Shoddy Upgrade Offer and High Cost

Old Feb 12, 2017, 3:20 am
  #1  
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Shoddy Upgrade Offer and High Cost

I had a reservation for a mid size at Fort Lauderdale FLL airport and when I asked for an American car (as opposed to a Japanese one) the agent said he had something special for me, which was a full size Chevrolet, s "signature" car I believe. When I returned it 9 days later at Miami airport I saw that I had been charged $700 extra for the upgrade. At no point did the agent tell me there was an extra cost with this upgrade, which seems a bit unsporting. Of course, if I had known I would have refused, especially given the high price, and remained with whatever they offered me.

Needless to say, I thought the upgrade was complimentary and put my initials in all the spots required without checking properly, which will probably work against me in the end. Avis customer service was no help, saying I had to contact the office at FLL, and the second customer service agent I got was almost belligerent about it.

Needless to say, no-one at FLL answers the phone, so I will have to persevere (somebody answered once, but the manager was not available). Do you think there is any way I will get even a partial recovery with this? Reminder to you all, spend those extra minutes checking what you are signing for.
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Old Feb 12, 2017, 3:40 am
  #2  
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Unfortunate situation, and especially surprising with a company like Avis. Then again, agents typically get commission for upgrades, so given human nature, you're always going to encounter a bad apple here and there.

Two things to mention:

1. Sometimes rental companies will record the interation at the rental counter between the agent and the customer. It's possible that was the case here, so you might want to press them on this front since if it went down as you say, there would be a record of it.

2. You could try emailing Larry De Shon ([email protected]), President of AvisBudget and/or Joe Ferraro ([email protected]), President - Americas.
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Old Feb 13, 2017, 11:39 am
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Thanks for your response, AutoSlash. I've done a lot of rentals with Avis and things have nearly always been fine. I'm not sure emailing such higher management would actually yield a response.

I am still trying to reach the manager at Fort Lauderdale FLL, but it's a bit like trying to win the Florida lottery. I feel it's important to try and touch base with FLL, however, before going any further. Having made my reservation on the UK site of Avis I contacted customer services in the UK and they opened a "ticket" for me there, so the situation can be investigated. As for the credit card, no charges have shown up so far, presumably because the contract has not yet been closed.
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Old Feb 14, 2017, 3:32 pm
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$700 extra over 9 days is $77/day upcharge. Was it a Corvette?
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Old Feb 16, 2017, 2:20 am
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I'm local to Fort Lauderdale and occasionally rent from the Fort Lauderdale Downtown/Beach Avis location. I think they are managed by the same people that run the FLL location. One time when a representative is having system problems he had me wait while he "called the airport" for help.

If you can't get someone at FLL to answer, you may try calling this location. There probably won't be a manager there, but someone should pick up and may be able to transfer you or give you a direct phone number. You could also try asking for an email address.

Phone: 954-462-7400
Link to location information: https://www.avis.com/en/locations/us...lauderdale/j1j
Hours (all times Eastern): 8am to 6pm Monday-Friday, 8am to 4pm Saturday, 8am to 2pm Sunday

Last edited by IAHtraveler; Feb 18, 2017 at 2:08 pm Reason: updated phone #
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Old Feb 16, 2017, 4:47 pm
  #6  
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Originally Posted by canyoncar
$700 extra over 9 days is $77/day upcharge. Was it a Corvette?
You know, I'm not sure. It was something unnecessarily huge, a full size saloon car. It had all sorts of gimmicks, including being able to park itself and endless stupid noises to go with it. I tried to disable all the electronic rubbish, because I have been parking cars for 20 years without bashing them and I find all these noises frankly annoying. If you can't park a car, you shouldn't be driving it.

The agent gleefully showed off all its capabilities in the parking garage at FLL. I did point out to him that in the time that it took him to get the whole thing working and responding properly, I could have parked the car manually 20 times!

Originally Posted by writerguyfl
I'm local to Fort Lauderdale and occasionally rent from the Fort Lauderdale Downtown/Beach Avis location. I think they are managed by the same people that run the FLL location. One time when a representative is having system problems he had me wait while he "called the airport" for help.

If you can't get someone at FLL to answer, you may try calling this location. There probably won't be a manager there, but someone should pick up and may be able to transfer you or give you a direct phone number. You could also try asking for an email address.

Phone: 954-462-7200
Link to location information: https://www.avis.com/en/locations/us...lauderdale/j1j
Hours (all times Eastern): 8am to 6pm Monday-Friday, 8am to 4pm Saturday, 8am to 2pm Sunday
Thanks for the suggestions and tips. I finally got someone articulate enough on the phone to be able to tell me that the managers are super busy (I get the impression there's more than one), in meetings until 9h30am then literally "on the floor" all day. Sometime between 3 and 4pm things begin to calm down and they are more likely to be in their offices and able to check email.

