in contact to say she wishes she'd seen this site before booking. Her story goes as follows: "my husband and
I rented a car from Locauto Milan....................At the time and day
fixed, we took the car (with tankful) at the airport of Linate, as agreed.
But nobody was in the parking when I arrived. I called Locauto offices and asked
for a technician to come and check together the car. A rude secretary replied
that at the moment nobody was available to come to the parking and that it was
fine to go directly to their offices to give the keys back.
I must admit that I
was a bit surprised because normally the procedure requires a control with a
person of the renting company. But we have a three years old daughter and
we were in a hurry because we had to take our flight to
Rome.
So my husband signed
without waiting for the check-in.
Some days later, I
called the company to take some information and they informed me that they have
already provided to withdraw 458 euros from my credit card for some
damages.
I sent them mails
and "raccomandate" letters explaining that when we parked the car
everything was in order and we asked for the damage appraisal (expertise)
but they simply responded that we have signed and for this reason, we are
obliged to pay."
So Locauto can't staff themselves properly but.....surprise surprise......it's someone else's fault!
Even though Mrs A engaged a lawyer, she was thwarted by Locauto - the
cost and hassle of getting these things sorted is worth more than the
money at stake. I assume that they must know this.
Mr B Mr B was a bit more lucky. He got in contact with me with the following story: "I just stumbled across your site when I was researching Locauto. We
too have been scammed by this company. We hired a car over night to
drive from Rome to Turin during the recent ash cloud fiasco. We paid
€270 for 24hr hour. We dropped the car back out of trading hours the
next morning. 2 weeks later €519 was taken from my credit card by Turin
Airport Locauto and the next day a further €519 was taken by Roma
Termini Locauto. They say the windscreen of the car was damaged on
inspection and they have produced to me a photo of "A" windscreen, not
necessarily the windscreen of the car I hired and also the time and date
has been inserted in using paint or something similar. They admit one
of the payments €519 was taken in error but I have yet to be refunded. I
am taking a case against this company in the European Small Claims
Court."
Just incredible - not only to take money without making contact, but so haphazard that that they did it twice!
Mr B got back in contact in late 2010 - it seems that his persistance paid off: "Persistence is a great thing. Eventually got all monies back. Worth the effort if not for the money just the principal." Got a story? If you have a similiar story, i'm happy to put it online. Make contact with me here Miss C Miss C is pretty unhappy with Locauto, so you may find the below on other review sites. She emailed me and said I could include it here too: "We have always rented cars for our
holidays, and we never had any problems, but deciding to rent from this
company (Locauto) has effectively ruined our last holiday in Italy, and I
would like this to at least be a warning to other people considering
this company. Unfortunately, as usually happens, I only now - when it is
too late - realise what a huge dissatisfaction rate this company has
with its customers, as can be easily seen by doing a search with their
name. Our car had been pre-paid in full over the Internet, yet because we
arrived a few hours later than the time I indicated in the booking, they
said they cancelled our booking and have no car for us. All of that was
said in a very rude and completely unapologetic way, and we were left
both without a car for our holiday and with no refund whatsoever. No-one from Locauto had called to warn us that if we don't show up
in the next X hours or so we'd lose the car, and a subsequent careful
inspection of the Contract revealed that there was no mention of how
long the "tolerance interval" around the indicated pick-up time
("no-show") is. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that if you
showed up on that day later than time specified, it would only be your
loss because you will have the car for less time. Since I had already
paid for it, the car should have been put aside for us in the parking
lot, rather than being rented again to someone else, as it has been! Had the people behind the desk been at least a bit friendly and
understanding at the huge inconvenience they had caused us, I would have
probably just left it there. In the meantime, however, I have sought
legal advice and I will be going after them for every penny they took
from us, including compensation for our ruined holiday plans." Mrs D Of all the emails I have received, Mrs D's is the one that upsets me the most. Not only has she and her family been charged an obscene amount of money, but Locauto showed its colours by allowing three children to have to stand by the side of the road. Having had to experience standing on the hard shoulder of an Italian motorway, I wouldn't wish the side of any road in the country on anyone - especially not a family with children.
