Posted on 11/23/2015 12:59:45 PM PST by machogirl
From Avis Facebook, new statement. Guess they Varsity team took over. (much better statement)
We have investigated the denial of a rental that recently occurred in Manhattan. We have found that we have been inconsistent in applying our policies with respect to documentation requirements with this customer, who has rented from us in the past without providing a second form of identification. We are committed to providing an outstanding car rental experience to our customers and believe that we should have done better here. We have spoken with the customer and apologized for the misunderstanding that occurred as a result of this inconsistency in applying our documentation policy, and the customer has accepted our apology. We reiterate our policy that we do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin or sexual orientation. We intend to take steps, including additional training, to improve the consistency in our application of documentation policies.
No I don’t.
My interest is the same in stopping any company or individual from being unfairly wronged by a ruthless mob.
It might be time to change medications
You’re quite crazy
I thought that one was interesting. I still believe that Avis lack of company clarity in policy was a problem. It could have been anyone.
Normally I don’t look at yelp, but since the link was posted I looked at the reviews before this article came out.
This should not have happened. Company policy/lack of consistency caused this. Perhaps whomever had been manning the desk knew the frequent traveler so no requirement of a passport has ever been requested of him?
Me, I really like not having a headache. I’d have dealt with it later, but that’s me.
Me, if I was the Teva Exec, I would have gotten a taxi, and not ruined my night and called their company on Monday. Being a repeat customer and an Exec, he probably would have gotten to the top pretty quickly and problems corrected. It is a problem, Avis admitted it, that they were inconsistent in their policy. Clarity, some really clear signs, paperwork, employee reminders of policy will make a difference.
I worry about fake docs esp with the terror stuff. I’m happy to show my ID to vote and I’d love all rental companies to require passport and another ID for foreign citizens.
I have to say this about yelp, the ABC Baking Company (Kitchen Nightmares, crazy Samy and “Amy”) as with anything in the news, yelp gets to be useless with people commenting that never used the service. It gets down right brutal and unfair. But from some things I have read about yelp, plenty of “fake” reviews good and bad.
Before social media, what was the saying? Bad service and 100 people will know a business stinks from word of mouth?. Now, who knows with Social Media stuff.
I do know that if I had been in charge of Avis social media, I would not have written their first post about the incident, in that manner. They had no control about the NY media and what they printed but Avis did control their FB. They failed.
I dislike social media except to tweet Barry everytime (with the computer, I have no phone, no smart phone) an Illegal Immigrant kills/maims and American citizen. I send him a tweet and the link to the article along with a snarky comment. Also with his “Isil” garbage.
I really wouldn’t have ruined my Sat/Sun if I were the Teva guy. Life is too short. Monday would have been soon enough. What apologies were given by whom to whom? Who knows? If this calms down now and the company is consistent and clear, we are all better and safer for it. Perhaps some really good rental prices for all will be on the way! I haven’t rented in a long time. I can’t rent a car. The prices on rentals in those “yelp complaints” floored me. I’m living still in the 1990’s apparently. I have a relative that worked for Enterprise. He hated it.
Since I have no passport and don’t travel, you might know this question. In the US, do foreigners have to carry visas and passports with them on their person?
They did apologize for the lack of cohesion. I still think their repsonse on FB yesterday was bad. The ending crushed any goodwill thoughts. Should have right off taken the blame for the lack of consistency in individual offices and company wide causing confusion. That might have stifled the deluge that followed. It was confusion of previous visits without passport that caused the individual’s angst. In two days, why all the sudden (from his experience) was his passport needed when it wasn’t before? He could have been less upset but AVIS still caused the problem. I can’t imagine what is so hard with a company having a clear policy and communicating that to it’s employees and customers. They admitted their lack of it (crow eat) .
I KNOW this has been posted before. From Avis own FAQ’s on foreign citizen renting. The word “may” inst ead of “required” is a PROBLEM. “May” does NOT mean “required”. This point IMHO is fact and problematic and does not mean consistency company-wide.
he driver’s license must be valid at the time of rental, and remain valid throughout the rental period. All drivers must meet Avis’ requirements. Driver’s licenses accepted in the U.S. are:
Any license issued by any U.S. state, territory or possession.
