Healthy_Skeptic
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Texas
I believe the Roissy (Paris, France) airport affiliate of National (National/Citer) car rental, is trying to scam me about 700 Euro ($950USD) for alleged damage and expenses to a rooftop windshield on a French car, the Picasso
C-4. The car rental was prepaid for. I used a third party, "Transhire Worldwide" in the U.K. That company took pains to exclude windshield damage.
After returning home for holiday, an unexplained charge of nearly $1000 appeared on my Chase VISA account on April 17. I immediately disputed it since I didn't know what it was. The charge was removed from my Chase VISA credit card upon my request to Chase VISA. I thought I was being billed twice at some maximum rate.
I also tried to contact Transhire and National/Citer with emails and a fax to find out what the charges was for. I did not get a response directly from them for months, and then a threatening registered letter delivered to a Texas address.
I did learn through Transhire weeks after my initial inquiry that National/Citer was claiming windshield impact damage. I did not experience this alleged damage while driving. I was not given the chance to check-out or check-in the car with anyone. It was in a dark parking garage at the airport.
A pdf copy of the check-in slip alleging damage was sent to me through Transhire. No one signed it. There’s no date or location filled in on this slip. In their comments section they started writing additional damage, then crossed it out. Didn’t they know what was damaged and what wasn’t?
After I received the threatening letter from Citer, I contacted Chase VISA and they said that Citer had not contacted them nor provided any proof to the claim since the original charge date.
So I have sent my response by DHL to Citer in Roissy explaining the situation. I have sent numerous emails writing that they must contact Chase VISA and prove the claim to them in this dispute.
Story in more detail:
I had been awake over 24 hours. I arrived in Paris from an overnight Gulf Air flight from Bahrain. I got to the National/Citer desk in Roissy at around 8:30AM April 6, 2009. After getting the necessary paperwork finalized, the young (Arab-looking) National/Citer vehicle attendant had me wait 1/2 hour at the airport courtesy desk just give me the keys. No apologies. The car was in a darkened garage at the Roissy Airport. I had to find it myself. An interior retractable sunshade covered the alleged ‘damaged windshield' area in question (it was almost on the roof of the car). In the dark parking garage, there was no one at the car to do a check out. There was no reason why that attendant could not have gone over the car with me. Equally bad, when I returned the car before 8:30 AM on April 13, 2009, no one was there at the parking garage to do any check in. I returned the keys to a girl at National/Citer courtesy desk. She asked if everything was okay, I said yes, no problems, which as far as I knew, as absolutely true. That was all that took place upon the car return.
This case is very similar to a very recent ruling about windshield damage scams in The State of Arizona vs. PCR Venture of Phoenix, LLC dba Payless Car Rental (Case No. 2009-016742), where Payless was fined $100,000 + numerous expenses and reimbursements. I have sent National/Citer this ruling.
The response from National/Citer has been just to demand payment from me, with (so far) no effort to go through VISA which may have insurance for this claim -- if it was legitimate.
I work in Saudi Arabia, but was hired out of Texas, USA.
Should I be concerned?
Texas
I believe the Roissy (Paris, France) airport affiliate of National (National/Citer) car rental, is trying to scam me about 700 Euro ($950USD) for alleged damage and expenses to a rooftop windshield on a French car, the Picasso
C-4. The car rental was prepaid for. I used a third party, "Transhire Worldwide" in the U.K. That company took pains to exclude windshield damage.
After returning home for holiday, an unexplained charge of nearly $1000 appeared on my Chase VISA account on April 17. I immediately disputed it since I didn't know what it was. The charge was removed from my Chase VISA credit card upon my request to Chase VISA. I thought I was being billed twice at some maximum rate.
I also tried to contact Transhire and National/Citer with emails and a fax to find out what the charges was for. I did not get a response directly from them for months, and then a threatening registered letter delivered to a Texas address.
I did learn through Transhire weeks after my initial inquiry that National/Citer was claiming windshield impact damage. I did not experience this alleged damage while driving. I was not given the chance to check-out or check-in the car with anyone. It was in a dark parking garage at the airport.
A pdf copy of the check-in slip alleging damage was sent to me through Transhire. No one signed it. There’s no date or location filled in on this slip. In their comments section they started writing additional damage, then crossed it out. Didn’t they know what was damaged and what wasn’t?
After I received the threatening letter from Citer, I contacted Chase VISA and they said that Citer had not contacted them nor provided any proof to the claim since the original charge date.
So I have sent my response by DHL to Citer in Roissy explaining the situation. I have sent numerous emails writing that they must contact Chase VISA and prove the claim to them in this dispute.
Story in more detail:
I had been awake over 24 hours. I arrived in Paris from an overnight Gulf Air flight from Bahrain. I got to the National/Citer desk in Roissy at around 8:30AM April 6, 2009. After getting the necessary paperwork finalized, the young (Arab-looking) National/Citer vehicle attendant had me wait 1/2 hour at the airport courtesy desk just give me the keys. No apologies. The car was in a darkened garage at the Roissy Airport. I had to find it myself. An interior retractable sunshade covered the alleged ‘damaged windshield' area in question (it was almost on the roof of the car). In the dark parking garage, there was no one at the car to do a check out. There was no reason why that attendant could not have gone over the car with me. Equally bad, when I returned the car before 8:30 AM on April 13, 2009, no one was there at the parking garage to do any check in. I returned the keys to a girl at National/Citer courtesy desk. She asked if everything was okay, I said yes, no problems, which as far as I knew, as absolutely true. That was all that took place upon the car return.
This case is very similar to a very recent ruling about windshield damage scams in The State of Arizona vs. PCR Venture of Phoenix, LLC dba Payless Car Rental (Case No. 2009-016742), where Payless was fined $100,000 + numerous expenses and reimbursements. I have sent National/Citer this ruling.
The response from National/Citer has been just to demand payment from me, with (so far) no effort to go through VISA which may have insurance for this claim -- if it was legitimate.
I work in Saudi Arabia, but was hired out of Texas, USA.
Should I be concerned?