 Poster: A snowHead
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Looking for a bit of advice or to hear if anyone has had a similar experience.
1st things 1st - just back yesterday after a great week in Madonna Di Campiglio. 3 rd year running and we love it ( we being a 5 & 7yr old boys, wife & I). Hotel excellent again, food 1st class & the snow was superb.
We had an interesting start though. Flew into Bergamo Saturday week ago, at the Maggiore desk I was informed the auto estate I booked wasn't available & after being offered a couple of complete non-starters eg Renault Clio for the 4 of us & luggage, I accepted a totally different car - but what do you do? I have generally been fairly lucky with car rentals and have always received the car I booked. Snow chains booked too. Packed up the car & off we went.
Not too bad so far.
During the drive the snow came on really heavy, police out doing checks and queues at the side of the road fitting snow chains. No issues, I pulled over & did the same - or rather tried to. Now admittedly my snow chain fitting experience is limited but there was something not right with these chains. The snow was dumping it down, the traffic was crawling by & I just wanted to get this sorted & get back on the road. I eventually swallowed my pride & asked the Italian man who had fitted his own snow chains in a matter of minutes, for some assistance. He very kindly assisted but very quickly he too was at a loss. He shouted over to another local who also made an attempt. They both agreed after a few tries that the chains were broken. Which backed up what I had initially thought.
We managed to crawl to the next service station where I was able to purchase a set of snow chains which I fitted no probs. we carried on to MdiC, the journey, from airport to hotel taking just over 7 hrs!!!! Hectic to say the least but not the end of the world!!
I tried to speak to Maggiore at Bergamo before our return flight but they had one person manning the desk, a massive queue & eventually I had to give up & go on through security to catch my flight.
My question to you is this ... Where do I stand now? Do I have any comeback for the cost of the snow chains? I informed the Maggiore employee when I returned the car, who shrugged his shoulders and put the broken chains in the bin, telling me to speak to staff at the office in the terminal. I am out €140 for a set of snow chains due to the supplied chains being broken. I would like the money refunded but now that I'm back home my chances are probably zero. Any thoughts or advice?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@kendoddsdadsdogsdead, Bad luck. it sounds like you received very poor service from the car rental company. Did you book directly with them or through a car rental broker, if so they may be able to take up your case? My only other advice would be to check that the rental company don't subsequently try to charge you (they will have your credit card details) for damaging the snowchains!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I booked through a broker. I'm going to get in contact with them. I'll bear that in mind re damaging snow chains.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Eact time renting in winter in Italy = problems ....
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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A couple of quick searches online, should maybe have looked before my trip but that's for another day, shows quite a few negative experiences with Maggiore.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@kendoddsdadsdogsdead, my first experience 5 years ago with IT car hire - arriving at the resort and discovering that chains were in "lego mode" .... Followed by a discovery that the left side of the car (front and rear) had one type of summer tyres while the right side had different summer tyres ....
This January at Bergamo - having booked a car with Sixt with a special winter tyre code "n" and after a few phone calls to confirm that a car with winter tyres will be available - a very cute receptioniost blink her eyes and telling me that i also need chains ...me "I do not need chains, I am fine with winter tyres"; she: "we do not have cars with winter tyres"; me "you do, I called to confirm" and show her my vouchef with class N indicated and pneumatici invernali noted as welll ...; she: take a bigger car with snow chains "for free"; me (while throughing car keys at the desk and raising my voice) " I do not care, I need a car with winter tyres" .... The cute but utterly unhelpfull receptionist makes a couple of calls and hands me car keys .... After arriving at car park - indeed, my rental has winter tyres, same as another Sixt car ... Love skiing in IT, but car hire so far was 100% negative....
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Even in Geneva you can't guarantee chains will be right size and not broken. Or even there at all. If it looks snowy I'd always check before leaving the garage especially given the difficulty of getting winter tyres in Italy.
Glad you found the Italians helpful when you had the trouble with the chains.
Incidentally, with reference to the post above, you definitely should get chains even with winter tyres. The police will sometimes insist on both when conditions are bad.
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I'd say always check your chains but with a car full of kids and limited experience I can see why that wouldn't happen.
I hope you get your money back - sounds shoddy of the company.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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The police in Trentino carrying out road stops were checking for winter tyres or snow chains. It took a bit of persistence to be allowed to drive the 3km to the next service station. I think we were very close to be told to turn around & go back. I think what helped was that a lorry had crashed & was blocking the road in the opposite direction.
To be fair checking the snowchains is a good idea but the excitement about getting on the road & getting to the hotel had me firmly in its grip!!
Tomorrrow is my day of phone calls & emails ... Update to follow.
Other than that a wonderful holiday & would highly recommend Madonna di Campiglio if you want good food, family friendly & cruisey skiing with the odd challenge thrown in. Probably not for those who want a resort where they won't ski the same run twice in a week or for those who want a raucous nightlife.
I'll try & write a trip report at some stage.
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We don't have many trip reports from Madonna; hope you manage one.
I've driven to the Dolomites from France twice now. The first time was in epic snow over an officially closed pass. I got into Arabba without chains but to get around after that, with snow everywhere, they were indispensable (on top of four winter tyres). It's ridiculous that it's so difficult to get decent winter equipment when hiring cars in Italy to drive to Alpine resorts.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Never had a car in Italy with snow tyres (from Bergamo, Turin, Treviso etc) and haven't always managed to get chains.
We've had some interesting experiences as a result - like sledging the car down the road from Sauze D'Oulx... 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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We've had a few problems with guests now rentin from major car rental companies and being supplied with bad chains. Our latest managed to break them three times in one pass, and eventually gave up and stayed somewhere for the night. They were climbers and from scotland so well used to chains... its a big problem. Only safe way is to drive from Austria where all cars are fitted with snow tyres.
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I suppose another possibility is to buy chains from a supermarket once you know the tyre size. Though that's nothing like as good as having winter tyres AND chains.
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You know it makes sense.
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Just back from Arabba, with a hire car from Venice. "Yes sir, chains are in the boot". Checked and no chains. "Ah sorry, here are your chains". Checked and they're the wrong size."Ah sorry, here are the correct chains". Checked the sealed box and they're the right size. Leave VCE and an hour later we have to put the chains on in a blizzard. The moral is you need to double-check.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Just out of interest, how I do check the chains are the correct size, ie what do I look for on the chains box, and check against the tyres, please
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Poster: A snowHead
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On the box it will say something like 205/16 which is the size of tyre the chains will fit. Just check that against the tyres on your car. The numbers will be on the tyre sidewall. Chains normally seem to fit a range of tyre sizes, so the box may give quite a few numbers. Just make sure your tyre size is on the list. I bought some chains by mistake once and the numbers weren't far out, but they just wouldn't fit. Hope that helps. I'm not super technical on this, so someone may be along who can give you a more precise steer.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The problem could be, given the rubbish service reported here that the chains have been put back in the wrong box
Absolutely need to check. Chains slightly too big can be lashed up (eg with powder traces) but if they're too small.......
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