US Car Hire Scam - AVIS unauthorised upgrade - how to resolve?

ivojohn

"its classed as an upgrade in their system" which can class a car any which way it wants - is this a legal opinion? Could they give you a motorbike instead of a car because they class it as a car in their system? Can a restaurant sell you fried egg instead of a steak because they call it as such? 

user1977

ivojohn said:

"its classed as an upgrade in their system" which can class a car any which way it wants - is this a legal opinion?

Yes, I'm not aware of any principle that you can start quibbling about their tariff (though I appreciate we're probably talking about the state law of wherever Avis or their franchisee are based, rather than UK consumer law anyway).

visidigi

ivojohn said:

"its classed as an upgrade in their system" which can class a car any which way it wants - is this a legal opinion? Could they give you a motorbike instead of a car because they class it as a car in their system? Can a restaurant sell you fried egg instead of a steak because they call it as such? 

It doesn't need to be a legal opinion. Its a simple fact of life, not all upgrades will have a tangible cost/increase.

The sheer fact you have gone to the effort to find the $ difference and try and say it helps you case is a complete waste of your time.

You need to look at the information you agreed to, if that wasn't emailed (it always is when I rent in the US) then you will need to wait for them to retrieve it.

Okell

ivojohn said:

We recently completed a 6 day road trip in the US and booked a Car via AVIS

The cost of the hire Car was £350 booked and paid for in advanced via a broker found via Skyscanner - car hire comparison. We purchased extra insurance separately. The Car specified was a RAV4 or similar.

On return we were immediately charged an additional $879 for an item described as: @non pkg items

We queried this charge the following day and its seems that we were unknowingly upgraded. We specifically asked them at the desk for the RAV4 but they told us they will get what is available. We did not ask for an upgrade and were not told that this other car would be an additional cost (we were given a Kia Sorento - hardly an upgrade anyway and certainly not something that should TRIPLE our original hire cost). Two of us were at the deck in desk at the time...

They immediately offered to 'half' the additional charge  - which to me demonstrates how common this scam is and how often people need to dispute this.

A quick google seems to show that this is a common scam and their are many examples that mirror our experience exactly.


what is the best course of action? Even the reduced amount will be difficult to pay.

When you realised they were going to give you a different car from the one that you'd booked and paid for, did you ask if it would cost more (or less) than you expected?  That would have been my first question.

When picking up hire cars I tend to record the transaction on my 'phone.  Not illegal here but don't know about US.

born_again

US is far slacker on data protection.

visidigi

Okell said:

ivojohn said:

We recently completed a 6 day road trip in the US and booked a Car via AVIS

The cost of the hire Car was £350 booked and paid for in advanced via a broker found via Skyscanner - car hire comparison. We purchased extra insurance separately. The Car specified was a RAV4 or similar.

On return we were immediately charged an additional $879 for an item described as: @non pkg items

We queried this charge the following day and its seems that we were unknowingly upgraded. We specifically asked them at the desk for the RAV4 but they told us they will get what is available. We did not ask for an upgrade and were not told that this other car would be an additional cost (we were given a Kia Sorento - hardly an upgrade anyway and certainly not something that should TRIPLE our original hire cost). Two of us were at the deck in desk at the time...

They immediately offered to 'half' the additional charge  - which to me demonstrates how common this scam is and how often people need to dispute this.

A quick google seems to show that this is a common scam and their are many examples that mirror our experience exactly.


what is the best course of action? Even the reduced amount will be difficult to pay.

When you realised they were going to give you a different car from the one that you'd booked and paid for, did you ask if it would cost more (or less) than you expected?  That would have been my first question.

When picking up hire cars I tend to record the transaction on my 'phone.  Not illegal here but don't know about US.

You don't book 'the' car, you book 'a' car from a category that the renting company defines. You can ask they give you the car that was provided in the example of the class but you won't be guaranteed.

This allows the car company to provide 'free upgrades' when the category you have booked has no vehicles available.

Since Covid and the lack of supply in the auto industry the US is rarely able to give 'the' car compared to before as they simply have less inventory (they sold ALOT of the inventory they had during covid to stay afloat and then couldn't get it back... US car rental has surged in price as a result.

ArbitraryRandom

ivojohn said:

"its classed as an upgrade in their system" which can class a car any which way it wants - is this a legal opinion? Could they give you a motorbike instead of a car because they class it as a car in their system? Can a restaurant sell you fried egg instead of a steak because they call it as such? 

If you sign the contract to accept the item under that classification then yes, for the purposes of the agreement you entered into the item is defined as that class... 

If you did not read/understand the contract before signing, or you consider you have been missold, then those are both completely different issues to if they have a right to charge you for the item as an upgrade as defined by the contract. 

ivojohn

yes - we did specify that we wanted the original booking and not want an upgrade. We were promised this verbally by the AVIS rep.

I have received a copy of the contract that was signed for. There is no mention that we were signing for an upgrade. 

There is a line item called @non pkg item - $879

Why didn't my friend query this?

• 9 hour flight from UK
• English is second language for signee
• verbal agreement from AVIS rep
• AVIS told us there would be a holding deposit
• we paid for it in a different currency so expected a charge on there.

Why don't AVIS label it as an upgrade charge???

Yes we believe we were mis-sold and this is predatory business practice

ArbitraryRandom

Assuming this is the company you booked via (you should double check that), then your consumer protections are as per the state they are registered with: 

These Terms shall be governed by, construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of New Jersey, without regard to its conflict of law principles.

https://www.avis.com/en/legal-documents/terms-of-use

As such, your best bet might be to contact what seems to be their equivalent of trading standards for advice: https://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/

If they agree it's a deceptive practice (as per their consumer legislation) and the company are still refusing, then you might approach your card issuer for a charge back or S75 claim (you can provide them with the advice you receive from the consumer affairs body as supporting evidence). 

saajan_12

Definitely some chancers there.. on a recent US roadtrip, we intentionally paid over and above for Avis which was nearly double the cheapest hire co's to avoid any hassle.

At the desk they checked our booking, confirmed we didn't want insurance per our booking (already covered via credit card), took a deposit payment and handed over keys, with nothing to sign. Of course there's extra charges, eventually got everything reversed (luckily some of these we found walking out to the car and corrected before driving off)
* insurance (despite explicitly saying no to this)
* full fuel tank (never mentioned, and can't imagine why anyone would pay for a full tank upfront, when you could return part full and just pay for the rest at the same price / gallon)
* ticket for no front licence plate (even though there was none on the car supplied by Avis!)