I recently booked an Avis car from Avignon TGV. In-car wifi was available, and having never tried this before, I thought I would give it a go. When collecting the car, I was given cursory instructions in operating this, but didn't bother to get it going until I had reached the hotel where I was staying. The device appeared to operate, but neither my phone, iPad nor laptop were able to connect to the signal. I thought that the signal where I was (Les Baux) may be poor, so tried again the next day in St Remy de Provence, and various other more urban areas - to no avail. I tried again each day I had the car, but failed each time to get any connection. When I returned the car, I told the guy who booked it in, that the wifi had never worked, but he merely gave a Gallic shrug. I think he said that we should contact customer services, but in any case I had no time to queue in the rental office as my train was due in about 20 minutes.

I contacted customer service via the Avis web site, but apparently had used the American site, so they forwarded my complaint on to the French customer service department. One month later I received a totally unsatisfactory response which failed totally to deal with another matter I had raised (extra charge billed when the rental had been 100% prepaid) and said I should contact the local office from whom I had rented the car about the wifi. When one makes a booking through a centralised booking process, one expects that complaints should be handled similarly; I suspect that if I do contact the local office, I will be given the brush-off, saying I should have raised the matter with them at the time.

Has anyone else had a bad experience with Avis in-car wifi; and is this the normal standard of customer service one can expect from their French office?