A theme that is coming through in the emails I get is Locauto's willingness to take money from credit cards without feeling any need to explain why the charges are being made. I cannot think of another situation in which a company would expect its customers to pay for services without any explanation. Got a story? If you have a similiar story, i'm happy to put it online. Make contact with me here Miss E Miss E's email to me was short and too the point. I am hoping to get some more information from her over the next few weeks. This one seems totally bizarre, given that Locauto already confirmed there was no damage:
Mr F Mr F's experience exposed some of the more dubious practices that get hidden away in car hire contracts.
It seems that acts of good faith mean nothing to Locauto. Got a story? If you have a similiar story, i'm happy to put it online. Make contact with me here Mr G Mr G sent me the following email extracts from his communications with an intermediary, Holiday Autos. I particularly like the sudden inability to speak English, as well as the Locauto classic "it won't be much ..... oops, I just charged you eight times the amount it would cost to get the work completed in the UK": "The incident at Brindisi Airport was doubly disappointing for me given that when I picked the car up I did actually notice the slight damage to the off-side front tyre and the hub cap and did think about going back and reporting it. I chose not to given that I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a car in Italy without some sort of slight damage that wasn’t detailed on the paperwork and it’s never been a problem before. When I returned the car the individual I handed the keys to, suggesting that the tank was full and everything was alright with the car, almost waved me away immediately but upon looking at the key ring his demeanour changed and announced in perfectly good English that he was just going to check the car. It felt a little strange. After about 5 minutes I went out to see what was happening and I bumped into the representative who said there was damage to the car. I suggested the damage was the front tyre and that it was like that when I picked it up but she refused to accept this and said it was impossible. I then noticed the individual who took the key fob and when I tried to talk to him he suggested he couldn’t speak English which was strange because he was fairly fluent 5 minutes earlier. I should point at this stage that I accept responsibility for not pointing the damage out and accept fully that the onus was on me to report it. I was annoyed however at the injustice of the incident and wanted to take it further on the day and after some debate with the representative (her name is Sara) I asked to talk to her manager. She wasn’t at all happy about the situation but reluctantly made a call and I ended up talking to a Marizo or Marzio who was extremely sympathetic and suggested that whilst he understood my predicament it was best for all concerned if I just signed a document which would permit them to get the tyre assessed and that it may not even cost me anything depending on the assessment. Both Sara and Marizo/Marizio kept talking about how serious tyre damage was considered and that accordingly there was no way (“it’s impossible” time after time) that there could be any kind of fault at their end which of course there was but they both knew I couldn’t prove it. This indignant position that they couldn’t possibly have made a mistake with something that was so important just added insult to injury. Marizo/Marizio of course kept his options open and did say that I shouldn’t worry given that “it would at worst be a few Euros” which I might even be able to get back from HA. My entire family was at the Airport and I knew that I had to move the situation on so I reluctantly signed the document and made a statement about the incident. On Thursday of last week I received my credit card statement which detailed the costs charged by LOCAUTO which is anything but “a few Euros” – they have charged me 314 Euros for the tyre! I have just checked online how much a tyre would cost for a Vauxhall Corsa and the best price I could get was a Tigar Sigura 79T for £39.50 fully fitted. Hopefully I don’t need to say anything else to demonstrate the complete and utter injustice of the situation and that consequently you’ll easily be able to campaign successfully for most of the charge to be credited back to my account. What LOCAUTO have chosen to do with my deposit is little short of theft! Unless Holiday Autos take proper account of the situation and deal with LOCAUTO properly I’ll resort to taking this to a Small Claims Court given how strongly I feel about it." Mr H This is just plain fraud: "I rented a car from Locauto at Fiumicino Airport (Rome) in September 2011. And anyone has dealt with customer services will know about their similarity to the combination of chocolate.....and teapots.What I did not realize when checking out the car was that it had the spare tire mounted. It looked like any other tire to me. The normal tire obviously was damaged and placed by the previous renter (or somebody else) in the trunk where the spare should be. I am not an car mechanic, so I did check out for any dents and scratches, but I did not realize that there was a spare tire mounted. When I returned the car, I went to the check-in attendant. She looked up something in the computer and then asked me to sign the only copy of the check-in form where it said "The clients accepts the check-in". I was surprised that she did that without a look at the car, but that was not my problem (yet), since the car had no new damage. I accepted and signed the form which did not state any