boycott AVIS car rentals
Today's grand plan was to rent a car and drive down to Seattle to visit a good friend. (for those who are confused as to my location, i'm currently in Richmond, BC.)
and this turns into a ridiculously long story with a spectacularly spammy amount of pictures. (only one of which is related to AVIS, but by the end, i'm sure you'll know why my subject line is what it is).
So, in an effort to be, you know, prepared for life, i had called ahead yesterday to get quotes on rates and availability of cars (as i'm really only comfortable driving compacts). I should have known that something was going to go wrong. The conversation went like this:
me: Hello, I was wondering about your rates for a compact car on a day-to-day basis.
weird AVIS employee 1: ... ... You want ... a ... 'bay' 'sis'?
me: ... a day-to-day basis, yes.
wAe1: ...
me: What are your rates?
wAe1: Oh. Okay. We charge either weekly rates or day-to-day--
me: I would be looking at day-to-day, yeah.
wAe1: ... Okay. And what type of car did you want?
me: ... ... a compact...
See? Shouldn't I have suspected that my trip was doomed?
Then, when I went to go pick up the car, I had this conversation with wAe1:
wAe1: So you'll return the car tomorrow at 11...
me: No, I booked it until Wednesday.
wAe1: Right. Wednesday. So you have the car until tomorrow--
me: No. WEDNESDAY.
wAe1: Tomorrow.
me: Tomorrow is Tuesday. I booked it until Wednesday.
wAe1: RIGHT. Okay, so if you sign here to signify you'll be returning the car tomorrow--
me: ...............................
wAe1: Sorry, Wednesday.
DOOMED.
When I got to the border, I discovered a HUGE LINE of Americans on their way home on the last day of their long weekend. I knew it was Memorial Day today... but... somehow it just slipped my mind as to how it would affect my plans. Nevertheless, this holiday caused one of the most interesting displays at the park I've ever seen. Sort of eery, but sort of cool. Very touching, however you look at it.
The American side of the Peace Arch park (a gorgeous park/momument, btw), was covered in little cardboard "gravemarkers". On each marker was a handwritten note with the name of a soldier who died in Iraq.
The border wait was, in total, 55 minutes. At around the 30 minute mark, a little message flashed on my instrument panel (I was given a Pontiac G5) that said: "Cooling System On". Interesting, non? NOT AS INTERESTING AS WHEN PUFFS OF WHITE SMOKE (okay, i know it's steam) CAME OUT OF THE HOOD OF THE CAR. And because I was already pretty committed in lining up for the border (read: in the wrong lane to "pull over" without causing ridiculous upset for everyone else), I was forced to just turn off my car everytime I had a chance. Still the car was smoking away by the time I crossed the border. The border guard kindly told me that I couldn't "just park awhile" at the actual customs office and directed me to Blaine, a small town just about two blocks away.
I called D, who knows quite a bit about car issues as he drove a horrible lemon of a car for 4 years, and he directed me to the coolant tank.
Okay, i'll be honest with you, i'm not sure if the "cool" line is really that high. But even if it's at the middle of the tank where the join is... don't you think that coolant level is awfully low? D told me to just fill it up with water and drive straight back to the rental place. He said that the cooling system in a car is a closed circuit and that, ordinarily speaking, there's no reason your coolant level should be that low. Therefore there must be a leak in the hosing somewhere and it's not safe to drive (in case I get stranded in the mountains). I asked if I should buy coolant at the gas station two blocks away, but D thought it would be a waste of money when water would do (and I did have a litre of water with me). Took me one full litre and another 500ml bottle that I bought at the coffee shop next to where I parked my car to fill the coolant tank to the halfway point.
Meanwhile, everyone in Blaine is staring at me. I'm not sure if it's because:
Anyway, I'm just thankful I watch enough TV/movies to know about the dangers of the coolant tank cap. The heat, hissing, boiling... I got that covered. ^_~
So while my car cooled down, I walked along the picturesque waterfront streets of Blaine.
