Avis rent a car : response to my email......This must be a joke.....

[Ericx25]

Hi,

I am considering renting a car next month, I have sent an email to Avis Thailand with the two following questions :

1) THEFT PROTECTION (TP) : I would like to understand what you mean by
"it is requested that the renter must park the rented car at the safe
place and follows the term and condition of AVIS Thailand rental"

What is a safe place ?
What are the terms and conditions of Avis ?

2) In case the car is damaged and needs to be repaired.
(For example, it take three weeks before it is repaired and you cannot rent it to other customers)

How much will I be charged for the loss of use, administrative fee, etc
?
Is it covered by an insurance ?

Regards,

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AVIS' ANSWER :

Dear Mr. D.........,

Thank you for contacting the Avis E-mail Customer Service team.

Theft Protection (TP) Reduces the renters financial liability (NWE) in
the event of theft of the Avis vehicle. The terms and conditions of the
rental contract are included in the rental jacket that will be provided
at the time of arrival.

For further assistance you can visit their website and hit contact us.
www.AvisThailand.com
Tel. 662-2511131-2
662-2555300-4
668-1-3785697

The email contact is: [email protected]

[ktm jeff]

Plenty of other good rentals. Lets give AVIS a miss until they give a honest and full answer.

[beano2274]

tell you what, why not try sending the same email to an AVIS Branch in Europe, see how the answer differs before complaining, am sure there will not be much difference.

[rfukata]

I rented a vehicle at Avis in July. At first, I called Budget locally to get some insight about contract,

insurances, etc and basically the rental agreements btw Avis & Budget is pretty much the same language. Oh, by the way, dealing

with a brand name rent-a-car company is much better i.e. Avis, Budget over any Local Thai rent-a-car company.

unlike the US;

here is one clause to look for: Avis & Budget required a credit hold of 20,000baht on your credit card. They will not charge the card,rather a bond on the vehicle in case it goes missing, stolen so It will be best to keep your car in a secure parking area. (I am guessing this might just be the theft reduction in financial payment you are questioning)

This bond is not associated with the car insurance placed on the vehicle for bodily injuries, car accident, etc. this car insurance is separate and cost around 300 baht per day.

For me, I did opt for full coverage insurance on a daily basis to protect myself further.

at the time of renting the vehicle you will be able to identify and mark the scratches, dings, dents, fuel reading, etc. with the service agent and document and list them on a proper contract form.

[CharlieH]

My two pennies worth, it doesnt really matter whats on the paper, this is Thailand and they will do or charge pretty much whatever they want. Unless you speak fluent Thai, and know Thai law you will have to go with whatever they want to do and just bend over and take it, this is not the west.

As stated above, use a well known brand so if there is an issue atleast you can maybe discuss it or have it referred elsewhere other than Thailand and also take any and all coverage available to eliminate risk.

One thing you can be sure of, if there is a scam to be made, they will know it!

[worgeordie]

You are very lucky to get reply from Thai company from an email,

never ever had a reply to the emails I sent to different companies

in Thailand, they get them as they never bounce back,but are never

replied too!.

regards Worgeordie

[kimincm]

Try Northwheels,tell them you do not have a Credit Card,5000Baht deposit/security any troubles walk away.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Don't know from which country you hail, but I have a Car Hire Excess insurance policy that covers me for any excess beyond that covered by the standard policies bundled with a hired car.

Example

[surangw]

open a new credit card just for travel to thailand, If there are any bogus charges and the credit card company does not resolve them, cancel the card.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

open a new credit card just for travel to thailand, If there are any bogus charges and the credit card company does not resolve them, cancel the card.

What a completely stupid post. How would cancelling a credit card absolve someone of their agreement to pay?

[yougivemebaby]

It's all standard for them is what they're saying. Why are you so worried about the car being stolen? Seems a bit preemptive

[Tomtomtom69]

It's all standard for them is what they're saying. Why are you so worried about the car being stolen? Seems a bit preemptive

Car theft is relatively rare in Thailand anyway. With 7 million cars, buses and trucks registered in Bangkok alone and counting, and most of these cars consisting of about 7-10 different makes and models (Toyota Vios', Toyota Corolla's, Toyota Hilux Vigo's, Mitsubishi Triton's, Isuzu D-Max's, Honda City's, Honda Civic's) there isn't much of an incentive to steal one ordinary car parked in some random parking lot when everyone else is driving the same car and it might take half an hour to even exit the parking lot!

[NeverSure]

I rented a car from Avis in Bangkok for 4 weeks in April. I bought the max insurance they offered me. The whole thing cost me around 30,000 baht plus gas, reserved in advance in the US.

I made sure to use one of my American Bank of America Visa cards. Visa is VERY good at solving customer disputes and back-charging merchants. America offers me excellent consumer protection when using that card. In other words I would never use Thai issued card for something with that risk. Thailand has not yet learned the value of earning repeat business.

I had no problems at all, fortunately.

