Zest Car Rental
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Unpleasant car rental at Pisa airport
Booked a car rental through Zest from ECH at Pisa airport. I had bought an extra insurance package from Zest which I understood meant I did not have to buy 'extra' insurance from ECH. The ECH agent in Pisa immediately dismissed this as useless saying 'They (Zest) didn't know what they were talking about and that I HAD to buy the ECH package'. I refused. The next ten minutes were him telling me I had to give him a waiver on my credit card of €1500 because I was not taking their insurance (the original waiver was €750 in the contract). I refused. I then 'phoned Zest in the UK. The lady was polite but could not help, insisting that their insurance was valid. Then he demanded that I pay to hire snow chains! It was 20C outside! He said if the police stopped me and I did not have snow chains I would be fined. I refused. (I later found out from the very nice man who gave me the keys that neither he or anyone else he knew had ever been stopped to check for snow chains. Then he offered for €65 to replenish my fuel tank when I returned the car. I fell for this scam out of sheer anger and frustration (I returned the car 3/4 full). Although the agent was strictly polite it was an aggressive and intimidating encounter. It was quite clear that the agent's only aim is to extract as much money out of the client. Also it is clear that Zest are brokers and ECH actually manage the cars. Each can blame the other for misunderstandings/interpretations with the client left in no man's land. It was an unpleasant, almost ugly, confrontation. I didn't enjoy it at all - it was a lousy start to a holiday.