Which all meant that I had to turn around and head back to Richmond to return the car.
I was sooooo royally not thrilled. Because, you see, in the hour that I waited for my engine to cool down, the queue to get back into Canada had QUADRUPLED. Welcome to another hour long wait, Samantha.
I decided not to risk it, and repeated the same "crawl forward, turn off the car, turn on the car, crawl forward, turn off the car" procedure as before... and still, by the time I got to the Canadian border, the red temperature light was on and so was the "Cooling System" of the car.
The Canadian border guard was laaaaaaaaaaaaughing at me. ^O^;;; I suppose it's quite a ridiculous story.
him: How long have you been out of the country?
me: Oh, maybe an hour?
him: Where did you go?
me: Blaine.
him: ...Whatever for????
me: *blabs out the whole story* and now the red temperature light is back on and i don't know... that's bad right? but i don't want to buy 2 gallons of coolant when it's not even my car and my friend said water would work~~~~!!!! @_@
him: ...kekeke... ... kekeke... nono, it's okay. water works, it's true. umm... why don't you park over in the customs area for a bit. heehee!
and he didn't even check my passport. T_T
BUT THEN, the worst was yet to come.
(not including the additional 30 minute wait at the tunnel because of rush hour lane reversal)
Because I was freaking out about the car, I decided to drive straight to the AVIS office that I rented from. Meaning I didn't go fill up the gas. I knew they'd want to charge me for it, but I figured I'd eat that cost if I could just get this car out of my hands before i accidentally ran it into the ground because you just KNOW they'd blame *that* on me. Actually, a large part of the reason I didn't want to buy coolant (and why I have pics of the coolant tank) was because I didn't want to go return the car and have them go: "I don't see anything wrong with it, you crackhead."
I get to the AVIS office where, to my surprise, there's a Weird AVIS Employee #2! And she's superiorly pregnant which means I can't *really* vent my ire at her. Fabulous.
She told me that the AVIS policy states that I should have just bought the coolant and they would have reimbursed me for it when I returned the car. I countered with the fact that this is not in their contract with me. (Because, while I don't like to pull the "lawyer" card, I'll do it if you force me). She was like: "Oh, well, it's our policy." So I was like, fine, whateves, dude. All I wanted was to wash my hands of the whole affair. She asked me if I wanted to exchange the defective car for another one and I said no because my plans were ruined. There was no point in me going down to Seattle now as it was 4:30 pm and the border line going into the US was STILL ridiculouly strong which meant I wouldn't be able to get to Seattle until at least 8:30pm and I was planning on leaving Seattle tomorrow while my friend went to work... so I would be going to spend 4 hours with her. Not happening. Especially not having just spent 4 hours in a car going nowhere.
So she looks at her computer then she LOOKS AT THE CLOCK AND SAYS: "...Okay, so you've had the car from 11am, and it's now 4--"
I don't know what my face looked like, but my expression was enough to make her completely freeze.
"I'm sorry," I said, trying my best to be civil due to her 'delicate condition', "are you CHARGING me for today?"
She looked a little flustered by replied that because I'd clearly driven the car to the border and back, it was "drivable" and therefore it was company policy to charge for it.
I said that sure it was technically drivable but I wasn't aware that I was allowed to run their vehicles into the ground.
She said that I should have bought the coolant then.
I said that I was also not aware that their rental contract required *me* to MAINTAIN THEIR VEHICLES.
She said she understood my position but that this was company policy. She offered to charge me less than their standard ridiculously overpriced rate for the gas I'd used.
I asked her if the car had overheated and I'd blown the engine would that constitute "undrivable"? She confirmed that this did. So followed up with the query as to whether or not she thought her company would have preferred me to go that route because I could totally go out and do that if she wanted.
She said she'd call her manager.
I said great! I'd LOVE to talk to her.
Because you know who's the manager? WAE1. Awesome.
