Unexpected car hire charge by Avis
 

I recently returned from a trip where I booked the flight and car hire together as a package with BA.com. The car was booked for the entire duration of the trip and paid for in advance as a package along with the flight.

However, I have just noticed that my credit card has been charged an extra £915 by Avis for the car hire!!! The car was undamaged and it was full of fuel so I was not expecting any further charges.

Surely if I booked the car through BA then I should not have been charged by Avis?

What does your rental agreement say about rates? Did you accept an upgraded car, did you agree to any add-on charges, did you return to another location than was agreed? Did you receive a receipt upon returning the car, what does the receipt say? What did avis say when you called them?

Hi,
We regularly hire a car with BA and twice Avis have tried this on with us. In fact when we Googled it you will see just how many people have the same problem.
For us they told my husband it was for the extra insurance that they said we agreed to and signed for.
We always take out our own separate policy to cover excess so there's no way we would want their expensive excess insurance and I remember refusing this offer when we picked up the car, however we were in a hurry and the Avis man said to my husband " just sign here and here for the keys"
It was our fault for not reading what we had signed for because one of the signatures was accepting insurance!!
My husband complained afterwards to head office and showed them our own excess policy and they refunded it eventually.
It leaves a bad taste with Avis but I have read that many companies adopt this practise as well.

LOL!

No speeding... no damage... all tolls paid... no parking fines.

I'll ask Avis as you suggest and I have contacted BA customer service to ask what has happened.

PS Just got on to the Avis web site and downloaded my receipt. There were no additional charges such as damage or fines etc... the entire bill came to just over 2000USD and they only credited me 600USD for the BA booking. I have also checked the booking on MMB and it clearly states I booked the car and have paid for it with almost no additional fees.

I am certain that Avis should not have made this additional charge and according to the BA T&Cs and my booking I can see no provision for it either.

This is my understanding of the situation. BA issue vouchers that should pay the total cost. However the value on the vouchers are less than what avis' system wants to charge. Therefore they are perhaps charging you the difference. What they should have done is changed the charge so the voucher covers the total cost.

The Avis receipt will show a breakdown of the USD2,000. Perhaps you can share this with us as it will likely include some additional insurances etc, charged by the day, which you didn't realise you'd accepted at car pick up.

No... no additional insurances...

This is the breakdown... as you can see... I was only given a 908USD credit for the voucher

When were you due to collect and return the vehicle?

On the dates I actually did collect and return :)

The daily rate of $139.60 seems high for an ordinary car unless the location was something like NYC.

Looks like an error on the Avis side, they often work through concessions and some concessions are less on the ball than others. In this case they have charged your arranged deal with BA at supplier price and charged you at undiscounted rates, rather than given a netted off bill (where supplier rate = charged rate).

I would call BA on the BA Holidays number, I think you would be justified in using the 0208 number showing on your booking docket paperwork.

[You've certainly had a lot of things happen on just one trip!!!]

I agree... it was Chicago airport so I could imagine it was higher than a regional location but regardless... I paid for a package to include the car... there should not have been extra fees unless I was late back, damaged the car etc... which didn't apply.

I had a poor experience with Avis when I collected as LAS and the nice chap told me I had been upgraded to a far nicer car... when returned to SJC there was $300 extra to pay for the premium car. I refused to close out the rental and after a lot of frantic phone calls, they reluctantly took my word that I did not opt for the upgrade. Annoying thing is of course my signature was on the documents as you sign the electronic screen not paying attention to much after the long flight..

Not directly related but I've seen it happen almost every single time I rent from Hertz in the U.K. I usually book automatic compact, and they'll almost offer a special upgrade price to a Merc or Audi for 20£ a day. I turn it down and guess what, they give me a Merc or Audi anyway. Ugh.

That is exactly what happened to me, except in my case the surcharge was over $600. I knew I had been upgraded but like others here I signed on the electronic screen not realizing I would be charged for it. This was at FLL Fort Lauderdale airport (so the USA again) and the problem was compounded by the fact that I returned the car to MIA airport and they could do nothing about it. So I for one will avoid one way car rentals in the future.

