Returned the car, had a great interaction with the agent who helped me, he said his name was ‘A.B’. I left the car and the shuttle was there, I hopped on and went to the terminal , put my hand in my pocket and realized I had the key. Went back out to the curb, saw an uber driver dropping someone off and asked him if I could Venmo him $20 to take me to Avis and back. He agrees, I get the key back, AB comes over to thank me, I’m on my way, I probably had the key for 20min.
Waiting for my flight I get an email from them saying they are charging me $558 for forgetting the key! I call and honestly this feels like a scam. She tried to tell me she needed that car for another guest so since they had to give someone else a different car, I’m getting charged. Which is bullshit because I had the car reserved for two hours past my flight time. She says she’ll file a claim. I get home to CA and call Avis back, agent says the same thing, I talk to a supervisor who now tells me they had to ‘re-key’ the car so the key I gave back didn’t work anymore. Which is bullshit because you can’t ‘re-key’ a car in 20min, and then why did AB and the other lot attendant come over to thank me for bringing it back if it didn’t work?? He said the only way to dispute it is to have the Avis lot workers tell them I’m entitled to it, but every time I try to call, I get re-routed to the national call center, which again, seems like a scam. ‘You can get it waived, but you can’t reach the only people who can help you’ feels very scammy.
So far the charge is not on my card so my CC company won’t block or dispute it. Does anyone know how to get in touch with the Avis lot attendants at Philly airport, or do you know AB who works there? Thanks for any advice, it was an overnight rental for work, should be $92. They want to make it $640 because of 20 minutes, what a joke.