Car Rental Italy: Steer Clear Locauto & Enterprise!

Another trip, another car rental disaster for me.  This time I was off to Italy, actually doing a fact-finding trip to organise a trip next year for a lot of people – many of which, I may add will be hiring cars and looking towards us for some recommendation.

I thought myself lucky before hiring, I’d spotted a thread by a business contact on LinkedIn who was very annoyed with an Italian company called Locauto.  I went off on the web and read many bad things about their overcharging etc.  So I thought, I’d better avoid them completely…

Well the best made plans… I booked with Enterprise, as I’d hired a car in the UK up in Aberdeen and was impressed with them against my very poor Europcar experience, who tried to charge me for a faulty fuel gauge even though all in the industry are aware of the problems with those cars!  I still didn’t get an apology from this blog.

It wasn’t until I was waiting for about an hour for bags in Rome Fiomucino airport and using Google on my phone that I twigged that in Italy, Enterprise is Locauto.  I was annoyed to say the least.  Oh well I thought, how bad can they be?  Surely my business contact may have had a bad experience, but mine would be no doubt different.

I should add, that I paid more for using Enterprise – I wanted that quality there and thought that they would at least reign in Locauto and thought I’d have a better experience, car, etc than a direct customer.  I left baggage-reclaim looking forward to getting my Alfa Guilietta, or equivalent, but surely an Italian car hire comapny wqould have an Alfa.

After much treking and lack of decent signposts around Rome Fiomucino airport, we found the car hire desk for Locauto.  A little bit of a wait, but we hit problems when the agent started talking about the drop-charge.  The drop-charge is applied when you drop your car in a different location to where you picked it up.  I pointed out that on the pre-payment note for Enterprise they have already charged a one-way fee (equivalent, different terminology).  They said that I hadn’t been charged that yet.

Suspcious, I just left having no evidence (as I did not have a credit card statement yet) to say otherwise.  A short while into my trip, however, you guessed it – I checked my statement, the full amount of money had been taken by Enterprise and I knew I had an upcoming fight in Florence.

Oh, you’re actually wondering what car I got?  Well it wasn’t an Alfa Guilietta, despite me paying more to use Enterprise.  It was an “or equivalent”  the equivalent?  An Open Meriva 1.6 Diesel.  The agent tried to assure me it was a German car and the equivalent.  Well, that’s like saying to an attractive lady that I’m the equivalent of Brad Pitt.  And German?!  Nobody raves about Opel cars when they say how good German cars are do they.

So I should say that for the Tall Traveller out there who’s looking for that extra legroom in a rental vehicle then the Opel Meriva is a great car, if you’re over 60 and have mobility issues also a great choice.  The doors opening from a rear hinge on the back also good if you have bamino’s.  If you’re a petrol head and want a proper car and want to drive your first Alfa in Italy, then this is not the car for you, nor me.

Anyway, after discovering I’d been charged the one-way from Enterprise had been taken, I reached-out over twitter and got a customer services chirp back.  I wrote off to said email address with the information and the reference number and received no reply.

When we got to Florence, I managed to fill the car up at a petrol station then navigating the ZTL (congestion charge zone) wasn’t as horrendous as I thought.  I *think* I avoided the zone, but I’m expecting Locauto to charge me regardless of whether I did or not.  I dropped the car outside their office, which was actually quite stressful as it’s not really a depot, just an office and I had to park up in a bus-stop.

The fight begins.  The lady in the office called Sarah, was the one who checked our car in.  To be fair, she agreed with the fact that I had proved that I had paid the fee.  She called her customer services department, even faxed off the details from the Enterprise receipt, proving I had paid.  However, they would not budge, the customer services people told her to charge it to me.  I thought this was disguising!  I did feel sorry for her, she was having to tow the party line, knowing I was right.

I was obviously very annoyed.  I’d had no help from Enterprise, been trying to avoid this situation.  All I could do was refuse to sign the document for the charges and the only thing I did do is sign the vehicle back in with no further damage and a full tank of fuel.  I am expecting they’ll charge me for some fuel because they’ve already proved themselves to be dishonest.

The first thing I do when I reach my hotel – call my card issuer and start the proceedings to claim back the payment.  I’m really hoping that given the poor sentiment online with regards to the company, the comments coming from my own network about them that MasterCard and Visa take a serious look at withdrawing their merchant license.  However, the sad fact of the matter is – it is the merchants, good or bad who are the card companies customers, not us.

Next time I’m back renting a car in Italy, I’ll be going to one of the big boys, Avis, Hertz etc – I’ll have to pay for it even more so than going via Enterprise, but I need that reliability of global standards and customer service.  It’s a shame that Italy can’t create a local business that beats the big boys, let’s face it they are overpriced and also give shoddy customer service however if you want a throat to strangle and there’s no local alternative, may as well go for the multinational, but make sure they’re operating directly and not through a franchise with a local firm.

In the meantime, I’m sat with an extra charge for £90 that I’ve already paid.  With Locauto’s reputation I’m also expecting many other spurious charges to appear on my credit card.

TT

Update: Well, it’s been quite a few months and I’ve just had a pack back from my credit card company.  Locauto disputed the fact that I’d already paid the fee with Enterprise, although it’s all there in writing, they didn’t seem to address that point and just resubmitted all the paperwork in Italian.  Working on the assumption that none of us can read it!  So the saga continues.  Really, I can’t say this enough to anyone hiring a car in Italy, AVOID Locauto!