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Avis - 4-Wheel Drive

Avis • Corporate Points program • International thievery • Disputed return date • A visit from Repo Man • Additional driver charges • Young drivers • 4WD vs. AWD • Misc. problems

Donna of Ledoux NM (8/16/03):
I recently needed a rental vehicle for a trip to northwest Colorado and Wyoming. Since the Santa Fe Airport office is nearest to my home (125 miles north), I called that number. After repeatedly getting a message machine during my long distance calls (which were between 10 AM and 2 PM), I called the Avis national 800 number. I requested a four-wheel drive vehicle �like a Chevy Blazer, Ford Expedition or Jeep Cherokee�.

Please note the wording of my request was NOT �I want an SUV�. I was told that I could probably get a Chevy S10 �which was like a small Blazer� and that my request for 4WD would be noted, but the national office couldn�t guarantee what was available in local fleets. I got my confirmation number during that call. On Friday Aug 1, two days before I was to pick up the vehicle, I managed to get through to the Santa Fe Airport Avis staff. I said I wanted to see if I could get a firmer idea of my vehicle and check whether my request for a 4WD had been honored. I was told that I did indeed have a Chevy S10 and that it was 4WD.

On Sunday August 3, I went to the Santa Fe Avis Airport office to pick up my vehicle. I opened the back hatch and loaded in my suitcases and equipment with the young woman clerk watching. I got into the driver seat to check it out and could not see any indication of 4WD (no auxiliary shift, no automatic transfer knob). When I looked under the vehicle it didn�t seem to have a 4WD transfer case. I looked in the glove box for an owner�s manual. There was none.

I went back inside to the clerk and told her �I�ve driven Chevys all my life, and I can�t find the 4WD mechanism�this vehicle doesn�t look like it has 4WD�. She came out with me and also couldn�t find any indication that this vehicle was 4WD but assured me it was. I asked her if she could find the owner�s manual. She couldn�t. I asked her how I could put it into 4WD when I needed it. She told me the vehicle would go into 4WD by itself. I told her again how I�d owned Chevys all my life, and even though my own was an older model, I had rented newer Chevys and they always had a shift or knob to go into 4WD.

I said �I don�t mean this to sound personal, but can you prove to me this is 4WD?� She said she�d been renting them for a long time and �knew� it was. I could see I was getting nowhere, so I drove back to my home, preparing to leave for Colorado at 5 the next morning. But I was still in doubt that I had a 4WD, so I crawled under the vehicle and did a general thorough inspection only to find I had an Oldsmobile Bravada. From my comments on Chevys earlier, it was apparent that the employee thought it was a Chevy too. I called Santa Fe Avis and said it was an Oldsmobile, re-iterating that it was not 4WD. The clerk swore it was. I asked to speak to her manager. While I held, she called him. He apparently backed her up and did not ask to speak with me. They both swore it was 4WD.

I then went to the Oldsmobile site on the Internet and found that the Oldsmobile Bravada does not come in 4WD (2 wheel or all-wheel only). I then called SF Avis again, attempting to explain the difference. The clerk still swore it was 4WD and told me that if I wasn�t satisfied with the vehicle I could bring it back (250-mile round trip) but that nothing else was available. By now it was late Sunday night, during the time I�d hoped to be sleeping for my early departure in the morning. I called National Avis and was transferred to Connie, a very nice woman in special accounts, who DID know the difference between a 4WD and an all-wheel drive and sympathized with my problem. She said that I could go to any Avis office along my route and if they had a 4WD available, I could trade with no drop-off charge.

On my trip, I contacted the Avis office near Steamboat Springs (Hayden-Yampa Airport) and spoke with a most knowledgeable and sympathetic employee named Katie. Even though they had no 4WD available at the time, she took my name and number and said she�d call as soon as one came in. I ended up waiting several days for one in a motel in Craig Colorado, but she was so nice about it, and so incredulous that the Santa Fe people didn�t know the difference, that I stayed with Avis rather than changing companies. She did call me at 8:30 PM on Aug 9 and I drove to the airport and got a very satisfactory Chevy Trailblazer with 4WD.

As I drove to the Santa Fe airport Thursday Aug 14 to return the vehicle, I resolved not to take my dissatisfaction out on the Avis clerk who would be, I figured, a different person and not responsible for the initial employee�s failings. I just hoped she wouldn�t ask me �Was everything satisfactory?�. This young woman followed me out to the returned Chevy, didn�t notice it wasn�t what I left with, opened the tailgate and noticed a teaspoon of dirt and a few grass blades (probably fell off my hiking boots) and the very first thing she said (Not �Hello�, not �did you have a nice trip�, not �Was the vehicle OK?�) was �Apparently you put something in the back here. You aren�t supposed to put things in back. We�ll have to charge you a $25 cleaning fee� I told her �I don�t think so� and explained how the SF Avis had proven so incompetent and unresponsive about the supposed 4WD they had initially rented me, swearing it was 4WD even after I cited the Oldsmobile website and the difference between 4-wheel and all-wheel drive.

This present clerk then swore that the Oldsmobile Bravada WAS a 4WD. Another clerk came in then (apparently just back from a lunch break), and not knowing anything about my file said, �You asked for an SUV. All SUVs are 4WD� I told her I did not ask for an SUV, I asked for a 4WD� (A pick-up would have been fine). And then I tried again to explain the difference, torque versus traction, between 4 wheel and all wheel. I got not only a blank wall, but also lots of insolent eye rolling between the girls. They said, �Have a nice day lady� and turned their backs.

I explained that their failure to listen could cost lives� some renter, possibly a family, believing they had 4WD when they only had all-wheel, might take the vehicle to an inappropriate place or situation, and find they didn�t have the low-geared power they thought. This didn�t phase the girls: �Have a nice day lady�. I then asked them to go to the website, offered to help them access it on their computer, so they could learn enough to better assist other customers. �Have a nice DAY, lady�. I then asked them why they were so unwilling to learn. �Have A NICE DAY LADY� and they retreated to an inner office.

Now as a former professor, I have infinite tolerance for ignorance; it�s why people go to school. I have less tolerance for stupidity and marked intolerance for the �We�re stupid and proud of it and don�t want to learn� attitude. I am very angry with Santa Fe Avis. If it weren�t for nice folks like Connie in special accounts (wherever that 800 number goes) and Katie at the Hayden Colorado office, I�d have dropped Avis immediately.

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