Dec23 2007
Luck with Rental cars outside America
Posted: Dec 23rd, 2007 at 6:24 pm by chilumba
What’s up with Rental car companies outside of America. I expect an AVIS brand in any part of the world to try and give the same service. We seem to hit into issues when we travel. Remember last year in Zambia, there was a problem with the rental company – see last year blog post (Day Trip To Livingstone). This year in Nicaragua, AVIS decided that the brand is different depending on where you are in the world.
We had a reservation for an AUTOMATIC weeks ago. We even had a confirmation and an estimated cost. All I had to do was walk up to the booth, and pick up a car and be out. No such luck. AVIS Nicaragua did not have the car we reserved. Here was what the official told us
“The people in America do not know the cars we have. So the confirmation does not apply saying you will get the car you reserved”. What the hell? The reservation was made online, and the tool was able to show us availability of cars. The AVIS guy did not even know when he would have the car we reserved ready.
But they did have a MANUAL. They could give it to us while we waited for what we reserved.
The only problem is that Nelly only drives AUTOMATIC, and I did not want to be the only driver – it is a stressful process driving when someone is giving directions in a one language, and then the translator passes back the information, and mixed with the translator having a conversation. So trying to concentrate on crazy driving in Managua, listening for directions, and the whole mix is not the best way to gel into a vacation.
So we took the MANUAL, and a day later AVIS had an AUTOMATIC. But the car the brought did not have license plates – and the guy who gave us the car told us we will be stopped every minute by cops. This will be crazy – I complained my well through the process, but we kind of did not have an option this time. I have AVIS Preferred membership, and this was the worst hire I encountered. After expressing my disappointment, the AVIS guy told us he would deliver us an upgrade the next day. This is not something to jump about as I always get an upgrade with the Preferred Membership – so this guy was not doing us a favor here.
Today, we now have another AVIS car – 3 cars in 24 hours! When I get the email about the survey for AVIS Preferred members, I will definitely express my opinion and my disappointment.