Shirley Heights

Apologies to you, Snaxmuppet.

I must admit that the 'Ł900+' reminded me of your original thread.

Lesson learned - I must pay more attention before posting...LOL, not a good start...

Good luck and I hope this situation is rectified very soon.

snaxmuppet

No... your comment was valid... you should have made it as it needed explanation. Mind you... I am only going on what I am told. It could be connected I suppose but from what I was told it isn't.

Please keep posting All comments are welcome here (at least as far as I am concerned!!!)

deboyzoned

Best process. I also like someone mentioned ... video while inspecting car at pickup and drop off.

MPH1980

Yep - go carefully and slowly with the video.

It actually really helps with "did I miss that scrape/dent?" type worries when you see the car the following morning.

I also carry a dashcam on a portable mount now and make a point of having it running when I say to the guy at the booth "I found scratches here - here and here".

The funniest was when a whole section of the rail on the roof was missing. The guy couldn't get my explanation - I had to get out - walk around, show him one side, then show him the other. He just looked at the form and said "I don't have a symbol for that - so I'm going to go with dent".

But the dashcam saved me from a nasty windscreen chip repair as I was able to simply write "I have 3 days of dashcam footage showing the chip, it was missed because of how dark your garage is. Please contact me if you'd like to review the footage yourself." And never heard back.

'andad

I have rented from Avis literally hundreds of times, abroad and in the UK, some via BA and mostly independently. I have had a problem only once, in Namibia. We were given a car with non-functioning air-con, and the only replacement was next day, so we were in a hurry. The nicks and dents were not on the form but waived away with a "we know all about them", but I took dated photos later that day. On returning the car Avis insisted, despite the photos, that I had to pay for the damage and refused to tear up the deposit credit card copy. They were doing the same trick to every other pax at the desk, one lady about to miss her flight, in tears, paid up. Only when we were about to miss ours, and I said that I was prepared to miss ours if they didn't relent, did they give in. It seemd they were doing something similar to every customer, probably with a 90%+ success rate. A very stressful experience, only one out of hundreds trouble-free, but I do now insist on having the car checked, and getting a closing receipt stating that the car is OK. Lesson learned.

Concerto

The problem if I had done that is that the credit card company would simply see that I signed on the dotted line, regardless of whether I had been told or not that the upgrade carried a charge. So I didn't complain to the credit card company. I was definitely not told about the charge, but I should have checked carefully before signing. The whole thing still makes me angry on principle, but it happened at FLL way back in early February.

AlanA

There is a large discussion on a Florida Travel forum of the extra charges added to many BA Hols trips. Looks like Avis either have an issue or are deliberately charging wrongl

doctoravios

I agree, this can be tricky but most credit card companies recognise the situaton that car hire customers are in (being asked to sign for the rental agreement without having a copy of the final settlement) and will pursue a claim and are, indeed, jointly liable with the retailer/provider and must respond to a claim you make (and I find it is usually easier to deal with the credit card company than the actual retailer in these cirumstances). The key is whether you were informed of the final price at the time you signed the form. If you weren't, then it would be reasonable to assume you were signing based on the price of the original offer.

This is my experience also. I've always found Hertz to be professional and courteous whenever I've used them in the UK or USA.

snaxmuppet

Hertz might be better but they are a lot more expensive when compared to the BA Avis pricing... for good reason it seems

switch007

I think the biggest difference in service is whether I'm a tourist with a voucher and if I'm signed up to the loyalty program. Branch managers play a big role, too.

There are many variables, and one person might write off an entire company because of one bad experience at one branch (fair enough, I've done it too!)

Avis I've found great in the UK, not so great anywhere else (mainly Spain, Australia).
Hertz UK: I've rented about 5 times in 5 years from one branch, and had excellent experiences.
Thrifty UK: very picky about damage, but pricing can be very competitive.

The discounts on the flights with car+flight are hard to beat with BA sometimes. I got 4 days, E-Class Merc, vueling outbound, BA inbound to Bilbao for Ł160 once when the flights alone were about Ł200.

Because of the good discounts on flights, I would still book BA + Avis. The issues with them in Europe are rarely unique to Avis (i.e. downgrades, vouchers being 2nd class citizens, DCC scam, damage charges etc).

john205

Saw someone at FCO renting a car and satnav then found when he got to the car that it had built in sat nav so decided he didn't want to pay for the satnav anymore. They said they couldn't refund it and he had to take the satnav with him because if he didn't he'd be charged for it if it wasn't present on return.

I prefer to pay the Ł5 per day to my mobile company to take my data with me and then use satnav on that :-)

fastflyer

What kind of vehicle was rented?

Your receipt indicates ACCEPTED under Loss Damage Waiver and supplemental liability insurance. Both of those are normally costed at daily rates, and they could easily amount to $25 per day.

I also note that Chicago has a 21% (!) sales tax applied to this rental and also applied to the 11.1% concession fee and a 21-day total of $24.57 license recoupment.

Plus there are nontaxable fees totaling $2.75 to the city and $168.00 to O'Hare for their rental car building.

Per the receipt we start at 2094.00 final gross
less untaxed fee 2.75
less untaxed fee 168.00
taxed gross 1923.25
less sales tax 333.79
untaxed gross 1430.66
less concession fee 158.80
less license fee 24.57
raw gross cost 1406.09
less prepaid 908.53 (or 302.85 rental week/ 60.57 rental day -- a plausible number for the rental charge only for a minivan SUV)
yields a remainder of 497.56

That 497.56 would be 23.70 per day, which sounds suspiciously similar to what the two optional insurance coverages might cost.

I would wager that your package was for the rental car only, not any insurance nor any taxes and fees.

snaxmuppet

I use the data on my phone and just use Google Maps. Mind you... I travel mostly to the USA where I have data and calls included as if in the UK (3 at Home).

snaxmuppet

Group F - Nissan Rogue

Normally that would be true if I had actually accepted LDW but I didn't accept any additional services or insurances... it was booked through BA so CDW is included and I would imagine that that is why it says "included" but also why it indicates no charge.

Again... booked through BA so included.

Not so... it included CDW all taxes and fees. This is from the BA Rental Conditions...
So whilst I commend your maths unfortunately is isn't relevant for a BA.com booking as you just pay a single price.

I should point out that I have rented Avis cars in this way many times and my voucher has always covered all the rental cost on previous occasions... that is why I didn't look at the check in receipt... I just assumed it would be the same as it has always been... my mistake!

Gshumway

I had it more than once that Avis local station wanted to charge me extra past the voucher, but when pointing out that it should cover it all, they usual backed off.

I did however had two instances with Avis where I ended up having to do charge back. Once I handed in keys and registration (as it was done in Germany at that time), but later they tried to charge me for having to get a new copy for the registration.

Another time I had a flat tire the Sunday before flying back on Monday early morning. So we called Avis road side assistance, they sent a tow truck with replacement car .. which ended up being a car from Budget. Avis later tried to charge me a over $1,000 for that half day rental and tire replacement. This was supposed to be all covered as rented, so took a major fight too.