‘Italy Loooovvveess To Scam’: Hertz Customer Gets Expensive Surprise After GPS Led Her Through Milan, And It Gets Worse

A simple drive to the airport turned into a costly mess for an American woman visiting Milan this May. Jackie Reinhart was just following her GPS when it took her straight through a pedestrian-only area in the city’s old downtown. What started as one traffic ticket has now become a confusing problem with multiple bills and no clear way to pay them.

Reinhart was staying in an Airbnb near the center of Bologna and had a special parking pass for the area. On Sunday, the day of her flight home, most of the old part of the city was closed off to cars. She left her parking garage anyway because the only way out was down the same blocked street she had come in on. “The street we had to come in on was completely open,” she said in a TikTok video she posted earlier this month. She thought she might be able to find another way through.

But there was no other way out. She ended up driving slowly through an area full of people shopping and walking around. Kids and street vendors had to move out of her way. Her GPS kept telling her to turn around, but she kept going. “I’m just trying to get through as fast as possible,” she said. “I really don’t want to get pulled over at this moment. I’m basically panicking.” One person who watched her video wrote back saying “Italy loooovvveess to scam tourist[s]. I’d call it a day and move on.”

Here’s Where Things Get Messy

A few weeks after she got back home, a ticket showed up in the mail from Italy. It said she owed 98 euros and told her to pay online. She tried to use the website but couldn’t get it to work. Then another bill came, this time from Hertz, the company she rented the car from. They wanted 26 euros for the same ticket. She got confused because the numbers didn’t add up. “The other bill was more than that,” she said. “I don’t really understand how this is the bill for my ticket.”

A lot of people who saw her video told her she probably has to pay both bills. “No its not the bill it’s just the fee for the rental car company to give Italy your info been there done that!” one person wrote. Another person said, “You need to pay both.” Someone else added, “One from hertz one from the city pay both.”

Other people said the Hertz charge is just a fee for handling the paperwork. “It’s the rental companys fee,” one viewer explained. Another person wondered, “Maybe Hertz had insurance that paid part of it?” One viewer told her to just call the company, asking “Can you call hertz to find out? That’s what I would do!” Her problem is like what other drivers have dealt with when they face surprise costs that can run into the thousands.

The problem still isn’t fixed. Reinhart told Motor1 that she got two different bills but can’t pay the one from Italy because “the Italian bill did not have the numbers I needed to pay it online.” She said that if this happens to a lot of Hertz customers, “it would be great if they send clarifying directions about this if this happens a lot. I want to do the right thing and just need support.” For people renting cars, finding problems with the vehicle can make things even worse.