  We've booked two different car rentals for Italy... one the Tuscany part of our Voyage, and another for the souther leg of our trip from the Amalfi Coast, through Basilicata and then on to Puglia. We reserved a Fiat 500L for each region. So, this week my wife Lisa tells me that the first rental charge showed up on the credit card bill but the second never did. I should call and make sure the reservation is good to go. Ok, so I call... and I'm so glad I did! It turns out that although this reservation still was in their system, they said it was set up for us to pay at the rental broker in Naples when we pick up the car. Huh? I set these up the same time and both with the same charge card. Not only that, but the Hertz rep on the phone (very nice actually) asked if I had the "voucher" numbers for each rental. Vouchers? All I have is the original confirmations when I booked them online. Not good enough. Apparently, they needed to mail (takes 2 weeks or more) or fax (ever hear of email?) the vouchers to us. This should have been done months ago when I first booked the cars. And, get this... they would not have given us the cars without vouchers!
With less than three weeks to go I wasn't about to take a chance with the mail, so fax it was... er... but it's been so long since we received a fax I forgot which of our two phone numbers the fax was on. Uh... Ok, I think it's the second number. I told the rep that number and the second line started ringing.... so I run up two flights to our office and the fax is not being answered. I find the phone line is not attached and that it was really trying to come in on the line I was talking to the rep on. Ok, easy fix. But the phone jack is mislabeled. I quick give the other number and tell them to try that one. Long story short... it was over an hour before I had the two fax vouchers in my hand, BUT BOTH PHONE LINES KEPT RINGING for the next hour or more! Somehow, there were doubled up faxes cued up on their end that kept coming in. So, I had to plug in one line and then sit there receiving fax after fax until that line stopped ringing. Then I hooked up the other phone line and started accepting more faxes. Stress! But at lease I have the right vouchers and will get the cars. Lesson learned: Even if you THINK you've crossed all your T's and dotted all your I's, when booking a car rental in Italy, make sure you get them to send you the actual rental vouchers BEFORE you leave for Italy! Sigh. Italian pizza had sure be better than my own... --Jerry Finzi |
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