David shocked at the higher cost of car hire
SORTED
HIRING a car while abroad should be a straightforward affair.
David Dundas has always found it so. That was until a recent trip to the United States.
David, from Glasgow, booked a rental car via British Airways who were acting as agents for Avis Rental Car at a cost of £439 after discount.
With no stipulated extras required David understood that the price quoted was fully inclusive and he paid in full by his credit card.
When a tired David arrived at Tampa Airport, Florida — after clocking up 18 hours since leaving home — he reported to the Avis desk.
He was chuffed when he was not given any long-winded sales pitch about a seemingly unending array of extras he could take out and certainly was not informed of, nor agreed to, any supplementary services or charges.
When David returned the car four weeks later he was given a receipt that proclaimed: ‘Your total due is 0.00’.
However, after returning home David checked his VISA bill online and was shocked to see that he had been charged an additional $309.59.
He then received an Avis invoice with a whole raft of charges that baffled David as he didn’t understand what all the abbreviations meant. Except perhaps PAI (Personal Accident Insurance) but as he already had travel insurance that covered emergency medical service, hospital benefit, personal accident and travel cover why would he have any need for Super PAI?.
David contacted Avis and laid out his unhappiness at the charges and asked for a refund. However, he was told that while they were sorry that he felt the additional insurances were miss-sold they confirmed the charges were applied correctly.
Still unhappy at this David wrote to Raw Deal. We took up his case with Avis and very quickly there was better news.
A spokesperson told us: “Avis can confirm that Mr Dundas agreed to take out the additional coverage charges, as detailed in the rental agreement that the customer signed.
“We always recommend that customers read and understand the rental agreement prior to signing and apologise if Mr Dundas felt that the products weren’t clearly explained by the Avis representative in this instance.
“As a gesture of goodwill, a refund of $200 has been processed to the customer’s card. This will appear on their account in the next three to five working days.”
David said: “Thank you very much for your help with this matter.
“I can confirm that the money was paid to my VISA account and I find this to be an acceptable outcome.”