COMMENT: Dear Marty
I’m doing business w companies in Holland.
So I go there with a colleague to visit one of the factories outside Amsterdam.
We rent a car and drive there. Everything is fine and all. No problems with traffic, finding our way or so …
After leaving Amsterdam back home it takes about 4-5 months we get a speedingticket?
We ask for proof us speeding, like a photo or so, but they do not even answer.
It goes so far they send it to a collector agency here in Sweden and we call them asking for proof of some sort us speeding when driving in Holland.
But they cannot help us. They say they only collect and if we will not pay they will register us in Sweden for this.
So we pay. We do not want our business to get soiled.
After this it takes 6 months and we then get – from Holland – a speeding ticket for going the other way when driving to our business meeting???!
Obviously this is a scam!!! We did not pay and have no intention paying either.
So what do you think happens then?
When going for a new business trip and we have a short stop at Schiphol airport – my colleague gets stopped in customs switching planes? (He was the one driving when we got the tickets)
They arrested him for not paying the speeding ticket …. But luckily they let him go but said if he visited Holland again they would arrest him for sure and there would be a trial.
So no business with Holland anymore. And no visits either.
Too bad ….
/C
ANSWER: Yes, the same process is happening in Italy, France, and Germany. It is indicative of governments going broke. They cannot see that they are destroying civilization because of their mismanagement.
These European governments are sending tickets with no explanation or proof and demanding fines of else. They are exploiting tourists and destroying their own vital business. Why travel on vacation to someplace you will be harassed? They turned over a ticket I got in Rome to a collection agency and I too told them no way. This is the biggest scam going on in Europe became they have speeding cameras and no police ever pull you over for anything. There is no explanation. No photo. No evidence. NOTHING! Just send us money or else they just threaten you with jail time and absolutely no proof of anything. They are far worse than the Mafia.
This is why I no longer recommend renting any car in Europe. It is just cheaper to hire a driver for a trip or use taxi/Uber. Then they are harassing Americans pulling you over looking for cash. In the late 1970s, I went through Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. They forced you to buy East German marks at 1:1 with West German. Then you got into town and nobody you taken them. Even the government run hotel demanded West German marks.
I left with the same amount of East German marks I was forced to buy. I was just going to keep them as a reminder. Then trying to get back through Checkpoint Charlie, the last station of several they went through how much money you had on you. The woman pulled a rope and bell went off and two guards came and grabbed me by the arms and took me to a shed at the beginning. They took all my money and told me to sit. Waiting for over an hour, I got up and asked can I go. He then handed me a slip and said they only confiscate and I had to take that to the central bank the next day to get my money back. I then remarked – “And you say you are not capitalist?” I then had to start over and go through all the stages to get out. They kept the money.
Welcome to the new world we are emerging into. They are all the same. Just give them the money and shut-up.
