Avis Lost a Long Time Customer Today Over a B*llshit $10.85 Refuel Charge

Before I go into all the details of this story, I’ll share the highlights:

- I had a horrible experience with Avis at the Fort Lauderdale airport today regarding a bogus $10.85 fuel charge.

- Because of this experience I will never rent a car from Avis again.

- I am so pissed off by how ridiculous this charge is and how callous the Avis personnel were about maintaining that charge that I will go out of my way to share this story with anyone who will listen. I will also post these notes in every relevant forum I can find. I will spend time worth many, many multiples of $10.85 to balance the karmic books here and settle the score as best I can with those unthinking, avaricious jackals at Avis who set asinine policies like this.

- This whole thing could have been avoided if Avis empowered their employees to use common sense and consider the big picture implications of isolated transaction details.

- But the 3 employees with whom I attempted to discuss this issue clearly had no interest whatsoever in understanding my position or trying to ensure I, a long time Avis ‘Preferred’ customer, left the counter remotely satisfied with my Avis rental experience. It was so clear that I was dealing with consistent and complete institutional disregard that I suspect it must be a deliberate strategy Avis is implementing to defraud their customers of every last penny they can. It was as if these employees had sat through multiple training sessions instructing them to anticipate situations just like this and respond simply and repeatedly with a dispassionate ‘there’s nothing I can do’.



All that said, here’s what the full story of what happened:

I rented a Toyota Prius for 3 days. I drove it a total of 107 miles. I filled the tank at the Emerald Hills Shell station at 2600 N. 29th Ave. in Hollywood, right off exit 21 on I-95 north. According to Google maps, this is approximately 5.5 miles south of Avis' FLL airport location.

Click screenshot below to link over to actual map @ Google Maps


It took 2.67 gallons of gas, which translates to 38.01 mpg (107 miles - 5.5 miles = 101.5 miles / 2.67 gallons). I then drove the 5.5 miles to the Avis rental return area. Assuming I achieved the same 38.01 mpg for that 5.5 mile trip as I used for the previous 101.5 miles, I would have used 0.14 gallons of gas. (This is a generous calculation since the route between the station and the drop off was 100% highway and off ramps whereas the previous 101.5 miles were rather varied.) According to the Toyota website (see the 'capacities' tab), the Prius’ tank capacity is 11.9 gallons. So I would have returned the car with its tank 98.8% full. Avis check in guy tells me in a disinterested monotone that ‘the tank isn’t full.’ I tell him that I filled it at the Shell station @ exit 21. He repeats in a mumble ‘it isn’t full’ and walks away. Having been summarily dissed by the Avis check in guy, I realize there is no use trying to engage this gentleman further so I head inside to appeal for reason at the desk. But the agent there tells me there is nothing she can do about it. Okay. I ask to speak with someone who can do something about and she goes to call over a supervisor, Glenda W. Glenda W. also tells me there is nothing she can do about it. If the tank isn’t registering as full then she cannot reverse the charge. I review with her again the details of my story. Drove the car 107 miles. It’s a Prius. I put in 2.67 gallons of gas at the Shell station at exit 21. You cannot be serious about charging me $10.85 for refueling this car. She’s unmoved. I let her know that Avis has had 100% of my car rental business for years and this $10.85 charge is about to not only flip that to 0% immediately but inspire me to let everyone who cares to listen know about this crap experience I’ve had with Avis. I implore her to consider things for a moment from a bigger picture marketing perspective and think about what the best option is for handling this situation. She offers me a $25 discount off my next rental with Avis. This misses the point. If the $10.85 isn’t reversed, there will be no next rental with Avis. She says that’s all she can do. Okay then. Well, then I guess this is all I can do.

In summary, returning a car 98.8% full triggers a fuel charge. For me this charge was $10.85. By my calculations the car’s tank was at most depleted by 0.14 gallons, which means I was charged a cool $74.99 per gallon. And for $10.85 Avis has lost a long time customer. Hello, Enterprise (even though I can’t stand those insipid “Hello, Enterprise? I’m at the Repair Shop” commercials with the generic “Repair Shop” vinyl banners from Fast Signs hung up in the background).