Real estate investor and respected online personality ‘Strip Mall Guy’ shared his frustrating experiencing renting a car from Avis. He’s offered many times that part of his fund’s investing strategy is travel – to visit sites they’re considering acquiring and just camping there, watching the traffic flow, watching who visits, to get a real understanding of a property. You need a car for this in most places.
When he rented the car he “noticed a huge dent.” So he did what many advise and took a photo, and also pointed it out to the rental company staffer. “[H]e noted it.” Also what you’re supposed to do!
Yet a few weeks after the rental, he received an email claiming he damaged the vehicle, showing the dent that he’d documented.
Nobody to email or call, so I head back to the place that rented me the car.
I explain the situation to the manager, show him the photo and email, and he quick apologizes.
Tells me he’ll take care of it. End of story? No.
Today I get a letter in the mail stating the investigation has been concluded, and that I’m at fault – along with a bill.
Feels ridiculous to say this, but there’s an argument for just paying the bill.
Not saying I will, but it’s going to take hours of time and effort to get this taken care of – much more valuable to me than the $1,089 bill. https://t.co/0PW3Lh5AI4
— StripMallGuy (@realEstateTrent) March 10, 2024
This is just a single data point. But is Avis headed south? Last week a reader shared,
charged over 7 thousand dollars for a one way rental from Atlanta airport to GSP less than 24 hours. we notified Amex to dispute. Droveback today to GSP after dropping off car. charge showed on Amex this afternoon. Woman at counter said yes we have problems. (Man in line behind my husband had same situation renting car in CLT. Drove 300 miles. Bill for 8 thousand.)We are now back again at GSP my husband meeting with avis manager. He figured out what happened. Apparently this is not a new problem for Avis. This is second time has happened to us with Avis. There is something amiss in Avis system.
I generally prefer the major rental brand names, at least at airport locations, where I find less hassle over minor scrapes. I can’t bear to rent from Enterprise – it’s been years since I did, but my experience was always the brutal walk around the vehicle of shame where they hard sell their insurance.
I don’t need a rental company’s insurance.
- Generally speaking you’ve got insurance to cover this, and credit card collision damage waiver benefits with many cards.
- Some of those cards even offer primary damage waiver which means the pay before your own insurance.
- Secondary coverage means they pay what your insurance does not – usually the deductible, though if your insurance denies the claim or you don’t have your own policy they’d pay more.
- Still there can be amounts uncovered, such as fighting over loss of use charges the rental company wants to impose without demonstrating that their fleet was being fully utilized at the time (and therefore that they would have been able to rent out the car while it was in the shop for repairs).
I find that National is usually best to rent from. For my rentals almost always they’re the most expensive, though they have some good discount codes and usually don’t hassle customers using them.
Hertz of course there’s still risk of arrest, though it seems to be lower (but non-zero) since they launched work with Palantir to get ahold on tracking of their fleet.
Rental cars have the scammiest fees in travel and overall the worst experience even compared to airlines. It seems like there should be an opportunity to disrupt that business. A decade ago that seemed like it could be Silvercar, but they were acquired by Audi and their airport business shut down. Sad.
Strip Mall Guy’s twitter thread has been viewed over 135,000 times and Avis finally solved his issue. For the rest of us, my advice when you’re being hammered for damages you did not cause:
- fight it
- call your credit card company
- file the insurance claim if applicable
- complain to the local consumer protection agency
Don’t pay the scammers. Don’t lose sleep over it. Unless it’s Hertz, in which case you’re likely headed to jail because even though you may be obviously not a criminal they’ve said they won’t drop charges against innocent people because then the police might not believe them.
Great call to take photos. I didn’t, and FIVE MONTHS after my rental I got a letter about damage during that rental. (“We’ve been really busy”.) That’s about 20 rental cars ago and I don’t remember any damage. Called credit card, they need notice within 90 days for their damage insurance. $2000 mistake, thanks unnamed rental car company. Now I’ll take pictures.
Enterprise gave me a brand new Toyota with under 100 miles on it last year. Drove it for a week, no issues. Before I get off my outbound flight I have a voicemail from them asking if everything’s alright, hope no ones injured and they saw front-end damage. Panicked and realizing I forgot to take photos I call back and ask them to send pictures. They do. Totally confused, I see no damage whatsoever. Turns out a piece of the plastic facade either popped loose or was never fully pushed in to place.
