This is news to me , very disappointing to say the least

Shocking
 

I would have expected what happened to you from a local low cost rental company but not form an Avis. And the answer form their head office is shamefull. They will lose me too as a client.

The only time I have had this kind of trouble is when I booked the reservation on USA site and it got the date transposed from MM/DD when transmitted to local reservation system. I ended up being a no show in target country.

Has not happened since, so perhaps I had the finger problem.

If Avis can't control the practices of its franchises, then it has no business franchising.

Sounds like an episode from "Indonesia Seinfeld!"

"You can take a reservation, you just can't Hold a reservation..... "

Matjes - It appears you have covered all the bases re your "no show" rental car. You have gotten an explanation and apology. I personally loved the explanation(and their wording) put forth by Avis Indonesia HQ in Jakarta! And honestly - it did make sense.

You just had a touch of Bad Luck. Stay Loose.

This does tarnish the worldwide brand of Avis, and I think HQ should care about it. I generally use Avis when traveling overseas simply because I expect the US licensor of the brand to assert some quality control over the service that is being provided under the Avis brand. Apparently that's not the case.

You have very low standards for a business if you "loved" their explanation. Their explanation 'makes sense' but what does not make sense is leaving a client stranded in an airport in a foreign country. I believe the response says they tried to contact other rental companies. They should have also contacted their client. They could have also provided transportation to the client's hotel. Moreover, they failed to respond to matjes for a month. That's unacceptable to me. But YMMV, I guess.

I think the "love" comment was sarcasm but I agree with you about Avis' response and moreover, agree with the OP that stopping dealing with them is the only solution.

Unfortunately, one could substitute about every rental car company, hotel chain and airline for Avis. None of them really care about customers. Long gone are the days where a letter to the corporate president's office got you a fast written apology and an offer of some sort. Being a "premier" member of theirs rarely makes the difference. There are plenty of suckers out there so why bother.

Companies have now also realized that the bad publicity of social media complaints is short term and a few weasel words will soon mitigate it.

Utterly unacceptable behavior from Avis.
1. To take a reservation and then send the confirmation email means the customer stops looking, i.e. they lose their opportunity to find another rental.
2. To run out of cars on day X and not do a search for customers before day X who will be impacted is poor customer service. "OK, so Beyonce's entourage just took the last ten vehicles for the 25th. Who is coming in on the 25th? We'd better warn them."
3. To not take any responsibility for a problem that they created on the day the OP showed up is lazy and rude. Could have been dangerous too: there are parts of the world where being a newly-arrived traveler of a certain type is distinctly not plain-sailing: single woman, LGBT person, person of color, wheelchair user, elderly, whatever.
4. the followup response from Avis was laughable. A good response would have been a good response even in poor English after all. It's the message that is hopeless. They might as well write "we don't care" in 72-point Arial.

Seems to me that the OP should continue to shame Avis as long as their energy for doing so continues. The local press can help here too.

I have my own Avis horror story, dating back seven or eight years, to a rental in the UK, and since then, National have got all my business.

Avis stiffed me in San Diego too
 

Had confirmed reservation through Costco for Avis car rental in San Diego at the hotel I was staying at. When we got there, not only did they not have a car for us, they had 8 other customers who they were stiffing too. Would not get cars from the airport, which did have stock. We went to an Enterprise location and rented a car, which cost more, but at least we had a car. When I returned I mentioned the situation to Costco Travel, and they got me a refund from Avis for the difference in rental amount! Avis has terrible customer service, but Costco rules.

While I've never had an issue renting in the US with Avis (a preferred member), I've had problems on each of my two overseas (Europe) rentals. Both times damage was claimed and hundreds (think 400+) of Euros of damage charged to me, and in one instance extra fuel was charged even though I filled up and had proof. US customer support was of no help, but eventually my credit card insurance /chargeback came through.

I can understand the problem the agency had with the cars - but not contacting renters and simply canceling the rental is not acceptable. My suggestion is to send the CEO, Larry DeShon a short clear email regarding the issue. He over saw the foreign groups before becoming the CEO.

http://www.avis.com/car-rental/conte...navId=T6M21S04

[email protected]

I have reasonable success with such emails.

I must admit, I too had Seinfeld flashbacks reading this post.

Avis Indonesia is indeed operating seperately from Avis North America. Still I would expect Avis to try harder to protect it's image. The customer doesn't care if Avis Indonesia is a different company from Avis N-America, he trusts the brand, he expects the same level of service and professionality everywhere he rents from Avis. He would probably opt for a brand he knows in a country he doesn't exactly for those reasons.

So in my suspicion those bad experiences in other countries can have repercussions for Avis North America. I would point that out to them and would kindly explain that it has damaged your trust in them and if it's not resolved you will no longer rent from them not in Indonesia, not in your country and not in North America.