Avis left me stranded

On 16Jan I made an online booking for pick up at Ormonde Avis I realised that I was going to be a few minutes late and I tried to call the branch as soon as I had made the booking which was past 3, and I had to pick up the car before they close which is 5pm.

With no luck from calling the branch with no answer I quickly called the call centre about 3 times telling them to pls contact the branch on my behalf as I was failing to get a hold of them on my side. And I kept being put on hold, hear a phone ringing and the phone will eventually end while I'm holding .

The last guy I spoke to told me there's nothing he can do as there r terms and conditions to my.booking so the best thing is to cancel the booking or modify it to another day so that I do not get charged cancellation fee. He told me that because it was an online booking I would have to modify it myself. Which I tried to do and the website gave me an error message ( you can't modify within the 24 hours of the booking ) . I booked at 3 pm to pick up at 5pm which 24 hours is that they are talking about ??

After I couldn't modify I recalled the customer care now this other guy was miraculously able to modify for me which the other guy could not do in the 1 st place. However the deposit amount changed because now I was changing to a weekend I told the guy that it's over my budget and we could cancel the booking and I will debited R399 for cancellation fee.

My problem : THE BRANCH IS CLOSED I CANT GET THE CAR CAUSE THEY DID NOT ANSWER THEIR PHONE . HAD THEY ANSWERED I WOULD HAVE INFORMED THEM THAT I'M RUNNING 2 MINS LATE AND THEY COULD HAVE WAITED I COULD HAVE GOT THE CAR. NOW I HAD TO TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORT TO GO TO NORTH WEST THE LAST TAXI OUT AND I AM STILL GOING TO BE CHARGED A CANCELLATION FEE FOR THE CANCELLATION NOT BEING MY FAULT BECAUSE TOMORROW WHEN THEY GET TO WORK IT WAS GOING TO BE TAKEN AS THAT I DIDN'T SHOW UP AND WILL BE CHARGED THE WHOLE BOOKING FEE HENCE I OPT TO CANCEL.

but is it really fair that I'm paying for someone who did not answer their phone ? Y is there a contact line in.the office if we as clients cannot get thru to it? Hope my concern will be dealt with accordingly.