Assholes still sent me to claims. Lots of frustration later, get ahold of the adjuster who looks through the photos while I’m on the phone and just starts laughing.
Finally get a letter in the mail stating they are graciously dropping the claim not because it’s bullshit but because I’m a good customer.
@ Gary — The best advice is to just take uber/lyft, and don’t foget to NOT tip.
I not only take still pictures of obvious or possible damage, but also a video in case I missed something.
And Hertz, changed their points expiration policy to 12 months, down from 18 with no notice and their website still showed 18 months on some pages.
If Gary has not covered this already, I wish he would. They need to get bad PR on this. It’s not right. The only blessing is at least I hopefully won’t get arrested trying to use my points.
I don’t think Hertz will have you arrested for putting a scratch on your rental car although amusing hyperbole.
Sixteen years ago, I rented a car from an Avis franchise a ten-minute walk from my house. I put in on my Citibank card, declined insurance (it’s covered by the card), and had the car for the entire rental period, returning it to the lot a Sunday afternoon (the rental agency opened on Monday), and walked home.
On the bill, they charged me for CDW on the basis of an ambiguous carbon copy they provided, and charged me for returning it to a location 30 miles from where I live. In short, they wanted around 500 bucks more.
Needless to say, I contested the charges with Citi. That was the second time I’d ever contested a charge; the first was sixteen years earlier, when a restaurant accidently ran the charge twice
They sided with Avis. I cancelled the card, and I still have nothing good to say about either party. To me, they’re criminals, and I actively discourage people from doing business with them
But, yes: I always take photos, and maybe a video walkaround.
Gene,next time don’t forget NOT to take the bus instead of Uber/Lyft.
@Bubba
Visa & Mastercard ALWAYS side with businesses. I learned that the hard way when I got scammed by a hotel in Europe. That’s why I don’t have any of those and I now only use Amex that sided with me 100% of the time.
Concerning car damages, I will NOT accept a car that has any dents or damages. That’s why I love the Choose Your Car premium aisle of Hertz or National.
I also strongly recommend photos & videos at the time you rent and return the car.
National, Alamo are both owned by Enterprise.
Rented twice from Avis in Feb as a preferred member. One way rentals from airport to airport. Both times was overcharged, once by 15%, the other time by 80%. Had to call multiple times to straighten it out. WTF Avis? Seriously doubting I ever rent with this company again.
I’m sticking with Enterprise until something happens to change my mind. On 1 occasion a few years ago I caused minor damage to the car, which was insured by Costco Visa’s policy. All I had to do was send in my accident report and I never heard from them until Ireceiced an email about 4 months later saying the issue was resolved . January, we accepted an upsell that was wildly misquoted. When we returned the car the manager reversed the charges on the spot after we explained the situation. No hasske rentals are worth my loyalty.
i always take before and after pictures. Use the before pictures if needed. Just make sure there are no dates on the pictures and do not send them digital pictures from your cell .Use jpgs that you have played with or scanned and marked up by hand.
also get a new credit card after a major trip so they can not back end charge your for that room movie and scratch on the car.
Two scams with Avis I’ve experienced in the past year:
1. At a Hawaii location (OGG) last summer, I was never provided a printed or electronic rental contract. Even though I denied all options, they charged me for fuel pre-pay after I returned the vehicle. And we rented an electric car!! Seems like the clerk was just incentivized to “sell” more pre-pay but wasn’t making quota?
2. At a Washington, DC, location (IAD) a few months ago, my bill was fine after the return, but a few weeks later I got a sub-$100 bill for a flat tire. The tire certainly wasn’t flat when I returned the car (at least not that was showing on dashboard indicators), but obviously I didn’t take any photos of all 4 tires after returning the car. It took me a couple of calls to fight it, but I’m guessing this location just scams a lot of customers with this bogus charge where it’s almost impossible to prove that you weren’t responsible. Also, I didn’t even realize a flat tire would be the renter’s responsibility! I thought rental cars came with included roadside support if it’s ever needed, since they’re responsible for the car, including the tires (assuming you don’t break rental contract).
This has become a common issue. More so than you imagine. Often months after you rented the car.
The bottom line is that they do this for a reason. They go down the line of rentals, with no real clear proof of who did what, until someone gives it to Insurance to pay. And one of them will.
