Here’s a problem travelers are running into more frequently: Months after a trip, they get a bill from their rental company charging them for an unknown traffic violation, plus a handling fee. Often, there’s little recourse.
Or, in Alex Backer’s case, none.
He just received a ticket from Dollar for a violation that supposedly took place back in May, and was told he had no choice but to pay.
I received a letter from Dollar on Nov. 22 saying I had been charged $100 plus a fee for a red light violation they say happened on 5/17.
I have never run a red light in my 19 years driving, so I believe it must be a mistake.
The date to contest the citation is long past, though. Dollar gave no explanation of how they delayed months in notifying me and failed to notify me promptly about a citation they claim was for me. I requested a refund on this account, and they denied it.
That’s the tricky part about these traffic camera. The municipality sends the fine to the driver to whom the vehicle is registered. But if it belongs to a car rental company, then the car has to be matched to the driver on that day — which could take some time.
I asked Dollar about Backer’s rental.
Mr. Backer had a violation during his rental (ran a red light) and we did not receive the actual violation for a few months.
This can happen with larger cities, when we are sent huge “batch” rounds of parking and/or traffic violations. We set about linking the violation to the correct rental contract and customer to be able to assess the ticket to the appropriate party.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience for this customer. In gesture of customer service, I am crediting the administrative fee assessed for our processing of the ticket, but the actual violation charge must stand.
In case you’re thinking that administrative fees don’t amount to much, check out this recent note from reader Frank Punal, who rented a car from Dollar in Dallas.
We inadvertantly used a toll road while in Dallas and incurred $12.44 in tolls that were charged to Dollar.
Dollar charged us for the tolls and $475 in processing fees. We called the number provided (866 255 0794) and gave up after waiting on hold for an hour. We sent an email (vehicle.violation@dtag.com) but have not heard back. They have already charged our credit card. Is there another way to appeal the processing fees?
Dollar eventually responded to their written appeal, refunding $400 of the $475 in fees before I had to get involved.
So what’s the lesson here? That car rental companies are charging excessive fees for traffic violations? (You didn’t need me to tell you that.) That traffic cameras are less than reliable, generating false positives for law-abiding motorists? No, you probably knew that, too.
Perhaps it’s only that combining the high fees charged by car rental companies with the unreliable traffic cameras is an accident waiting to happen.
Next time you rent a car, better drive like a Boy Scout.
(Photo: lorentey/Flickr Creative Commons)
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{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Ya know… there’s usually a picture of the infraction (blowing a red light) attached to the ticket as proof that it was your car. They’ve got pretty good resolution. Why wont the companies copy the picture and send that along with the ticket? Might go far with regards to people saying it wasn’t them.
More and more cities across the US are rolling out red light cameras as a great way of raising much needed cash from the law-abiding civil population. Most people think, well, if you blow a red light, that’s very dangerous, and you deserve a ticket, and I agree with them.
However, most automated red light tickets are NOT, in fact, issued to people who happily ignore red lights. Instead they go to people who fail to make a full stop for at least 3 seconds when doing a right turn on red.
That’s the secret behind the vast amount of revenue these devices raise to prop up city governments.
So take care next time you see a photo enforced intersection, especially if you’re in a rental car.
They’ll charge you $100 for that “Convenience”.
I agree with Passing Through. The cities send a photo along with the ticket to show that you are indeed the car making the violation. I would have asked for proof and made the company give you the requested proof. Depending on how far away this was located, I may have also written a letter or some other petition to the courts in that juristiction claiming that your rights were violated by not being alerted in a timely manner as to a violation and expiration of your right to challenge the ticket.
Also be sure to check the contract as well as local ordinances. Here in Cleveland, the law was written to say that the owner of the car had to pay for any tickets. A witty attorney who had driven a leased car pled not guilty but was still found guilty by a magistrate. On appeal, his case was thrown out becuase he ws not the owner of the vehicle. Guess what I am saying is to make sure you can actually be charged for this ticket by law.
I have on my workstation wall an Illinois Tollway Violation for running toll booths in Chicagoland. Problem was I rented a toll tag from National so this should have been covered.
Missed tolls = $4.00, fines and fees bring the total to $104.40
National at least admitted their mistake and is willing to pay since I was able to find my email receipt that showed I payed it.
It’s commonly known that a speed camera on a major road near my house will get a picture of your car if you’re going between 80 and 130… and a picture of the guy behind you if you’re going over 130 (km, not miles). It doesn’t do the OP any good, but that’s one possible explanation.
