Never again! An appalling experience!

I booked a car via a travel booking with British Airways, flying into the UK from Washington DC to Edinburgh Airport. I was clear when I booked that I would be here from end October to end December. I understood that, because the period of hire was longer than 28 days, it would have to be renewed once, which could be done easily over a phone call which Avis would make to me, in the middle of the hire period. This is exactly the procedure that Avis have used for me when I have made extended hire bookings with them in the past, and it has worked just fine.

But not this time...

I did not receive the call: on 27 November I received a text message telling me that my hired car was two days overdue for return, and that I had to take it back to Edinburgh Airport forthwith.

Although I was at the other end of the country, I did as they asked and returned the car - which apparently was at the end of its rental life and had to be returned to the manufacturer for refurbishment and sale. That's fair enough - but why send it out for a lengthy booking in the first place, if that was the case? In any event, the whole fiasco took around 7 hours out of my day.

I was issued with another, similar, car, and was told that I would have that till 29th December, but that the current booking contract only ran till 14th December, on which date I would receive a call to extend the booking to the 29th. Yet again, I did not receive the call, and instead received ANOTHER text message on the 17th, telling me that the hire car was overdue and needed to be returned to Edinburgh Airport. Again.

Understandably, I think, I was annoyed - and reluctant to go through all that palaver a second time, especially since Avis were the ones who had screwed up - TWICE. I called their customer service line. What a misnomer. I spoke to an extremely rude woman who responded with "Well, in that case, we'll just cancel the contract"... and hung up on me! WOW...

Two further phone calls later, to two other - helpful - members of staff, I am given to understand that the matter has been resolved and the hire period extended. However, the overall experience has been absolutely appalling. A fiasco from start to finish. I am very, very disappointed. Booking via British Airways is potentially useful - but not if this is what ensues. I'll book independently elsewhere from here on. Never, ever again.