Avis Rental Car Avis Budget Group Honestly One of The Worst Experiences of My Life philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I was heading camping with my family for the weekend in a PA state park, and due to major storm warnings decided it would be smart to rent an SUV with four wheel drive. I made a reservation and picked up my vehicle no problem from 30th street station.

Several hours later upon arriving in the local town where the state park was located, we stopped to purchase some groceries for our weekend - in doing so I found that my checking account was overdrawn several hundred dollars.

Terrified I quickly loaded up my bank's mobile application on my iPhone to discover that not only did Avis charge me an initial balance for my rental; $182.40, but in addition charged me $1,112.69, TWICE!

Furious I immediately called Avis who said they had no record of this charge as the amount made no sense. After a long time on hold, they conferenced in my bank who confirmed the amount and gave them instructions to fax over a request to remove the erroneous hold. I was told to give it an hour and call back.

We headed to our campsite, where I had no cell phone reception, so an hour later I had to drive up the road to a pay phone located outside the park's office. I called my bank who notified me that the hold was being reversed and the money would be credited back to my account again shortly. The rep then asked if I was aware that the charge had been run through twice? Shocked I said of course not. She then informed me that in order to have the second charge removed I would need to have another fax sent over specifying that 2 holds in the amount needed to be removed.

I called Avis back and after 20 minutes of holding got someone on the phone who had no record of my prior call or the scenario I was faced with. Frustrated I explained the scenario and was put back on hold. After close to 40 minutes on the phone I was informed that the fax had been sent and all would be well. I informed the rep that I understood and required a second fax to be sent, to which she replied that is not possible as she could not see the hold in her system. Again, we called my bank - only this time after my bank rep explained there were two charges there was no Avis rep to be found.

Getting extremely upset at this point I sent my family hiking without me and stayed at the phone booth to call back Avis. Again, I got a rep who had no knowledge of my situation as his system did not contain any notes on the matter, this time I asked for a reference number so I had something to provide them with going forward. He assured me that the fax would be sent and I should try back in an hour. After an hour and a half I called my bank to learn that the charge was still there.

beside myself at this point I called back Avis who again conferenced in my bank and seemed to smooth the whole thing over, I was told the credits would be on my account and that the bank system would update at midnight, relieved I left to head back to my campsite after almost 3 hours of dealing with the mess.

The next day I awoke to find the charge still on my account and even less information contained in my file (even with a reference number) than before. Worst of all once back in my hometown, with the car returned, I found myself still on the phone with Avis trying to find out where the, at this time 3 faxes, that were presumably sent to my bank went - since my bank had never received them.

I called the local Avis branch yet again to AGAIN speak with someone who with my case reference number, did not see any information besides a single phone call from 2 days prior that was 'resolved' by sending a fax. They also refused to believe that I still had an additional $1,100 charge on my account since they could not see it in their system. At this point I took off of work and went to my bank where I had a customer service rep literally print up the transaction log and fax it on Bank letterhead to Avis. I then went to the Avis branch to confirm receipt, and deal with their puzzled faces when they realized they had charged me close to $2,700 for a two day rental. They had no idea what to do.

After another hour at the local branch watching Avis staff walk in and out of the front desk area scratching their heads, I called my bank after I watched them send a fax through hopefully vindicating the erroneous charge. My bank then informed me that the hold was in fact not a hold but was "notched" for payment, and nothing could be done until it cleared or dropped off - which would not happen until the end of the month, almost 2 and half weeks later.

My bank account is still showing charges IN ADDITION to my rental fees for $1,112.69 and I am told nothing can be done. Avis has AWFUL computer systems and INCOMPETENT staff, sorry but it's true. This has been overall one of the worst experiences of my life!