| National car rental mess - round 3 *ding!* |
[Dec. 1st, 2008|05:40 pm] |
I had to put up my dukes again today with National Car Rental, BV. The sh** just continues to pile up.
Here's what has happened since my last post:
First, I took the advice of Rob, and went to the juridisch loket. This agency is interesting, but not very helpful for a person in my situation. They are simply an advisory board, and they can point you to resources. They do not intervene for you, do not act as advocate, and do not hear any cases for arbitration either. They were a handy legal referral, though. After reviewing my documents and listening to my story, they suggested I would be best served by an attorney, or that I should simply drop the matter.
I made an appointment with an attorney in Utrecht, but was disappointed with the fact that there is no free initial consultation. It would cost 50 euro just to talk for a half hour about the case. I guess I am spoiled by the US civil legal system. With the appointment and name of the attorney in hand, I made a final attempt to give National an out. There is only about 500 euro at stake for me, so it would definitely be preferable for them to make some kind of compromise.
Calling the office and getting transferred a couple of times, I finally found an employee in the rental car mechanical failure department (or whatever they call themselves), who listened and admitted that national had failed somewhat to handle this properly. He negotiated with me, and we worked out an arrangement where I would essentially cover my travel interruption cost and phone charges, but the rest of the rental would be refunded. He said they would send me papers to sign, so I could get the sum of approximately 200 euro refunded, and they would pay Hertz rental car directly for the overages invoice.
I went on my trip to MFF, fully expecting this refund to be handled in my absence. Well, it was, sort of. I received a credit to my card in the amount of 97 us dollars, about one third of the total I was expecting. Not good!
Finally back from London and now able to handle this some more, I called again today. Mr. van Ziel, who had been handling this, sent me over to another department to see what refunds had been issued, because he did not have a record of it easily accessible. I confirmed with them that the 97 was all they had sent, and intended to send. I then argued with him for about 10 minutes about the figures, he kept telling me the matter was properly resolved. I told him it was not, and that I might need to make a new legal appointment if he could not work this out, or find a colleague capable of making the decision to refund the remaining charges to my card. There is now about 205 us dollars on my card that has not been refunded from the initial transaction, plus my 200 euro in actual travel expenses, due to the failure. All this for a rental that was contracted to cost 213 euro. I will reply in this post when I find out what happens later this week. I gave Mr. van Ziel until wednesday to contact me with an update, and until friday to make a payment for it.
What a disorganized company, bleh. |
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| Comments: |
Hrm, there was a time when there was still a "Buro voor rechtshulp" (I think the loket's predecessor) that WOULD actually help you. Then again, it's been ten years since I needed their services. Gods, National sucks. If they still don't resolve it before the end of the week, take your case to the media (still cheaper than an attorney). Let Radar (TROS) and Kassa (VARA) know of your dealings with National and maybe they'll intervene on your behalf.
Lemme know if there's anything I can do to help.
I would love to be on a radio programme and talk about this situation, however, would that broadcast be in dutch or english? Because I still do not have command of dutch as a second language.
If you simply mean contact a media outlet for them to run a print or voice piece on it, then that is ok too, any contact information you have would be nice. Or if you want to get more involved and serve as a translator, that is certainly interesting for me!
They're both radio AND TV programs. If you want to blow the whistle on National, I'm happy to help and act as a translator. What I need from you is a timeline from the moment you ordered the rental car up until their last communication with you. I'll translate and send them onwards to those shows. Stick to the facts: Car broke down, had to walk x miles, etc. Be specific about the amount of time it cost you, all expenses you made, how often you tried to contact National and what they told you at every contact. Let's build a case.
P.S. Can you see I've been watching a lot of CSI lately? :P
Oh, and send it to moc.revresybboh@bor (read from right to left)
I wanted to give Remco to the end of the week before answering your query, but now that I have this ignorant reply, I am ready to fight:
Dear sir,
Further to the conversation we had last Monday, we reviewed all payments and reimbursements to conclude the following:
You were charged: EUR 221,41 Rental charges for 9 days
EUR 7,50 Preparation of the vehicle
EUR 107,31 Fuel (according to your contract, car should have been returned with full tank, be it our car or Hertz car)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EUR 335,95 Total
EUR 63,83 VAT 19%
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EUR 399.78 Total
You were reimbursed: EUR 105,00 Hotel
EUR 5,00 Hotel shuttle
EUR 79,20 Mobile phone usage
EUR 58,47 Rental charges for two days (bringing charge back to original 7 days)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EUR 247,67 Total
We paid: EUR 97,98 Hertz bill not covered by FIAT warrantee.
In total you paid: EUR 399,78 Original charge
EUR 58,47 -/- Refund
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EUR 341,31 Total charge
Apart from what we have already reimbursed, we see no reason to refund any further charges.
It is in our opinion not reasonable that we should pay for the use of our car, nor the fuel consumed by our car or the Hertz car, as we already paid for the usage of the Hertz car, and refunded 2 days.
You checked in the Hertz car 2 days later than expected, though the delay caused by the breakdown was only one day. In other words, we paid for an extra day which we chose to do as a compensation for the loss of your one day and the inconvenience you experienced.
We will not refund any further charges, as we agreed earlier in the first conversation we had on the phone. This agreement was signed by us both, to settle this matter. We therefore consider the matter closed.
Best regards,
Remko van Ziel
Supervisor Damage and Maintenance Benelux
National Car Rental
Kruisweg 381
1437 CH Rozenburg
Nederland
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