Problem with National & getting a ticket, but I wasn't there! Any good advice? (sorr

[Gillian]

I rented a van from National at Newark airport and drove it to Florida. On the first day of our rental, while the van was in our driveway, NYC recorded another van running a red light.

We just had a notice of liability for $50 forwarded to us from National, saying that the car we rented matched the plates in the pictures from NYC. Our van was white, and the van in the pics is not white. It's a black and white photo but the car next to it is white, so you can tell.

We don't have any way to prove that our van was not in NYC at the time, and that it did not have those plates. Those plates are actually registered to a white van like the one we rented, so I'm trying to find out if there was a mistake somewhere at National. I wish I had a picture of the plates on our van!

I'm talking to someone at my local National office, but they said that if they can't tell that it wasn't my van, I'll probably have to pay the fine. The legal (?) people at National said I have to talk to NYC but I can't contest it with NYC because it isn't in my name. They told me to talk to the car company!

I hope the local manager can fix this, but any advice for me until then?

 

[CarolA]

Do you still have your rental agreement? It has the color and the tag on it.

 

[Gillian]

The rental agreement has the tag of the car that ran the light. That's why I think someone messed up the tags or the paperwork at National.

It says white, which it was. The car that ran the light was not white, but it's hard to tell exactly what it was from a black & white photo.

 

[manning]

Several points.

What time did the van run the red light?

What time did you pick up the van?

I would contact customer service and ask for the dept that handles this. Take notes of all conversations and follow up with correspondence.

Also drive home the fact that the van you had, white, is not the same color as the van in the photo.

Does NYC take a picture of the driver?

Boy, this is a tough one. Any legals out there?

 

[ducklite]

If you drove from NYC to Fl, you must have SOMETHING that shows you were not in NYC at the time. Receipts for gas, tolls, meals, hotels, anything along those lines.

I would write a letter to National, documenting this, and let them know you will NOT be paying the fine--as far as I can tell from your post they ahven't even proven to you that they got anything from NYC, just "their word", and that National needs to get the documentation (photo) from NYC so they can contest it. CC NYC violations (address on their web site) and National's legal department (corporate address on your rental contract or their web site.

I'm not a lawyer.

As an FYI, I got a parking ticket for parking in front of a hydrant in NYC years ago. At the time I and my car were both happily parked in Saratoga, NY. I contested the ticket, sent copy of my registration showing my silver car was not the blue car they ticketed. Dismissed. They had written the wrong tag number down.

Anne

 

[Gillian]

Originally posted by ducklite
If you drove from NYC to Fl, you must have SOMETHING that shows you were not in NYC at the time. Receipts for gas, tolls, meals, hotels, anything along those lines.

I would write a letter to National, documenting this, and let them know you will NOT be paying the fine--as far as I can tell from your post they ahven't even proven to you that they got anything from NYC, just "their word", and that National needs to get the documentation (photo) from NYC so they can contest it. CC NYC violations (address on their web site) and National's legal department (corporate address on your rental contract or their web site.

Thanks Anne, Manning & CarolA for your help!

This is actually more sticky than I said at first. The van was in our driveway in central NJ at the time of the ticket. We were packing & getting ready to leave. So we could have been in Queens as far as National was concerned. And we have no proof.
National forwarded me the ticket. It has clear pictures of the van and plates (the ones in my rental agreement). It was a Chevy Venture like we had, but fortunately, you can also see that it is not white, like ours.

A happy update is our beach rental place had a record of the tags on our car and they are off by just one digit! We were able to find out that one set of tags is registered to a TAN 2004 venture, while the other is to a WHITE one.

I spoke with the citations department and they seem to believe that it wasn't me. As soon as I get home from visiting my parents, I'm going to fax them everything I have. I'll also send it to the manager of rental location, because he said he would verify the VIN numbers, etc.

Sometimes you just have to fix things for yourself!