The last time I hired a car it nearly killed me. This is because Avis Geneva, in its infinite wisdom, issued me with a 4×4 and waved me off to a ski resort cheerily insisting that the great hulking thing had snow tyres and that as such I should feel free to climb every mountain, ford every stream, etc. Till you slip over the edge and plunge to your death, it should have added. Because it didn’t have snow tyres at all. And 4×4 + normal tyres + sheet ice = unstoppable death trap. I know Avis is hoping I’ll forget about this, but weirdly enough I remain intrigued by the process that led to me hurtling towards the edge of a precipice and only crashing non-fatally because a car coming up the mountain put itself in the way of my death plunge trajectory.
I’ve rung Avis several times to complain but got nowhere. So I hope it won’t think it rude if I book cars with other companies from now on. Europcar, for example. I booked with it a few weeks ago and so far it hasn’t nearly killed me. It’s only bankrupting me. I suppose it’s little steps. It started by quoting me £264.25 on its website for ten days’ hire in Italy. Gosh, I thought, that’s jolly reasonable. I was arranging the car for my parents so I told my dad that when they got to Naples airport they should check it had four wheels because it really did sound impossibly cheap. My parents picked it up, pronounced it fine, and trotted off on their holiday. But when the bill arrived a few days after they got back, Europcar had somehow charged a grand total of 684 euros, or £569. Not £264.25.
I rang the Europcar customer service helpline.
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