大咖福利影院

@Nonifruit

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the car rental. I know a good lawyer in Cuenca. Although your needs do not fit into the area of law that he covers, he said if you contact him, he can refer you to a colleague in the same office who could probably help. His name is Rafael Arizaga Coellar and you can reach him at **** or or email rarizaga.juridik@[link moderated]. Best of luck.

Hello GypsyJack,

Thanks for your help to @Nonifruit

I invite you to recommend the services of this lawyer on the聽 Lawyers in Ecuador section of the business directory so that anyone聽 who faces a similar issue may directly get in touch with him.

Thanks,

Yoginee

大咖福利影院 team

@GypsyJack

Thank you for sharing!

I found Rafael on facebook.

And allready in contact with him.

Very friendly and pleasant to deal with.

I will give here feedback on our communication.

Part 2. (positioning)

Part 1. (begining) - here:

/forum/viewtopic.p 鈥� 15#5488562).

Thanks 馃檹 to the community for being so responsive. I had a series of consultations with lawyers 鈿栵笍 who were recommended to me.

Here is my update (conclusion and resoning):

1. Such fraud schemes are widespread and (at first glance) this seems like a good opportunity for law firms to make money 馃挵.

1.1. Car rental customers are mostly tourists, they are an attractive victim 馃槺 (they are vulnerable): they don't have time 鈴�, they don't know the language馃樁, they don't have local support 馃珎.

1.2. Light research of reviews on web showed that just in Quito there are dozens of similar cases a year.

1.3. It looks easy to create a standard workflow and it will generate a steady flow of small orders (this will work for a while until rental-companies start losing money 馃捀 and stop 馃毀 using these schemes).

叠耻迟鈥�

Why doesn't this happen and the scam continues?

2. There is no standard and effective way to protect 馃獤 your rights if you caught by such a scam in Ecuador 馃嚜馃嚚

2.1. The only standard way to protect the rights of clients is the court 鈿栵笍.

2.2. The trial in Ecuador will take from 8 to 16 months 馃暟馃暟 and its results are not predictable.

2.3. The cost 馃捀 of legal support of the judicial procedure starts from 1000 usd (and this is the minimum, does not include court-related payments and fees).

2.4. It is not possible to include legal costs in a claim. To do this, it is necessary to win the first case (for breach of contract) and only after that it is possible to initiate a second claim for reimbursement of costs.

So it's 2 consecutive lawsuits (times 馃暟馃暟馃暟馃暟 and costs 馃捀馃捀 are doubled).

2.5. The amount of costs for legal support is determined by the terms of the contract with lawyers. But in any case, it cannot exceed the amount of the entire claim and is accepted by the judge as a % of the total amount of damage (from the first claim).

Thus, due to the specifics of the litigation and the small amount of damage, it becomes impossible to receive a significant amount 馃挵馃挵馃挵 that will allow you to compensate for the time and resources spent.

馃し馃徎鈥嶁檪锔�

What's the next plan 馃敭馃敪?

3. Bring the problem to light馃攷

3.1. Prepare a list of organizations that can pay attention to such situations:

• Ministry of Production (Market Control Directorate)
• Ministry of Tourism
• Fiskalia
• Tax office
• Human Protection Office

(What else can you recommend?)

• ...

3.2. Find out how to file a complaint. Create request forms 馃摑 and roadmap of process.

3.3. Make the roadmap 馃椇 (information about actions) available to people (social networks, news, thematic forums on the network etc鈥�)

If the information and reports from tourists about such frauds 馃ぅ received in various departments, sooner or later a solution will be found

A significant part of the budget of Ecuador 馃嚜馃嚚 comes from tourism. Sure, that cases of mass tourists fraud will receive the necessary attention.

Over time, the number of victims may accumulate to prepare a class action lawsuit and it can also be filed against the government of Ecuador, which doe鈥檚 not respond to cases of massive fraud.

I plan to continue to move 馃惥馃惥馃惥 in this direction, and will publish updated information.

If you have any suggestions or advice, please text me!

Thank you for reading 馃檹!

馃崁

You may want to look at this page for the Ministerio de Tursimo which allows you to report on-line any complaints or anything unsatifactory.聽 It also gives office locations if you want to talk to them in person and phone numbers as well as an email address at the bottom of the page.

At the bottom of the page is the button for on-line complaints, "Ir al tr谩mite en l铆nea"

Hello everyone,

Please note that to better understand the above situation, I have merged the feedback and conclusion to this thread.

#8 and #9 have been added to this thread.

Regards,

Bhavna

I have asked for recommendations of reputable car rental companies on at least three occasions from this web site.

I was hoping to do business with a reputable company so the above or similar does not happen to me. All of my inquiries have gone unanswered.

I would be grateful for a recommendation. We will be renting a vehicle for 2-3 weeks.

Thanks in advance鈥︹�︹��

Jeff &Angie

@Jeff_Angie

I haven't read prior comments on this thread, but I haven't seen anyone griping about this rental car company on Gringo Post, but can't vouch for them because I don't drive.

@Jeff_Angie My advice is to read reviews on g00gleMaps and T*i褉Adviso* and especially critical ones. At a minimum, this will help to settle some of the companies.

As for the situation with the breakdown of the rental car (this can happen with any car) - you can try to discuss this nuance before renting. You are planning to rent for a long time and the company may be willing to finde compromiss. You can ask them to provide you with a letter of guarantee from the rental company. Let them write that in the event of a mechanical breakdown of the car during the rental process, they undertake to provide you with a replacement car within 24 hours or return the money, including the security deposit in full.