Ducati Sporting Club UK - Yesterday's drama's cont ....

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Yesterday\'s drama\'s cont ....

Update time, for continuity I'll cover what I put up in the Factory Trip Oh No! thread here as well ...

Quote:

Well ... where do I start ..

Our flight was at 11:30 in the morning, hotel reception reckons a max of 1hr to get there and I know the way already so no problems there .. we figure we leave at 9am we're there by 10 at the latest with 50 minutes of check-in time remaining - no problems. Get out into the rental car and it won't start. battery is fine, alarm works etc etc. And then started hearing a clicking sound when the ignition was turned on, no good.

We go into the hotel reception and talk to the gent there, he rings hertz for us and they drag it on for 10 minutes before telling us that there's nothing they can do, we need to ring Hertz assistance. We do that, they want to send out a truck to pick up the car, have the truck take us to Bologna airport to get another car (we are flying out of Forli airport remember ..) and then drive to Forli. I can see us missing the flight at this point so I tell them that it won't work and we'll miss our flight. They didn't give a flying ****!!!! I'm sorry but thats all we can do. Back and forth to hertz again on the phone and they offer to pay for a taxi to get us to Bologna airport where we pick up the replacement car and drive to Forli. However, by this time there is NO chance of making the flight. I can't believe how flippant they were about it all. When I asked them how they were going to pay to have my flight rescheduled etc she said it wasn't her problem.

I get to Forli airport and go to the Ryanair desk to see what we can do. There's no Ryanair staff around but the information desk can sell us a ticket for the flight in the evening departing at 10:20pm, for 315 euro each! I said no way and got a bunch of numbers for Ryanair but couldn't get through on any of them. So, I can get internet access on my phone so I jump on the easyjet website (they fly out of Bologna airport) and I could get a flight at half the price but I can't book it on the web because I can't enter an underscore on my phone to confirm with my e-mail address! Trawling through their website (the phone is fairly slow browsing) looking for a contact number didn't turn anything up and we were fast running out of time to make that flight, it left at 4:05pm and we were in Forli, not Bologna. So we couldn't make it, despite the fact that we had started driving back to Bologna. So we turned around, paid the 640 euro for our tickets and decided to make something of the rest of the day before our flight.

We drove to Ravenna, only 30 minutes away, and had a good look around and had a nice dinner there. Got back to the car ready to drive back to the airport and found a goddamn parking ticket for 35 euro!! I couldn't believe it. Whatever, ... we drive back, catch the plane, arrive in Stansted thinking we are nearly home and the nightmare will be all over soon. Pick up our bags and ring the APH meet and greet service to deliver our car. It will be up to 20 minutes (they say 10 on the website I think, nevermind) ok, we wait. We go downstairs to wait, standing in the snow (yes, it was snowing at Stansted), and it's becoming very obvious that APH are having problems. There were heaps of people standing around waiting for their cars. In the end I rang them twice after the originial phone call to find out where the car was and we finally got it 55 minutes after ringing them the first time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:o

I'm not a happy camper, as you may well expect, and plan to be making a number of phone calls this morning and writing some follow up letters!

Well Hertz UK are singing a different tune (so far). They have all the details and I have a reference number for the complaint etc. The process from here is that it is assigned to an assesor and they contact the relevant branches in Italy for confirmation of the details and then they will let me know what the decision is. Obviously if they arrive at a different decision to me then it will be appealed etc.

The good news is that it 'appears' to be a relatively straightforward case and that if the decision goes my way the amount will be refunded in full.

We all know of situations like this where the decision doesn't go your way, for whatever reason, so my chickens remain uncounted. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and you won't read about me on the front page of the Times quoting 50 dead in killing spree as Aussie with semi-auto rifle storms Hertz headquarters!

:lol:

Best of luck with it!

go for the throat tony, don't let them think they've got any slack.

I know it wasn't intended to give you a duff car, but they've failed to supply a service and caused you consequential loss, which you're entitled to claim from them.

I'll bet they only offer to refund the car hire fees, but let's hope they do the right thing...

