FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Rental car overheated and they are trying to charge me for it
Old May 15, 2014, 4:47 pm
  #5  
Redwood839
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: SJO - MAN - LAX
Programs: MileagePlus Gold, Avis PP, National EE, Lifemiles Silver, ConnectMiles Gold
Posts: 532
Originally Posted by jfwr9
Thank you Redwood. You have a very beautiful country and I loved my time there.

I agree wholeheartedly with what you said and appreciate your advice.

They have officially now filed an insurance claim with Visa. I am not sure how this affects me, but I did email Visa the pictures of the car showing there is no damage, as well as my account of what happened.

Economy Rent A Car went as far as to add erroneous details to documents I had already signed. They added an "estimate for repairs" for 1,500,000 colones after the fact on the document dated 4/22.

What's worse, is they appear to have forged an imprint of my credit card with the final cost of repairs. This imprint for the actual cost of repairs (1,112,557) is dated 4/22 and supposedly has my signature. The actual invoice from the repair facility is dated 4/28, for 1,112,557 colones.

They towed the car on 4/22 around 11:00pm. It was far too late for anyone to give any estimate, let alone do any repairs. I returned to the United States the very next day. So it is impossible that I could have signed an estimate for repairs, or a credit card imprint for the final amount of repairs on 4/22. The obviously did all this after the fact, fraudulently.

So far my credit card has not been charged for anything except for the initial rental, which I've disputed with Chase due to my poor experience and their lack reparation. This insurance claim appears to be an attempt at a money grab from Visa, but I am not going to let them get away with it.
Wow that's low. 1,500,000 colones is a heck of a big amount for a repair, definitely fishy.

If I were you, I would call them and tell them that you were not there on the 28th and that you can get a record from "Migracion" (Immigration) saying you left the country before that actually happened.

Tell them you will return to country to file a claim with "Ministerio del Consumidor" for their alledged fraud and you will provide all necessary paperwork to fight it. (This usually scares them, Ministerio del Consumidor doesn't take things lightly).

Worse thing is that most repair shops here are easily bribed, so the repair could have been $100, but they can ask the guy to put 1,500,000 on the bill.

Last edited by Redwood839; May 15, 2014 at 4:59 pm
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