Originally Posted by
The_Bouncer
This was definitely an automated ticket. I was not stopped by a police officer.
I called Hertz in South Africa, and a representative was able to tell me that it was a fine of 600ZAR for doing 83km/h in a 60km/h zone. She also gave me the ticket number in a slightly different format, but I am still unable to find it on any of the websites.
The ticket was issued back in December, and I have not received anything in the post from the South African authorities.
Not Hertz, but Avis. Found an unidentified charge on our AMEX card 2 months after we returned home on a Sept 2016 trip.
Avis claimed it was admin fee for a speed ticket taken by radar near Cape Town. Did find the picture of the radar on a website (forgot the name though) - BUT, the car in the picture, while having the same license plate (in white), is in a dark blue color while our rental car is in white color.
There is no way the while license plate shown as white in the picture, while the white car shown as Dark Blue in the picture! Avis claimed it was unclear due to the car was in motion. Well, the license plate also was in motion, as it was mounted on the car...
On top of that, the owner of the car according to the website, is an Individual versus Avis!
Avis NEVER return my email questioning the registered ownership why was not Avis but an individual.
We NEVER receive any paper work from either Avis or the Cape Town authority.
Amex simply credited back the Avis charge when we disputed it online.
Similar thing happened in 2015, also from Avis. 2 identical "admin fee" of consecutive dates. The only thing we could think of, might be we parked at an area on Beach Road very near V&A. We checked all the sign posting as well as possible ticket machines in the area after we parked - nothing mentioned about pay parking and there was no machine. Many cars parked along the road, none displayed any permit.
On our 2016 return trip we stayed at the same Radisson Blu Waterfront again. We made a point to check the previous parking area again. Nope, there is no sign on pay parking just like in 2015.
AMEX credited back the Avis 2 charges the next day after filing dispute, and was permanent credits, did not bother to investigate.
Same NO paperwork ever received from either Avis or authority in Cape Town.
We rented with Avis again in 2016, no issue. Then we got that "speedy ticket" taken by radar with very questionable picture mentioned above.
Unless you are actually stopped by police officer and issued a ticket, I honestly think a lot of the rental cars subsequent charges are scams. While the South Africa mail system is very very slow (we received our physical Wild Card 3 months after it was registered and issued!), we should still have received the tickets from the authorities as that is what the rental car company charges for - to provide the renter's information to the authorities so they can mail you the tickets. We never receive anything in both 2015 and 2016. We rented alright in 2016 after never pay any fine in 2015 that Avis claimed we were responsible.