Originally Posted by
jags86
I had my own issues with a vehicle return in Iceland and I can tell you it worked out fine although it was quite distressing initially (and EXPENSIVE for something that I truly believe was a shakedown of pre-existing or non-existing damage). You will pay for the damage at the point of return. You’ll then open a claim with AMEX and have to request some documents from the rental car agency. If Avis is anything like the rental car company I used, they will send all the information to you in Icelandic. AMEX will send the paperwork out to be translated. About 2 or 3 weeks later it will come back and you’ll get reimbursed by AMEX. I hope you took lots of pictures. With any luck all of this will be completed before your AMEX bill is due.
You can always dispute the charge, in fact I did do this after the rental car agency had not replied for my multiple requests for information, but ironically while I was on the phone disputing the charge I received an e-mail back from the agency with the requested documents. Once I was reimbursed I cancelled the dispute.
Thank you SO much for sharing your experience! This, along with the next comments from other posters, cements my intuition that it seemed a bit knee-jerk to file a dispute right away. I hope Avis will just behave a bit better than the company you used did and that I will not have to escalate the matter as a dispute to get them to respond. I am glad your process sounds like the one I went though at the point of return. However, I am hoping that since Avis is a large company they will send the documenation in English.
Unfortunately, I did NOT take "a lot" of pictures. Why do you think this is important to have on hand? Now I am nervous!
Also, I just got an email from AMEX about the claim, saying they would handle contacting Avis. I am curious as to why you chose to contact them yourself? Did you do so after AMEX tried and failed? Or was it taking too much time? Or was the process just different for you (maybe a slightly different card has slightly different procedures with this)?
Thank you again so much for your input! It's very helpful!