Woman says rental car company charged her for an additional week after its return

A woman says her bank account was drained after a rental car company claimed she returned a car more than a week late.

Lakeshia Davis followed in her mom’s footsteps by becoming a school bus driver, saying, when it comes to students “You got to be a mom to all of the, and try to teach them, and tell them what to do and what not to do.”

While Davis is quick to offer students a helping hand, she was the one who has needed help recently while fighting the rental company for nearly a month.

Back in May, she rented a car from Avis at Southwest Florida International Airport. Davis said she returned it two days later when she was supposed to.

“He told me just to leave, that they’ll email me a receipt and take the payment later,” she said.

So Davis left without a receipt.

More than a week later she found her account drained by a $1,000 charge, along with the claim that she returned the car eight days late.

“I’m a single mom, I’m pregnant and I got kids,” She explained. “I need my money and they’ll say ‘I understand but there’s nothing we can do.'”

Davis said she requested surveillance footage, but Avis says that location doesn’t have surveillance cameras.

She also disputed the charge with her bank but got nowhere.

“It wasn’t nothing, about $1,000, but it was mine and I wanted my money back,” Davis added.

The only thing to help her case was a gas receipt from the evening she said she returned the car.

Kimberly Palmer, with Nerdwallet, says if you don’t get a physical receipt from the rental company, watch your email for a confirmation, “Call that same day if you don’t see the receipt because you don’t want to let this thing go, even a day, if there’s some kind of disagreement about whether you receive something as valuable as a car.”

You can also protect yourself with pictures. Before you leave the lot take pictures of the car in the condition you received it.

And when you drop it off do the same thing again.

After we reached out to Avis, they refunded Davis her money.

Davis’ mother, Priscilla Davis was also thankful, “I say thank you guys for taking that pressure off of my daughter.”

Avis told WINK News in a statement:

“The rental drop off process remains the same in the current landscape. If a customer is ever unable to receive a receipt at the time of vehicle return, they can confirm that the rental contract has been closed by visiting Avis or Budget.com and entering their Rental agreement or Reservation confirmation number to view the status. Customer service is always available to facilitate a resolution for any issues.”