Do not use Avis in South Africa (or anywhere if you can help it)

In this review I have included the email I sent to Avis Customer Service upon returning from South Africa, which includes all the details of the absolutely ridiculous rigmarole we were put through while dealing with this company during our vacation. I sent this email on Feb.20, 2018 and it is now Mar.1, 2018, and I have received no response. If you are planning on renting a car while in South Africa, DO NOT USE AVIS (or Budget, which is the same company), as you will receive no help and likely no response. Without further ado, the email:

"To whom it may concern,

I am writing this in regards to my partner and I’s recent trip to South Africa and our experience with Avis whilst there. Our rental agreement number is (...) and (...), as we have two contracts to cover the 6 week period. I have decided to write an email and request that someone call me to sort out our situation and hopefully offer compensation for the headache we have had to endure for most of our trip. I would rather write out our entire situation fully rather than explain over the phone so that the representative who calls me will already be fully aware of our predicament, as I have explained it over the phone so many times, I lost count after 10, and can’t summon the patience to do that again.

Avis customer service in South Africa may best be described as a giant game of “It’s not my problem,” or “It’s not my job.” I spoke with over 15 people from various locations around South Africa and a few from reservations. Most notably were (and hopefully I spell the names right!) Jabo from reservations, Lebo from Lanseria airport, Reselua from Lanseria, Paul from Lanseria, and John from Cape Town Downtown. Let me first say that thus far we have been discounted two days off our trip - the equivalent of about a $40 discount off over a thousand dollars. I hope you will understand my frustrations, and agree that this is not nearly sufficient compensation for the amount of hassle we have dealt with.

Let me explain our experience:

We originally made the booking several weeks before our trip for a car to be available for pickup at O.R. Tambo Airport in Johannesburg on January 6th, 2018. Then, about two weeks or so before we had left Canada, we changed the booking, so that we would pick up the car from the Lanseria location (due to many stories of hijackings from O.R. Tambo). We were assured that the car would be there and that the contact was fully changed. When we went to Lanseria airport on Jan.6th we were told that the car was still at O.R. Tambo, and the booking hadn't been changed at all. We then were made to wait 2 days until they brought a car to Lanseria for us, though the distance is about an hour drive. This means we were relying on friends, family and Uber for the first two days, much to our annoyance.

When we were able to pick up the car, Lebo at Lanseria was very friendly and understanding, and set us up with a great VW Polo. We were in the car for one day before we got a notification that an oil service was needed in 2400 kms. We drove all over South Africa during our six weeks there, and knew we would be driving much longer than that in total, so we called the Johannesburg location to see what the company policy was regarding this notification. As we were in the Kruger Park at this point and about to drive down to Ballito, we were told to exchange the car there (it was only in Cape Town at the downtown location that we were told by John - the only truly helpful Avis representative we talked to - that the company is actually supposed to bring a car to us in situations such as these, as it was not our fault). We exchanged the car, and drove about 100 kms down the road towards Durban when the exact same notification came up, ‘oil service needed in 2400 kms.’

We were so frustrated at this point we decided to make an appointment to change cars again in Cape Town and attempt to enjoy the rest of our garden route drive. It was during our drive into Cape Town that we noticed that one hubcap had been ******. We informed John at the Cape Town downtown location, when we were trading the car in for a second time, that this had just happened. I will also note that we had asked the representative who issued the car to us at Lanseria (the renting agent I.D. number is (...) if that helps) to add every insurance possible, as my partner is from South Africa and was worried about being the victim of the heavy crime in his mother country. Therefore we assumed that since this was theft, and obviously not our fault, it would be covered by our theft coverage. Instead, we were charged 1000R, or the equivalent of 100 dollars for one hubcap even though if you were to go into the VW dealership it would be about the same or less for all four.

May I say again that John was very helpful and was the only one who actually said ‘sorry’ and ‘I understand,’ which as you know, is the easiest thing to do in the face of a complaint and one of the most reassuring to hear. Everyone else I spoke to just wanted to hand the issue off to someone else (but not until after they made me explain our story in full each and every time), it was never anyone's job to actually deal with this. The amount of time I spent on the phone is ridiculous, not to mention the money we spent on airtime, gas to bring the cars in, and priceless time out of our vacation. I haven’t even mentioned one of the most frustrating things - I lost track of the number of times I was hung up on mid complaint call or mid hold, though I really wish I hadn’t because the number would be obscene. I can’t tell you the number of times I called Lanseria and the phone rang and rang with no answer either. I can tell you about the time I spoke to Reselua at Lanseria about our situation and she assured me her supervisor would call me back right after she finished dealing with a customer and I called her back six hours later. I wish I was exaggerating, but I’m not.

May I also just say that the ****hest thing from what I want to be doing on this lovely Tuesday morning is writing this email, as I myself work in customer service and I hate complaining about anything, as I hate being complained to! This unfortunate situation has driven me to write this email, and therefore I hope you can offer some real compensation for all this, because I really don’t want to spend more time dealing with this unfortunate situation, or to write off Avis entirely in the future. I am a very determined and stubborn person however, and I work in the tourism industry so I know how to get the right information into the right circles and keep pushing this issue if I have to.

I have included a photocopy of the details I left with John in Cape Town, which he forwarded to Lebo in Lanseria. She gave us a two day discount after seeing these notes, so I hope by the end of this letter you will understand how that is not even close to appropriate compensation for the grievances I have described above.

I really appreciate your taking the time to read this, or to make sure it reaches the desk of an associate who can help sort this out for good. I truly hope you have an excellent rest of your day!

Thanks so much, and looking forward to our phone call." - which of course never came.