Avis rent a Car havin a laugh. Help please

[Mark Chase]

So I turn up at the airport with my mum dad wife and two kids and look for the on airport Avis rep.


No rep

Excellent so a bit of asking around and we end up pushing our luggage to the domestic terminal Why advertise having a rep in the international terminal when you dont


Fill out the paper work and go to collect my People Carrier


The give me a Ford Tourneo with the normal 5 seats.


There must be some mistake said I. I Booked a people carrier.

Err this is a people carrier said the Avis rep

No its not said I it has the same no of seats as a normal car. And its only got 5 seat belts.

Oh it doesn't matter said the Avis rep.

Fine said I which member of my family do you suggest I tell has the short straw?

This is NOT a people carrier

Yes it is said he

Then i got a little angry

No its not said I
Yes it is said he

Then a lot angry.

No its not said I
Yes it is said he

Then very very angry indeed.

In the end they promised me a replacement the next day. Two days later out of my 7 day trip my people carrier turned up.

So I lost three days usage but in the end i got what I wanted.


So I gets back to the UK and I phone Avis to tell then whats happened. Id have accepted an apology but instead I was told it was my fault.

Apparently a car with five seats can carry people therefore its a people carrier. On their site they state that the vehical will carry 5 passengers. I suggested their web site was misleading.


You see when I read they are offering a People Carrier and they show me a photo of a Ford Tourneo 9pax 9 seater as an example of the car I will get I stupidly thought my car would seat more than 5 people.

What do you think?




The UK end said the description of people carrier was accurate despite the fact the car only had 5 seats. I asked to speak to a manager and they said he was on the phone and would call me back.

Guess what?

They haven't called?

Now I am reely pissed off.

Any one think of any trade descriptions laws i can get the bast#rds with

Sorry would have worked, but now I am beyond that.

ATB

Mark

[Scuttler]

Very misleading when the advert states a 9 pax example and the picture shows a 9 seater....BUT...the number of passengers in the vehicle features = 5.

I'd be p!$$ed off too.

Might be worth calling their head office and asking to speak to Stuart Gent (used to be the MD don't know if he still is).

Avis HQ +44 (0) 1344 426 644

[CotoChris]

They get you by the short and curly with the small print. In the copy you showed it said 'example' of vehicle.
I use Hertz in any case and the small print mentions it can change the vehicle at will. The cars are seperated in classes and not sure how the people carrier is defined, by size or number of people. It could be very large vehicle for 5 people or small for 5.
Pretty rough in any case, especially if you also took your diving equipment.

[SilvaFish]

Picture of a largish people carrier/van (were Avis being just an ickle pedantic? A motorbike with pillion is also a people carrier by their view!).

Look at the vehicle features under the picture. In the tiniest of pictograms, it says 5 people.

Very misleading, hope you win and can't stand shoddy services myself.

[Scuttler]

Originally Posted by Scuttler

Might be worth calling their head office and asking to speak to Stuart Gent (used to be the MD don't know if he still is).

Avis HQ +44 (0) 1344 426 644

Correct that....Kevin Bradshaw is now MD.

[thehappychappy]

I got caught with the when ordering a local minicab.

I asked for people carrier had to wait ages and one turned up, licensed to carry four passengers + the driver...


I learned my lesson and now ask for seven seaters.

I think the Avis site has you by the short and curlys as it does say an example and then shows the legend for people and then shows five people.

Bloody pain though.

Davie

[Big Kahuna]

Knowing a little about vehicle rental, having managed a number of europcar & arriva rental branches in a former life, we never specified which vehicle we would actually supply.

This used to be a major problem when customers booked vans, estates, people carriers and prestige high end cars for weddings and would often ask what colour will it be (booking 6-12 months in advance). Customers naturally wanted a black or silver model. Telling them the car fleet would probably change twice in the next year did nothing to appease them. Customers would also get exitied when the found out we carried Jag XK & XJ on fleet, often to be deflated when told there was only 1 on fleet and that was the MD's vehicle. Booking a LDAR (luxury, 5 door, auto, with aircon) was more than likely going to get you a merc e240 avantgarde rather then the example jag advertised on the web, in branch posters.

The website clearly states the carring capacity will be 5 people. In the uk a people carrier would mean normally mean a 7 seat MPV or could also mean something like a 5 seat picasso or megane so I'm guessing this is where your thinking came from.

All my staff were trained to maximise sales by closing th booking and do so by asking the right questions. These for MPV's were always how many people traveling. If you booked through a call center I would have expected them to ask this.

I would write or email customer services first and wait the response. Will probably be along the lines of "example vehicle for illustration only"..... "clearly states 5 seats" ....... " we rectified the problem ASAP whilst on Holiday" ....... " we did not have to do this as you had only booked a 5 seat vehicle" ...... "we upgraded you free of charge" ....... "even brought the vehicle to you" ....... etc etc etc.

If you really want to persue it then once you have written to cust services and got a response then write to MD. I don't think you will get very far though.

Best case scenario is that you might get a 10% discount voucher just to get rid of you.

