Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges?

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 11:22
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - JohnX
As a result of not having a car I have had to rent a car from Sixt which at the time of the collecting the car I was not told about the toll charges which would have to be paid by the renter.
ibb.co/sKMP0gt
As seen on the link to the actual toll charge is £ 2.5 but they have added an admin charge of £36 on each occasion so this brings it up to £38.5 . If you multiply that by six crossings it adds up to a significant amount.
What would the forum think on contesting this on two counts?
1)That I was not informed clearly about this
2)That the “admin” charges are excessive and punitive.
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Tue 19 Mar 2019 11:44
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - gordonbennet

Sorry, it was down to you to pay the dart charge, is the admin fee for such things mentioned in the small print of the rental agreement?

I just had a look online, it appears Avis charge £42 admin fee for the same issue.

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 12:43
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - FP

I would have thought it was obvious that the driver/hirer is responsible for paying toll fees.

If admin charges are mentioned in the rental agreement, by signing that the hirer has entered into a binding contract. It would be difficult (but maybe not impossible) to prove the contract was an unfair one. If the admin charge is set at the going rate (as GB's research suggests), I would say forget it and suck it up.

Edited by FP on 19/03/2019 at 12:44

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 13:22
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - alan1302
As a result of not having a car I have had to rent a car from Sixt which at the time of the collecting the car I was not told about the toll charges which would have to be paid by the renter.

Why would you think you would not have to pay the toll charge?

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 13:46
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - Happy Blue!

I frequently rent a car in a country where there is an electronic toll to pay on one road. It is impossible to pay it online, you either have a tag or you wait for the bill in the post! For rental cars the rental companies seem to have adopted a policy of one admin charge per rental how ever many time you use the toll.

I assume that the tolls are determined each month so you don't get a new bill every time you use the road.

But clearly the renter pays the toll; its the admin charge that can be excessive.

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 16:16
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - JohnX
Most of the car hire companies including Hertz and Enterprise have a system where they pay the toll and then charge the card that is on the account.
This includes even lesser known companies like Greenmotion.
Which is the reason why I (wrongly) assumed this might be the case with Sixt as well.


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Tue 19 Mar 2019 18:07
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - badbusdriver
Most of the car hire companies including Hertz and Enterprise have a system where they pay the toll and then charge the card that is on the account. This includes even lesser known companies like Greenmotion. Which is the reason why I (wrongly) assumed this might be the case with Sixt as well.

I may be a bit thick here, but looking at the invoice on your link, that looks like exactly what has happened. It says:,

"IMPORTANT the contravention has been paid already. Please do not make any payments to the Authority. The amount will be debited from your credit card account"

?

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 23:54
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - JohnX

The contravention was paid by Sixt and has been paid by other rental companies, including Hertz and some other rental car companies charge the exact amount from the renter and do not add an admin charge.

Not the same with Sixt as I just discovered now!

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 14:09
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - Big John

  • The Dart charge is signposted approaching the crossing (signs could be better though)
  • The admin charge sounds normal - each one needed investigating and tracing to a renter
  • At least it is not 6 Dart Charge fines at £70 each

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 19:24
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - Bromptonaut

Beggars belief that the OP not be aware of Dart Charge and/or could think it was somehow included in the hire?

Even for one crossing never mind 6.

Each charge would have needed to be processed. £36 isn't unreasonable for time spent processing paperwork and following through records to ensure charge is appliedto correct hirer.

Could be worse though. If OP had been in own car added costs would have been far more.

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 19:44
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - Happy Blue!

To be fair though, if someone is not from teh London area they might not know about the toll.

I used the Dartford Crossing about two years ago and it was only because someone said in passing at my last appointment before heading North that if I was using the Crossing I needed to log on as soon as I got home to pay the toll. Had they not said that I would have been none the wiser.

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 22:16
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - RT

To be fair though, if someone is not from teh London area they might not know about the toll.

I used the Dartford Crossing about two years ago and it was only because someone said in passing at my last appointment before heading North that if I was using the Crossing I needed to log on as soon as I got home to pay the toll. Had they not said that I would have been none the wiser.

You didn't notice all the big signs then ?

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Wed 20 Mar 2019 11:40
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - Happy Blue!

To be fair though, if someone is not from teh London area they might not know about the toll.

I used the Dartford Crossing about two years ago and it was only because someone said in passing at my last appointment before heading North that if I was using the Crossing I needed to log on as soon as I got home to pay the toll. Had they not said that I would have been none the wiser.

You didn't notice all the big signs then ?

The advice was given before I got to the Crossing. Once I got there, I assume I would have seen the signs, I can't remember as it is two year ago. All I do remember is the roadworks, closed roads and nightmare traffic. How do people drive in London?

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Tue 19 Mar 2019 23:51
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - JohnX

Beggars belief that the OP not be aware of Dart Charge and/or could think it was somehow included in the hire?

Even for one crossing never mind 6.

Each charge would have needed to be processed. £36 isn't unreasonable for time spent processing paperwork and following through records to ensure charge is appliedto correct hirer.

Could be worse though. If OP had been in own car added costs would have been far more.

Actually I go across the Dartford crossing frequently and my old car had a Dart account before it was scrapped.

However with the previous 3 cars that I rented from Hertz,and Enterprise, they pay the toll charge and the amount gets deducted from your credit card, obviously with no penalty!

However Sixt is different as seen above!

Edited by JohnX on 20/03/2019 at 02:04

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Wed 20 Mar 2019 09:46
Sixt car rent-Contesting excessive admin charges? - Brit_in_Germany

This is what Hertz says on its internet site:

"You can pay in advance or until the midnight on the day after you use the crossing but if you fail to pay then you will incur a penalty. It’s the renter’s responsibility to register the car, not Hertz, and pay the charge every time they use the crossing.

We will charge you an administration fee as well as the original penalty charge if we receive a late payment demand and have to pay on your behalf. Hertz will not accept liability for these charges and these will be passed to the person who is renting the vehicle at the time the penalty was incurred."

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