Beware Avis/Budget post hire charges

A snowHead

@snowdave, it’s good to know it’s not the whole company. Maybe I will keep trying in other places...but our place is in Mayrhofen so I dont get to Geneva much.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

From my personal experiences and reading this thread, it seems car rental companies are more willing to charge/add extras when the booking is made through a 3rd party/broker.

I gone exclusively to booking directly with car rentals, hotels and flights. Most will price match if I contact them and easier to deal with if I have any problems.

I also join whatever loyalty program the company has (even if I know I will only use them once). Been told they will try to treat you better so you will reuse them.

My last 2 car rentals where made directly with Sixt at Heathrow. Both times I returned the cars damaged (kerbed wheel and dented boot). Damages where noticed on return with damage report emailed to me within 5mins but no charges.

+1 for excess insurance, just don’t mention it to the car rental company as they see this as an another way to add extras to your bill or max out your excess.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Another ‘scam’ which caught us out is we were deemed as a ‘no show’ for arriving more than four hours after the nominated pickup time due to our flight being delayed. We we were automatically charged by Hertz the full rental fee as per their T&C’s for no-shows and we then had to pay for a new car - after scrambling around as Hertz had already committed our 9 seater to another booking. The mistake I made was not to include my flight number in the booking - ALWAYS INCLUDE A FLIGHT NUMBER as they will generally hold the booking if the flights get is late.

Thankfully Rentalcars.com, who we booked with, were able make Hertz refund the fees for the original booking after I called them to explain the honest oversight of not providing the flight number.

As an aside i’ve had excess insurance for many years at ~£50 PA to safeguard against damages. I flat out refuse to pay the rip-off rates for their over the counter excess waiver insurance. This provides peace of mind agaist expensive repair bills either caused by me or anything I’ve overlooked when trying to inspect in a dark car park. I have claimed twice over the years (replacement tyre and bloken front spoiler) for £50 excess and there have been no quibbles.

Help!!

Beware Avis/Budget post hire charges

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