A license issued by a Canadian province.
A license issued by a country that participated in the 1949 Geneva convention on Road Traffic or the 1943 Convention on the Regulation of Inter-American Automobile Traffic.
A license issued by a country that has a reciprocal agreement with the U.S.
If you intend to rent outside your home country, you may also be required to present an International Driver’s Permit. International Driver’s Permits are valid only if presented with the original local license. An International Driver’s Permit it not acceptable by itself. In addition, at the time of rental, the renter, authorized driver or additional driver may be subject to an electronic DMV check or may be required to sign a declaration attesting that they have a valid license that is not currently suspended, revoked, expired, cancelled or surrendered. A temporary driver’s license is acceptable only if it has no restrictions and is valid for the entire period of the rental. Individuals with learner’s permits may not operate Avis vehicles. Additionally, if you intend to rent outside of your home country, Avis may require that you present a valid passport, as secondary form of identification at the time of your check-out.
The words above, Avis MAY REQUIRE passport does NOT mean REQUIRE passport.
A well known Company should be more clear.
here is the link straight to their “may” sentences.
The driver’s license must be valid at the time of rental, and remain valid throughout the rental period. All drivers must meet Avis’ requirements. Driver’s licenses accepted in the U.S. are:
Any license issued by any U.S. state, territory or possession.
A license issued by a Canadian province.
A license issued by a country that participated in the 1949 Geneva convention on Road Traffic or the 1943 Convention on the Regulation of Inter-American Automobile Traffic.
A license issued by a country that has a reciprocal agreement with the U.S.
If you intend to rent outside your home country, you may also be required to present an International Driver’s Permit. International Driver’s Permits are valid only if presented with the original local license. An International Driver’s Permit it not acceptable by itself. In addition, at the time of rental, the renter, authorized driver or additional driver MAY be subject to an electronic DMV check or may be required to sign a declaration attesting that they have a valid license that is not currently suspended, revoked, expired, cancelled or surrendered. A temporary driver’s license is acceptable only if it has no restrictions and is valid for the entire period of the rental. Individuals with learner’s permits may not operate Avis vehicles. Additionally, if you intend to rent outside of your home country, Avis MAY require that you present a valid passport, as secondary form of identification at the time of your check-out.
https://www.avis.com/car-rental/content/render-faq.ac
The companies most recent release/apology based on their investigation which I posted over there.
We have investigated the denial of a rental that recently occurred in Manhattan. We have found that we have been inconsistent in applying our policies with respect to documentation requirements with this customer, who has rented from us in the past without providing a second form of identification. We are committed to providing an outstanding car rental experience to our customers and believe that we should have done better here.We have spoken with the customer and apologized for the misunderstanding that occurred as a result of this inconsistency in applying our documentation policy, and the customer has accepted our apology.
We reiterate our policy that we do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin or sexual orientation. We intend to take steps, including additional training, to improve the consistency in our application of documentation policies.
Oops, just read the “article” of the thread, it’s what I just posted. Amazing an issue like this generates so much anger when the company has acknowledged and apologized for their behavior, and that fact is known.
I don't think that is the issue here. Has something under the surface triggered a strong emotional response ? Is it because it concerns an Israeli ?
Back in the summer of 1999 I had just started a new job as an office manager/bookkeeper/chief baby sitter and general bottle washer as it turned out, at a small commercial window and door manufacturer and installation company. The owner of the company had just purchase a new and very specialized production costing, job estimating and billing software system and two weeks into the job, asked me to go with him to Toronto for a week of training on the new system at the software developer's headquarters since it was supposed to interface with our accounting software.
I'd never even flown before live alone been outside of the continental US. I was a bit nervous flying for the very first time but didn't want to let on. BTW, the Sunday afternoon of our flight out was the same weekend that JFK Jr. crashed his plane into the Atlantic ocean, so here I was sitting at BWI, having gotten there extra early and waiting to meet up with my boss and for our flight and all the TV monitors were tuned to CNN with nothing but wall to wall "plane crash" coverage!