Avis Rent a Car System, LLC, better known as Avis, is an American car rental company headquartered in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, United States. Avis, Budget Rent a Car and Budget Truck Rental are all units of Avis Budget Group. Wikipedia

CEO: Ronald L. Nelson

Founder: Warren Avis

Founded: 1946

Customer service: 1 (800) 352-7900 (Consumer), 1 (800) 230-4898 (Consumer)

[landslide]

I might suggest you try FastcarhireUK. Put in the dates of rental, class of vehicle, and the website will give you a list of companies and their rates. They include Hertz, Budget and Avis, as well as the larger Thai companies. I have always found their rates very competitive, and the insurance coverage is decently explained. I have rented from them a couple times a year for the last 5 years, and never had a problem. I have also rented directly from Avis on a couple of occasions, because they run deep discounts from time to time if you are willing to drive a manual transmission. The coverage for accidents with Hertz, Budget and Avis seem to be basically the same, and your responsibility in the event of an accident would range from 0 excess to a max of 5000 Baht. The exception would be if you are drunk or impaired at the time of an accident. One note to be aware of. If you rent a manual transmission vehicle from Avis, it will have no airbags.

[surangw]

open a new credit card just for travel to thailand, If there are any bogus charges and the credit card company does not resolve them, cancel the card.

What a completely stupid post. How would cancelling a credit card absolve someone of their agreement to pay?

please note the part about "bogus charges"

[BigMaMa]

Dear

just want to say same as the rest say It's T.I .T stands for " this is thailand "or for thai people would say THAILAND ONLY

you would be surprised if they don't understand English or what else to try to correct them as standard or common sense as you think

my experience with Avis is not really impressive for the last few years.

Buying insurance from Avis i. e theft protection along with super collioan damage waive don't help much .

as from my experience , after returnd a car , we were told that we lost a spare band. However we were not realised that the band was hanged under the car. we were back in Belgium . 395 Euro was charged to my visa surprisingly .

for sake of god 395 euro for a spare tire!, we thought it just a rip off !

by the way , we have tried to contact them by international calls and mails for more than a month. latest mail we receieved with the explanation

that Theft protection will cover only when the car got stolen.

That was it . There is no receipt or nothing official confirmed !

That was my second surprise how the worldwide company responsed to costomer.

for the wellknown company like Avis Thailand for me is just below understandard

[batty123]

I lease my car from Avis in Thailand and they have given me the best customer service I have ever had from any car rental anywhere in the world. Every email is answered within a couple of hours and they even called me to check I was happy with their service

[obi1970]

• suprice !!!!

i lost my tyre 2 last summer holiday and also i was home and money was deducted from my account .i try to contact them many times but never get any result they just ripp you off

after month or so i got email they charged for the tyre i asked a official bill to try to make my travel insurange cover the cost but they just told me that it was not possible to geive me any pappers. so just a big ripp off and more will follow

[irlguy1]

I always use Avis and never have any issues with them. I get email replies from them very quickly and my car has always been ready for collection. I have rented from Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Bangkok.

I always take out the extra insurance it's not a lot of money and on one occasion when I rear ended a hidden tree stump and damaged the bumper there was no hassle and no cost when I left it back.

[NanLaew]

• suprice !!!!
• i lost my tyre 2 last summer holiday and also i was home and money was deducted from my account .i try to contact them many times but never get any result they just ripp you off
• after month or so i got email they charged for the tyre i asked a official bill to try to make my travel insurange cover the cost but they just told me that it was not possible to geive me any pappers. so just a big ripp off and more will follow

You 'lost' the tyre?

Did you report the 'loss' at the time you returned the car? That would be the time to request that they bill you for the exact cost of replacement rather than via email after you have left the country.

If you were hoping to recoup your losses under some travel insurance, once again the correct time to make sure you get an itemised invoice was when your returned the car.

Otherwise how can you be surprised that they billed you for it via your credit card?

Anyway, some report good service from AVIS Thailand and others say different. The thing to remember is AVIS Thailand is a international franchise and absolutely nothing to do with AVIS corporate, AVIS USA or AVIS UK. Just the branding. Hence they have local restrictions on what is covered by their insurance, your insurance or third-party (charge card) insurance.

Personally, I found AVIS Thailand to be less efficient and have older cars than Thai Rent A Car, a local company with an impressive, nation-wide presence. I have rented from the latter in Bangkok, Udon and Samui and was always treated as a special customer which may be because of my extensive rental history at that time. Even when I stopped booking direct and used online booking with fastcarhire.co.uk to secure their vehicles (and save money), they never treated me any differently.

Regarding the OP's rather esoteric questions; safe parking means not parking it in the local equivalent of the Chicago projects or the Rio favellas. Park it on the street, hotel or wherever but just not in high-risk areas. If you don't know the high-risk areas in LOS, maybe better not rent a car.

The other question is covered in the insurance liability that you agree to when you sign the rental agreement. Read it first?

[BigMaMa]

I lease my car from Avis in Thailand and they have given me the best customer service I have ever had from any car rental anywhere in the world. Every email is answered within a couple of hours and they even called me to check I was happy with their service

you are lucky mate!

As my experince when I sent them email for a price or even confirm to book a car

I received it still faster than I would expect from the AVIS Thailand. and that ended when you need an answer when you got a problem.

however, the topic should give you an idea how they work.