Avis - Lost sunglasses at SNA Avis -what are my chances of seeing them again? zip nada zero?

Mr Lainys is a newly minted preferred member. At 3pm he returned his car back to SNA and checked in for his flight. At the gate he realized he left his sunglasses in the rental car. Walked back to Avis at 3:45pm. Service rep at the counter said that the car had already been serviced and re-rented. A pair of sunglasses were found and handed into Lost and Found.



Mr Lainys: GREAT!! can you direct me to Lost and Found?
Avis Service Rep: They're closed. However you can call them directly on 949-474-4078.
Mr Lainys: WHAT?? It's only 4pm? Closed already? BTW... where is lost and found.
Avis Rep: It's not here.
Mr Lainys: How can it have already gone there? It's been less than an hour? Where exactly is lost and found? I'd still like go there and check before I leave SNA. It's much easier to pick things up in person than try to find something over the phone.
Avis Rep: We hand everything into Lost and Found. Call them tomorrow when they're open. If they don't have it, call here at the desk. My name is xxx.


This goes back and forth several times with Avis Rep insisting that the sunglasses were at Lost and Found but can't explain how it got there so quickly... and won't tell Mr Lainys where Avis/Budget Lost and Found office is.

Next morning I called Lost and Found. A very nice lady did answer and told me that the basket from Avis did not contain any sunglasses. Also she did not receive the basket till this morning. Nothing was handed in from the day before.

Called Avis SNA and asked for Mr XXX. Seems he's off for the next two days. Spoke to the CS lead at the desk. She explains that she has not heard of any sunglasses and gave me the number of the AVIS/Budget SNA airport manager (?) - 949 660-5235. So far all this gets me is a voicemail saying that a manager will call me back.

Can any FTer offer suggestions on who else I can contact or write to? I've told Mr Lainys to write off the glasses however he feels Mr XXX lied to his face. I thought he was being paranoid but after getting no return calls (after leaving 2 voicemails) from the "Airport Manager" number ... I'm beginning to wonder too.

I'm sure Avis T&Cs probably say something about "items left behind at own risk" etc... Still it is disappointing that a 1st time customer feels they were lied to and worse gets the run around, then is given a "manager" number that only goes to voicemail.

On the other hand... if the sunglasses do turn up I'd be more than happy to retract my statements of dishonest AVIS customer service and post on FT! (SIGH) guess that's wishful thinking.....

A few weeks ago I rented from a different airport and found sunglasses in the car. Cheap ones. I doubt you'll find yours again.

I left mine in a Camaro in PVD a few months ago. I called a few hours later & directed them to the glove box, where they found them. I spoke to the manager & she promised that they'd mail them the following day. I told her to add the shipping to my total, or I could give her my FedEx #. She said they'd just add a few bucks to my total to cover the shipping. They never did, and the glasses never came. I wouldn't hold out any hope.

The LAST time I bought a pair of sunglasses was a disaster. I bought a new pair of Oakley's in Arizona at a country club (so the price was probably 50% higher). I dropped off my rental car as the bus door closed, I realized I left them in the car, they called back and they couldn't be found! GO FIGURE! Your best best is to keep searching Ebay and you can probably buy them again!

depending on the airport, items are mailed out with startling regularity. in all honesty I know of a couple of locations that are so good at mailing stuff to you that some customers have Intentionally left items in the trunk properly labled with address and contact information and the items have gotten back to them.

I do not doubt that some items do not get back, But as an avis manager I had a preferred agent assigned (inbetween rushes and flights) specifically to mail back found items.

Avis has a lost and found log. Any item of percieved value is supposed to be logged into that book. Depending on the location there is a drop box where the service agent puts a tag on it (along with their name) for a periodic drawing or items are handed to leads who manually log it into the book.

items on the book to be logged in.

Date found, last Rental agreeement number, name/contact info of last agreement number, time contacted, tracking number/signature of mgr who sent off the item, comments.

That log book is auditable and customers occasionally are contacted by the Audit team to see if they received their item. When an audit is pending, often an audtor/qA member calls and books a "bogus" lost item to see if the station is properly logging items. Other times, the QA agent will intentionally leave an item in a car and see if that item ends up getting logged.

my station did indeed get audited this way. As soon as he showed up, he handed me his business card, informed me to notify they proper district managers (audits are suprise inspections) and went straight for the lost and found log to see if its 1, updated, 2 being utilized (pulled iterms out of the bin and checked for log entries), 3, if his items are there.

people have been fired for taking home tupperware bowls, so it will be interesting to see if the items do indeed show up.

I have personally dropped off hundreds of items at the post office. It was my regular thursday morning duty after car count and daily reports.

depending on the airport, items are mailed out with startling regularity. in all honesty I know of a couple of locations that are so good at mailing stuff to you....

I don't doubt that there are some good eggs. Our personal experience with AVIS SNA location is that it's a bad egg when it comes to lost and found (dishonest staff at the return location) and for the AVIS/Budget airport manager to return calls (NOT). I left a voicemail on 949 660-5235 last Thu and a followup voicemail on Fri. It's already Tuesday and still no call back. So far a big :td::td: to AVIS SNA location overall.

If someone said the sunglasses were found but later it disappeared, I would call the police for Avis - they have a thief working there.

I would call their corporate office. They do seem to get on issues.

I know this is not funny. Losing things is not a good feeling - valuable or not, you just wonder where your stuff went.

I can't resist, however...

With Avis, you wonder Where you stuff has gone 2 (Where2)
With Hertz, your stuff is NeverLost

:D

If someone said the sunglasses were found but later it disappeared, I would call the police for Avis - they have a thief working there.

I would call their corporate office. They do seem to get on issues.

I know this is not funny. Losing things is not a good feeling - valuable or not, you just wonder where your stuff went.

I can't resist, however...

With Avis, you wonder Where you stuff has gone 2 (Where2)
With Hertz, your stuff is NeverLost

:D

EZMONEE had posted earlier that Avis conducts random audits. I did call and write into corporate. Got the usual form reply saying that the local branch will be made aware etc etc... Maybe this will put them on the higher on the audit list. Avis form letter also re-stated the obvious clauses in their contract about them not being responsible (which I completely understand). At the end of the day, it's not the value of the item, it's was the actions of the local SNA branch and how they treated Mr Lainys that concerned me.

re: Neverlost :) Just before discovering that his favorite pair of wayfarers were missing, Mr Lainys proudly informed me that he managed to pack all the GPS related items without losing any of the accessories :) I had loaned him my Garmin Nuvi with its own nonslip dash bean bag for travels - The cradle, cigarette adapter etc.. all come apart and fit nicely into a grey US business glass amenity kit drawstring bag.