Disgraceful - booked a week ahead & no car hired!!

“Disgraceful - booked a week ahead and no car hired!!”

Written on: 04/10/2011

Appalling service - I booked and paid for a hire car a week in advance, I was told I needed to bring the voucher they had emailed me, my driving license and my airmiles customer number (they were doing an airmiles offer) - there was nothing on the website or the voucher to suggest that there would be any other possible impediments to hiring the car. When I arrived they told me they couldnt release the car as they couldnt verify that I lived at my address through AVENTIA - AVENTIA is apparently a credit checking agency - I do not have any debt, I do have a credit card, but pay it off every month, and I had already paid for the car (the money had left my bank account a week earlier). The guy at the local branch told me that they had had to turn away a number of customers for that reason. I then went and hired a car with BUDGET car - BUDGET are actually the sister company to AVIS, but do not do an online check, just need a couple of household bills. Because of this, I lost 3 days of my holiday and let some people down.
There was no warning that this could happen, it had been booked a week ahead so I don't understand why this check could not have been done when I booked it.
Avis customer service were rude and dismissive - if you want an idea of the tone of the service, check some of the earlier posts here.
This was in the UK (booked online to hire at Bristol).