Avis fuel surcharge swang in my direction

[albatross710]

Well I thought the checkout agent was joking but earlier this week when I picked up an Avis car the paperwork indicated that the tank was 7/8 full. I asked him the story and he explained that that would be the reference point for this rental and that if I returned the vehicle full I would get a credit for the fuel at the rate of $2.20/litre.

I duly completed the rental and returned the vehicle full of fuel which I had topped up at $1.30 litre.

I was surprised to see that I really did receive a credit for the fuel and was given ~$20 off the day's rental charge.

It all seemed very fair and i thought I'd share the good news for once on car rentals.

 

[AdMEL]

Thanks for sharing.

My experience with a car with 7/8 fuel on collection was as follows:

About 18 months ago, reserved a group E car (Comm/Falcon) from Avis Mel City online at short notice on a Saturday afternoon and turned up to collect - they had no group E so offered me a Calais (G), but advised that it only had 7/8 fuel. Agent hand amended the agreement from 8/8 to 7/8 and I stupidly assumed she would update the system after I left! Of course, she didn't! When I returned the car on the Monday (a public holiday) with 7/8 (I hadn't been told what you were told), I just made the closing time of 4pm, so they just took the car and didn't give me a receipt. I checked online the next day to see they'd charged me an extra ~$20 for fuel! I rang the location, explained and they amened and e-mailed me a new invoice. Checked my card statemennt a few days later to find the head office had charge the fuel anyway! Had to make another couple of phone calls to Avis head office before they refunded it!

Lesson - don't accept hand amended agreements!

 

[medhead]

Re: Avis fuel surcharge swung in my direction

Nice thanks for sharing - both of you.


I'm sure you mean swung or maybe my mind is going

 

[AdMEL]

Forgot to mention that on a couple of other occasions, upon return of cars to Avis (Mel City) and commenting that the fuel tank wasn't quite full when I collected the car (slightly higher than 7/8), the rep has taken $10 or $20 off the rental, without question.

If they've upgraded my car and the fuel tank isn't quite full, I usually don't bother mentioning it, unless it's really low.

 

[odysseus]

The time I had less than a full tank - can't remember if it was Avis - they told me to return it with the same rough level so I did. No idea if they would have given a credit for overfilling though - it wasn't something I would expect.

 

[albatross710]

I guess we all try and finesse to arrive back with a 'passably full' indication on the fuel gauge.