I find it hard to believe that the OP has NEVER run a red light in his 19 years of driving. Red light violations can be imposed when you vehicle is in the intersection when the light turns red.
Part of me wonders if rental car companies are intentionally dragging their feet so that customers are notified of the violation after the period to contest the fee is over have no choice but to pay.
Is this illegal? Dunno. I’m not a lawyer, but I’m going to guess that there is a law on the books somewhere that says something to the effect that depriving an individual of their rights under law is in turn a violation of the law. Sadly, I suspect it’s going to take a rental car company getting sued for this practice to put an end to it.
Since when are there “processing fees” for tolls? We rented a car in Dubai last year and it had a toll transponder installed. A few months after returning home I got an email saying we incurred something like $8 in tolls and they charged only that amount to the credit card. Just as expected.
Here in Dallas, administrative fees on toll tag violations are well-known for being expensive. There’s a $25 charge for every single violation. Here’s a news article about it:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/traffic/transit/Toll-Road-Fees-Under-Fire-78572652.html
Oh. My. God. And here we have yet ANOTHER way that car rental companies are stickin’ it to their customers, charging them after-the-fact for something that they have no option to contest. The excuses these companies are using for slamming unapproved, undisclosed charges onto their customer’s credit cards long after the car has been returned is growing longer and longer. Unfilled gas tanks (even though the customer filled the tank right before drop-off); scratches/dings supposedly caused by the customer (but not mentioned at drop-off), and now unproven traffic tickets? Unbelievable.
The problem seems to be that once you give them your credit card, they have carte blanche to just keep taking money from you, for any manufactured reason, forever. I’m starting to think that the best way to protect yourself against this ongoing crime is to immediately cancel the credit card you used to rent the car, as soon as you get home.
Remember the old adage, “possession is 9/10 of the law”? Well that seems to be what’s in play here. They take your money without notifying you…and then it’s up to YOU to fight to get it back. If you can stop them from taking it to begin with, then they’d have to actually put in some effort to get more money out of you…and they’d have to have a pretty rock-solid case. Trust me that the number of times they would even attempt it would drop dramatically, compared to what they do now.
I do not feel it should even be LEGAL to just throw a charge on some former customer’s credit card, without authorization of the cardholder. Why is that even allowed?
@Douglas I’m not an attorney either, but I would think that Dollar might have some civil responsibility here, due to the concept of “mitigation of damages”.
In the agreement between Dollar and the renter, the renter agrees to pay for any violations (parking, red-light, etc.) assessed while the car was in his possession. This makes sense, as why should Dollar have to pay the renter’s tickets?
The problem here, however, is that Dollar knows it’s being covered, so it has no incentive to deliver the violation notice to the renter while there’s still time for the renter to contest. Dollar is covered, regardless.
However, I would argue that Dollar had the responsibility to mitigate the renter’s damages, and present the violation notice to the renter while there was still time to contest it. If the renter brought Dollar to small claims court, he could make this argument.
Realistically, this will probably never happen, as the renter would likely have to travel back to where he rented the car from to file suit, but that’s the type of case he’d probably bring.
I think that for issuing tickets by the cameras mounted on stop light poles should include a picture for proof. Because those cameras arent 100% accurate, and most drivers dont even notice they’re they’re.
Another reason that the pictures should be issued with the ticket, is because it would help prevent mistaken identity issues. When a police pulls you over, on the ticket, they have your description (well the basics anyways), they have your ID and your insurance number, so they pretty much know who you are, but the camera’s dont have this, so making sure pictures being printed with the tickets, would help alot.
On a seperate note. Canada has a different system for the traffic camera’s. I dont know exactly how the system works, but my unkle who’s a police officer said that the newer camera’s send a signal to the nearest police officer if theres a traffic violation. If the officer thinks its a big enouph issue to pull them over, then they do.
@Neccoz — that’s not true. A red light violation has a very specific legal and technical definition — you must *enter* the intersection while the light is red to violate it (meaning there should be video or multiple pictures showing your car behind the line and then in front of it, both with the light red). Being in the intersection is not necessarily illegal (if you’re exiting it), though being stuck in it might be if there’s a “blocking the box” law. I don’t believe there’s camera enforcement of that yet anywhere though.
And yes, if the rental companies want to pass this charge on, they must send all alleged information they receive as soon as they get it, so the accused driver can fight the ticket directly if they choose (on numerous valid grounds). Otherwise, they should be left on the hook.