(WAE1 was out at the head office attending some special meeting but we got her on the phone)
With the manager, it came down to the her accusation that I didn't KNOW FOR SURE that there was a leak in the cooling system and therefore I didn't KNOW FOR SURE that the car was "undrivable". Okay, so at least she admitted that if there is a leak in the cooling system, it *does* constitute "undrivable".
WAE1 reiterated that I should have just bought more coolant, topped it up, and kept going for a while to test my theory.
I repeated my query as to whether her company would prefer that I had blown the engine while I was testing my theory.
I told her that it took me 1.5 L of water to fill the coolant tank JUST to the half way mark and that I had pictures to prove it. I explained to her that coolant doesn't naturally "get used up" as I drive, it's not gas. And so therefore if there's no leak in the system, then I'm forced to believe that AVIS is not in the practice of putting coolant in their vehicles, which is a dangerous practice. As I'd like to give AVIS the benefit of the doubt, I said, I thought it advisable to bring back the car as soon as I could so that you could hopefully repair it and not have to junk it (as you would have if I'd blown the engine while i was "testing my theory"). I also thought I was doing YOU a favour by telling you about this problem rather than just passing it off to the next unwitting customer who might sue you when they're stranded in the middle of nowhere with an overheated car. (At the very least, AVIS would have to pay for the tow).
After much roundabout discussion, WAE1 finally agreed with me and told WAE2 to void my contract so that I wouldn't have to pay. WAE2 looked disgruntled and tried to insist that they should charge me for the gas I'd used when WAE1 blurted out: "For God's sake, just don't charge her anything!" (i have the voided contract copy in my purse for safekeeping until my credit card bill comes)
Even as I was leaving, WAE2 was like: "But just to let you know, our policy is..."
Blah blah blah.
And by this time, it was 5:20pm.
So I walked home.
And ordered a pizza.
Oh yes, I also bought donuts along the way.
(oh, if you click on any of the photos in this post, it should take you to my flickr page. i've posted a couple extra shots there that i didn't feel the need to include here.)
and this turns into a ridiculously long story with a spectacularly spammy amount of pictures. (only one of which is related to AVIS, but by the end, i'm sure you'll know why my subject line is what it is).
So, in an effort to be, you know, prepared for life, i had called ahead yesterday to get quotes on rates and availability of cars (as i'm really only comfortable driving compacts). I should have known that something was going to go wrong. The conversation went like this:
me: Hello, I was wondering about your rates for a compact car on a day-to-day basis.
weird AVIS employee 1: ... ... You want ... a ... 'bay' 'sis'?
me: ... a day-to-day basis, yes.
wAe1: ...
me: What are your rates?
wAe1: Oh. Okay. We charge either weekly rates or day-to-day--
me: I would be looking at day-to-day, yeah.
wAe1: ... Okay. And what type of car did you want?
me: ... ... a compact...
See? Shouldn't I have suspected that my trip was doomed?
Then, when I went to go pick up the car, I had this conversation with wAe1:
wAe1: So you'll return the car tomorrow at 11...
me: No, I booked it until Wednesday.
wAe1: Right. Wednesday. So you have the car until tomorrow--
me: No. WEDNESDAY.
wAe1: Tomorrow.
me: Tomorrow is Tuesday. I booked it until Wednesday.
wAe1: RIGHT. Okay, so if you sign here to signify you'll be returning the car tomorrow--
me: ...............................
wAe1: Sorry, Wednesday.
DOOMED.
When I got to the border, I discovered a HUGE LINE of Americans on their way home on the last day of their long weekend. I knew it was Memorial Day today... but... somehow it just slipped my mind as to how it would affect my plans. Nevertheless, this holiday caused one of the most interesting displays at the park I've ever seen. Sort of eery, but sort of cool. Very touching, however you look at it.
The American side of the Peace Arch park (a gorgeous park/momument, btw), was covered in little cardboard "gravemarkers". On each marker was a handwritten note with the name of a soldier who died in Iraq.
