I recently rented a midsize car in Nashville, Tn on 6/7/2010 to be returned to this same location on 6/12/2010. Due to a cancellation of my return flight back to Philadelphia I was offered two alternate flights, one from Huntsville, Al where I was currently staying, arriving at approx the same time as my original flight and the other a later flight from Nashville my original departure airport. I opted to try an take the Huntsville flight but needed to find out what charges I would incur for a rental car being returned to an alternate location. The car rental as well as my airline tickets were all booked through Priceline. My car rental cost already paid was $240.44. When I stopped by the Avis counter representative in Huntsville to inquire what the additional cost for leaving the car in Huntsville he took my contract and looked it up on the computer and said that I would incur an additional $75.00 drop off fee. Since I was pressed for time to catch this flight I asked if I could leave the contract and if they would bill ythe credit card. He stated that it would be no problem. When I returned home the next day I went on to the AVIS website to obtain my final receipt and found my new rental car cost total was now $1,526.15. This was in addition to the $240.44 I had already paid through Priceline. Inquiries to Customer Service indicated that because I had changed the rental agreement that they were now charging me at the prevailing rate (249.00/day). None of this was provided to me by the agent in Huntsville when I made the original request to find out what additional charges I would incur by dropping off the car in Huntsville. the only addition fee he told me about was the $75.00 drop off fee. I used this information to make my decision to drop the car and fly out of Huntsville rather than return the 2 hours to Nashville for a later flight. Had I been given the information requested about an additional $1,500 bill I would have certainly made the decision to take the later flight and return to Nashville. AVIS answer is since I signed a contract that in the contract it states that a change in contract allows them to charge the prevailing rate. I do not dispute that the contract is a legal document, however, I also expect that an AVIS agent when given the contract and asked to provide information specifically related to a possible change in plans should be able to either look up the information as he was fdoing or call the main office for assistance if he had any questions. This astronomical change is cost was certainly not detailed in the paperwork I left with the AVIS agent. repeated e-mails back to AVIS customer service have resulted in a drop in the final bill of $500 but this still leaves me with an approx $1,000 bill in addition to the $240 bill already paid for a mid-size rental over a 5 day period. I have saved all my correspondance on this matter if there is any interest in helping me with my cause. This matter is currently in dispute with my credit card company but I am not making any reasonable headway with AVIS at this time. I have offered to share some of the fault and pay an additional approx. $150 above the original contract to allow AVIS pay individuals to make the 2 hour trip to Huntsville to retrieve the car. I don't feel I should be paying anything above the agreed upon rental price and additional drop-off charge but in the interest of bring this matter to a close I tendered this counter offer to AVIS but they rejected it over the phone with me.
Any hep that can be provided with this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Frustrated in South Jersey
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