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Originally Posted by ladyg2u
First I want to thank all the wonderful people on the message board I have returned to philadelphia however my friends are still in aruba having a great time. I am going right to the chase I walked out of the airport across the street because I needed to get to general aviation and the aiport said if I did not mind paying $8.35 for airport tax I could pick up my vehicle there no problem no let me digress I flew in on a buddy pass so I was bumped friday and arrived in aruba saturday afternoon they extended my rental until saturday still honoring the reservation I did purchase the insurance so my total price for a rental in aruba $240. I will post my trip report later but I want to really say thank you Randi for taking on this fight and everyone coming out a winner.
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YOU ARE MOST WELCOME!!
As far as Avis is concerned, I think they need to learn a little bit about Customer Service and treated their customers in a fair manner. Having had my own business at one point in time, I understand customer service from both points of view.
Let me say this, Avis Aruba was well aware that something was amiss. They had all of our emails and no one bothered to contact us. Many people emailed them directly and they didn't bother to return emails. For me personally, I waited 3 weeks and sent 3 emails and no one bothered to answer me back. I also made 3 phone calls too. This is not how you treat customers. If they had sent us email explaining the situation and handled things in a more upfront manner, perhaps we (the customer) would have been more understanding. As an example, if they would have contacted me and explained the situation and told me as a gesture of goodwill we will be honouring the reservation but please understand that the price advertised was not a special rate but a mistake. They would have had me as a loyal customer for a very long time. The situation, Tom, was that we kept enquirying with Avis and EVERYONE told us not to worry that the rate was correct and that it was valid. Avis Aruba was not responding. This whole situation was handled in a unprofessional and improper way. That is why we got our backs up and dug in our heals to make sure that we got the rate that was quoted.
Now as far as everyone being a winner, this is also true. While we as customers get a fantastic rate on our vehicles, we may also become an Avis repeat customer! I did not realize that Avis was anywhere but the airport so if my experience is a good one, I will use them again. That makes Avis Aruba a winner too. Tom, not sure if you work for Avis but they are a very big company and one hand needs to know what the other one is doing. When owning a franchise (which is what I did) sometimes things happen and you need to follow the company party line. The emails that were initially sent to us telling us that they cancelled our reservations go against the Avis policy, as I am told by Customer Service International. Kindness, integrity and honesty is always better when dealing with a customer than evasiveness, ignoring people and trying to get around policy. As a group, we fought for what was right and yes, us, the consumer "won" this round but in the long run Avis Aruba could win too!!!
Our Avis threads and posts are no different than the honesty we post about restaurants, hotels, tours, excursions, etc. in Aruba. No one gets upset if we "discuss" some situations with a restaurant?? This is what makes this BB so good as we can be topical. Hopefully, any business in Aruba will take what is being said and use it to improve their business or take pride in the fact that we think what they are doing is great. Another example, OMATS, manager was very open with us during our third visit in March. He read on this BB and restaurantsaruba.com some of the customer complaints, he took it to heart and fixed it. Now, nothing but good reviews. Most likely a lot of his business came from all of the wonderful comments we make right here.
So to end this, perhaps Avis Aruba will have learnt something from this experience!!