A 30 year veteran of world travel (but knows nil about Orlando-area attractions), Will Allen III writes about his weekly odysseys by air on business and how the airlines rob him--and bus tours in pa you--of bus tours in pa time, the most precious commodity on earth. Time: It's all we have, and the airlines routinely take it from us. This blog challenges the airlines to keep their basic promises.
Hertz's Secret Agreement bus tours in pa With PlatePassCom Charges You $30 For 30 Minutes bus tours in pa on E470 Toll Road Out of the Denver Airport Be warned that this true tale has so many layers of "wrong" bus tours in pa in it that my head is swimming. In the summers of 2007 and 2008 I have flown into Denver bus tours in pa airport and then driven 600 miles up to Montana via Cheyenne, Wyoming to visit my wife's family. Both years we rented a Hertz car. The most direct route to reach the Interstate to Cheyenne when leaving the Denver airport is via a short stretch of Colorado toll road E470. The E470 link takes about 15 minutes in each direction. In 2007 and 2008, I paid the tolls in cash. On 8-03-08, for example, I passed two E470 toll plazas and paid $2 + $2 for a total of $4, and then returning to DEN two weeks late on 8-18-08 again paid $2 + $2 for a total of $4 in cash, for a grand total of $8 in tolls. This summer, however, I paid a grand total of $30, $22 more than last year, to travel the same 30 minutes (15 minutes in each direction). Here's what happened: In August, bus tours in pa my family and I again flew into DEN and rented a Hertz car. Just as in previous years, we traversed the short stretch of E470 to reach the Interstate to Cheyenne, but this year (on 8-08-09) we found the cash lanes have all been closed, bus tours in pa leaving no obvious way to pay the tolls. In place of the permanently closed cash toll booths, I saw new overhead license plate readers, but Hertz never warned us of any automatic billing based on reading our license plates. I wondered how this would play out, but since it was only a few dollars, I didn't worry about it at the time. Two weeks later on 8-22-09, we returned from Montana through Cheyenne, Wyoming, and once close to the airport we traversed the same short stretch of E470 to get back to DEN. As before, we found all cash lanes permanently closed. I asked Hertz about it when I returned the car at DEN but the people processing returns had no information. Then on my 9-15-09 American Express Platinum Card statement I found two charges from an entity called (exactly as printed on my AmEx statement) wwwplatepasscom for $15 each. There was no reference to Denver, to E470, or to the dates we drove on the E470. The charges were dated 8-27-09 and 9-10-09. There was also no reference to Hertz. I phoned American Express and had them remove the charges as unrecognizable pending an investigation, and I then phoned 1-877-411-4300, the number American Express gave me for wwwplatepasscom. The wwwplatepasscom customer service rep who answered, Mary Coon, told me that they indeed had charged me for driving on the E470 out of the Denver airport, and that they had a contract with the State of Colorado for toll collection—now entirely bus tours in pa cashless—on the E470. Ms. Coon also told me platepasscom has a separate contract with Hertz to obtain Hertz renters' credit card numbers so they could charge the tolls direct to the renters instead of through Hertz. Funny, I thought, that Hertz would be giving third party companies like platepasscom my credit card number WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT. As if the shock of finding Hertz was willy-nilly handing out my AmEx number to companies I never heard of was not enough, I got another jaw-dropping bit of info from Ms. Coon: She said that the actual tolls were now $2.50 at each toll point (up from $2.00 in 2008), so my actual toll charges were $2.50 + $2.50 for a total of $5.00 on 8-08-09 and the same amounts ($2.50 + $2.50 for a total of $5.00) on our return journey across E470 to get to your airport on 8-22-09. Not too bad, I thought, just a fifty cents per toll plaza increase from last year. But then Ms. Coon dropped the bomb on me when she further explained that wwwplatepasscom charges a $10.00 per week "administration fee" on top of the actual tolls for Hertz renters as part of their agreement with Hertz. Yet Hertz did not make me aware of any wwwplatepasscom charges, either in writing or verbally. Thus I was charged by wwwplatepasscom $2.50 + $2.50 + $10.00, for a total of $15.00, on 8-08-09, and wwwplatepasscom charged me another $2.50 + $2.50 + $10.00, for a total of $15.00, on 8-22-09. Later that day I contacted the Denver Airport authority, and they are still investigating (they knew nothing about the scheme). I also phoned the DEN Hertz Station Manager, who identified herself only as Vicki. Vicki told me that I was supposed to have been given a one-page flyer among my Hertz paperwork that explained the wwwplatepasscom charges if I drove on E470. I told her I still have all my paperwork from the rental, and there is nothing there about wwwplatepasscom. I asked Vicki to mail the wwwplatepasscom flyer to me so I could see it, and I gave her