Some people! Why has the blood sport of this forum become critiquing the wording of a post rather than the issue at hand? If one has nothing useful to offer, then one should find a hobby....other than making sarcastic remarks on travel forums. It's worth noting that many start out their Forum life with good advice based on personal travel experiences. As time passes perhaps they can't afford to travel as often. However, there is the compulsion to put their stamp on every post. With no first hand experience to offer on the subjects, the topic turns to critique of the post or the poster....very often in the language of insults. Please.....find another outlet for your time. Volunteer at a hospital. Work in a soup kitchen. Deliver meals to shut-ins. Stop the holier-than-thou posting. It's getting boring.....worse than boring...it's redundantly boring...which quickly becomes trivial. <I>(Yawn)</I>

So, TC, if someone posts "Stay away from Paris" and then rants about how he was cheated at a hotel or by a cab driver, you'd make sure to chastise anyone who dared suggest that his post would have been more helpful if he had offered suggestions of how not to let those things happen to other travelers rather than simply boycott the city? OK, you have the "right" to do that. Just as others have the "right" to offer suggestions to the poster for his over the top suggestion to boycott something rather than offer helpful suggestions.

Even the OP came back to admit that his wording was not good and that even the name he registered Avis Teals -- (Avis Steals, get it?) was his being "a bit of a fool perhaps. . ."(in his own words!) Yet, some are still trying to staunchly defend his original wording, title, and apparently his "Avis Steals" moniker as being more valuable to the forum than people trying to offer more helpful hints of how not to let things like this happen. I guess it takes all kinds.

By the way, I'm not saying that some responses could have been far less rude or to the point, but were any of them more "to the point" than declaring that everyone should avoid a major company and suggesting that doing so would make you avoid the problem the poster encountered? Many here have already explained it wouldn't.

Go to their Facebook page AvisTeals and state your complaint. You will most likely get an instant response and a credit. I have found lately that if you do not get a problem fixed by going through the normal channels then posting the same complaint on the businesses Facebook page works very well.

Thanks for the warning by the way. On our trip to Hawaii a few months ago we rented on all three Islands. I had done a lot of reading prior to this and knew what to watch out for. Avis is probably not the only company doing this, but can understand why you are so irate about them.

Yawn.

<i>One should find a hobby....other than making sarcastic remarks on travel forums.</i>

Some people are very disappointed with the way their lives have turned out. They are miserable, and they enjoy trying to make others as miserable as they are.

It took me nine years on this forum to be at peace with the sarcastic ridicule that some forum members like to heap on others. It is sad, but what is sadder is that virtually nobody lets these miscreants know themselves for the fools they are, and Fodors has given up on administering this forum according the their published guidelines.

Make it clear: Cowardly and faceless people who throw stink bombs at people too timid to call them on their rude behavior are pathetic. It isn't clever. It isn't witty. And those who encourage them in their schoolyard-bully strategies are worse than they are because they hide in there self-loathing behind the bullies.

HTtY

Thanks for the replies. And I appreciate the suggestions.

I have already posted on their Facebook page and been through their customer service system twice. They were actually responsive in replying, but I don't get the sense that they actually listened to my complaint. When I originally called they offered to refund half the charge. I refused on principle. After I went through their "escalation unit" and the "corporate service panel" they told me that they were refunding $30 something and that the matter was closed.

I originally threatened to dispute the charge on the credit card, but later heard about how that usually results in collection agencies getting involved and decided it was not worth risking as it may affect my credit score.

Looking back to the original post, I agree that I could have worded the title differently and that I could have chosen a less biased sounding screen name. It would have certainly lended more credibility to my post. Rest assured, I am not making any of it up.

Overall this has been a lesson learned and wanted to share it. I have always heard of car rental horror stories but this was the first time it ever happened to me. Also the first time I have posted online about anything which has also been a learning experience.

Points taken and thank you

If everybody on this forum were as gracious as you are, this would be a better world (and fewer travelers would be scared off from asking questions here).

HTtY