Rented a car from Hamburg 6 weeks ago, got a crack in the windscreen (no arguments about this, stone chip on the A1 in the pouring rain) and got billed €691 for the damage.

Now, I'm not arguing that the damage happened on my watch, but given that:
a) there was already a small chip in the windscreen when I took it out (marked on the checkout doc), and
b) a franchised M-B dealer in London would only charge me around Ł300 (€450) to replace the windscreen,
then I think that the charge is outrageous

I called the Avis 'damage department' in Germany about three weeks ago and they have filed a query with the local station - I called back again last week and was told that they were still waiting and I should call back in a fortnight.

Does anyone know any way I can escalate this ? Do Avis have any (internal or public) standards for responding to these queries ? Should I query the amount with Amex ? Should I just bang my head against a brick wall (if the Germans are anything like the US) ?

For completeness this was a business rental booked directly by me on my private Amex card (usual system for us, we're not big car renters, everyone else takes taxis everywhere but the miles come in useful ), no insurance on the Amex and I will be passing the charge onto my company but it p!sses me off when Avis overcharge so obscenely.

thanks for any guidance.

1> contact Amex. Explain the situation. Contest the charges, not the bill. allow for partial payment of the bill, minus the repair charges.

2> avis europe is not connected to the former cendant, so any complaints would be like complaining to the corporation and then the corp forwards the complaint to the franchisee.

3> demand bill of repair. Ya see, in the US, most states have requirements that repairs be done at "cost" not at "market rate". So usually its much cheaper to let the car rental company fix it rather than to get outside estimates. I wrecked a car from a rental company and it cost me 340 to fix when the estimate from 3 different repair shops was at least 40% higher.

ezmonee,

thanks for the help/advice.

tried this - Amex said that if I'm only disputing the amount of the repair charge, rather than the fact that there *is* a repair charge, then they can't put a stop on it. Thanks Amex.

Yup, that seems to be how it's working - complain to Avis Germany and they've forwarded it onto the franchisee. Just trying to get a handle on how they're supposed to resolve these kind of things.

I guess that's what I'll have to do at the end if I get nowhere else.

It's just all such a balls-ache.

I read this as your company doesn't do a ton of business with Avis? so there's not much leverage. Otherwise I'd suggest having your travel department call their counterpart in Avis and get this worked out. They never seem to bill us for anything (and I've seen coworkers turn in some cars with embarrassing damage). But I think in our case it must be accounted for in the contract.

right about the size of the company - just a small marketing firm with no contract with Avis at all. I only use them because having a preferred card makes pickup pretty quick and easy.

Oh well, back on the phone again this afternoon.

Just to square the circle:

Tried to call 'damage department' last Friday, no response on 4 x calls (going through to German answerphone message) so sent email to UK customer service asking for assistance.

Called 'damage department' again yesterday, picked up on one ring, agent checked record and told me that the entire sum for damage had been refunded due to their not receiving a proper reply from the station.

So it took a while but ^ to Avis.