Avis Southern Africa Anmeldelser 151

All good, car, service price etc etc, until ......... return. Confirmed at return all good and fuel full, but no documents given to confirm. Filled with fuel. And then charged for filling. How ??
Not a lot of money, but makes an absolute joke of a full to full policy. Never happened before anywhere in the world.

I rented a car from Avis in Cape Town for 6 days filled the car up (as the agent informed me of a charge that I would incur if I didn’t fill it up before dropping the car off) and returned the car last evening only to be told I would be charged R600 due to there being some beach sand on the floor of the car. Myself and my family have hired car rentals for many years and not ONCE has there been any mention of additional charges for sand on the floor of the car. As a rental car service a basic clean of the car after use should be covered in the rental cost of the car (especially since I didn’t receive a particularly spotless car to begin with). Are we now expected to valet the cars after renting before returning??? It’s absolutely ridiculous. Not only that but a charge of R600 to remove a little bit of sand from the floor of the car is exorbitant!! I could have my entire car professionally cleaned for half that price!! I contacted AVIS to complain and they said I would have to pay because anything that can't be cleaned with their 'standard 20 minute vacuum routine' would require a charge for a full valet. There is NO WAY that the sand on the floor of the car could not have been removed with a quick vacuum. What is to be done about this because I honestly believe Avis is taking complete advantage of their customers and I will ensure myself and my family never do business with Avis again.

I rented a car from Avis on the 7th of July 2023 and returned the on the 3rd of August 2023. To date I am still waiting for Avis to release my deposit. When I contacted Avis they insisted it was my bank who must release the funds. I have gone to my bank and they have assured me that it’s an Avis issue and Avis needs to release the Deposit. I have called Avis numerous times and still NO ONE has bother to sort this issue out. Avis are very quick to take the money but when it comes to returning it they take their time or they either pocket it who knows. I want the funds released back into my account. Absolutely disgusting how you treat your customers.

I returned the car at 12pm on the 6 September. I even filled up the fuel. The car was inspected by an Avis gentleman and signed off in my presence that everything was 100 percent in order. There was no chip on the windscreen when I returned it.

The next day at 12:30, I received a phone call from Avis saying they discovered a chip on the windscreen whilst washing the car and that I will be billed for it. I told the gentleman there was no chip when I returned it and it over 24 hours and that he must check his records and with the gentleman who inspected the car on my return. He said the gentleman was absent.

Today I discovered an amount of R1178, 49 debited to my credit card. Then I get another sms saying I am liable for R2584, 78.

Please advise how I am liable when there was no chip when I returned it and the staff who inspected confirmed there was no damage to my vehicle?How can I be held liable for this 25 hours later, when the cars are parked in an open area, near the road when any other passing car could have caused it. Perhaps it was even driven by their team members when they wash it.

This is daylight robbery.

DO NOT!!! I say do not use this service company ever should you rent a vehicle they are the most terrible croaks I have ever met.
I rented out a vehicle from them and returned it and upon their inspection, they advised the vehicle was damaged with a dent that isn't showing clearly almost like a reflection.
They took my entire 2, 5k and it okay I got more where that comes from but as human being I thought I rather warm others who might not be in the same situation as mine financially and also for consumer fair policy. They are terribly don't use them at all.

We have never hired a car from Avis in the past being very aware of their bad reputation. It appears AVIS are the only ones unaware of how they are perceived. Unfortunately, car failure whilst we were on holiday, necessitated us leaving our car at a local garage in Nelspruit and finding an alternative to drive ourselves back to JHB. The garage suggested AVIS at it was near close of business by the time we had towed the car back to Nelspruit and although we were resistant to the suggestion we felt we had little choice in the matter considering the time constraints. The car was collected for one day's hire in pouring rain and no pre-check was done. We returned the car to OR Tambo airport before 2pm only to be told by the check in clerk that the car was not leased under our name. We went directly to the AVIS counter to clarify same and closed the account, although it took almost an hour and we had to argue about the pre-lease damages to the car which were eventually found on record. We were assured that the reserve amount on our credit card and the bill would be finalised within 3 - 5 working days. This has been our experience with every other car hire company we have used and without complaint I wish to stress. The hire car was returned on the 21st July. It is now the 8th August. The reserve amount has not been reversed and we have been debited for 4 days car hire totaling almost R19 000 impacting our ability to fully use our credit card. In the interim we have been in constant contact with the AVIS dispute department and made three visits to the ORT branch, taking valuable time from our businesses, to demand that the account be corrected. In 40 years of hiring cars both locally and abroad we have never experienced this level of deliberate ineptitude. We have had our money fraudulently debited and treated with a level of disrespect that is unacceptable.
AVIS should be ashamed of themselves for daring to advertise themselves as a premium car hire choice. Ashamed of themselves for shocking administration, shocking professionalism and shocking service. To treat anybody with this level of dismissal and abuse of rights is unacceptable but to treat older people so even more so.

