Avis car hire = joke!

tight_wad_7

Just returned from Cyprus & had a good time except for the car hire.
Had big problems with them last year in Portugal - wrong car, seat belts didn't work, charged twice & loads of hassle getting my 'overpayment' back.
This year I should have had my car at 10 am, their rep turns up at 10.30 am with the wrong class car (should have had free upgrade) & no baby seat.
When I inspect the car I tried to open the boot - wouldn't open!
She goes off to get a replacement car, with a baby seat. An hour later & the car turns up, no baby seat. >:(
Another hour passes & the baby seat turns up - absolute crap seat that my youngest gets straight out of.
Then I tried to start the car, while 3 kids & wife wait in 35 degree plus heat. - doesn't start. After 5 minutes it finally starts. Everytime I went to start it you never knew whether it would start.
The other thing Avis do is charge you for a full tank of fuel & give you no credit if you take it back with fuel!
They charged me for more fule than the tank would hold (checked tank capacity of car when I got home).
Feel like I have ben fleeced - over to Hertz next year.
Anyone have any similar problems?

peterbaker

Holiday car hire - it's a bit of a minefield isn't it?

I just had a better experience with Avis in Turkey.

I gambled. I bought a First Choice package to Bodrum but didn't like the car hire rates they quoted. I checked out several others and did not like the pre-booked rates from any of them.

So I pitched up at Bodrum airport at 0100 and found there was just one car hire office open - Avis.

There was just one car on offer, a Ford Focus 4 door with long boot and aircon for 130M Turkish Lira a day. Thats about £50 a day and a bit steep. It was new however (which one thing you can usually expect from Avis) and I decided to lump it, and take the car for 2 days and deliver it back to the Bodrum town centre office.

When I delivered it back I was lucky enough to be able to speak with the local Sales Manager who spoke good English. I asked what kind of "deal" he might do if I kept the car as follows:

1. Extend the rental from 2 days to 16 days
2. Add an extra driver who would return the car 2 days after I had left the country.
3. Allow the car to be dropped off at Dalaman Airport which is some 3 hours drive from Bodrum.

To my surprise, he agreed to allow a rate of just EUR42 per day for the whole rental and to waive charges for the extra driver and for the remote dropoff. The 42EUR was the published rate for rentals exceeding a week for 3 groups lower than the Focus.

I have just received the bill for £425 for 16 days and my friends and I were very happy with that.

The "wobbly" aspects of the deal were that I had to accept
1. this "good guy"'s word for the deal because there was no paper back up for the new deal, just his business card. As a businessman myself with a feel for a proper handshake I was reasonably happy about it, but many people would worry about it. Bulent is the good guy's name (thanks Bulent!)

2. 2 further days later I discovered quite a large dent in the door nearside door sill which I had completely missed and which was obviously where the car had come into contact with a rock not another vehicle. It had been undeclared to me. I was worried I would get blamed for it. Bulent assured me he knew about it, and that he would email Dalaman to tell them.

3. When I took the extra driver's license in to be photocopied for the file, the Avis photocopier wasn't working. Again I had to accept the word of another representative that it would be ok. He just manually added the drivers name to my copy of the agreement and made an entry on the computer. Again, I recognised that he was Western educated and felt that I had made good communication so was happy, but in similar circumstances I am sure many customers would be uncertain that a proper record had been made.

So, a bit of a mixed Avis story I have told, but all in all, I was happy it was Avis I was dealing with, happy that I gambled a bit by waiting till I got there to do the deal, and happy with the price I paid in the end.