Joes

I had reserved a car from 6PM to 11PM at Avis location in Manhattan. I arrived back a few minutes after their 11PM closing so I returned it at 6:30AM the next morning. The total elapsed time was less than 13 hours so I was surprised to see that they hit me with a $10 late fee even though I was charged for 24 hours.
According to the agent, the new Avis policy is that if you return a car after the time shown on your original reservation, you get charged a late fee even if it is within 24 hours of picking up the car.

3Cforme

It would seem the fee policy isn't that new.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/avis/...ensions-2.html

IAHtraveler

From my experience, I've only been hit with the fee if I go past the original # of days and haven't been charged it in the OP's experience. However, well over a year ago, I got into the habit of just booking in increments of 24 hours, even if I only need the car x-days and 1 or 2 hours, to prevent fees like this. And if there's any uncertainty of when I might take the car back, I'll reserve it for a week or two and just return early.

bkafrick

Coming soon to an AVIS near you... Early Return Fees! We'll charge you $10 a day for every day you bring your rental back early.

Buster

Actually, I've already experienced that. I dropped a car off a half an hour early once, and was told that I had moved from a 2 day rate to a 1 day + hourly rate, thus adjusting my overall rate up dramatically.

IAHtraveler

Yup, I'm expecting that to start soon. And I know it's "people like me" that cause this, but I'll take advantage while I can.

Was that because your rate required a 2-day stay or had other stay requirements (Sat stay-over, etc) that you now failed to meet with the early return?

bkafrick

I've had that happen before. Especially when I didnt meet a certain qualification for the rate (friday night stay required, etc.).

My favorite is when my weekly rate turns into a daily+hourly rate, and its more expensive. I love that argument with the Agent...

"So you're saying, I could keep this car for 3 more hours, and pay LESS money than if I return it now... Please explain how that makes any sense to you, as a human being."

Usually a supervisor (or 1-800-AVIS) has to intervene to give me the lower, weekly, rate on my 4 day + 1 hour rental.

[sigh]

Buster

Nope. Pick up Friday evening, drop off Sunday evening, so I met the "Saturday stay" requirement. I took the car back and went shopping for a half hour, then came back. Very annoying.

Americanada

This just occurred to me this past week, after 20 years and thousands of rentals under my belt, and boy was I ticked off at the agent and not because of the charge that appeared (hey, corp stupidity moves to it's own beat), but because of their attitude.

First of all, my resv. was from 6 PM to 6 PM (3 days later).

I picked up the vehicle at 8 PM. I returned the car at 8 PM.

Upon noticing the late day charge, I asked for it to be removed and asked why the extra charge. So, yes, fine, they'll remove the $15 charge, but now I proceed to be lectured.

She proceeds to insist that the vehicle was due back at 12 Noon. (My original resv. noted that return was due back at 6 PM but forget that point for the moment - as God forbid it might look like I'm accusing some Avis employee of changing it.).

So I asked her if this was a new policy (never mind if it was around 2 years ago, I've never been charged a "day late fee" even though I always return vehicles prior to or later than hour indicated but within the 24 hour periods.

Once again, she repeats that the vehicle was due back at 12 Noon. Umm, yes I got that lady. However, is this a new policy.

"Sir, let me show you my screen" and she proceeds to whoop the computer around so that I can see the screen. "the car was due back at 12 Noon".

So help me God, if I had a . . . never mind.

Madam, I know it was due back at 12. However I'm still within the 24 hour period so when was this late fee policy instituted ?

She finally answers, "6 months ago."

Woo-hoo success. Now was that so difficult

Anyway, then she removes the $15 charge but removes the adjustment from the wrong section so the taxes associated to the amount were not removed. The taxes were so high they added over 40% to the tax. I ask her to correct the error and she now she has to go back reprint a 3rd receipt and add the $15 adjustment to the correct section but she still got it wrong . . .

I overpaid but forget it.

Frustrations galore.

USirritated

How this sort of stuff is handled all depends on who you are standing in front of. Forrest Gump was right, "Stupid is as stupid does," and sometimes we just end up standing in front of stupid, or rude, or ignorant, or lazy reps of any company, right? The converse is also true, sometimes we just end up standing in front of smart, or polite, or helpful, or diligent reps of any company. Stupid, rude, ignorant, or lazy reps will give you a hard way to go every time, but smart, polite, helpful, or diligent reps will make it smooth and easy every time.

I rented a vehicle at DCA from May 10-13. Upon pickup, I saw that my preprinted contract showed pick up for 1745 (5:45 PM) and drop off for 0700 (7:00 AM). I went into the Preferred booth, and asked the friendly, helpful (she was smiling when I walked in the door, and immediately said "how may I help you?") desk attendant whether she could change the contract to 1700 pick up and noon drop off (in case I decided to take a later flight). She went one better, without comment, she changed the contract to 1700 pick up and 1700 drop off, with no change in the rate, printed it out, and handed it back to me with a cheery "safe driving and have a nice day." I still returned the vehicle at 0700, but there was no change in rate charged.

I know that a lot of the people here are Preferred or better, and that one of the benefits of having status with Avis, or any car rental company, is to avoid the counter/booth, going straight to your rental vehicle and drive off. However, if you go to the trouble of having extra time added to your contract (but not going past the pick up time), as I did in the above example (and if you don't get a stupid, rude, ignorant, or lazy rep), it should help solve a bunch of problems.

bkafrick

That is, until AVIS newest fee is released... "Early Drop Off Fee"...

USirritated

And curiously, people are talking about a fee which does not yet exist on this thread, and what? Hoping that the Avis employees who are monitoring the Avis forum miss it? Why would anyone want to give Avis any ideas which would take money out of their own, plus everyone else's, pocket?

jackal

Oh, trust me, they're already aware of the idea. Dollar Thrifty does it, though Dollar Thrifty only charges the early and late return fees if you actually change the number of whole days. They don't charge the fee as Avis does for partial days that are still within the paid number of rental days.

USirritated

Still, please do not talk about creating any new fees. They do not need any help figuring out how to take more of our money!

bkafrick

I was going to mention the Muddy Feet fee and the Full Moon fee, but hmm, I better keep quiet, we dont want AVIS getting any ideas...