I am sorry you feel that you have been ignored.

If you would like me to look into this further and chase this up with customers services please send me an email with your rental agreement number and rental details to comments@avis.co.uk.

If you have any other questions or feedback please let me know.

Vicki

After a particularly bad rental experience with our local Avis Branch (had requested car delivery, this never happened, had to wait 20 min’ on hold at the expensive number to get someone to answer, papers where not in place as promised, we had to go to another branch to collect them, we missed our ferry connection, etc, etc); I wrote to Avis to complain.

I received an aplogy and an offer of a 50 Euros compensation voucher upon contacting Avis by email. I have now gotten tired of emailing both the person who signed the letter and Avis customer care and no-one has gotten the decency to reply to my emails, plainly ignoring them for weeks on end.

Considering our rental was in April and we are now in November, it is plainly more than the established 5-days response!

I feel the whole Customer Services Dept is just maskerading as Customer services while in fact it is just a no-ends email address that gets you nowhere. And the queues (sometimes over 30 min) to get to speak to someone on the phone who always promises call back that never materialises, have costs me so much already! Why is the customer service number at a much more expensive rate than the reservations number? What does that reflect?

Laura

(BTW, no need for the standard response: ” I am sorry you have not heard back… blah blah”.)

I am sorry to hear that you feel this way.

I am afraid I have not recieved an email from you with your rental agreement number and details of your rental, so cannot help until I get this. As I mentioned before (feed 3) if you email these details to me at comments@avis.co.uk I will look into this and follow this up with customer services.

Vicki

Michael Ade-George – try and fight these charges and you’ll get nowhere but ground down. It’s obvious by the robotic and dishonest responses to customers on this blog (I have never had my issue looked into by Vicki or anyone else) that AVIS doesn’t care but does try harder to make more money from you unscrupulously.

I am actually a motoring journalist and I shall make sure that in the future I shall make and take every possible opportunity for the rest of my career to publicise what I consider the dishonest practice and methods used by Avis to make money. I hope that in the future the people at the top of the Avis corporation who are making fat profits out of mugs like me will get their just rewards, as what goes around comes around, especially in business.

And it goes without saying that I shall never, ever step into or near an AVIS establishment for the rest of my life.

Vicki is not in the office today so I’m replying in her absence.

I completely agree that the internet does give customers the ability to share their experiences with a much wider audience. It’s great for the consumer as it places greater transparency on quality service. It’s great for us because it helps us to identify where we might have got it wrong and do things better next time. We are committed to the delivery of quality service and the feedback of customers like you will help us get there.

But this may be of little consolation to you right now and I am sorry that you we have fallen short of your expectations of us. However, I do understand that our customer support team has been in touch and a refund has been made.

I trust that this has been resolved to your satisfaction but please let me know if you have any further thoughts or feedback.

Rob

Thanks for the timely response and your kind offer, but don’t worry about it.

[Customer Service Manager] in customer services (I’m told she is the Customer Care Manager, but she hasn’t had the decency to contact me herself yet) should know the nature of my issues from my three emails and have also been notified by her colleague.

As I wrote above, if they don’t reply to me in full by November 5th Japan time, I will take that as a refusal by Avis to deal with my complaint, at which point I will take my case to the ombudsman.

I am not even particularly annoyed anymore, it has turned into such a farce that I am curious to see what they come up with next

The way I see it Avis has a pretty good marketing department, good and bad operations (Heathrow Airport good, Manchester Airport otherwise), and a customer services department with serious problems.

The problem for you guys is that the more successful you are with your ad campaigns, the more angry you make the people who are being ignored by your colleagues in customer services. Rubbing salt on the wounds as it were.

The old days where satisfied customers told three or four people and dissatisfied customers twenty are long gone. Now a dissatisfied customer with a grudge will tell thousands of people, and you can’t beat that kind of viral marketing with funky slogans and trendy blogs.

I’m a repeat Avis customer and have never had a problem until a breakdown this summer. The breakdown I don’t mind, things go wrong in life, but the way I have been treated since then is mind-boggling.

I’m kind of hoping this actually goes all the way to court, ’cause I don’t see how I can lose.

Anyway, thanks for listening and for trying to help.

All the best

ben shearon

I am sorry that you have not heard back from our customer service team.
If you email me at comments@avis.co.uk with your rental agreement number I will look into this for you and follow this up with our customer service team.

Vicki

I too was surprised and disappointed to see that Avis had won an award for customer service. Unless the judges were being ironic, I don’t see how this award is any kind of reflection on reality.

Avis’ website promises answers from customer service staff within specific time frames, and the code of conduct of the British Rental Vehicle Licensing Association to which they belong specifies a 15 day period during which disputes should be resolved.

I’ve been communicating with (at?) Avis customer services (now there’s a misnomer) for over two months now. I have been ignored for up to two weeks at a time, my questions have still not been answered, I have been lied to and called a liar, and now I have been passed on to the Customer Care Manager who has not answered my email in the two working days specified on the Avis website (it’s been 10 days so far). For people in similar situations, I recommend setting a deadline you want to receive a answer by and then taking your complaint to the ombudsman (the BRVLA above) as Avis is refusing to deal with it.

To be fair, I am impressed that this blog is publishing these negative comments and commend the marketing department for their good work. It’s just a shame that your colleagues in customer services are making a mockery of the whole thing.

Anyway, just some thoughts for people who might be in similar situations to mine.

All the best

ben shearon

I apologise that you have not heard back from anyone yet. I have just spoken to our customer service team and they say you have been refunded and that they will send you out letter explaining this.

Vicki

Is it standard Avis policy to post a response on your website apparently apologising for “the frustrations this has caused” or “any upset that this has caused” requesting an email to you as you will look into it but do nothing as its been the case so far?!? I suppose its great public relation to be seen to show concerned and empathy. Actions speak louder than words and 2 weeks later I find myself still waiting for a response – even an acknowledgement from either of your two colleagues would be a refreshing change rather than having to chase up once again. I wonder how many others of “satisfied” customers there are out there and whether it would be worthwhile testing this out by contacting “Watchdog”!