Notice of 'traffic violation' months later from hertz and the Torino police

Hertz just sent me notice of a traffic violation in torino last September. I was indeed in Torino then, but my only use of the car was to drive to our hotel, and then to pass the car off to the hotel to be parked. Possibly a hotel employee used the car without permission, but I would have no way to know if they did. In any case, hertz is now charging me 43 euros for their ‘administrative expenses’ in sending the torino police our contact info, and I am now supposed to wait to hear directly from the police.

Has anything like this ever happened to anyone else? I feel pretty pissed off, but don’t know how to proceed.

Thanks.

Bill

I had a parking ticket from an Italy trip charged to my credit card. I disputed it with my provider and I never heard about it again. I have been in and out of Italy several times since then and they haven’t arrested me…yet.

43 Euro for that sounds ridiculous to me. Have you paid Hertz? If not, I’d dispute the charge with them, if you have, with your credit card. Even if the Italian police do send you a ticket, if you just ignore it, the odds on them ever catching up with you are just about zero.

We got a parking ticket in Greece on a rental car some years ago. We did nothing, and nothing happened, neither from the rental agency or the police. Of course that was a different country, but still.

Yes, has happened to me - the surcharge for driving in London, which had just been started when this happened some years ago. I tried to fight it, I think I got Hertz to drop their admin fee a bit, but essentially you’re screwed. Really, it’s 43 Euros, be thankful it wasn’t 400.

There’s all kinds of crazy stories in one of the other threads. Italy is the worst.

I’ve got a collection company calling me from the US who bought the moving violation debt from Parma Italy 3 years ago. They want $458. It’s like a game now. I’ve told them them I’m not paying but they like to check in every month. LOL.

BTW I have No idea what I did wrong in Parma.

I had the same thing, a crazy administrative fee (on top of the fee to London) for the CBD driving. it was super annoying because I was in and out of the CBD in one block (damn one way streets…) and I had stupidly assumed that it would just get billed to my CC if I hit it (like ezpass in the us)

Bill
In general this is the typical way that fines come through, and 99% of the time they are because the visitor wasn’t aware if the ZTL restricted zones (generally but not exclusively around the historic centres). I believer they have cameras up on the entrance to the ZTLs.

If I’ve worked this map out correctly, the yellow and pink zones are ZTL restricted zones that you can’t enter without special permission
http://www.comune.torino.it/trasporti/bm~doc/ztl_agg-2013.pdf

regards
Ian

Wait until you get the ticket from Torino. If you think $43 Euro is high… Then you can really complain. [snort.gif]

George

Actually looking at the camera positioning, I think I read it wrong. It think the ZTL is the whole of the central area encircled in green, and where most of the hotels are based.

Plenty of coverage of these fines on Slowtrav travel forum over the years.

See if you can get the camera picture. If it’s you in the photo, it’s pretty hard to argue otherwise.

That map is reason enough to just walk or take a cab. Makes my head spin. [wow.gif]

I’ve gotten them before in Italy from Hertz. Luckily it was on business travel so I was able to pass them on to my employer. I’m honestly not sure even what the offence was, but for the amount it wasn’t worth fighting. Given the myriad of cameras in play in both cities and highways, who knows what I tripped

Granted, it was many years ago, mid 90’s. I was in Italy on Business. Had a driver pick me up in Rome, and he drove me to Naples (ugh, I know). Three lanes for two directions, with the middle lane for “passing”…everyone doing about 90MPH and honking. But the best of this story, was the driver taking me somewhere, I have no idea where it was now, and in the middle of nowhere, there is a “road block” up ahead. We get to them, and there is about 6 men in uniforms carrying Uzis. My driver gets out and they begin arguing, in Italian, so lots of waving of arms and loud voices. I am sitting there wondering when we all get shot. Driver gets back in, as if “no problem”. We drive through and continue. I ask him what that was all about. He says “Everyone in Italy thinks they can shake you down”. [wow.gif]

I joined the National Motorists Association to support the lobby that keeps this scam from coming to the US. They were instrumental in repealing the 55mph speed limit. :slight_smile:

I received two tickets while on Belgium on a biking trip a few years ago. One was forwarded from EuropCar and they said if I did not pay it then they would charge me a ~$50 admin fee plus the ticket price. It was a 10 euro parking ticket so I paid it.

The second ticket was a camera speeding ticket that came directly from the Policia. They had obviously obtained my address from EuropCar. It was written in Flemish so I ignored it. That was about four years ago and haven’t received another notice. I don’t plan to return to Belgium so crew them.

In 2012, Hertz charged us a total of more than $800 for various “traffic violations” in Florence. We were in Florence for 3 days. The only driving we did was to drop our bags off at the hotel (and then park in the garage recommended by our hotel), and then to go back to pick up our bags and leave Florence a few days later. According to Hertz, each time we drive down a “restricted” street, we were separately fined. Our hotel was in the restricted area; the hotel is supposed to notify the police that we are driving to and from the Hotel and not to cite us. This apparently did not happen or was ignored. Also according to Hertz, they are charged by the Italian government and there is little they can do, so they just pass it along to the renter.

So did you forward the bill to the hotel? That’s what I would do.

Has happened to me. Just pay the fine, unless you never plan on returning. Because if you do and get stopped, you could be hauled in… and pay serious fines.

This is the price of visiting on of the most corrupt countries in the EU. And also a reason I seek out Corporate Brand hotels in Itlay, as most are NOT in these types of zones. The police are a joke there… once got shook down in Naples. The cops uniform looked 10 years old and had not been washed. He went on in Italian and had no radio… yet it looked like he had a gun older than he… In the end I told him to f*ck off and that if he went for that pistol I would beat him with it. And walked off talking shit. I told my story to others and apparently it is quite common for the retired cops to still wear old shit and shake people down for money. No radio and no partner and you know it was BS right away.

On my last. 2 trips, I have just hired drivers. I would rather pay them and be immune from this kind of bullshit.

FWIW I’ve been to Italy many times, and have never encountered anything like this. Naples does have a reputation for lawlessness that I’ve no doubt has strong justification, ditto Palermo & Catania.

For most high profile tourist destinations the most common issue is pickpockets, and it’s one to remain wary of in the most famous tourist locations.

Outside of the above, the closest I’ve seen in ~ 40 weeks / 20 visits is a guy being chased on foot by the police (I saw him too late to swing a shopping bag at him), and an amazing scene (also in Torino c. 1995) where two police cars came into view. As it neared I saw two feet emerge from the rear window, shortly followed by two hands and a head. By the time the rest of crim emerged, the cars had slowed down, to the point that when he escaped onto the pavement, one of the police from the 1st car held his gun to the guys head. Within a couple of minutes there were 12 police cars there and a couple of Torino police (in their somewhat ostentatious uniforms) were looking on and having a laugh.

Wonderful entertainment as we sat in Piazza Castello drinking a beer.

regards
Ian