Hope this helps. My knowledge applies to BVRLA (rental governing body) guidelines and am not very knowledgable about the US i'm afraid.
Chris

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by Big Kahuna

Knowing a little about vehicle rental, having managed a number of europcar & arriva rental branches in a former life, we never specified which vehicle we would actually supply.

This used to be a major problem when customers booked vans, estates, people carriers and prestige high end cars for weddings and would often ask what colour will it be (booking 6-12 months in advance). Customers naturally wanted a black or silver model. Telling them the car fleet would probably change twice in the next year did nothing to appease them. Customers would also get exitied when the found out we carried Jag XK & XJ on fleet, often to be deflated when told there was only 1 on fleet and that was the MD's vehicle. Booking a LDAR (luxury, 5 door, auto, with aircon) was more than likely going to get you a merc e240 avantgarde rather then the example jag advertised on the web, in branch posters.

The website clearly states the carring capacity will be 5 people. In the uk a people carrier would mean normally mean a 7 seat MPV or could also mean something like a 5 seat picasso or megane so I'm guessing this is where your thinking came from.

All my staff were trained to maximise sales by closing th booking and do so by asking the right questions. These for MPV's were always how many people traveling. If you booked through a call center I would have expected them to ask this.

I would write or email customer services first and wait the response. Will probably be along the lines of "example vehicle for illustration only"..... "clearly states 5 seats" ....... " we rectified the problem ASAP whilst on Holiday" ....... " we did not have to do this as you had only booked a 5 seat vehicle" ...... "we upgraded you free of charge" ....... "even brought the vehicle to you" ....... etc etc etc.

If you really want to persue it then once you have written to cust services and got a response then write to MD. I don't think you will get very far though.

Best case scenario is that you might get a 10% discount voucher just to get rid of you.

Hope this helps. My knowledge applies to BVRLA (rental governing body) guidelines and am not very knowledgable about the US i'm afraid.
Chris

Frankly I don't expect that sort of underhanded crap from a company like Avis. I expect it from cheep skates.

The "clearly stated" 5 seater is in fact a small icon on the page showing a large color photo of a 9 seater bus. Id be happy with a Citron Picasso 7 seater that would have been just fine by me

Can you honestly say a 5 seater Citron Picasso is a "Simula" vehicle to the buss in the picture?

If so I have a car very similar to a Ferrari F355 you might be interested in purchasing for a mear £20,000.

OK its a Fiat panda but its Italian isn't it what could you possably complain about when your car turned up?


ATB

Mark

[Madfish]

It is ambigious to say the least.......misleading, definately and I think it is probably one for trading standards. If it were me, I would at least write to the Customer Services department, and emphasize how much the family were inconvenienced. I think it is likely that you will be offered a future discount, or a token gesture. However, that will larn you not to read the small print young Chasey!

Good luck with it.

Di

[Simon Lamb]

Originally Posted by Big Kahuna

Knowing a little about vehicle rental, having managed a number of europcar & arriva rental branches in a former life, we never specified which vehicle we would actually supply.

This used to be a major problem when customers booked vans, estates, people carriers and prestige high end cars for weddings and would often ask what colour will it be (booking 6-12 months in advance). Customers naturally wanted a black or silver model. Telling them the car fleet would probably change twice in the next year did nothing to appease them. Customers would also get exitied when the found out we carried Jag XK & XJ on fleet, often to be deflated when told there was only 1 on fleet and that was the MD's vehicle. Booking a LDAR (luxury, 5 door, auto, with aircon) was more than likely going to get you a merc e240 avantgarde rather then the example jag advertised on the web, in branch posters.

The website clearly states the carring capacity will be 5 people. In the uk a people carrier would mean normally mean a 7 seat MPV or could also mean something like a 5 seat picasso or megane so I'm guessing this is where your thinking came from.

All my staff were trained to maximise sales by closing th booking and do so by asking the right questions. These for MPV's were always how many people traveling. If you booked through a call center I would have expected them to ask this.

I would write or email customer services first and wait the response. Will probably be along the lines of "example vehicle for illustration only"..... "clearly states 5 seats" ....... " we rectified the problem ASAP whilst on Holiday" ....... " we did not have to do this as you had only booked a 5 seat vehicle" ...... "we upgraded you free of charge" ....... "even brought the vehicle to you" ....... etc etc etc.

If you really want to persue it then once you have written to cust services and got a response then write to MD. I don't think you will get very far though.

Best case scenario is that you might get a 10% discount voucher just to get rid of you.

Hope this helps. My knowledge applies to BVRLA (rental governing body) guidelines and am not very knowledgable about the US i'm afraid.
Chris

I gotta agree with everything he said. It does say 5 seats, and the term people carrier is an English oddball. Everywhere else a people carrier is just a car. The term Minivan is more widely used, or better still state how many seats you want. When you have a big group, my advice is to always always speak to them on the phone, and clearly tell them how many people will be travelling in the vehicle.

Sorry mate, but you'll probably not win this one, but it's a lesson learned and thanks for letting us know the pitfalls.

Si