If there’s a silver lining, at least it wasn’t Hertz for once, and no one was arrested?
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Avis flags car as stolen, tows it without a trace
OMAAT reader David shared a pretty wild experience he had renting a car from Avis. In late July, he started a month-long rental, for which he paid $1,146. He picked up the car in Scarsdale, New York, and planned to drop it off at JFK.
He and his family were spending the summer in South Fallsburg, in the Catskills. A little over halfway through this rental, he walked outside to get in his car in the morning, only to find that it was no longer there. He was obviously baffled.
His initial thought was that someone must have stolen the car, so he called the police. After speaking with the local sheriff and assuring him that he hadn’t parked illegally overnight, the sheriff told him that he’d make some calls to local towing companies, to see if they towed the vehicle.
In the meantime, David decided to call Avis’ roadside assistance, to see if they (or one of their local contractors) towed the vehicle, and/or if they could track down the car remotely, in the event of theft. The Avis representative asked for a contract number, which David said he couldn’t provide, since he thought he left the contract in the car’s glove compartment. He instead provided the license plate number.
After providing that, he was informed that the car with that license plate had actually been rented out to someone else. The representative said the vehicle was picked up at DFW, and is two weeks overdue. At this point David remembered that he had the contract in his bag, so he went to grab that, and read him the contract number.
The representative confirmed that the contract was valid, but not for the vehicle that had been in his possession. So he was then transfered to the Avis theft and security department, and after quite some time on hold, David was told that the car accidentally got double booked in the system
Essentially, the previous rental was never closed out properly by the DFW location, and he was the subsequent renter of the car. As a result, Avis had activated the anti-theft device for the vehicle, tracked it down, and towed it back to an Avis location.
Avis’ service recovery was surprisingly impressive
What happened from here? The Avis representative offered another car right away, but David declined, as he needed the same car, since it had car seats for his two children, his toll pass, an EpiPen, glasses, etc.
At this point, the agent put him in touch with the Avis supervisor for the region. While Avis promised he’d get a call soon, that didn’t quite happen, so he called back again a few hours later. Eventually he was connected through to the correct person who he had expected to hear from earlier.
That afternoon, the supervisor confirmed that the car had been towed to the Avis Poughkeepsie location, roughly a 90-minute drive away. She offered to either have him go there in an Uber and be reimbursed, or deliver the car to him the following day. He ultimately decided to get the car the same day. So he made it to the location, got the car, and drove back. They then agreed to be in touch the following day about how to make this situation right.
The supervisor initially offered $400 off the rental, for his trouble, which David felt was a ridiculous lowball offer after spending hours on the phone, waiting, his wife missing work, and possessions being stolen from him. So he requested a full reimbursement for the cost of the rental, a free week voucher for a future rental, reimbursement of all costs incurred, and his Avis elite status extended by five years.
She agreed to all of that, and told him to contact her after he returned the car at JFK, so that she could apply the refund after the fact. Sure enough, that’s how everything worked out.
Bottom line
An Avis customer woke up to find his car missing about halfway through his rental, in what can only be described as an incredibly frustrating situation. Initially he thought the car was stolen, but after getting in touch with Avis, it was determined that the car was repossessed, as Avis’ system showed the car as missing.
Avis does deserve credit for how it handled this situation, in my opinion. The car rental industry generally has horrid service, so I’m amazed this was resolved as smoothly as it was. And kudos to David for having specific suggestions for how the situation could be made right, as that paid off.
What do you make of this Avis car repossession situation?
It is so nice to see one of these car rental horror stories turn out well for the customer.
I cannot even imagine what that poor guy had to deal with, stress wise, for the first several hours.
Good for Avis to make it right. Hertz I doubt would have done so.
I know S Fallsburg well. If he was staying at SYDA they have their own security so how did they tow it?
I'm surprised by the service recovery from Avis. I'm Avis PC and had a case where they gave me the car without a full tank of gas, later assured me to reimburse for filling it up and then never doing anything and ignoring subsequent requests.
Good job on David for making an aggressive but possible ask for the service recovery. I feel like many times when you hear these stories, people want the travel provider to do something they can't actually do or feel like they offer they first receive is the only possible offer.
Wait, so the car was towed to Avis who then stole all of his belongings? Or did the towing company? That's insane!
I assume all his belongings where still in the car, technically Avis stole them from him by towing the car with them inside.
Beyond everything else, now I’m interested as to how the car got from DFW to New York! Did the previous renter go on a cross country joyride instead of coming back to Dallas, and they just had a rogue return to that office in New York? Or was there also an additional rental in between. So many questions!
Probably the previous renter drove from DFW to Scarsdale and the fact that it was a such a long one-way rental to a small location caused an issue with getting it closed out in the system.
Kudos to Avis for doing the right thing and taking responsibility for their mistake. I once rented from Avis in Daytona Beach. On the app, I noticed that the keys I was given did not match the car in the app. I was upgraded due to PC status but the old car still showed in the app. I went back to the counter and the agent thanked me for catching that. Bottom line, regardless of company, always check the paperwork and if possible, the app or website.
Since when does Avis have an Executive Platinum status? Of course, if Avis could extend his AA EP status and he got OWE for five years, the whole ordeal might even have been worth it!
Still better than Hertz though, who probably would have tried to have him arrested as well...
What is "Avis Executive Platinum" status...? Never heard of it...
@ Voian -- Whoops, I think there might've been a name mixup there. Updated the post, sorry.