Avis was very Naughty at LHR
 

Picked up a rental at LHR today. I had booked online with the pay upon arrival option for the price of 107.80 GBP. I came to pick up the car 1.5 hours early, they said no issue as long as you bring the car back without exceeding that you do not exceed the 4 days. I picked up the same car i had booked and took no extras (insurance, fuel, etc.).

I asked them for the rental contract before leaving, they told me 'oh don't worry sir we will email it to you'. I drive off, come home, check my emails and see that my card was preauthorized for 500 GBP and that the estimated cost for my rental will be 227 GBP! I call avis immediately and ask them, and they said hmmm that is weird, we can see on the booking that you booked the car for 107.80 GBP! They said they would call me back. They called me back and said the balance is zero, and not to worry as you are not formally charged until you return the car.

I am not happy and i do not trust them. Will I be safe?

It is so naughty of them, the email says rental agreement 'e signed', but in reality I did not sign anything!

For future reference, I would always insist on a paper contact. I've been stopped by the police (random insurance check) and they insisted on seeing the rental contact to check that it was my name on the contract.

It's hard to comment without seeing the price breakdown from the rental contract. It certainly could be explained by the extra day. The computer system only knows that you picked up 1.5 hours early, not that you also plan to return 1.5 hours early. It still has your original return time. This could in turn kick you from a daily rate (which is typically up to 4 days max) to a weekly rate (which typically starts at 5 days or rather 4 days and X hours). The other thing they could be adding on is prepaid fuel, but if you bring the car back full, you will be credited back for that. If you'd like to post the detailed price breakdown, we can certainly help you analyze it definitively.

Yes, I hate that new screen thing they've got - supposed to save me time but in fact just saves them money :mad:

I've been stopped as well but usually showing the app with the info usually works

Some time ago I had a reservation with Avis-Heathrow. I arrived on time but reserved car type was not available. Everything with Avis went bad thereafter. I will not patronize that location again!

Even when reservation a guaranteed model (like Avis Select) they can never 100% guarantee it will be available, because they are very much dependent on the cars being returned on time, maintenance etc...

Care you elaborate what else went wrong after that?

Usually I have great service at Avis Heathrow, but there was one occasion where I agreed to the extra £20-something a day to reduce the excess (the previous time that we had snow) on a three day booking that I had pre-paid through BA.

Unfortunally, after getting my credit card statement I was billed £187 after handing back the car and upon checking the bill on the Avis website there are all these extra insurances that I didn’t agree to. I’ve currently got a query on this bill going through the Avis system.