leiserom

I probably rented the car six or seven years ago. I didn't like the fact they didn't give me a receipt at the time.

And actually the same thing can be true in US. I have dropped cars off in early AM before they open in Des Moines. I guess I would be responsible if something happened between say 4:30 AM and when they open at 7.

BSpeaker

And make it obvious you are taking photos with your phone during the inspection. This might make them think twice about trying anything in the future,

breakthrough37

I rented a car at the Munich Airport from Alamo ;two years ago. I asked the agent about the liability coverage he didn't know. I called the United States Reservation Center and no one there new the answer. It was late at night I drove the car to the hotel. The next morning I called the Executive Office for Alamo in Germany. The Officer told me the Liability Insurance of 20 Million Euros is included in the price of the rental. Comprehensive and Collision is not included in the price of the re ntal. I reserved the card through Costco Rental and charged the rental to my American Express Card that covers Comprehensive and Collision up to $75,000 USD up to forty days of rental. American Express charges about $20.00 per rental this agreement must be active on the card.

I returned the vehicle to the Munich Airport there were all kind of addition charges for visiting other countries and other charges not listed on the Costco Contract. We never left Germany in the rental. I contacted American Express and all the extra charges were remove.

I have rented from Avis and Alamo at different times at the Munich Airport the staff at both company were very good to work. Avis charged for an extra hour. I had a question about the comprehensive and collision insurance the first time before I accept the vehicle. The contract showed delivery of the vehicle before I resolve the issue of the insurance with Avis and a telephone call to American Express which took about forty-five minutes. Avis did reverse the additional late charges.

kileysmom

Hi, first, if there are any charges on your credit card, dispute them immediately. I rarely use any card but AmEx because they are super on disputes. VISA is great on isurance but I've never used them for a dispute with a rental car. Contact this law firm in writing by registered mail and ask for whatever proof they have that it was you during your rental who did the damage. Also, as above, be sure to ask for a police report stating that you have heard nothing from any authorities that you were suspected of committing this serious offense.

Get on Trip Advisor Germany and ask if someone there can confirm this law firm exists. There are a couple of German lawyers on there who may well know or someone might look them up for you if you haven't found them with a Google search.

This certainly looks and smells like a scam (one area of law in which I have some experience). Any employee at Sixt could be taking information and using it like this. Alaska certainly would seem as if it is a place from which it would be more difficult to 'fight' and many folks who don't live here have the very mistaken impression that Alaskans are all wealthy with oil money.

If you want to PM me, I'll give you contact information. Good luck with this and while I wouldn't be overly concerned about future consequences, I wouldn't ignore it either.

breakthrough37

You might take a look in the Germany Forum in TripAdvisor you can search Sixt Car Rental by city. I found disputes about car rentals in the Forums.

h15t0r1an

No video? sounds like another scam.
Returning a car at any time when the office is not open, exposes you to this fraud. I know sometimes you have to do it, but returning out of hours should be avoided if at all possible. 3/4 it's a fraud by the rental agency. Remember not all offices of a particular rental car company are owned by the car rental company. Many are franchises or associates. So you're not always dealing with the big corporate you think you are and standards can vary both positively and negatively.

lebelgo

Well, unless the OP was actually involved in a hit-and-run accident, one can say with 100% certainty that there's fraud somewhere (whether it's Sixt itself perpetrating the fraud is another matter). I don't know about German courts, but in US courts, where fraud is involved, the victim of the fraud is generally entitled to punitive damages. So if it gets down to contacting a German lawyer, you might want to ask if you're entitled to counter-sue for punitive damages due to fraud.

weero

Where?

Sixt Norway had not a single person to accept the car last tine and I had to drop the keys. But I never had a problem with them.

weero

Is this world wide MO for Hertz?

I was charged (on unlimited kilometer rentals) once for excessive tyre use and once for overuse of the shocks.

I won't touch Hertz again.

richardsut

There are two scenarios where I can imagine an impostor obtaining the information to contact someone with some 'facts':

1. If Sixt was hacked and some information was obtained by fraudsters
2. redundant receipt or invoice copies were not disposed of properly and found

If this happened to me I would also first contact SIXT for details and go from there. So much that can be clarified by email or a call to their toll free number over in the US.

weero

The kind of folks who work for Sixt at the airport stations. The location could be no coincidence ....

picturegal

I returned a rental car to Enterprise in Edinburgh this past summer before they were open and dropped the keys in the slot. I took photos of the car all around it to show it was in good condition. The next day in the US I got a call from Enterprise asking when I was going to return the car. I told them I had returned it at 5:30 am the previous day. They couldn't find it. I called the next day and they still had not found it, so I emailed them a time and date stamped photo of the car, showing the license plate and the Enterprise parking lot with signage. The next day I got a closed out receipt. I have no idea if they ever found the car.

BTW, Costco is super to rent from. They stand behind you. Another time Avis did not have any cars although I had one reserved (they turned away 12 people with reservations!) I went over to Enterprise and rented from them; Costco made Avis pay the difference in rental cost and sent me a $25 gift card for my trouble.

Another time I returned a rental car in London on the weekend to a parking lot that the rental agency had told me in an email to use for a weekend return. When I got home they wanted to charge me $60 parking fees! I disputed the charge and sent them a copy of their email telling me where to park. They refunded the charge. Document, document, document.

Vinotraveller

I think the moral of this story is always to take photos of the car on collection and then on return too. I used to just take photos of specific damage but now I take a picture of each un damaged panel too. And also to make sure any unrecorded damage noted at pick-up is added to the car damage sheet.

Often1

This is critical for any car rental anywhere. Make certain that you use the time & date stamp feature on your camera. Just download the photos and stick them on a file somewhere. They will be there if you need them.

lebelgo

I'm curious to hear back from the original poster. Has he contacted Sixt as advised, and if so what was the response?