Most car rentals are uneventful, save for the stray gas or cleaning charge. Even so, we’ve heard a few disturbing stories of falsely reported rental car thefts in recent years, in which rental companies can wreak havoc on their customers’ lives without much stopping them. One California woman is suing Avis for such an incident, which ended with her handcuffed at gunpoint.
The Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department stopped Ramona Gutierrez on March 22 after Avis mistakenly reported her rental car stolen. She rented the car to drive for Uber while her vehicle was in the repair shop and said it was cleared by the rideshare company before leaving the Avis lot. Shortly after leaving, she was pulled over on the 210 Freeway. Six sheriff’s vehicles arrived, and Gutierrez’s drive ended with her on the ground, in handcuffs, held at gunpoint.
The incident left Gutierrez in tears, and she said officers would not tell her what was going on until much later when she learned that Avis had started the whole thing. She said she hasn’t been able to go back to driving for weeks and noted that it’s hard for her to drive.
This Avis incident is stressful, but it’s far from isolated. Hertz has been in hot water multiple times for its falsely-reported vehicle thefts, and late last year, the company agreed to settle hundreds of individual false theft claims to the tune of $168 million.
[Image: Ron Adar via Shutterstock]
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via Autobuzz Today
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