It took quite a lot of phoning and emailing once back in Europe to sort it out and I got a good chunk of it refunded but not all. I took that as a lesson to be more careful in the future. But I feel it was a very dishonest and underhand practice by Avis. Remember, agents look for commissions from upgrades.

I no longer use Avis after a recent hire in Crete. Whilst the car was parked and I was shopping, someone smashed in to it. No note or police report. So when it was returned, I had a damage amount to pay. The petrol tank was also slightly less, so I was charged for 2.1L, plus their extra charges. All these costs were clearly detailed with amount in EUR, and I don't have an issue with any of these costs.

What got my goat was when I was handed the summary of the charges and total in EUR for my signature, there was a sentence that I was asked if I wanted to be charged in GBP (at their low exchange rate) and had accepted. No such conversation took place and I missed the addition of this sentence when signing as I was rushing for a ferry. I paid with my Lloyds Bank Amex (which doesn't allow Dynamic Currency Conversion) and also has 0% FX fees. That devious practice is why I will no longer use Avis.

Same for me. I booked the smallest automatic they had, and they really tried to get me to upgrade to a larger diesel car "since the fuel economy would be so much better". Only problem was the diesel was double the price of the one I rented! I ended up with a 1.2 VW bug, hardly a gas guzzler; it was quite economical for the trip I did.

I do BA Flight plus car a lot of the time ...

The Net Charge at the bottom of the Invoice of 1185.47 USD equates to about 908 GBP at todays rates (close to 915 GBP that you have been charged)

Secondly, when i return the car I always ask to close out the invoice there and then. First check the invoice to ensure the Net Charge is 0.00, then sign it.

On occasion, they have tried to charge me a "Fuel fillup fee" upon return, even though the tank is full, so i show them the fuel receipt and ask them to remove the charge and they do.

I've had similar issues with Avis, I used to rent over 100 days a year on business trips and I was caught out by Avis 3 times - always at US holiday airports. Dishonest charges, for insurance I specifically said I didn't require, for upgrades that were supposed to have been complimentary, charged at a different rate than booked. Every time they tried to blame me for their dishonest modus operandi. These were in addition to the many false charges added for fuel when I returned cars with a full tank.

Needless s to say, Avis were fired and I haven't used them for at least 6 years.

Avis are con artists.

I refuse to use them now after being regularly scammed by them. It's usually their franchises that add on the most obscure charges.

A few weeks ago in Tallinn I picked up my prepaid car (which took over an hour, but that's another story) spent an additional 10 minutes telling the rep that the extra driver was free.

I was then charged a late pick up fee.

Even though the opening hours are clearly shown as 0700-0200and I was there at 2100 there is apparently some small print that after 1930 you'll be charged extra.

I hope the CMA take their pants down, to me this is fraud as there is basically no way I can use the prepaid car for the price I've paid.

I've sent my Avis Preferred card back and told them to remove any trace of me from their system. I've also provided feed back to the CMA.

I agree. Avis are dreadful. I've used them twice and both times they've attempted to overcharge. I think they just hope that customers don't bother checking (especially if someone else is paying for them).

Don't waste your time speaking to Avis. Go straight to your credit card company and raise a section 75 claim.

The advice given to close the rental and get a final receipt - even if you are rushing - is the best one.

I've had a few issues like this - one where they 'forgot' to book in the car so charged me for an extra week!

I think you're supposed to contact Avis customer services in your home country. I've always had my issues resolved quickly doing this.

Is it just me or are the rental car companies the Used Car Salesmen of the 21st century?

Curious - I've never had trouble with Avis, except once at SAV where they tried to bill me for only having 1/4 tank when it was clearly showing 3/4. Fixed on the spot.

OTOH, I've had windscreen chips and damaged tires/wheels, and never been billed despite these items being excluded from the insurance.

I use Avis on a weekly basis and rarely have any problems. I'm always upgraded to a much nicer car, pick up is generally quick and easy, with no need for signatures and I haven't had any problems with returns.

On a couple of occasions I've been overcharged due to what is clearly an admin. issue, rather than an attempt at scamming, and that's where their customer service seems to fall apart. It can take months and many phone calls to get a refund from them, which is very frustrating. In this respect they're no better than BA!

We had a BA fly drive car from Avis last month for 3 weeks.