Here’s my experience with the North Texas Tollway Authority (http://ntta.org/). I rented a car at Dallas Love Field from Alamo/National and drove on the Dallas North Tollway. As I was only in town for 1 day for a wedding, I did not have need for a tollway transponder and was prepared with small bills and some change, which soon ran out. What I found on tollway exits was a single automated cash lane with a bill changer that was out of service. Because I could not obtain change from the bill changer and there was no human attendant, I was forced to drive through without paying and received a “red light.”
When I returned home I attempted to contact the NTTA to send payment for the tolls that I was unable to pay due to their bill changer being out of service. The customer service people could accept payment only if there was a violation tied to the license plate of the car I was driving. They could find no violations even after I gave them the plate #, so they would not accept payment from me.
This happened in April 2009 and I never heard anything from the rental company and I’m hoping I was just lucky.
Moral of the story: carry a lot of loose change when driving on tollways
Koala:
No, just wait a few more months. I paid for a TollTag from National in June, I had to return the car because someone broke my driver’s side window, and I assumed that the agent had moved the TollTag to the replacement car. In late November, I received a letter from National saying that they were charging me the $1.50 toll. I also seem to remember a few posts on this site saying they received a letter a year later.
I am not sure what it means when he was told he “had no choice” but to pay. There is always a choice. If I am billed for something I did not do, I’m not paying. Even if the customer did run a red light, the fees are excessive.
Surely not all rental car companies are this poorly-run. When I search for a rental car on a comparison shopping site like Kayak, Dollar is frequently one of the cheapest options. I rented from them one time, and that was all it took for me to learn my lesson. I’m happy to pay an extra $10 a day to rent from Alamo — my new favorite because they’ve completely automated the rental process with kiosks these days — than to screw around with a company like Dollar.
tl;dr:
You get what you pay for.
In cities where the existence of these cameras have been challenged, the courts have not ruled in favor of the cities that put them up, which tells me that even if there aren’t problems with their reliability, there are certainly problems with their legality. If I were certain I had not run a light, I’d be challenging the ticket on those grounds, and I would certainly throw in something about the right to be informed of my alleged “crimes” in a timely manner.
@ LeeAnne – Canceling the credit card may not help you. My understanding is that if the charge (i.e., fine) is incurred while the credit card is still active, you will still end up being billed even if the account has since been closed.
I visit a board that focuses on European travel, and these post-trip “presents” are a frequent topic of conversation, particularly for visitors to Italy which has the much-dreaded ZTLs (which prohibit non-registered/residential cars from driving in certain zones, or even all of, the city). Especially due to the Italian bureaucracy, it is not uncommon to receive these fines as long as a year after the trip. While I understand and even sympathized with the purpose behind ZTLs, keeping auto traffic out of the historic city center, it’s definitely a convenient way for both the government and car rental agency to make some extra income off of unsuspecting travelers.
Regina,
He didn’t have a choice because the rental car company generally charges the fees to the credit card they have on file from when he rented the car.
@Regina – he wasn’t sent a bill…he was simply charged. The amount was billed to his credit card without his authorization. If he didn’t pay it, he’d be in default with his credit card company…NOT the rental car company.
He did have the option of disputing the charge with his credit card company…and it sounds like he might have done that, based on this line in the article:
” I requested a refund on this account, and they denied it.”
Even if he did dispute the charge with his credit card company, I doubt they would have ruled in his favor, given that the charge was for a supposed traffic violation. His ONLY recourse would have been to contest the violation with the law enforcement entity that ticketed him…but Dollar didn’t leave him that option, since they waited too long to send it to him. It was a total screw-over, and if I was the OP I would be filing a small-claims suit against Dollar just out of principle. What they did was SO wrong, it shouldn’t be legal.
If someone does get a traffic ticket while driving a rental car, this should be between the driver and the ticketing agency. The rental car company should not have the right to stick themselves in the middle and act as a “paying agent” for the driver without their authorization. They should provide the name and identifying information to the ticketing agency, and leave it at that. Instead, what Dollar has done is to essentially plead guilty on the driver’s behalf, WITHOUT his consent! That doesn’t seem legal to me.
