MORROW, Ga. — A metro Atlanta woman says a disputed $3,000 charge from Avis Rent A Car emptied her bank account, damaged her credit and ultimately forced her to stop driving for Uber.
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Kenyatta Owens says she has spent more than a year trying to get answers from Avis after what she believes was a billing error tied to a vehicle she rented through the company’s rideshare partnership with Uber.
“I couldn’t understand why I was being charged so much,” Owens said.
The dispute began in 2023 after Owens’ vehicle was totaled in a crash, leaving her without transportation. To continue earning income, she enrolled in the Avis-Uber rideshare program, which offers discounted long-term vehicle rentals to Uber drivers.
“I thought that was a great program,” Owens said.
Before receiving the rental vehicle, Owens said an employee at the Avis location in Morrow instructed her to send a $150 payment through Cash App.
“I gave her the 150 through Cash App,” Owens said. “I then turned around and gave them my information for my car, and they gave me the car.”
Looking back, Owens said the transaction was the first of several warning signs during her rental experience.
According to Owens, Avis charged her Chase bank account approximately $260 each week for the vehicle. Problems arose when she returned the car to a drop-box location after more than three months.
Owens said she later discovered a charge of more than $3,000 on her Navy Federal account.
“They charged my Navy Federal card the full amount,” Owens said.
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She said she used the Navy Federal card to make payments during the final two weeks of the rental period. Owens believes Avis then charged that card for the entire cost of the three-month rental, despite her previous weekly payments.
The charge, she said, drained her account and sent her finances into a downward spiral.
“It’s impacted me greatly,” Owens said.
Owens said she immediately contacted Avis and was directed to the company’s fraud department. However, she said repeated calls and emails over the past year have produced no resolution.
“I never really got a response back,” Owens said.
Channel 2 Action News contacted Avis about Owens’ allegations and billing dispute. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
“I’m not an Uber driver anymore because this kind of put me in a bad situation, like a really horrible situation,” she said.
Owens is also questioning the Cash App payment she says she was instructed to make before receiving the rental vehicle.
According to information on Avis’ website, customers in the rideshare program are subject to weekly payments, and the company may lock or repossess a vehicle when payments are not made.
Based on those policies, Owens questions how a customer could continue using a rental vehicle for months without payment before being charged a lump sum at the end of the rental period.
Avis’ website also does not list Cash App payments as an accepted form of security deposit payment.
Owens said she hopes her case will eventually be resolved and that she can recover the money she believes was wrongly charged.
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