Another problematic rental in Italy
Oct 12, 2015, 4:46 am
#1
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Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: HEL
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Posts: 645
Another problematic rental in Italy
I've been using mainly Avis for my car rentals and in Italy every time run into some kind of issues with them, so I don't actually know why I have been so loyal to them. Very normal is that they try to charge extras that are already included in the price of the reservation, like additional driver and airport tax, and when asking for extras not included (like removing own liability of CDW and TP), they always give you price without VAT and then on the contract you find some other extra prices added to the price on top of the VAT. Their rental contract is very unclear and only in Italian, so it is extremely difficult to make sure everything is ok with it, and usually it is not, but you have to get the agreement and the pricing revised usually 2 or 3 times to get all the prices in place as agreed, and even then there might be something that is not right and as agreed. But I'm already used to that with them.
This time on arrival to their rental office at Milan airport the queue was quite long. Over 10 customers before us, waiting some 20mins for our turn, we were two persons renting the car. The normal hazzle with the price and agreement issues, once again. This time there was something new, the agent recommended us their fueling service telling that we do not have to refuel the car before returning and they will charge us only for the fuel used, with good price, and actually their petrol price was quite good. There is no doubt of misunderstanding how he presented the refueling service works, as we both understood the conversation with the agent the same way, and even discussed that before returning the car as it sounded like good service and quite tempting possibility. Found the car assigned to us, it had not been washed outside nor cleaned inside (as there was quite alot sand on the floor and some dirt on the seat). The radio-navigation system was set in Turkish language, which neither of us understood. We went to their office at the parking and asked them to set the radio to some understandable language, and the agent at the office just said quite unintersted in our problem that there are Avis guys at the parking, go ask them. And no, they do not have any maps to give to their customers. Off we went and after a while searching we found one guy that came and tried to reset the radio, with no luck, but luckily his colleague managed to do it, which was good, as the navigation system would have been unusable on language neither of us understood.
When driving back to the airport we thought we'll try their refueling service the rental agent recommended us. That was a mistake. Instead of charging us only the fuel used (as we were told when renting the car), they tried charging us fuel to the empty tank. When discussing with the agent at their office, she didn't pay any attention to what was told us when renting the car, but insisted that no company has that kind of system! She also took up that we had been given bigger car than we had in our reservation, with a tone that we should be grateful for them and not complaining of this issue as we were wrong, but I told her that we had a voucher for free upgrade. Finally she said she will do us a big favour and reduce the charge for the fuel, but for the next time we should know that they will charge it for the full. The final charge was more than it should have been, but we didn't feel like continuing arguing with her anymore.
Avis used to have a slogan "We try harder". It seems that at least in Italy it has been transformed into "We screw you harder". Thank you Avis for the years gone, but in the future me and my wallet will vote for renting the cars with some other company, as I am totally fed up with all the hazzle and poor service, and my wallet with the pricing issues.
This time on arrival to their rental office at Milan airport the queue was quite long. Over 10 customers before us, waiting some 20mins for our turn, we were two persons renting the car. The normal hazzle with the price and agreement issues, once again. This time there was something new, the agent recommended us their fueling service telling that we do not have to refuel the car before returning and they will charge us only for the fuel used, with good price, and actually their petrol price was quite good. There is no doubt of misunderstanding how he presented the refueling service works, as we both understood the conversation with the agent the same way, and even discussed that before returning the car as it sounded like good service and quite tempting possibility. Found the car assigned to us, it had not been washed outside nor cleaned inside (as there was quite alot sand on the floor and some dirt on the seat). The radio-navigation system was set in Turkish language, which neither of us understood. We went to their office at the parking and asked them to set the radio to some understandable language, and the agent at the office just said quite unintersted in our problem that there are Avis guys at the parking, go ask them. And no, they do not have any maps to give to their customers. Off we went and after a while searching we found one guy that came and tried to reset the radio, with no luck, but luckily his colleague managed to do it, which was good, as the navigation system would have been unusable on language neither of us understood.
When driving back to the airport we thought we'll try their refueling service the rental agent recommended us. That was a mistake. Instead of charging us only the fuel used (as we were told when renting the car), they tried charging us fuel to the empty tank. When discussing with the agent at their office, she didn't pay any attention to what was told us when renting the car, but insisted that no company has that kind of system! She also took up that we had been given bigger car than we had in our reservation, with a tone that we should be grateful for them and not complaining of this issue as we were wrong, but I told her that we had a voucher for free upgrade. Finally she said she will do us a big favour and reduce the charge for the fuel, but for the next time we should know that they will charge it for the full. The final charge was more than it should have been, but we didn't feel like continuing arguing with her anymore.
Avis used to have a slogan "We try harder". It seems that at least in Italy it has been transformed into "We screw you harder". Thank you Avis for the years gone, but in the future me and my wallet will vote for renting the cars with some other company, as I am totally fed up with all the hazzle and poor service, and my wallet with the pricing issues.
Oct 19, 2015, 12:08 pm
#3
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Join Date: Sep 1999
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....Instead of charging us only the fuel used (as we were told when renting the car), they tried charging us fuel to the empty tank. When discussing with the agent at their office, she didn't pay any attention to what was told us when renting the car, but insisted that no company has that kind of system!....
Fuel Service Option
Pay in advance for a full tank of fuel and bring the car back empty. Our rates for this fuel service option are comparable to the current local retail pump price. If you select this option, you should bring the car back as close to empty as possible, because no credit or refund will be given for unused fuel.
Pay in advance for a full tank of fuel and bring the car back empty. Our rates for this fuel service option are comparable to the current local retail pump price. If you select this option, you should bring the car back as close to empty as possible, because no credit or refund will be given for unused fuel.