Avis left me stranded!
 

A couple of weeks ago, I made a reservation for a one day rental car to be picked up today at 5:30 PM at ITH (Ithaca, NY). The woman on the phone told me that the counter closes at 5 PM on Saturdays, but they will wait for you if you make a reservation.

I arrived right on time at 5:30 PM, and there was no one at the counter. I walked over to the pay phone and called Avis. She said she would transfer me to customer service; the result was a recorded message saying that customer service is open 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM Monday through Friday.

I called again and explained the problem, asking her not to transfer me to customer service since they are closed. She put me on hold, and came back and said that there should be two people at the Ithaca counter now. I said, "One moment; let me go check." I walked around the corner, saw no one there, and came back to the phone 10 seconds later to discover I had been disconnected.

I called the third time and explained the problem, asking her not to transfer me or hang up on me. She said that the reservation says I will be there at 4:55 PM, and the flight information says "US Airways" but has no flight number.

I clearly remember saying that I would be there at 5:30 PM and being told that they will wait for me, since the counter closes at 5:00 PM. The 4:55 PM entry is obviously the latest time you can pick up a car before their official closing time.

I rented a car because the hotels in Ithaca tonight are sold out or horribly expensive (Family Weekend at Cornell University). I was going to drive to Elmira or Binghamton and stay there.

Instead, I had to pay $15 for a taxi to go to the only hotel less than $100, which is the Wonderland Motel, a cheap one story motel. This hotel is so cheap, I have to choose between plugging the AC adaptor into my laptop and connecting to the phone line because the two are at opposite ends of the room. $95 plus tax for this! :mad:

My short visit to Ithaca has been ruined because of Avis. They should cancel their "We try harder" ads.


When I complain to Avis, I am planning to demand three things from them, and I would like FlyerTalker's opinions (too much, too little?)


1) Documentation showing that the agent who took my reservation has been fired

2) A free one-day car rental

3) Reimbursement of the $30 taxi fare

Demand #1 is a major overreaction, and there's no way you'd ever get it even for something significantly larger than this. Sending you documentation of something like that could get them sued by the agent.

#2 and #3 are both pretty reasonable. I'd say ask for both of them, and don't be surprised if you only get one.

#1 is pushing it

I had something similar happen at Dollar in LGA about a month ago. Arrived to pick up my car - the counter was staffed but they simply said they had no cars left. After a long discussion during which they basically said that they did not have the responsibility to provide a car or alternative transportation ( I asked for them to pay for a taxi to my destination) unlike hotels and airlines and my refusing to move they did finally come up with a car.

Has anyone researched what a car rental companies responsibilities are if you have a reservation. Dollars point was that many people no show or make multiple reservations as your card is NOT charged if you no show , so they overbook. That is probably a valid point. By the time I got home I got involved in other things - but I am curious what the laws are

Why would Avis be sued? The tape will clearly indicate the agent is incapable of working at a job that involves answering the phone.

Tape???

Often call centers will record (on tape or electronically) the conversations involved for "quality assurance purposes".

It seems to me that firing someone over one error is a bit unfair :o (You know glass houses and such). Even worse the person may have been reading off an inaccurate data sheet.
Now if there was a pattern of the person making up stuff that would be different, but of course you could have no way of knowing that.

What about an apology? I'd put that at No.1, although give them a chance, it might come automatically.

well
 

Quite. You're going to get nowhere if you go in guns blazing.

I don't go in with guns blazing when something goes wrong, but when I get no response to a problem, I get mad. For example, one time the LGA Crowne Plaza overcharged me on a phone bill. I asked for a correction of it at the front desk and they refused, insisting that it really is long distance to call from Queens to Manhattan. That is when I load my guns and start blazing them.

Screw-ups are one thing; ****up after ****up after ****up is what makes me mad.

If you had tried to book this on-line, you wouldn't have been able to. If the counter/office is closed,it's closed.
It might have been prudent to directly contact the local office, not just a CS agent.
To expect an employee to stay after working hours for someone, who may or may not show, on a weekend is to have much faith in their fellow man.
I'll be surprised if Avis does much for you. Your best argument (there will be no tape) is a copy of when your plane arrived and the "logic" of the situation.
By thw way, don't you receive email confirmation on your Avis reservations?

I called because I couldn't book it on-line, and I assume is why I didn't get an e-mail confirmation.

It is not my responsibility to call the local office for verification. It is their policy that they stay after hours, 7 days a week, to meet customers to make reservations.