The border wait was, in total, 55 minutes. At around the 30 minute mark, a little message flashed on my instrument panel (I was given a Pontiac G5) that said: "Cooling System On". Interesting, non? NOT AS INTERESTING AS WHEN PUFFS OF WHITE SMOKE (okay, i know it's steam) CAME OUT OF THE HOOD OF THE CAR. And because I was already pretty committed in lining up for the border (read: in the wrong lane to "pull over" without causing ridiculous upset for everyone else), I was forced to just turn off my car everytime I had a chance. Still the car was smoking away by the time I crossed the border. The border guard kindly told me that I couldn't "just park awhile" at the actual customs office and directed me to Blaine, a small town just about two blocks away.
I called D, who knows quite a bit about car issues as he drove a horrible lemon of a car for 4 years, and he directed me to the coolant tank.
Okay, i'll be honest with you, i'm not sure if the "cool" line is really that high. But even if it's at the middle of the tank where the join is... don't you think that coolant level is awfully low? D told me to just fill it up with water and drive straight back to the rental place. He said that the cooling system in a car is a closed circuit and that, ordinarily speaking, there's no reason your coolant level should be that low. Therefore there must be a leak in the hosing somewhere and it's not safe to drive (in case I get stranded in the mountains). I asked if I should buy coolant at the gas station two blocks away, but D thought it would be a waste of money when water would do (and I did have a litre of water with me). Took me one full litre and another 500ml bottle that I bought at the coffee shop next to where I parked my car to fill the coolant tank to the halfway point.
Meanwhile, everyone in Blaine is staring at me. I'm not sure if it's because:
- there are no chinese people in blaine,
- i'm a little little girl working on a bright red sporty-looking car (the g5 is kind of aggressive looking...)
- i'm pouring bottles of water into my car when there's a gas station two blocks away
- i was wearing a kind of low-cut top because it was quite warm in the car
Anyway, I'm just thankful I watch enough TV/movies to know about the dangers of the coolant tank cap. The heat, hissing, boiling... I got that covered. ^_~
So while my car cooled down, I walked along the picturesque waterfront streets of Blaine.
Which all meant that I had to turn around and head back to Richmond to return the car.
I was sooooo royally not thrilled. Because, you see, in the hour that I waited for my engine to cool down, the queue to get back into Canada had QUADRUPLED. Welcome to another hour long wait, Samantha.
I decided not to risk it, and repeated the same "crawl forward, turn off the car, turn on the car, crawl forward, turn off the car" procedure as before... and still, by the time I got to the Canadian border, the red temperature light was on and so was the "Cooling System" of the car.
The Canadian border guard was laaaaaaaaaaaaughing at me. ^O^;;; I suppose it's quite a ridiculous story.
him: How long have you been out of the country?
me: Oh, maybe an hour?
him: Where did you go?
me: Blaine.
him: ...Whatever for????
me: *blabs out the whole story* and now the red temperature light is back on and i don't know... that's bad right? but i don't want to buy 2 gallons of coolant when it's not even my car and my friend said water would work~~~~!!!! @_@
him: ...kekeke... ... kekeke... nono, it's okay. water works, it's true. umm... why don't you park over in the customs area for a bit. heehee!
and he didn't even check my passport. T_T
BUT THEN, the worst was yet to come.
(not including the additional 30 minute wait at the tunnel because of rush hour lane reversal)
Because I was freaking out about the car, I decided to drive straight to the AVIS office that I rented from. Meaning I didn't go fill up the gas. I knew they'd want to charge me for it, but I figured I'd eat that cost if I could just get this car out of my hands before i accidentally ran it into the ground because you just KNOW they'd blame *that* on me. Actually, a large part of the reason I didn't want to buy coolant (and why I have pics of the coolant tank) was because I didn't want to go return the car and have them go: "I don't see anything wrong with it, you crackhead."
I get to the AVIS office where, to my surprise, there's a Weird AVIS Employee #2! And she's superiorly pregnant which means I can't *really* vent my ire at her. Fabulous.