And then the plane wasn't the jet I was expecting but a little turbo prop and it was in mid July and very stormy, quite bumpy - lots of thunderstorms around - very turbulent. When I got on the plane, even though it was much smaller than I expected, I looked around and told myself repeatedly - "this is a bus, a bus with wings, I've done busses before, everything is OK, it's just a buss" and every time we hit rough turbulents that even made my boss, a frequent and sometimes international flyer look a bit nervous, I'd look at one of the flight attendant and if she didn't look concerned I figured it was normal and OK. It wasn't until the flight home and many subsequent flights I've taken since including two years ago a business trip to the UK that I realized just how bad and just how very rough that very first flight was. I was sort of glad to have gotten that out of my way on my first flight as I didn't have anything to compare it with.
Back then, pre-9-11 one didn't need a US passport to travel to Canada but I did have to have a valid state issued picture ID and absent a US passport, I had to have an original state certified birth certificate in order to get through Canadian customs and give the very nice Canadian Customs officer the reason for my trip and answer a few of his questions.
When we arrived at the airport in Toronto, we went to the rental car counter (don't remember if it was Avis or Hertz) as my boss had reserved a car in advance but when he presented his US driver's license, frequent renter's card and his AAA card and passport, the very nice clerk politely informed him that she couldn't rent the car to him. Why? Well it seemed that his Maryland driver's license was going to expire in two days.
I ended up having to rent (and drive) the car in my name as my driver's license was still good and would be for the length of our stay and the rental agreement but the rental had to be put not only in my name but also on my credit card, not his as there was some sort of rule about that - that the CC had to belong and be in the name of the renter/driver and IIRC he had to sign a waiver that he would not drive the car. In addition to my driver's license and of course my CC, IIRC, I think I might have also had to show my birth certificate as further proof of my identity since I didn't have/carry a US passport at the time.
My boss was very patient and understanding with the clerk; after all she was only doing her job and he hadn't realized or forgot that he needed to renew his license and was also very apologetic to me and somewhat embarrassed over the whole situation and of course said that as soon as we got back to the US, he'd promptly reimburse me for the cost of the car rental which he did.
At least the traffic signs were in both French and English and that the Canadians drive on the same side of the road as we do but I have to admit I was a bit nervous at first. The highway going from the airport to our hotel, about 5 miles away was huge - about 6 lanes wide in each direction - Toronto is a huge and sprawling city BTW and this was pre-GPS so my boss had to play navigator. But it really freaked me out as I was first driving on the highway and going with the flow of traffic, and I looked at the speedometer and saw I was going 110! But then soon realized that was in kilometers, not MPH and I was doing just under 70 MPH. LOL!
And when I traveled to the UK, I decided to take a train, two trains actually to get from the Manchester airport all the way to the east coast, The East Riding of Yorkshire - Hull, and travel locally by taxi rather than drive myself in a rental car - the whole driving on the "wrong side of the road thing" sort of scared me. The train trip was actually quite nice, comfortable and enjoyable; some of the scenery going through the "Midlands" countryside was unbelievably beautiful including passing by the ruins of an ancient. 11th Century Norman Castle, but there were some unexpected delays due to rail line work so on the trip back to the airport, I cancelled my train tickets and I hired a private car for not much more of a cost as I was afraid of missing my return flight.
And I have to say that all the local Hull taxi drivers, including one who took me into the city the one afternoon in between meetings for some local sightseeing (many great museums in Hull, all within a short walking distance), and the driver who drove me from Hull to the Manchester airport were all amazing - very friendly and helpful and all seemed to like us "Yanks" very much. The only problem I had was the "language barrier". While we all spoke "English" the Yorkshire accent was at times hard for me to understand as was my "American" accent to them - one taxi driver thought she detected a "southern accent" and asked if I was from Texas. She was very disappointed when I told her I wasn't - she told me that Texas was the one place in American she'd like to visit if she ever had the chance - she wanted to go to a "Dude Ranch" and ride horses and shoot some guns and that she loved American style BBQ. : ),
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