The same person gave me the email address of the manager. So I have written a carefully worded and concise as possible email, without exaggerating or being inflammatory, appealing to the goodwill of the manager and asking if he would rescind the costs on this occasion. I carefully pointed out that at no time had I been informed of the cost of the upgrade.

Meantime, the contract has been closed, a bill has arrived at home and the inflated charge is showing on my credit card statement. I want to give the FLL station a chance to sort this out, before contacting the credit card people. To be honest, the utter best I am hoping for is a 50% reduction of the extra charge, but I still feel that will be unfair.
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Old Feb 16, 2017, 4:58 pm
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Originally Posted by Concerto
Meantime, the contract has been closed, a bill has arrived at home and the inflated charge is showing on my credit card statement. I want to give the FLL station a chance to sort this out, before contacting the credit card people. To be honest, the utter best I am hoping for is a 50% reduction of the extra charge, but I still feel that will be unfair.
I'm glad you finally got some better contact information. If this happened to me, I'd be expecting a full refund of the upgrade charge. Good luck.
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Old Feb 17, 2017, 3:10 am
  #8  
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I fear that if I try your number above, for the other Fort Lauderdale location, they will just refer me back to the FLL airport location. I too would like the extra charge fully refunded, but I feel I am standing on a slightly weak leg having actually signed off on it. It's a salutary reminder to be doubly vigilant the moment I sign something in the future.

Something similar happened 2 years ago at a hotel in England, where the response for an extra night's accommodation was so (deliberately?) garbled that I clearly didn't understand what was said. The next morning, instead of 45 I had been charged 145, and felt really stupid about it. I would like to develop some blanket strategy to deal with sort of thing at hotels and car rental agencies, like asking them to repeat clearly what it would cost or to write it down. The moment you step away from what has been prebooked or reserved, things get potentially dangerous. It's just a reminder to everyone on this forum who actually reads this to be eternally careful when it comes to signing for something.

So far, no reply from the manager at FLL airport, but I think he'll need a bit more time given the time difference to formulate a reply.
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Old Feb 18, 2017, 6:40 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by writerguyfl
I'm local to Fort Lauderdale and occasionally rent from the Fort Lauderdale Downtown/Beach Avis location.

...

If you can't get someone at FLL to answer, you may try calling this location.

...

Phone: 954-462-7200
Link to location information: https://www.avis.com/en/locations/us...lauderdale/j1j
Hours (all times Eastern): 8am to 6pm Monday-Friday, 8am to 4pm Saturday, 8am to 2pm Sunday
Hello writerguyfl, could you possibly alter your post to reflect the correct number of the Fort Lauderdale downtown Avis station? The current number connects to a very annoyed woman who seemingly gets a lot of "wrong numbers". You need to replace the third from last digit with a 4 instead of a 2.

Thus, 954-462-7200 becomes:

954-462-7400
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Old Feb 18, 2017, 2:10 pm
  #10  
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Originally Posted by Concerto
Hello writerguyfl, could you possibly alter your post to reflect the correct number of the Fort Lauderdale downtown Avis station? The current number connects to a very annoyed woman who seemingly gets a lot of "wrong numbers". You need to replace the third from last digit with a 4 instead of a 2.

Thus, 954-462-7200 becomes:

954-462-7400
Hah! Google the # and it's Adam & Eve Florist. Where I'm from, Adam & Eve stores don't sell flowers...
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Old Feb 19, 2017, 9:56 am
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Originally Posted by Concerto
You know, I'm not sure. It was something unnecessarily huge, a full size saloon car. It had all sorts of gimmicks, including being able to park itself and endless stupid noises to go with it. I tried to disable all the electronic rubbish, because I have been parking cars for 20 years without bashing them and I find all these noises frankly annoying. If you can't park a car, you shouldn't be driving it.
Sounds like an Impala:

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Old Feb 22, 2017, 4:10 pm
  #12  
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It was apparently a XTS Cadillac, according to the email that I received from the manager a couple of days ago! It was quite nice to drive around and not too bad on fuel.

Time to give an update on what happened. I would gladly post the manager's email here (minus names, of course) but I'm not sure if it's ok to do that. So I'll summarize it. I think the manager's native language must be Spanish, because his English is a bit weird in places. But the gist of it was that he understood that there was a misunderstanding at my end concerning the upgrade. He said he would forward $500 "to our accounts department" as a courtesy. He said that once I accept and sign for an upgrade then the signature "ensures us that the business transaction was acknowledged". He would have refunded me the upgrade if it was just a one class upgrade. But the the price difference between a full size car and the XTS Cadillac is $35,000, apparently (surely that refers to the cost of the vehicle).

I am happy to accept because I don't think that I am going to get anything much better than that. If I continue to pursue it, the cost of the hours and energy I spend on it will far outweigh the 200 dollars that I didn't get back. I wasn't informed about the cost of the upgrade, but I don't see any advantage in continuing to insist upon that.

Now all I have to do, apart from wait for the $500 refund, is wait for the Florida scam rip-off toll charges to start bouncing in.
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