A Georgia man has found himself in a mess of a situation with an Avis rental car. WSB-TV reports that Avis has charged the man over $4,000 for a rental he only had for 10 days.
Chip August rented a Ford Edge from a metro Atlanta Avis location for a 10-day trip he was taking to New Jersey. He returned the Edge on July 10 at the same location. Avis’ records didn’t reflect that.
But according to his Avis bill, the car was picked up in San Antonio, Texas for a 2,300-mile trip.
Avis alleges August kept the car for 57 days.
“That’s what they think that we drove it around a month and dropped it off in Texas, even though both of us have like full-time jobs here in Georgia,” August said.
August says the day that he was supposed to drop the Edge off, he called the Avis location to say that he was going to be two hours late. “I called in and he said, ‘No problem, put the keys in the in the center console and we’ll be good,’” August told WSB-TV. But just a few days after returning the car, August got a letter in the mail demanding he return the car. Avis was claiming he stole it.
Now, August’s credit card has been charged $4,100. To add insult to injury, Avis recently charged August a few more hundred dollars for a dog cleaning fee even though he doesn’t even own a dog. A statement from Avis to WSBY-TV says August wasn’t supposed to leave the Edge at the location the way he did.
The location where the customer rented from in Canton, GA, does not accept after-hour drop-offs as posted on the location door. The customer admitted that he left the car unlocked in an unattended parking lot, with keys inside, outside of our normal business hours. Avis never received custody of the vehicle.
As for August, he’s maintaining that he did nothing wrong. “If I’m going to steal a car, I’m not going to steal a Ford Edge,” he said.