08/10/2008
UPDATE: When I pointed both Avis and J&P to this post and the one on Boards, I finally got a response from someone that appears to have a bit of authority. They contacted me on the 9th and promised a response on the 13th, which duly followed with a promise to refund the entire excess amount because of a lack of documentation on the part of Avis Croatia.
I never actually asked for a full refund however I certainly appreciate the gesture as it does take the sting out of the tail. Thank you to Avis’ Business Support Centre Manager for following through as promised, I only hope they’ll teach the rest of the staff how to handle enquiries like this in future.
If you want to learn how not to do business, Avis and Johnson & Perrott are your men. Here’s an email I sent to them about a rental in Croatia, which still hasn’t been resolved two months later.
The main issue aside, their customer service is simply atrocious: they don’t reply to emails, except when they do and send their replies to someone that was CC’d on the email.
It’s lucky I don’t let people get to me any more or they’d have ruined my otherwise wonderful honeymoon.
This would have been a lot easier to explain in person, however if you insist. Copies of the email confirmation from Avis Ireland and rental agreement from Avis Croatia are attached, together with a photo of the car.
The car suffered some minor damage in Dubrovnik, while unattended overnight in the car park in our hotel; we filled out the incident report in the Avis wallet if you need the details. When we returned the car to the Avis office in the airport we expected to pay an excess, however the operator there decided with a glance that the repair cost was going to be €600, because both doors were damaged. Myself and my wife have both had work done on our cars and knew this to be excessive, however this was the last day of our honeymoon and we had no intention of ruining it by starting a dispute with a man that obviously had no interest in saying more than three words to us. He effectively threw the bill at my wife, and when she asked politely how we should pay – we didn’t even attempt to challenge the bill – he gestured at the Visa terminal and muttered something incomprehensible.
I’m not going to waste my time disputing the ridiculous excess I was charged for the minor repair work, as I’m sure Avis has all the bases covered with terms and conditions. However even that wasn’t enough for the Croatian operator, who added another 250 Kuna to the bill for reasons best known only to himself. I would like that returned for a start, and I would like the bill fact-checked by someone competent to check for further errors, in particular the excess and the taxes charged on both the rental and the excess.
I would also like it noted for the record that this sting in the tail of our honeymoon will prevent us from renting from Avis again, in Ireland or abroad. We feel we’ve been taken advantage of and taken for granted, and we won’t allow a repeat occurence. As the only negative thing that happened on our entire honeymoon, you can be sure it will be mentioned when we’re describing it to our family, friends and colleagues.
