A customer of Avis paid thousands of dollars out of pocket after his car was towed away and he lost his luggage and passport.
Adam was given a free upgrade to an SUV when he collected his car after renting a car from Avis at JFK airport.
On June 10, a day before the rental agreement expired, Pimpsner was in Buffalo with his girlfriend and renewed online instead of going to New York. He said that an Avis agent encouraged him to renew the rental online.
He paid $2,000 to extend his agreement, but got an email from Avis saying his car was due back. He was told to ignore the email when he called the Avis agent. The conversation was listened to by Insider.
An Avis agent told Pimpsner that rentals did not need to be renewed in person.
Even though he paid an additional $3,500 to extend the booking by another two months, Pimpsner still received emails from Avis. There was a daily late fee.
He said he didn't receive the letter from Avis asking him to bring the car back.
The car would be towed after Avis sent a text message. He took taxis to La Guardia and JFK airports to look for his towed car.
He tried to show his booking to the agent.
I was trying to let him know that I had my payments. The payment was deducted because it said my name on the reservation. He wouldn't entertain it and he wouldn't look at it.
He estimated that the car was worth $2,500. His girlfriend's study visa was one of the missing documents.
An Avis spokesman told Insider that Pimpsner had been told multiple times to return his vehicle, as the policy requires a rental longer than 30 days to be renewed in person.
The phone calls that Pimpsner had with Avis agents were not commented on by the spokesman. Insider didn't tell Pimpsner about these rules.
The credit card statements show that Pimpsner was charged the full amount for the extra rental periods, even though he was issued with a standard "no show" fee for not picking up his vehicles.
An Avis executive apologized to Pimpsner in an email on September 19 for his car being towed due to additional rentals not being used to extend the original reservations.
Avis denied that the car had been opened before it was towed and would not cover any losses related to his luggage or documents.
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