SHOCKING! Avis charging me £370 for being 5 minutes late!

audioblackout

Hi guys,

I need some advice - I wonder if someone could help as I'm seriously struggling with money at the moment and this is a big , big problem.

I booked a car online for 4 days with Avis, picking up at 12.00pm. I had a slight hold up so didn't get there until 12.45pm to pick it up. I returned it 4 days later at 12.55pm. Now they've charged me £370 for returning it late. The money has come out of my bank account.

I've looked at the Terms and Conditions document and it says:

'Renter will rent the vehicle for the rental period shown on the Agreement. If Renter does not bring the vehicle back on time he is breaking the conditions in the Agreement. Avis will allow a grace period of 29 minutes from the date and time of delivery, after which Renter shall be charged a full days rental as compensation to Avis. Avis may charge Renter for every additional day or part-day Renter has the vehicle after he should have returned it to Avis.'

Sure, it states on my my car rental contract that one day late is £370. Sure you get a 29 minute grace period to drop it off, I get that. But even though I thought I would be there at 12, I didn't get there until 12.45, so surely it's 4 days from 'date and time of delivery' i.e. 12.45, which means 12.55 is acceptable surely?

On my invoice it says Start time 12.45, end time 12.55. On my Contract however it states Start Time 12.45, yet the end time has been printed as the original anticipated drop off time of 12.00. This is my concern here. I suppose they could possibly say 'well it says 12.00 on the agreement!', but this to me seems totally unfair and unreasonable. I'm sure people get delayed all the time on things like flights etc, turn up and would think it's 24 hours from when they collected it.

I phoned them today, confirmed the 1 day late charge and they said they would look into it. However they told me it could take up to 5 days to investigate, so I'm looking for ammunition if they come back to me saying I still need to pay the charge.

Can anyone help with advise? I definitely need it!

Alan_Bowen

What type of car has a £370 daily rate, I am renting from Avis this weekend, it is only £68 for two days! I assume you rented in the UK, was this some special weekend deal that automatically ends at 1200 on Mondays or were you hiring a Porsche?

k3lvc

I'm sure others will be along with more experience but £370 :eek: - !!!!!! were you renting ???

And purely from a personal/common sense POV i'd expect rental to be from 12h00 to 12h00 (with 30mins grace to 12h30) - the fact you turned up late is immaterial as the vehicle was already rented to you. You'd soon argue the other way re the paperwork if the Avis driver had decide to take it round the block for a spin before you turned up and get some tickets then the paperwork said you'd collected it at 12h00

audioblackout

It was a Golf 1.6. Medium Sized Car. I paid about £40 per day for the four days. RE: K3lvc's point of view, I get why you'd say that and that's why I'm thinking that will be the crux of the argument but '29 minutes from the date and time of delivery' is surely the date and time of 'delivery to me'. It wasn't delivered to me until I picked it up surely?!?! This really does seem totally unfair and unreasonable.

And yes, if they'd taken it round the block from 12.00, then I would be able to argue 'Well it says I picked it up at 12.45 on the agreement'. So that wouldn't be an issue I don't think.

k3lvc

audioblackout wrote: »

It was a Golf 1.6. Medium Sized Car. I paid about £40 per day for the four days. RE: K3lvc's point of view, I get why you'd say that and that's why I'm thinking that will be the crux of the argument but '29 minutes from the date and time of delivery' is surely the date and time of 'delivery to me'. It wasn't delivered to me until I picked it up surely?!?! This really does seem totally unfair and unreasonable.

And yes, if they'd taken it round the block from 12.00, then I would be able to argue 'Well it says I picked it up at 12.45 on the agreement'. So that wouldn't be an issue I don't think.

So where does the £370 come from then ? The penalty should surely only be £40

As for the timings - if you'd turned up at 12h00 and it wasn't ready would you have been happy to wait to 12h45 ? I'm sure irrespective of any paperwork for the day they'll revert back to your original booking

audioblackout

It does state on the Agreement - Additional Day £370.

k3lvc

audioblackout wrote: »

It does state on the Agreement - Additional Day £370.

In which case they obviously really wanted their car back at the appropriate time (or you've a history of being late) - worst I can find on a previous booking is an extra days charge at the paid daily rate.

If that's what you signed up to then I suspect you're not going to get very far

Voyager2002

k3lvc wrote: »

In which case they obviously really wanted their car back at the appropriate time (or you've a history of being late) - worst I can find on a previous booking is an extra days charge at the paid daily rate.

If that's what you signed up to then I suspect you're not going to get very far

Since the daily rental is more like forty pounds, that 370 figure sounds like a penalty... by analogy with bank charges, that should be unenforceable.

PeacefulWaters

audioblackout wrote: »

Sure, it states on my my car rental contract that one day late is £370

For what it's worth, this seems excessive. I would appeal to their better nature and if that's unsuccessful take them to the small claims court on the basis that the penalty is excessive.

You might lose though, but a well reasoned case could win. If Avis can show that they were unable to fulfil their contract with next renter of the car and that cost them £370 then I can see their point of view.

Sure you get a 29 minute grace period to drop it off, I get that. But even though I thought I would be there at 12, I didn't get there until 12.45, so surely it's 4 days from 'date and time of delivery' i.e. 12.45, which means 12.55 is acceptable surely?

I think you're extracting the urine with this. You turned up 45 minutes late to collect. You were 55 minutes late to return. To try and argue that your lateness at collection entitled you to an extension of the rental is utter garbage.

photome

£370 does seem a bit (a lot) steep, I have just done a dummy booking with them and cant find anythng in their terms about late return. When did you find out that it would be £370


quote audioblackout
But even though I thought I would be there at 12, I didn't get there until 12.45, so surely it's 4 days from 'date and time of delivery' i.e. 12.45, which means 12.55 is acceptable surely?

On that basis if you had turned up 12 hours late, would you expect the rental to be extended by 12 hours

Caz3121

audioblackout wrote: »

'Renter will rent the vehicle for the rental period shown on the Agreement. If Renter does not bring the vehicle back on time he is breaking the conditions in the Agreement. Avis will allow a grace period of 29 minutes from the date and time of delivery, after which Renter shall be charged a full days rental as compensation to Avis. Avis may charge Renter for every additional day or part-day Renter has the vehicle after he should have returned it to Avis.'

Sure, it states on my my car rental contract that one day late is £370.

Can you quote the section that says £370. The section you quoted seems clear that it should be "charged a full days rental as compensation to Avis." which would be the £40 as you were over the grace time (it was due back at 12:00 even though you collected it late - the car was available for you from when you booked and could not be rented to someone else)