A woman who flew from Vancouver to Toronto to help her daughter get settled in to college was charged $8,000 for allegedly driving 22,000 miles in her rental car.
Giovanna Boniface, from Vancouver, flew out to Toronto to get her daughter settled in to college. She picked the car up from the Toronto airport, drove to downtown Toronto, and to see her mother-in-law. She estimated that she drove possibly 190 miles total during her 3 days in Toronto.
Giovanna dropped the car off at the airport and was waiting to board her return flight when she noticed a $8,000 charge on her credit card statement online. She checked her Avis receipt where she discovered Avis had charged her $.25 per kilometer for 22,000 miles (36,000 km).
22,000 miles is the distance from Toronto to Australia and back.
Distance Toronto → Australia
Distance: 10,114.51 mi (16,277.73 km)
After several frustrating phone calls that failed to resolve the issue, she ended up reaching out to media to help spread her story. Finally, Avis contacted her to sort it all out and giver her a refund.
When I return my rental cars, I always make sure to take a picture of the odometer and the gas tank indicator as I have been erroneously charged in the past, but certainly not to the extent of poor Giovanna.
Click bait headline. Should read “Woman charged for driving 36,482 kilometres miles when odometer only read 300km”
Equally troubling is “After several frustrating phone calls that failed to resolve the issue, she ended up reaching out to media to help spread her story”.
Driving 22,000 miles in 72 hours requires an average speed of 305 miles per hour!