I have recently returned from South Africa and hired 2 cars one from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and one from and returning to Jo'burg airport. I have been charged extra for filling a full fuel tank for the Johannesburg car hire (I took a photo of the full fuel gauge when I handed the car back and kept the receipt for the final refill). I have been charged for e-Tolls for the Cape Town car hire - while there are e-Tolls in Jo'burg, there are no e-tolls in Cape Town as far as I am aware, just toll booths where I stopped and paid each time (I'm not sure the Cape Town car was even fitted with the electronic tag that reads e-tolls). The amounts are small, but this still feels like corruption / fraud, or at the very least incompetence. The cars were hired through the BA website and prepaid in full, Avis are even trying to add extra for car hire that was fully prepaid! (no additional extras were added at the time I picked the cars up).

Bad experience from start to finish. Vehicles not correctly maintained. No accountability. Terrible at answering phones. No leadership.

After using Avis' competitors for a few years, I decided to give them a try as we are frequently in CT on business. When booking, I was given the option to input all data at that point, to expedite the experience at the desk. After dutifully doing so, and being specific around the type and brand of vehicle we wanted, we arrived at Avis to collect the car. Frustratingly, it took ages at the desk, as they recaptured all the information I submitted online. Then (despite it being the middle of the week, with no major events on in CT), we were told that the car we had booked was not available, and we were given another car. The car was dirty, with bird poop down the windscreen right in my field of view. I asked them to clean it. They said we should just use the wipers. Said bird poop was too set in and dry, so we had to hunt down a windscreen cleaner, and the windscreen was cleaned. Then we set off. As soon as we hit the straight out of the parking lot, we realized the steering wheel was so off-centre, we would need to drive with it 45 degrees swung to the right. Highly annoyed by now, I return straight back to Avis and demand a car in proper condition. Another vehicle was brought to us, as they lazily watched us transfer our luggage without offering to give a hand. No pre-inspection was done, but we were now late and decided to just get on the road. The car was not brand new, to say the least. This appalling experience was concluded by an email (no phone call, and the "assessors" don't have direct line numbers) saying that we had damaged the rim of the car and would be billed accordingly. I am still awaiting evidence from them to this effect. I certainly never damaged the car. But be that as it may, the whole experience was absolutely shocking. This is not a premium brand - stay away! Update - after speaking to one of their employees for an extended period of time a few days ago, neither she, nor her manager, bothered to call me back. We have since been debited for the "damages" despite them saying that they would show me photo/video evidence first.

I rented a car with Avis at Durban airport. I had to bring it back early in the morning due to an early flight meaning no one would be able check at the time of drop off. There was no damage or scratches on the car, yet they still charged me 2600 rand without notice or reason. I had to email them a couple times and threaten them with a lawyer before they reacted. They then sent me photos of a scratch which wasn't mine. Now I have to escalate it. Absolute scam. Don't rent with them

AGR NO : E339549442

Good day,

I’m not agreeing with the following,

1. When I dropped off the car the mileage was no 20558 but the invoice says it was on 20568. I have attached the pic with time and location stamp.

2. When I dropped of the car the it was almost full (1 bar was out) I don’t see how it can be 48 liters to fill the bar that was 1 bar out whereas it costed me about R920 to fill the car when the was completely empty.

I need my money ASAP and stop scamming people.

Road assistance is very poor.
I called the Avis Road assistance because my car had a flat wheel, initially I have been told that I didn’t have the road assistance in my contract (false). they made me wait 30 min then after my 3 call, Finally, someone told me that they were coming to change my vehicle. The vehicle they brought to me, tough, didn’t have Apple car play which I had specifically asked for. The person who brought me the car told me that if I wanted another car I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE AIRPORT to change it! Which is something that I did, because I was completely overwhelmed by their way of dealing with my problem. Luckily at the airport I found only people that were keen on helping me. But this was insane, make me drive in a city that I don’t know whit a car that I didn’t want to make me change the car which is something that the assistance was supposed to do! Insane!

initial rental all ok .......until I returned home!
Additional payment for tank not full ? photo taken seconds before vehicle handed back .hey ho , next one admin fines charged by Cape town Airport rental office no problem there , but later Johanesburg charges me another two admin charges , two speeding fines equals two admin payments not three , your committing fraud !

If I could give Avis OR Tambo a zero I would. We were told on collection of the vehicle that Avis is not a partner of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club so no points could be accrued. Get back to the UK & guess what they are a partner! So now have to claim after the fact...thanks for nothing.
Went on a walk around before accepting the vehicle & every mark & scratch I insisted be added to the rental agreement was met with an eye roll. On return of the vehicle the car was full but we were charged for 3 litres...how do I know that we weren't given the car with 3 litres less than full. Next time we will take a photo & insist it's full to the top!! No surprise when we handed the car back none of the marks or scratches had been marked/saved on the rental agreement even after I insisted they are noted. It's all automated I was told patronisingly. Also charged etolls when etolls are no longer being collected by the government so where is this money going...that's right, straight into Avis's pockets.