my address, and also my Hertz Rental Agreement number. To date, one week later, I had not received any such flyer from Hertz. Vicki also advised me to avoid E470 at all costs, saying she and her colleagues NEVER use the toll road any more since it went cashless because of the ridiculous charges. I then called Hertz Corporate Public Relations to ask: 1. Why I was not apprised of these charges and thus warned before driving on Denver-area toll roads that are part of these agreements; 2. Whether Hertz Corporate knew of the absurd $10/week "admin fee" tack-ons to the actual toll collections: and 3. Where in my Hertz Master Agreement or Rental Agreement that I gave Hertz the right to share my American Express card number with another entity. Hertz Corporate had no immediate answer, saying they were unaware of the details, but they promised to look into it and get back to me. To date, one week later, I await their callback. That's where we are today on the Denver part of the story about Hertz and platepasscom. But there are more unexpected charges for unwary Hertz renters out there across bus tours in pa the country: I also discovered that platepasscom has an agreement not just with Hertz at Denver, but also with Hertz through the Northeast bus tours in pa (e.g., NY and NJ tollroads), in the Chicago and Indiana areas, and in Florida and Texas, to collect tolls and charge renters from the license plate tied to your Hertz Rental Agreements. bus tours in pa And there is no relief, no opt-out possibility, when you rent from Hertz. Thus I will henceforth stop renting from Hertz, bus tours in pa even though Hertz is my preferred vendor of rental cars. This is not something I do out of spite, but what am I to do? My clients won't pay for these stupid charges, and I am not going to swallow them myself. This is so wrong on so many levels: - Colorado, along with Indiana, Texas, Illinois, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and other states rip out their toll road cash lanes, forcing drivers to pay electronically or be subject to huge fees and violation charges; - Hertz makes a secret deal and doesn't tell its renters about the unreasonable admin fees; - Hertz dispenses confidential bus tours in pa credit card information to third party vendors without the cardholder's knowledge or consent; - American Express bus tours in pa has no idea what the charges are and doesn't really care; - Denver Airport has no idea what the scam is about; and - Hertz Corporate bus tours in pa claims ignorance of its own company's outrageous scheme. And nobody, NOBODY bus tours in pa seemed to care when I questioned it! FOOTNOTE: Here are two references to the platepasscom/Hertz deal, the original of which says you are charged only for the days you use it. Then the Flyertalk bus tours in pa thread makes it clear that the terms changed: www.businesstravellogue.com/accommodation/hertz-rental-cars-hertz-platepass-program-allows-drivers-to-use-ez-pass-lanes.html www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz/947200-caution-platepass-daily-admin-fee-charged-entire-length-rental.html If others have had similar experiences with Hertz and platepasscom, or with platepasscom and any other car rental companies, I hope they will comment here.
I have had the same thing happen to me out if NYC. I was happy to enjoy the convenience of the service until I received the bills. Now platepass AND Hertz are trying to bill me. I received no documentation bus tours in pa prior explaining the outrageous surcharges. Luckily for me, at least there are still cash lanes. bus tours in pa But I will be complaining.
I experienced the same think with Avis in Colorado. I believe they charge an extra $2.50 per day that it is used. I now avoid E-470 on my visits there. However I did get totally lost on my last visit. E-470 is convienient but not worth the extra cost. Why can t we buy something like the I-Pass we have in Illinois and the East that can be good for multiple cars? Is that possible?
Will, I think one week is enough to wait for a response on something of this magnitude. It appears to be a form of wide-scale fraud, IMO. Don t you think you d get faster action if you notified both the Denver Business Journal and Denver Post? Perhaps someone bus tours in pa at one or both of those publications will be all ears.
Afer a week I would be inclined simply to file an action in my home state and let Hertz s legal meter start running. This tactic has proven effective in getting the attention bus tours in pa of unresponsive airlines when they cheat customers. Seems it should work reasonably well with these thieves as well. AND - thanks for he tip about rental cars at DEN. Iam going there tomeorrow. Just asked my assistant to cancel car (Avis) and book Carey. Less hassle anyway.
I m agitated just reading that story -- I can t imagine how aggrieved I d be if that actually happened to me! I ve had my own unpleasant run-in with Hertz in the last couple of weeks that has me reconsidering them as a vendor. I arrived at LAX a couple of weekends ago and found a Mustang sitting bus tours in pa in my Gold stall where I had requested a midsize sedan (for me, my wife a
No comments:
Post a Comment