Dear all,

2 weeks ago I rented a car at AVIS Frankfurt airport; if you know that horrible airport, you will know you need to walk about 3 km's to get to the area where the rental cars can be picked up. After getting the administration sorted out and picking up the keys, we walked all the way to the car pickup for about 20mins. Upon arrrival we found the right car, but found no AVIS representative. We gave the car a quick (but incomplete) checkup by ourselves and found nothing wrong that was not already described in the contract (or so we thought).
Ater 3 days of work related travelling without incident, we returned the car to the same location, where the AVIS subcontractor (SAL service GmbH) found the following damages and missing items:
1. There was supposedly a dent in the side of the car that we mistakenly thought was described in the contract. Our misunderstanding of German made us believe this was described in the contract.
2. This person found that the jack and jack-fluid refill unit was missing. We had found the spare tyre on arrival and assumed the jack was underneath as with most cars of this make. How is one supposed to know where to find the jack and this never-seen-before refill fluid for every different car/make?

The resulting discussion nearly caused me to miss my flight. Despite my refusal to sign the authorization or approval, AVIS subsequently charged an additional 1130S$ to my credit card for up to now unspecified reasons. I am currently taking legal action based on some precendents and the credit card company is also preparing to take legal action against them as they charged unspecified items to my credit card without authorization.

One thing I have learnt; despite renting with AVIS for the last 10 years, this was the last time for me and anyone within my company. I hope that everyone will realise the unprofessional way AVIS handles their business and can spread the word about these practises.