Capetown airport.
Dissapointment is an understatement here.

Hired a car for 6 weeks.

They provided us as "an upgrade "with a Renault Triber.
The worst car I have ever experienced, not worthy to be an a fleet of any Carhire comp.

Totally underpowered, noisy, wrong gear ratios etc. No rear end wiper..So basic as almost unusable..Horrible.

After returning the car fully fueled at a petrol station at the airport they managed to squeeze some days later 5 extra liters in it, and with the subsequent fine....
It seems that even Avis has fallen for this well known petrol scam trick in SA.
But after mentioning all this....
They are still "investigating"..3 weeks on now and they stopped bothering me with the progress. ..
Bottom line shop elsewhere...

And o yeah, "sorry about the Renault Triber, yess we hear it more"....end of conversation no or ..or..

Excerpt from letter to the exec team:
Based on a formality in relation to a payment that had been followed up by the Strand Street Branch with me I did not have a chance to respond to an email I received in a timely fashion, being unaware that this would lead to the involvement of an investigator who was not only chasing me down the street by driving recklessly and breaking multiple traffic rules but threatened to physically harm me and verbally abused me - and finally broke the key of my car - which required me to return home unexpectedly and to wait for a replacement car to be provided.

As it stands this was all the result of an email that I hadn't respond to and I can't even express the level of disappointment and disgust in relation to the unprofessional, poor and unacceptable handling of the matter and will follow up on the physical and emotional abuse.

If you would please be so kind as to point me into the right direction with regards to next steps in terms of addressing the complaint at the highest level of seniority since I am of the opinion that no business, dealing with customers, and, more importantly, putting their customers first, should be treating their clients like this.

The fact that I had been put through this is an absolute disgrace and I trust in your ability to
find an appropriate solution for this.

They will never refund you your deposit money, they'll tell you that they've charged you for stone chips on the bumper but when you collect the car and tell them about stone chips on the bumper, they will tell you don't worry we will not charge you for minor stone chips. That's how they make money by scamming people, and they will take that car and give it to someone else without repairing those stone chips

I rent regularly for business from Avis both in the UK and South Africa. I'm generally pleased with the service but have to register complete dissatisfaction with the Durban branch in South Africa. Wait times even for preferred customers are far too long. Why is it just this branch that's so badly run?

Avis Johannesburg Airport (O R Tambo) is operating the windscreen chip scam. I collected the car from their parking lot and no handover or inspection form was presented or used. But by chance, two Avis staff were checking the vehicle. They said there was a minor windscreen chip. On return the agent went straight to the windscreen, and straight to where the two staff had been looking! – and found a chip! So small it could hardly be seen. He then said dramatically that it would soon travel right across the windscreen. I pointed out that I had never signed for anything and the coincidental presence of staff on pickup. I asked him if every car leaving the garage was as 'as new' condition and replied 'no, of course not'. I asked to see what the first two staff had found and, lo and behold! no record existed! I had taken out Avis's own windscreen insurance but this did not seem to be on record. I asked for the manager and had a very long discussion with him. He found that 'there had been some mistake'. I told him quite clearly that as far as I was concerned the well know windscreen chip scam was operating and he became, well, shall we say 'sheepish'. Shame on Avis. Car rental has one of the worst reputations for honesty and integrity worldwide. Avis would do well to not join in this. Next time I'll insist on a detailed vehicle handover, or write a disclaimer on any paperwork, or video the entire vehicle on collection. I might even make a counter claim for attempted fraud. Another tactic I've heard of is to insist on a condition report before collecting. Anything that will protect against deliberate sharp practice.

Booked a Toyota Corolla or equivalent in Cape Town. No car available when we called to collect. After about 30 mins we were given a Triber, Renault, 999 cc, manual. The car would slow down to approx 75 km when climbing any basic hill at full throttle. Got a very poor response from Avis when we complained subsequently. The last email was not even acknowledged.

I hate the feeling of 'having' to use companies like this one. They just don't see you as a customer and someone that is looking to have a good experience.
I was clearly told at the pick up point that additional drivers are free yet they still allow me to sign a contract that states the opposite and that there's a charge for additonal drivers.
Yes I should have checked the contract before signing but I'm on holiday. I've got kids pulling me in all directions and I want to get on with my holiday. Why wouldn't I believe the rep behind the counter when he told me additonal drivers are free? He was a nice guy.
But I was essentially lied to about the additional driver cost and then lulled into signing a contract.
It could have been a decent epxerience but it turns out to be a really poor experience.