What should have been a normal one-week family vacation ended with a Canadian traveler facing about US$4,300 (CA$5,900) in disputed mileage charges from Avis for driving that never happened.
Avis' billing records showed Yuehao Huang covered nearly 18,000 miles in seven days, a number so extreme it suggests almost constant time on the road.
Here's what to know
As Dexerto reported, by the time he returned home, Huang had been hit with the charge on top of more than US$700 (CA$1,000) in rental costs for an Avis car he picked up Sept. 11. Huang's family flew from Toronto to Montreal for a trip that also took them to Mont Tremblant, Ottawa, and Quebec.
"But when I returned home to Toronto, I saw a bizarre $5,900 charge from Avis, and I couldn't figure out why," Huang told CityNews.
Avis claimed he had exceeded his prepaid mileage limit by about 28,933 kilometers, or roughly 18,000 miles, which works out to more than 2,500 miles a day over the seven-day trip. By Huang's account, the math made no sense.
"The way I estimated it is that would be me driving 180 km/h, 24 hours, no stop, no gas, no sleep," he told CityNews.
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Huang's iPhone logged only about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) of movement during the trip, including hiking time.
More background
After disputing the charge and sending Avis evidence, the company first told Huang it would investigate. With no refund issued, he was reportedly told to resubmit the complaint.
An American Express dispute also failed to resolve the matter, leaving Huang still trying to recover thousands of dollars over a claim that he had traveled an almost impossible distance.
Put another way, 18,000 miles is close to three-quarters of the way around Earth, as Dexerto observed.
Huang remained responsible for documenting, disputing, and escalating the issue.
What's being done?
The case finally moved forward when Huang contacted CityNews' Speakers Corner, which pressed Avis for further information about the dispute. At that point, the rental company acknowledged it had charged the customer in error.
In a statement to CityNews, Avis claimed that the problem stemmed from internal handling rather than actual driving.
"Following a thorough review, we confirmed that a data entry error resulted in the customer being incorrectly charged for excess mileage," the company said.
That generated a charge equal to several months of housing or grocery costs for many people.
Avis also said it would refund the mileage charges.
Beyond the refund, Avis maintained that it was auditing internal systems to help prevent similar mistakes in the future.
"We sincerely apologize to the customer for the frustration and delay in resolving the matter," the company said. "We are processing a refund for the mileage charges. We are also reinforcing our procedures with our teams to help prevent similar issues in the future."
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