Do you honestly think that rental car companies want to hire people just to nickel and dime $10-$15 administrative fees? The truth is if they didn’t send noticies and impose processing fees, everyone would be blowing through red lights and the car rental companies would have to eat the expense…then we would have to pay higher prices to cover it. Since more infractions are being imposed, its a recovery fee. It’s not a way to “get rich quick”..I’m sure they get just as many calls to deal with disputes from customers on these tickets.
The beauty of this one is that all you need to do is dispute the charge and it will go away. Does the company have access to the records? No I’d bet they farm the enforcement out to Dtag.com – and that company does the leg work and tells Budget who to charge. There are too many holes in the chain of liability from rental to repayment. The issue here is the company DECIDED to pay the fine – rather than fight it – get a continuance and track you down to give you time to fight it. They failed to protect your rights – meaning the REGISTERED owner decided to simply pay the ticket without any recourse- their decision – not yours.
And where in what state does it require a 3 second wait before turning right? The statutes generally read the driver must STOP – not stop for 3 seconds. That is just a revenue generation technique -
Actually, the lesson here is to not use Dollar as your car rental company…
Ed
web/gadget guru
@Chad: Sorry, but forwarding on traffic tickets to the people who rent their cars is a cost of doing business. Whether they want to hire someone or not is immaterial…if they’re going to rent cars to people they’re going to have to have processes and staff in place to deal with the issues involved in renting cars…including the occasional traffic tickets that the drivers of their cars are going to incur.
What they DON’T have a right to do is to plead guilty on their customer’s behalf, and not give them the option to contest the charge. This is a misdemeanor crime, and I’m sorry but no car rental company has a right to plead guilty on my behalf to a crime without my consent, pay the fine, and then just take it from me without even asking.
@Joe Farrell – I agree that disputing the charge on your credit card seems like the best option…although as I pointed out earlier, it sounds as if the OP did that, and it didn’t work. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t be surprised — credit card companies, in spite of all their lovely promises of being advocates for their customers, will not always rule in our favor, in spite of how strong our case may be. I’ve had disputes denied by my credit card company, even though I had about as irrifutable a case as you could imagine (I got charged for merchandise I never even received!).
@Ed – if Dollar is doing it, you can be darn sure other rental car agencies are doing it. At this point I’m sticking with the concept of cancelling your credit card the moment you turn in the car! (Although I realize that won’t exactly be a popular option for frequent car renters…)
@Leanne
Its actually an infraction which is lower than a misdemenor since it does’t include the possibility of incarceration. Its barely a crime. But your point is well taken. It does seem unfair.
Not sure what the laws are where you all are, but any camera violation in Ohio is a non points offense. It is purely meant for money to the cities. These cameras have been challenged many times in Ohio courts with the people losing to the cities almost every single time. The cameras never have a picture of the driver, but the registered owner is presumed guilty and they have to prove their innocence. This is completely backwards and contrary to our basic rights as american citizens.
And yes, someone brought up a very valid point, when these tickets go out, you can either say you are guilty and pay the fine, or you can alert the city/court who was driving so the proper driver can be fined. If the company pled guilty and paid on your behalf, then I would assume one would have a strong case for a total refund.
I was frustrated by a recent experience in Dallas wtih an Avis rental car. I took a highway that I didn’t realize included a toll that could only be paid electronically. Although I only drove about two or three miles on the Dallas North Tollway – from downtown Dallas to Northwest Highway. I exited and passed a toll collection thingee (its not a booth anymore), but could do nothing because it didn’t accept money. (There was no coin or bill option.)
When I turned in the car, there was no indication of a charge, but I would have been surprised if it had been billed in one day. However, about a week later, I saw a charge on my credit card from Avis for $3.76. It turns out this was for the toll.
While I don’t like having to pay $3.76 for one small, perhaps $0.50, toll, this certainly is better than being charged an exorbitant fee for the experience. I don’t feel (very much) taken advantage of by this.
How great to be in a position to tell my relations in other countries/cities that I expect them to drive me places. I don’t have to go through the rental car rigamarole and I often get to stay home and they come to me!!!
One benefit of no longer being young………
But now I have to worry that I’ll have to deal with two red light tickets from yesterday in my nearest city. I was in the intersections when the lights changed…which reminds me that the amber lights are designed to prevent that.
Next step, stay in my own county……a ride a bike…..
I think the cardholder can use the courts (against either the card company or the merchant) if aggrieved by the outcome of a credit card dispute but the merchant may not. Particularly for merchandise never ordered or received or a traffic ticket for a location never at, this option should be explored.