And where did you find this (in writing)?

If you had arrived at 6 or later, would you expect them to stay?

FYI- there's rarely anyone at the Avis desk at ITH even during regular business hours.

Not to hit you when you're down, but your first mistake was flying US-imp-AIR-d-WAYS into ITH in the first place. Always fly into SYR, where the rental car counters are open until 1am.

If you're lucky, Avis might give you a voucher for a free day. But I don't htink you should expect much else, if their official hours were until 5pm.

As others have stated, you will not get very far with your demand #1. There are issues of confidentiality pertaining to personnel matter. Even if they were to fire the agent, they will not provide you with any such documention citing company policy of having personnel issues remaining confidential.

While we all can sympathize with your predicament, please try to be rational with your demands for resolution. In particular, consider that the agent orally informed you that someone should be there after 5:00 if you made a reservation. An oral statement often does not carry as much weight as a written one. Further, how often have we encounter a CSR who have provided misinformation over the phone?

Also, with a car reservation, often no credit card is required for reservation. As a courtesy, we are asked to call to cancel a reservation if we can't make it. In the past, I have not always applied such courtesy when I could not make it to a reservation that I made. Is it fair for us to expect them to wait without any guarantee on our part that we would even show up to pick up the car? I for one would hope that car rental companies would not begin to require that we gurantee our reservation with a credit as hotels currently do. That really takes away the "no-risk" feeling of making a rental reservation.

Anyhow, I hope you will get some form of acknowlegment from Avis for the error committed by one of its employees. I also do hope that you really consider the demands that you will be making to resolve your dissatisfaction.

The oral-promise part of this would seem to spell trouble, as it sets up a your-word-against-theirs situation. Could be the agent, if questioned, will just say they don't recall any of it, and there's probably not a tape. Under those circumstances I think you might get the free rental day, but it'll take an admission of error by the agent or a tape or something more substantial to get a money reimbursement, I'm guessing.

I don't care to know what the employee's name is. A copy of the termination document with personal information blacked out is all I want.

The after-hours part is irrelevant. The agent entered 4:55 PM in the reservation, so it's no surprise no one was there at 5:30 PM.

I have been misinformed in the past from other companies, but never have I been screwed over this badly.

I stayed in that crappy $95 Wonderland Motel in the middle of nowhere, which means I ate no dinner that night and ate no breakfast in the morning. I had no food for 22 hours in a row! Anything less than my three demands is unacceptable.

And if they dont meet them?

JS posted

I don't go in with guns blazing when something goes wrong, but when I get no response to a problem, I get mad. For example, one time the LGA Crowne Plaza overcharged me on a phone bill. I asked for a correction of it at the front desk and they refused, insisting that it really is long distance to call from Queens to Manhattan. That is when I load my guns and start blazing them.


BTW- it is a long distance call from Manhattan to Queens :D

Lifetime boycott.

It may seem like the outer boroughs are worlds apart but calls within the boroughs are local. :) That LGA hotel was pulling a fast one over JS. And he caught them obviously.

Not surprising that nobody was at the Avis counter waiting for you, I would think you should be compensated for the taxi fare, and hopefully a free day or upgrade in the future. You should have ordered in pizza and sent Avis a bill for that as well! ;)

In being proactive, if I'm going to arrive at a small airport such as the one mentioned here, I always call the manager of that airport's rental car agency in advance to make arrangements should my flight arrive after they're "closed." With Hertz Gold, I've always had success in having someone wait for me should I arrive within an hour or so after they're supposed to be closed. If not, then they would leave the keys and rental contract at the airline's checkin counter or baggage desk for me to pick up. I never trust that these arrangements will be made by the 800 number agent! Perhaps YMMV with Avis!

If flew into DBQ once, and called the local counter and was successful in getting a local agent to stay a half hour after closing time when I knew my connecting flight from ORD was going to be late.

Getting to the questions of the OP; why ask for them to fire the agent? You'd get futher if you begin your letter suggesting they might want to retrain their agents to handle these kinds of requests. Then state how this mis-information caused you problems, then suggest what they could do to fix it.

I agree with previous posters that demanding people be fired or stating that "I'll never do business with you again" won't help your cause

I'd be prepared to take your car rental business elsewhere. Will the agent be "re-trained" because of this? Probably. Admonished? Maybe. Fired? Not a chance.

I agree with the others who suggest that you take a more constructive approach to your complaint. I agree with your second and third requests, and your logic is sound there, but asking for someone to get fired over this is over the top.

