Avis Complaint - Damage to rental cars - off rental inspections at drop off point

off rental inspections at drop off point - Complaint

Review by ted1700 on 2010-06-06

MUNICH, GERMANY -- This is the first & last time we'll rent with Avis. After almost 13 years renting from other companies at the Munich airport nothing like this has ever happened. We checked the car over for damage but did not take photos (you'd better do that now with these scams) and found NO damage. When we returned the car the person checking them in first showed us something on the door that he said was a scratch. I took my fingernail and with some spit I removed it (a little paint from another car door that did NOT break the paint on the rental car) and showed that to him. He then gave us a receipt to sign that was hundreds of dollars higher than the contract we made with AVIS online before we left the United States and we told him it was wrong and we wouldn't sign it. We then get a bill for over 500 Euros for a new windshield and door paint. He didn't show us any damage to the windshield and since you normally hear the rock that hits, I'll swear that either it wasn't there or, if you can believe the photo they sent, so small to be fixed by the injection method for a few Euros. I don't think it was there, I always notice any windshield damage when I'm driving and we had this car for over 2 weeks. I would have noticed. Interesting he didn't show that to me like he did the so called "scratch". A bad thing about the Munich Airport is there is no one to talk to about any damage if there was any except to walk all the way back to the contract desk. You leave by way of inserting a card in a reader and the gate opens. I suppose you can write something down on your contract but it would still be your word against theirs. They know you're going home to the States and can't complain in person like a local can. We're fighting it with our travel insurance company as It's not fair for them to have to pay a scam. It would be nice if there was a Better Business Bureau in Germany but I can't find one. I do have a friend that lives in Munich that used to work for Diamler-Benze and I may ask him to go and try to inspect the car for me. That will probably surprise them as normally tourists don't have any recourse and they know it.