I rent from Avis probably once a week somewhere in the US. President's Circle and all that. I travel to a lot of small airports and Avis is either only game in town or the only option other than Enterprise (who usually flat refuses to do after hours - sometimes they aren't open at the airport for ANY flights - just like 9-5).

I picked up a car from CLT and returned to Concord, NC Airport. I had flown out of one airport and in to the other, so had to reunite with my car. Renting a car one way is about half the price of a taxi or Uber for me and if you've ever gotten an Uber from CLT, you'll know that if Avis works as it should and you have a car assigned in the app to get in and go, renting a car is faster than getting Uber.

I had the car maybe 45 minutes and put 25 miles on it. I did stop and put gas in (Corolla, took all of 1 gallon with me topping it off) and even went inside to get a receipt. A lot of my rentals in small locations are because there is no ride share or reliable taxi so most of the time under 75 miles. I'm very familiar with the fuel surcharge that's automatically added - even had it added for electric vehicles. On the rare occasion I return and interact with a human I show the receipt. Or after the fact write to Avis CS and get the $14.99-16.99 back a few days later.

At Concord, the young woman working the counter first snapped at me because there were no parking spaces left in the rental lot and I parked blocking other Avis cars just like others had done. I asked that she go ahead and remove the fuel service fee because it was under 75 miles and offered to show my gas receipt. She said NO. I said I know I drove under 75 miles so it gets automatically added unless I show a receipt. Her explanation was "it is not a fuel service charge. You didn't drive enough miles on the car to qualify for your rate. You have to drive at least 75 miles for us to give you unlimited miles. It is a penalty for not driving the car enough." That sounds like quite the load of garbage. I told her that I deal with this almost weekly and I get the charge removed either on return or from customer service, per the rental agreement terms. She tossed someone else's agreement on the counter at me and said "See! This is where it says under 75 miles you pay the charge."

I asked for a printed receipt to review it before leaving. Then told me that "I'm not going back and forth with you. You'll get the receipt in your email and then you can ..... about it to someone else." I asked for her name and left as at that point we were the only two people in the terminal building and I didn't want her calling the police (as Google Review says she has before by name).

I got one receipt with no fuel service fee. Then 20 minutes later I got another one with the fuel service fee added. So clearly she went back and added it on purpose.

Feels like I'm getting to write to Avis far too often these days. I keep getting pop up ads for some class action suit against Avis for hidden charges. Maybe that's interesting....