Yes. Wanting someone deprived of their livelihood seems a trifle mean.

Prepare to be disappointed.

I feel your pain. I have missed arrival times by 2-5 hours a few times this year and it has inevitably led to problems. In another instance, I made a last minute decision to head home before a hurricane, got a 5:30 am flight, and found out that the CLE car rental center is closed from something like 11 pm-6 am. My travel agent called the center and was told that a security guard was available for returns while the center was closed and that the bus ran regardless. Imagine my ire if I had returned the car at 4:00 am and found no security guard.

That being said, I would have reasonable expectations and focus on a response that benefits me. I don't see that getting someone fired, assuming it was possible, does anything but stroke your ego. So, raise your demands (ask for full reimbursement of hotel and taxi and multiple free rentals) and negotiate or accept something less.

And don't tell me you're protecting the rest of us from an incompetent agent unless you're willing to devote full time to finding all of them and getting them fired. One less barrier to smooth travel (assuming it wasn't an honest error or emergency) won't do the rest of us enough good.

And feel free to change rental car providers. People do that every day, including those that switch to Avis because of some perceived slight at another agency. Let me know if you find one that's perfect and won't screw up my life for the next 15 years. I tend to think that the worst companies either improve or are driven out of business as the marketplace avoids them.

I think you should have a free rental coming as well as an apology from Avis. Actually, you should have a free car, a nice one, delivered to your house. And the employee who took your reservation should be fired. No, beheaded. And Avis should mail his or her head to your house as proof. And the dead employee's house should be sold at auction, and you should get the proceeds.

Be reasonable, for goodness' sake. Someone made a mistake. The difference between getting peeved and going berserk ought to be demonstrable negligence. There isn't any here -- just honest human error.

The more reasonable you are, the more you'll get from Avis. I dropped a polite note this summer after finding the Preferred booth at MHT closed on a Saturday night when it should've been open, and they sent me a bunch of discount coupons. Your insistence on a firing over a no doubt innocent mistake puts you in a very special category... the pass-this-letter-around-the-office, wow-can-you-believe-this-guy category.

Enjoy Hertz.

Asking for this is an invitation to be ignored for any reasonable request you include with it. Whoever gets your letter or phone call will write you off as an unreasonable hot head.

A free car rental is reasonable to ask for. Not sure about reimbursement for taxi fare since I doubt you'll get that without a written contract for pickup time.

If I were you, I'd write a letter or write out a phone conversation and let it sit for a few days before sending it or calling. You're more likely to get something if you don't go into the situation with both guns blazing.

I'd choose another company to do business with--after using the free rental compensation.

I'm curious if you called central Avis reservations, or the local office. I wouldn't be surprised if an agent at a central location was quoting a company policy of staying late that the actual location chose not to honor- and that shouldn't be the booking agent's fault. If you called to the local office, then they should've said upfront if they didn't want to wait. If the agent was wrong, yes they should be made aware, but if we were all fired on one mistake, who all would have a job? Either way, Avis should apologize. Not sure about what compensation they could give, other than free car days and maybe the taxi.

Wacko
 

Asking for the 3 things will get you labeled as a wacko.

Instead, it is better to appear more reasonable, making their performance seem ever more unreasonable in comparison.

But of course, it is your choice!

I am trying to figure out your purpose in posting this thread. Was it to seek input/feedback/opinions/suggestions on the matter? Or was it to simply vent?

In regards to the first question, if you are indeed seeking for suggestions on how to go about resolving the issue, it would seem that the majority of the posts seem to agree that approaching this matter with guns blazing may not be the best approach. Yet, it did not seem to sway your opinion in any way. Are you just waiting for someone to post and say, "Yes, you are right, get that agent fired."

Let me just point out something for you to consider. Let's say hypothetically that the agent whom you were/are upset with has an outstanding on the job track record. Let's pretend that this is the only time that they may have made a mistake. Would Avis automatically fire this agent based on one complaint from a really irate customer? My guess is that Avis would rather retain the services of a very efficient employee and be willing to cut its losses with the irate customer.

Have you also considered various union issues pertaining to hiring and firing of employees. The reality is that the majority of major corporations work with and at times against very powerful employee unions. As such, most will have to employ what we call progressive discipline--which often requires documentation, more documentation, supervisor's guidance, and retraining before resorting to terminate an employee.

But then again, perhaps this would still be unacceptable for you to even consider.