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From: debbiem@rruxe.UUCP (D. McBurnett)
Newsgroups: net.travel
Subject: Car rental in Europe
Message-ID: <298@rruxe.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Oct-85 23:08:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: rruxe.298
Posted: Thu Oct  3 23:08:19 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Oct-85 02:36:55 EDT
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 52


> ...  After our trip to England, I had a one year letter writing
> battle with Avis before I finally got a $500 refund from them.  It's
> a long story, but they guaranteed me a car with seat belts in the
> rear, but then couldn't deliver.  I had to rent an expensive Volvo
> from them to get rear seat belts.  Next time I go I'm going to take
> something along I can install myself, just in case.
>
>    				Vick Bennison
>    				...decvax!decwrl!rhea!tools!bennison
>    				(603) 881-2156

At least you got a refund and only had to write letters.  Actually,
we've always found Avis the best to deal with in Europe (there are
some good agencies, like Godfrey Davis, in England, but they don't
operate on the continent, and vice versa).  Avis has always been
most helpful to us and we have never had the slightest problem with
them.  Usually, in fact, we have gotten better cars than we had
asked for (this may be a feature of our policy of ONLY travelling
to Europe at the end of May or beginning of August, I don't know).

My parents, however, had incredible difficulties with Hertz on their
last trip to Europe.  They had arranged for a car rental for one week
in England, a rental for one week on the continent, and a third
rental at the end of their trip in England again.  Not once was the
car they requested available, and this with all their rentals
reserved and prepaid.  (When they arrived in England the second
time, NO CAR was available at all.)  In order to obtain the
transportation they needed (there were five adults in the party,
so they needed a larger than normal car), they had to rent cars from
other agencies like Avis.  These additional rentals cost them $1700
because they were last-minute one-way rentals.  My parents ended up
not using any Hertz cars at all.  Since the rentals hadn't been tied
to a fly-drive package or anything, my folks figured they could just
get their money back from Hertz.  Guess again.  Hertz would not
refund their prepaid amount nor reimburse them any part of the
additional rental costs they were forced to incur. After a lot
of correspondence, my parents got a lawyer and went to court.  But
it wasn't until my mom wrote up the whole story and sent it to a
nationally syndicated travel columnist, who published the tale, that
Hertz finally offered any recompense, to the tune of the original
prepaid amount plus $150 for the inconvenience and added expense.
It still ended up costing my parents an extra grand out of their
own pockets, and of course, the lawyer got his cut of the
settlement, as well.  The whole brouhaha took over a year and a half
to settle, and it wasn't for lack of effort on my folks' part.

So watch out for Hertz when you're travelling abroad!

			Debbie McBurnett
			rruxe!debbiem


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