It’s happened to me twice and the insurance company wanted to just pay it. I refused this and gave documentation and photos to show that they are paying for a damage that I never did. They still wanted to pay! Which, in the end, causes my premiums to rise (I have rental cars on my corporate policy). Finally I got them to refuse it.
It’s an entire circle of scams that comes back to the consumer. Rental car company goes after you and your insurance, Insurance company doesn’t want to deal with arguing it and just pay, after your premiums go up and you pay for it anyway.
I should add, I LOVE the new systems that Sixt has in some locations in Europe. The car is scanned by a machine when leaving. And scanned upon return. It mitigates a lot of these arguments. Though I still document with my phone anything when picking it up.
Yeah, the only place where I usually rent a car is Korea. Locations are almost always family-owned franchises of local companies that are soooo much nicer to deal with. Never had any issues. In the US, if I think I’m going somewhere I need a car, I will drive my own. Is a 14-hour drive fun? Nope. Is it cheaper and less stressful than renting from these clowns? 100% yes.
Another issue is no paper receipt at return. Now, the agents just wave you off. I’ll purposely stand there and request the agent to give me the final billing amount which will force a push thru of the bill on the rental app or e-mail app. Not absolute, but something to have in your pocket should disputes arise.
Also, don’t be afraid to take a picture of the gas gage before and after, another hot button issue of late. Learned this the hard way in Hawaii years ago!!!
Whenever we rent a vehicle (car/suv, minivan, cargo van or truck), we ALWAYS take before/after still photos of:
1) exterior (front, back, sides, bumpers, headlamps, grille, rear view mirrors;
2) interior for damage & cleanliness;
3) trunk/cargo compartment;
4) tires;
5) gas tank & odometer
If the vehicle has dents & scratches (typically trucks or cargo vans) we also take video(s) of exterior & interior.
Yes, this can be time consuming, but we include that as part of the process.
Obviously, those on tight schedules/delayed with little time to spare may not be able to do this.
But, to date, this has worked out well for us.
Unless there’s damage to the exterior or interior that you are documenting, what’s the purpose of a “before” video or picture?
Good point! Most of our rentals are for cargo vans or trucks, and unless brand new (which has happened once or twice over the years), they almost always have scratches & dents.
So, we’ve just gotten used to taking photos at both ends of all vehicles because most of our rentals skew towards commercial/cargo vehicles.
But, your point is well taken!
I guess once the camera is being used to document the fuel level & odometer, we become snap happy & photograph everything even if it’s overkill! 😉
Got a bill for 6 days when rented for less than one (in NYC). Live in CA, so used the California version of the Fair Debt Collections law and got $3000. Check if your state has similar laws that apply to businesses who regularly collect their own debts.
Enterprise scammed me. Picked up car in the rain and didn’t notice the air dam underneath front bumper was missing. Charged $1200 to “replace”.
I wonder how many other renters paid for the same pre-existing damage.
I haven’t rented a car since 2006. After that horrible experience and current knowledge of the nonstop scam rental car companies run, I am a master at figuring out the public transportation system for wherever I am traveling. The transit functions on Google Maps is extremely helpful. In many cases at a global level.
If that doesn’t meet my needs, I use Uber, tip well and leave a 5 star rating for the driver. That is far less expensive and stressful than the daily rental car rate and assorted junk fees. Besides, I do not have to worry about taking 50 photos of every nook and cranny of the rental car.
Avis scammed me on a 1-way airport-to-airport rental. They said I was supposed to have dropped the car back off at the original pickup location and charged me ~$2500. That was 14 years ago so it would likely be a lot higher today. I’ve used Enterprise many times without issue. Avoid Avis like the plague!
@Marriott Marty – Can you explain/describe your experience further?
I enjoy renting from Hertz, much more than Avis or Budget. As others have said, I value pick your own car as a five star member.
I one time watched a rental agency worker back a rental car into another one. I wonder who got the bill for the damage. After a company tried to rent a car to me with a broken lens for a light, I always use my fingers on all of the lenses to detect breaks that aren’t easily visible to the eye. Renting out damaged cars seems to be a thing.
I’ve been scammed twice by Budget franchisees, the last being in St Barth’s. Will not rent from Budget again, corporate or franchisee. Got no help from Chase, got no points from Budget, simply a shit show.