Here is the deal for traffic camera tickets:
1. Plead not guilty – EVERY SINGLE TIME – the flood of not guilty citations will flood the courts, shut them down and end enforcement of camera tickets.
2. After pleading not guilty – DO NOT SPEAK WITH A PROSECUTOR- do not negotiate, do not tell them your story – ask for a trial.
3. At trial – see who shows up to testify – wait a minute – its a camera? There is no testimony. No one can prove WHO committed the offense – end of story- case dismissed. I am assuming you are not in a convertible with a distinctive face. Just another blur.
4. you have the right to confront witnesses against you. You ALSO have the right to remain silent – thus you do NOT HAVE to tell the company or the city/town who was driving your car that day. Not guilty- end of subject.
What they are doing is ending the criminal enforcement and calling it a CIVIL penalty. They THINK this takes it out of the realm of constitutional law – but the companies are very wrong – and in most states where the camera citations are challenged the victim ends up being dismissed, nolle’d or otherwise not responsible for the citation.
I used to work for Hertz (long time ago!). One of my responsiblities was to match parking tickets and violations with the customer who was renting the car at the time. It was sometimes difficult cause I only had the time/datestamp on the ticket and the rental contracts…for parking tickets, that’s all we had to go by. Red light tickets always came with a picture of the person in the car so we’d need to get the copy of the driver’s license associated with rental contract and see if we could match the person with the red-light photo. Not very scientific.
Problem was that we’d receive the tickets in the mail at least a month after the the violation occurred so, by the time we found out about the ticket, and then matched the ticket with the renter it would be at least 6 weeks after the violation. Plus, we’d get several tickets in every single mail run, so I’d spend every afternoon on it. (We were the main Hertz office for the area.)
Anyway, when I worked for Hertz, there wasn’t a processing fee for any of this…(like I said, it was a long time ago!) There was never any follow-up either so, if the customer ignored the ticket we sent…which was often…Hertz had to pay the ticket. (Guess times have changed!)
@Gwen – forgive me if I’m being dense, but…..wouldn’t the fact that you had a time/date stamp on the ticket eliminate the guesswork? Didn’t Hertz have appropriate records of who had rented each vehicle on a particular date? Why on earth would you have to go through driver’s license photos? If the ticket happened on June 10, 2009, and customer John Smith is the one who had possession of that vehicle on June 10, 2009…doesn’t that answer the question of who should get the ticket? Why would it be up to you to identify who actually was driving? If John Smith had possession of the car, clearly he (or whoever was driving the car on his behalf) would be responsible for the ticket…right?
If the picture didn’t show him as the driver, still he was legally in possession of the vehicle (by virtue of his rental contract) so it would be up to him to prove to the courts that the picture WASN’T him. I can’t see any reason whatsoever that the car rental company should be looking at pictures at all.
It just seems pretty straightforward from the rental company’s perspective: identify who had the car at the time the ticket was issued (and if they can’t do that, clearly they are not keeping appropriate records!) and forward the ticket to that person. Then notify the ticket-issuing agency who was in possession of the vehicle, and therefore legally responsible for the ticket. DONE! Now it’s between the renter of the car, and the court. That puts the control over what happens with that ticket squarely where it should be: the person who had the car. And if that person didn’t commit the infraction (thanks Carver for that clarification) then he/she gets to decide whether or not to pay it, or contest it.
No way… that’s suck..
No thing like this in my country..
Not to be overdramatic, but red light cameras are a mockery of the justice system. I can’t believe that a court hasn’t shut them down based on the “guilty until proven innocent” mentality behind them.
I JUST WATCHED someone get a red light ticket yeaterday because they stopped a little into the crosswalk. THEY DID NOT RUN THE LIGHT. THERE WAS NO PEDESTRIAN THERE. I felt terrible for the completely unsuspecting driver, who will be fined for something they did not do. If the fine for stopping in a crosswalk, or even a quarter inch beyond what a machine says they should, should that be equal to running a red light?
Setting aside the ridiculousness of pitting human responses against a computer, much less STOPPING A MOVING VEHICLE, isn’t there some constitutional right to receiving notice of a violation of the law within time to have a fair and speedy trial? How can municipalities “batch” tickets months after the court dates? Does the invention of traffic cameras now take away the right to respond in a court of law? This sounds like a class action suit JUST DYING to happen. I hope it does. These people listen to nothing but money.
Please give a number where people outside the U.S.A. can call you. As you can see I live in the Bahamas,The toll-free # does not work from here.