AVIS Car Hire: HELP

lead27

I resently hire a car from AVIS for 4 months, I took the car back on Saturday. The car was not refulled and they have charged me £120 for this.

The reason that the car was unfuelled was because every month they took their £550 payment as well as reserving ANOTHER £588 from my bank account for up to 8 working days when it would be released. This left me with no money to refuel the car (which they knew about).

Is it right that they can charge this much when the they AVIS station is on a Texco forecourt and when it is their fault that I didnt have the funds to refuel the car?

Your opinions would be a great help.

Premier_2

Yes. Its not just the cost of the fuel but the cost of employing someone to do the job you should have done.

£2 per litre is about the going rate. Next time beg, steal or borrow the money and make sure the car is returned full.

lead27

As I said AVIS is on the garage forecourt so unless they charge £60 for 5 mins work. The only reason that I couldnt refuel the car was because of the £588 they reserved every month on top of the payment, which wasnt explained at the begining of the contract and which I have argued with them every month as well.

Premier_2

You expected them to explain in the contract that if you didn't have enough money to pay to fill the car with petrol on its return, they would still bill you the cost of refuelling???

Pssst

What ever it says in the contract is what your liable for.

I know its a bitter pill but refuelling part/empty cars on return is simply mannah from heaven for hard pressed car hire companies.

Ask them to break down/explain their refuelling charge as they may chose to mitigate it slightly if they cannot fully defend it.

For the money you have paid,you could have bought a cheap 2nd hand runaround !

lead27

I expect to pay to refuel the car, however because of their policy regarding taking £1100 out of my account each month (which they didnot explain) I could not afford to fill up the car, my issue isnt with the fact that I get charged to refuel the car my issue IS with being charged £120 (£60 more than the cost of fuel) to refuel the car, when they are on a garage forecourt and it was their fault I couldnt afford it.

It would be great to have some one to borrow the money off however I dont, so the only other option would have been to steal the fuel (the charge would have probabily been less)

lead27

I was have just bought the run around, I had the car hired as I had a job which I required a new car for however I lost the job, when trying to return the hire car to avoid another month of charges they took this money out, so should i have kept the car another 8 days until they returned my money or return the car empty.

I was lose lose and they are win win

Premier_2

lead27 wrote: »

I expect to pay to refuel the car, however because of their policy regarding taking £1100 out of my account each month (which they didnot explain) I could not afford to fill up the car, my issue isnt with the fact that I get charged to refuel the car my issue IS with being charged £120 (£60 more than the cost of fuel) to refuel the car, when they are on a garage forecourt and it was their fault I couldnt afford it.

It would be great to have some one to borrow the money off however I dont, so the only other option would have been to steal the fuel (the charge would have probabily been less)

They didn't take £1100 out of your account every month. They took the agreed £588 (presumably for the past month) and placed a reservation on another £588 (for the current month).

Stop trying to find someone to blame. The costs of the car hire would have been explained as would probably the cost of refuelling if the car was not returned full.

You couldn't find anyone at all to borrow the momey off? With that amount of money passing through your bank account every month, I'm sure your bank would have lent you £60.
Which credit cards did you apply for?
How about an advance on your wages? It was only £60, and clearly less than 10% of you monthly income. (and especially so as you say you needed the car for your job)

funky_snow

Unfortunately they can do this - and they have and they haven't acted illegally.

You may feel its unfair but it is standard practice by hire care firms to put a charge on your card while you have their car and would be in their T&C's. Plus you would have known about this from the first month when they took the charges.
Also I don't buy that in 4 months you couldn't have found £60 to fill up the tank for the return of the vehicle when you must have been putting petrol into the car to use it. With a bit of budgeting I'm sure you could have found £60 to give them a car with a full tank.
A 4 month rental from is Avis is not the cheapest solution if you need a car for 4 months - so I'm not buying any argument that you are so short you couldn't afford to fill up the tank...

haggisAThome

if you were given the car with a full tank you must return it with a full tank , they take a mirror swipe of your card and only reserve the funds in case you give the car back empty . they don't take it out ??

Photo_Stylus

Puzzled? You returned the car empty because you didnt have the funds to pay for the fuel.

But you got billed for the fuel anyway, So i presume you had to pay this from somewhere? Or did they take it from your deposit?

The advance charge Premier mentioned makes sense. Bit like buying fuel from the pay at pumps. They "take" £100 to cover the fuel you might take. then refund the difference if you take less. Stops being buying £100 worth of fuel if they only have £10 credit left.