Picked up the car and the guy tried to pressure us into paying $9.95 a day ($208 total) for a satnav. Refused and then discovered the group of car we had booked have satnavs fitted as standard.

The guy also tried to persuade us to buy a full tank of petrol and a big sign board behind the desk said 'local gas stations charge $2.20 a gallon". Refused, got out the airport and found local gas stations charging between $1.94 and $1.99 a gallon.

Sharp practice but not really surprising.

I've had this once before (though not the huge sum the OP has) and it was because the vehicle was collected from LHR T3-4 whereas the booking with BA was collection from T5 (something I've never been able to change). Thus a new rental had to be created hence the charge. I don't know if this applies in your case, or if its primarily due to cost of flight and hire car being less than the car hire itself?

Anyway you need to deal directly with BA who will hopefully sort this as quick as they did for me, refunding my card.

OP could either read endless speculation about what happened to someone else on another occasion or contact BA and advise of what happened and have BA sort it out with Avis.

Absent OP having changed the reservation, damaged the vehicle, or had Avis top off the tank, there is nothing which ought to have been charged.

We had random charges appear after our rental in Canada at Christmas. It was only a small amount but I had a receipt for 0 from the station.

I phoned Amex and queried it and they said that they would be taking it up with Avis direct as I pointed them at all the issues on google with Avis.

I know we should probably move this thread to the Avis forum, but in the meantime here's my twopennyworth:

A previous employer had a corporate deal with Avis hence the loyalty scheme did its job and I continued to book with them even when I'd moved on :rolleyes:

Overall I found them fine on day-to-day basis, albeit terribly stingy with upgrades, but appalling at honouring their various promotional promises...

I did get fed up over time though and when a signing bonus from Hertz dropped into my inbox I though "why not ?".

My goodness, what a difference ! Upgrades went from 1 in 20 to 19 in 20. Customer Services are in Ireland and couldn't be more helpful (Avis are exactly the opposite :mad: ) Hertz promotional integrity is not great either but having a good CS team to sort it out helps a lot.

2 years later I have never looked back - frankly I would pay extra to use Hertz over Avis, they are that much better...

Even the shuttle bus experience at LHR is good - frequent with friendly drivers. BA have a really rubbish partner in Avis :(

There are several threads on the dibb website (a disney planning site) about this exact same problem so its affecting quite few other people as well. BA have been quite helpfull to those that have spoken to them about this.

I am a bit surprised by reading this. I've rented with Avis a couple of times and never had any problems. Maybe I was just lucky though!

This happened to me a few times (unexplained charges from Avis, e.g. on one invoice they've added "MISC" and could not explain what it was). These were usually reversed after a few rounds of emails or otherwise through Amex.

Interesting stories and comments... thanks :)

BA Holidays are investigating.

There is a big hole in Avis accounting.

Avis are looking in to it.

Seriously - thanks for posting on here. I am now suitably warned.

+1.

I had something similar before. I just queried the charge with AMEX who deducted it from my bill and I never heard anything again.

Car hire firms are notorious for this and I'm sure that credit card forms are used to having the charges disputed on a daily basis.

I hire Avis mainly in two locations; Oxford, UK and Munich, Germany. Never had any problems at Oxford, but have issues in Munich about 90% of the time.

1. Free second driver is often/usually charged for
2. Fuel charged for even though returned full
3. Voucher value doesn't match rental price.

so I now always make a point of;

a. Waiting to check the car in
b. Going to the counter to query/fix the charges (usually resolved then, sometimes not)
c. Email Avis (to fix charges) or BA (to fix Voucher-value problems).

It's a pain in the butt, but now I'm resigned to it. Munich had, for a time, an *awful* station manager(?) who would even refuse to look at the final invoice after checking the car back in.

The trouble is, are any other companies any better? And the "flight & car" pricing makes the trouble almost worthwhile.

Haven't had any problems at T5. Counter and car are at Airport Car Park. I walk in and my keys and paperwork are all ready.. Inspect the car and if any issues I get them to note it and then I'm off. Return the car on time or early, close the booking and get my invoice printed. And then off the GF lounge.

Great staff and always get a free upgrade(s)

Good luck to OP and hope it is resolved soon.