She told me that the AVIS policy states that I should have just bought the coolant and they would have reimbursed me for it when I returned the car. I countered with the fact that this is not in their contract with me. (Because, while I don't like to pull the "lawyer" card, I'll do it if you force me). She was like: "Oh, well, it's our policy." So I was like, fine, whateves, dude. All I wanted was to wash my hands of the whole affair. She asked me if I wanted to exchange the defective car for another one and I said no because my plans were ruined. There was no point in me going down to Seattle now as it was 4:30 pm and the border line going into the US was STILL ridiculouly strong which meant I wouldn't be able to get to Seattle until at least 8:30pm and I was planning on leaving Seattle tomorrow while my friend went to work... so I would be going to spend 4 hours with her. Not happening. Especially not having just spent 4 hours in a car going nowhere.
So she looks at her computer then she LOOKS AT THE CLOCK AND SAYS: "...Okay, so you've had the car from 11am, and it's now 4--"
I don't know what my face looked like, but my expression was enough to make her completely freeze.
"I'm sorry," I said, trying my best to be civil due to her 'delicate condition', "are you CHARGING me for today?"
She looked a little flustered by replied that because I'd clearly driven the car to the border and back, it was "drivable" and therefore it was company policy to charge for it.
I said that sure it was technically drivable but I wasn't aware that I was allowed to run their vehicles into the ground.
She said that I should have bought the coolant then.
I said that I was also not aware that their rental contract required *me* to MAINTAIN THEIR VEHICLES.
She said she understood my position but that this was company policy. She offered to charge me less than their standard ridiculously overpriced rate for the gas I'd used.
I asked her if the car had overheated and I'd blown the engine would that constitute "undrivable"? She confirmed that this did. So followed up with the query as to whether or not she thought her company would have preferred me to go that route because I could totally go out and do that if she wanted.
She said she'd call her manager.
I said great! I'd LOVE to talk to her.
Because you know who's the manager? WAE1. Awesome.
(WAE1 was out at the head office attending some special meeting but we got her on the phone)
With the manager, it came down to the her accusation that I didn't KNOW FOR SURE that there was a leak in the cooling system and therefore I didn't KNOW FOR SURE that the car was "undrivable". Okay, so at least she admitted that if there is a leak in the cooling system, it *does* constitute "undrivable".
WAE1 reiterated that I should have just bought more coolant, topped it up, and kept going for a while to test my theory.
I repeated my query as to whether her company would prefer that I had blown the engine while I was testing my theory.
I told her that it took me 1.5 L of water to fill the coolant tank JUST to the half way mark and that I had pictures to prove it. I explained to her that coolant doesn't naturally "get used up" as I drive, it's not gas. And so therefore if there's no leak in the system, then I'm forced to believe that AVIS is not in the practice of putting coolant in their vehicles, which is a dangerous practice. As I'd like to give AVIS the benefit of the doubt, I said, I thought it advisable to bring back the car as soon as I could so that you could hopefully repair it and not have to junk it (as you would have if I'd blown the engine while i was "testing my theory"). I also thought I was doing YOU a favour by telling you about this problem rather than just passing it off to the next unwitting customer who might sue you when they're stranded in the middle of nowhere with an overheated car. (At the very least, AVIS would have to pay for the tow).
After much roundabout discussion, WAE1 finally agreed with me and told WAE2 to void my contract so that I wouldn't have to pay. WAE2 looked disgruntled and tried to insist that they should charge me for the gas I'd used when WAE1 blurted out: "For God's sake, just don't charge her anything!" (i have the voided contract copy in my purse for safekeeping until my credit card bill comes)
Even as I was leaving, WAE2 was like: "But just to let you know, our policy is..."
Blah blah blah.
And by this time, it was 5:20pm.
So I walked home.
And ordered a pizza.
Oh yes, I also bought donuts along the way.
(oh, if you click on any of the photos in this post, it should take you to my flickr page. i've posted a couple extra shots there that i didn't feel the need to include here.)