Italian Scams

There is much talk in recent times about conspiracy theories, mostly political, but usually lots of idle chatter for idle minds.  However, I’m here to let you know that there is a real conspiracy going on and it is happening in Italy.

The Italians, ever resourceful and seldom burdened by moral considerations, have come up with an ingenious way to once again separate the tourist from his Euros.  The government, working in cooperation with rental car agencies throughout Italy, have found ways to extract fees, fines and taxes from those of us silly enough to rent cars in Italy, months after the car has been safely returned to the vendor.  I shall illustrate with a specific example, ME!

Loyal readers will remember that last October, after a lovely cruise with dear friends, we decided to rent a car from Hertz in Venice and spend a week anchored in Bassano Del Grappa.  (yes, that Grappa).  We picked up the car and headed to Bassano, a beautiful little town high in the Alpine hills north of Vicenza.  There is a famous bridge over the Brenta River where the brave Italian Alpini Troops tried to stop the Germans in two different wars, both times failing and suffering the consequences. We know this area well and wanted to share this beautiful town with our friends so they could see a little bit of the real Italy.

We drove there with no difficulty but were startled to discover that we were arriving on the final day of the big Chestnut Festival and the town was bursting with activity and thousands of people.  Some roads were closed, others open only to local traffic and those with stickers, and still others blocked by illegally parked cars or parades of people.  After several revolutions around and through the town, we finally found our hotel and its private parking and were much relieved to dump the car in favor of walking all around the festive town.

The car stayed in place for several days until we wanted to take a nice ride to Vicenza and show our friends where we used to live.  It was a lovely day filled with grand past memories and new ones in the making.  We returned without incident and once again parked for a few more days until it was time to head back to Venice, turn in the car and fly home.  The trip to Venice was beautiful since we took only secondary roads and the traffic was light.  The car was returned, inspected and signed off on by the agents at Hertz. All was right with the world, until December.

During a weekly check of my credit card charges, I was surprised to find a charge of 45 Euros from Hertz.  I challenged the charge and got a temporary credit until Hertz could be more specific about what the nature of the charge was.  Several weeks later I received a letter from Hertz that contained a detailed description of the charge for speeding on the road, specifically going 56 kilometers per hour in a 50 KpH zone on a portion of the highway leading to Venice.  The date matched our trip and the location was certainly one we had passed and I actually remember the area since we commented on how the speed when from 90 to 50 with no advanced warning, a typical speed trap.

Now, I don’t speed, in fact Cindy has had many unflattering things to say about how I never go fast enough, but I have also never had a speeding ticket in my more than fifty-five years of driving.  Therefore this was a shocker, especially since it was only six kilometers above the limit.  And that, dear readers, is what this is all about.  It is the game of Gottcha, played out in the beautiful countryside of the Veneto.  Did I have options, yes of course, I could contest it in person, or hire a local lawyer to contest it for me. Well of course no one is going to do that for 45 Euros so I paid and vowed never to rent a car in Italy again.

Skip ahead six months and what should appear on my credit card but another charge for 42.70 Euros.  Assuming it must be the same charge I already paid, I contested it and AMEX said they would investigate. Today, I received another letter from Hertz in Italy informing me that at some point while driving around Bassano during the festival, I violated a NO TRANSIT AREA RISERVATA at 11:51 on 18 October 2015.  Here we go again. If I had not lived in Italy, driven in Italy and didn’t understand traffic signs in Italy, I would have let this slide, but I am a very careful driver and can’t imagine I violated any restricted area. But then I remembered that the locals can make any area reserved for any reason without posting a single sign.  The locals, I’m sure, knew that during the festival you couldn’t do this or that, but not so the happy tourists.

But here is where it all gets very interesting.  Most tourists, when receiving this notice from their rental car company, assume that the company paid the fine and this is what it cost.  NO WAY LUIGI.  These two charges were only for the administrative fee and tax on the fee, not for the fine. In other words, Hertz charged me for simply providing my name and address to the relevant authorities, who now have up to a year from the date of the offense to send me a bill for the actual fine associated with these ‘infractions’.  So Hertz made 70 Euros for simply sending my details, despite the fact that for decades they have also sold my details to other. The state charged 22% tax on the 70 Euros and now I wait for the other shoe to fall!

Now do you get the conspiracy theory?  My final word: Trains are efficient, fast and inexpensive; take them!

wm