Well done mate.

I suggest emailing a picture of yourself in that "rapist hat" you wear just to make sure they know what they're up against...

:lol:

Quote:

Originally posted by antonye
Well done mate.

I suggest emailing a picture of yourself in that "rapist hat" you wear just to make sure they know what they're up against...

:lol:

You're a d!ck :lol:

In more good news just to hand ...

APH are agreeing to refund some of my parking fee's for making me wait 55 minutes for the car. I should hear back from that once the manager receives my e-mail!

shoot em !!!!!!!!!!!!:lol::lol::lol:;)

Quote:

Originally posted by madmav
shoot em !!!!!!!!!!!!:lol::lol::lol:;)

What I would give for my trusty old L1A1 SLR. 7.62mm @823 metres per second on the way in and 150mm x 150mm on the way out ;)

Even the Austeyr would be fine, capable of auto fire, but only 5.56mm so doesn't have the same 'visual' impact :D

[Edited on 24-1-2005 by tp-996]

I'm no lawyer but I would've thought that Hertz have a contract with you, and their part of the contract is to provide a car that works. If they don't fulfil their side of the bargain I wouldn't think they have a leg to stand on.

I had a similar episode when I hired a transit van and the fuel pump went AWOL and left me stranded on some blind bends. I was just returning the van for 9am when the hire period was up, but I sat there for two and a half hours waiting for their recovery people and ended up not getting home until mid afternoon. I got the full hire fee refunded as a good will gesture for all of my time they'd wasted

You want a No1 bore punt gun you do mate-now THAT makes a really tasty hole-about 3ft in diameter........:lol:
Mind you with your shoulder you'd never manage to fire it...............

John

What's all this puusy talk with guns? Just go to their head office and slap them about the head with a wet fish :D

Well, I'm happy to announce that Hertz are refunding the cost of the flights in full (and also a cheeky little 10 euro admin fee they tried to sneak in) and that APH are refunding the full amount of my parking.

It took some chasing up from me but I have to say the customer service departments at both Hertz and APH were very good, if a little incommunicative.

:D

Drinks are on me, whatcha having?

I'll have a water ... gym later ...

Good. Well done Hertz

Got the barstewards well done.

Nice one mate - just a shame that it's your money that you paid out in the first place!!

Well Done Tony,

Glad you got a positive response.

I still can't utter the word H*rtz after hiring a car in France when my 748Bip expired 50 kms south of Calais. Was told by the French garage who collected my bike and then hired me the car that I could return it to the Calais Eurotunnel depot. At the end of the 7 day jaunt following my mates on their bikes, I returned the car to the Eurotunnel depot to find no hire car return centres there. Hertz's offices in Calais were not answering, the phone despite it being office hours. My train was due. After much deliberation and yelling at answering machines, I had to board the train and bring my french plated Renault Twingo back with me (I had nowhere to leave the car or the keys).

12 days later and after even more deliberation with Hertz, I arranged to take the car back to Leeds Bradford airport. Cost me £750 on top of my hire.

Hertz wouldn't take responsibility.

Still won't use them now.........

Quote:

Originally posted by Guido
Well Done Tony,

Glad you got a positive response.

I still can't utter the word H*rtz after hiring a car in France when my 748Bip expired 50 kms south of Calais. Was told by the French garage who collected my bike and then hired me the car that I could return it to the Calais Eurotunnel depot. At the end of the 7 day jaunt following my mates on their bikes, I returned the car to the Eurotunnel depot to find no hire car return centres there. Hertz's offices in Calais were not answering, the phone despite it being office hours. My train was due. After much deliberation and yelling at answering machines, I had to board the train and bring my french plated Renault Twingo back with me (I had nowhere to leave the car or the keys).

12 days later and after even more deliberation with Hertz, I arranged to take the car back to Leeds Bradford airport. Cost me £750 on top of my hire.

Hertz wouldn't take responsibility.

Still won't use them now.........

Holy Hertz batman!

Thats rough!