- Report: #1267157
Complaint Review: Philip Schack -
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Philip Schack
USA
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https://www.sixt.com/
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Philip Schack Charlotte Mia Ejlertsen Scaming unsuspecting tourists who have no way to contest ridiculous parking violations Copenhagen denmark
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I received a parking violation in Copenhagen in a space that was poorly marked by extremely faded painted lines on a sidewalk. The severely faded lines were hardly visible in broad daylight, and certainly invisible at night. There is no way a tourist could have known this was a no parking space.
When I received the ticket, I immediately took pictures of the poorly marked spot and severely faded lines and e-mailed these to SIXT Car Rentals in Copenhagen. I informed them that this was poorly marked and that I had every intention of contesting this ticket while I was in Copenhagen.
I received a response from Customer Service with a case #, informing me that they would be in contact with me, presumably to advise me how to contest this violation. I never heard back from them. More than a month later, I received an additional charge to my credit card. When I inquired about this charge I did not recognize, they informed me it was for the parking violation,plus a substancial "processing fee" charged by SIXT Car Rental on top of the parking violation.
SIXT did apologize for breaking its promise by not contacting me, but after countless e-mails back and forth, they told me there was nothing they could do. They told me to contest the ticket with the City of Copenhagen. They sent me a link that was entirely in Danish, and I asked him how could I possibly contest a ticket 5000 miles away, two months after the fact, and from 5000 miles away.
This appears to be a common occurence when renting cars in Europe. This happened to my son, my wife, and some friends from work. Months after you come back from holiday, your credit card is charged with additional fees. Upon inquiry, you are told these were for ridiculous violations such as entering a "restricted zone" in a city,or some ridiculous or mystery parking violation.
This is just another hidden tax, an additional way of extorting money from tourists who have no reasonable means to read signs, or be aware of these driving "restrictions". The cities know full well these are rental cars, and move in quickly to snare the tourists by ticketing them. Often, the unsuspecting tourist is unaware he is being targeted until many months later, when it is impossible to contest. SIXT Car Rental will claim "this is the Law" and to "contest" the charge even though they know you have zero chance of ever contesting the violation.
This is extortion, pure and simple. Do not ever rent a car from SIXT in Copenhagen, Denmark