new damages. Then she walked out to take a closer look at the car. She looked at the spare tire, and then had asked another attendant from another company to look at it, too. Obviously she was not able to figure out herself if that was the right tire or not. Then she came back ad told me I had damaged the tire. Well, I had not, but that did not convince her. (Maybe understandable, as I have to assume that lots of people try to cheat when it comes to new damages.) When I told her that the tire must have been on there when I rented the car, she just stated that "this is impossible" (see above about her ability to tell the difference for herself). But then she really shocked me: Next thing, she added "spare tire used" as a new damage to the check-in form, which I already had signed! I protested that, upon which she gave me a blank sheet with the rental agreement number on it and asked me "to write something about the spare tire". So I did in written state that I did not change a tire and that I returned the car in the condition I received it (i.e. with the spare tire on). I kept telling her that she could not add to the form after my signature, but she did not even flinch. She would neither strike out the "damage" nor let me cross out my signature. She completely ignored my protest. But she gave me a copy of the check-in form and my "damage report". I then asked for her supervisor and went to Locauto's front desk at the airport. There I complained about the fact that the attendant had changed the check-in form after I had signed it. The supervisor told me that this is what they always do!!! When I told her that this is not acceptable, she just told me that I could send an e-mail to customer service and asked me to never rent with Locauto again. (Not that I would anyway!)" Got a story? If you have a similiar story, i'm happy to put it online. Make contact with me here Mr I Yet more fraud (altering signed documents), plus an interesting approach to car maintenance - those will clutch problems be aware! "This summer we rented a car via the Dutch branch of www.traveljigsaw.com and they ended up organising a rental car for me from Locauto. When I reported to the desk at Alghero Airport (Sardinia) to pick up the car they gave me the keys and asked me to sign for acceptance of the car. The form showed no damage. When we (me and my wife and our 2 children) found the car on the parking space, it was clearly damaged: some small dents and scratches but most visible was the broken off outside mirror which had been provisionally 'repaired' with duct tape. I went back to the desk to get this marked on the form which they did reluctantly ("all our cars have some damage - don't worry"). When I returned the car 10 days later we parked the car in the same area as where we picked it up. We then walked to the Alghero terminal building and returned the keys to the LocAutoRent desk. The lady at the desk asked me to wait while she went to inspect the car. I waited near the desk and she came back after about 15 mins saying "everything is OK". I did not expect anything else as I returned the car in the exact same condition as in which I received it. We signed the form and I made the mistake not to ask for a copy... A few weeks later my Credit Card is charged for €219 euros for damage I supposedly caused. After phone calls, e-mails and complaints (via TravelJigsaw) they sent me a copy of the form with the 'new damage on it' and my signature. It was clear they made changes to the form after I signed it! €219 euros is not enough to take them to court, and it will be difficult for me to prove they made changes to the form after I signed it. My focus is therefore on warning others and trying to get TravelJigsaw not to use them anymore." Mr J A man after my own heart .... or at least with very similar problems. Make sure you read to the bottom so you can see Locauto's final explanation! "I booked a car from Verona airport via Holiday Autos who 'partner' with Locauto. Driving to Lake Garda, I went up a steep hill and - you guessed it - there was the burning smell and over-revving engine that is the hallmark of a badly worn clutch. The breakdown recovery man found the remote site and removed the car. Upon phoning Locauto, I was told that no replacement car would be made available locally and that I would have to take a taxi (€95) back to the airport to collect a replacement car. I reported all the details to the reception desk and was given a "customer service" email address for claiming back the taxi fare. Well done Holiday Autos for sorting the problem for Mr J this time round.....but perhaps you should consider your European partnerships going forwards.Back in the UK two weeks later, I found that €384 had been debited to my credit card. After emailing Locauto customer services, I was told that €322 was for a replacement clutch due to "misuse" and the remainder for topping up the tank of the faulty vehicle. Like your experience, the obvious point that you cannot wear out a clutch in one 40-minute drive was ignored. The good news at the end of this story is that Holiday Autos has refunded my money, despite Locauto refusing to budge and my still being out of pocket for the taxi fare. I will not use Holiday Autos again, however, while it continues to 'partner' with such a disreputable company." Oh, and that fanastic final explanation? "You may wish to mention that Locauto eventually resorted to the excuse of a scoundrel by giving up all pretence of arguing the case and saying that, in the small print of the contract I signed, it states that the renter confirms that the vehicle is in roadworthy condition - so I had agreed that the clutch was fine before I had even seen the car." Got a story? |