Comments on: Help! My car rental company charged me for running a red light

By: Jim6555

Jim6555 — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:12:00 +0000

The resolution is sometimes not that good. This week, one of the TV stations in Tampa ran a consumer reporter feature about the the owner of a vehicle receiving three red light violation notice from Miami-Dade County (270 miles from Tampa). The owner was in Korea when all three violations took place and no one else had keys to the vehicle. The owner also said that he had never been to Miami.

It turned out that the problem was with the quality of the photos. The person working for the county saw the fourth digit on the plate as being the letter “D”. Careful scrutiny of the very grainy photos by the TV station showed the fourth digit to be the letter “Q”. The TV station contacted the authorities and the violation notices to the Tampa resident were cancelled. The owner of the plate with the “Q is a taxi company in Miami.

By: Nschenk

Nschenk — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:18:00 +0000

Oh geez. Dallas. It is stupidly easy to accidentally find yourself on a toll road. When I visit my brother there, I always use the gps and select the option to avoid tolls.

By: Damon

Damon — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:22:53 +0000

Hi,
Ilive in the uk and have just recieved a letter from dollar saying I ran a red light in 2008 and they want $120 what should I do?

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:32:09 +0000

I rented a car in Paris last summer to drive to Courselles-sur-Mer and received a letter from Hertz 4 months later saying that they had to charge me 50 euros in fees to provide my information to the Paris police for a traffic infraction I incurred. I never heard anything from the Paris police and as far as I know, I never broke any laws. Hertz refused to refund the charge to me after I contacted the authorities in Paris, who told me that I had no ticket awaiting me and that they had never contacted Hertz regarding anything to do with me. I’ll never rent from Hertz again in any country.

By: Trevor Sherman

Trevor Sherman — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:49:05 +0000

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.

By: penelope

penelope — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:15:30 +0000

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.

By: Lianne

Lianne — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:45:50 +0000

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.

By: car rental Bali

car rental Bali — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:27:19 +0000

No way… that’s suck..
No thing like this in my country..

By: LeeAnne

LeeAnne — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:57:34 +0000

@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.

By: Gwen

Gwen — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:23:48 +0000

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!)

By: Joe Farrell

Joe Farrell — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:01:52 +0000

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.

By: ajaynejr

ajaynejr — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:11:53 +0000

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.

By: Mary H

Mary H — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:35:18 +0000

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…..

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:33:31 +0000

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.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:37:39 +0000

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.