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Updated May 7, 2026
On paper, it would be a world-beating endurance drive: 28,933 kilometers in seven days. That works out to more than 4,100 kilometers a day, or roughly the distance from Montreal to the mountains of British Columbia. It would require nonstop driving at about 180 km/h, with no sleep, no fuel stops, no bathroom breaks, and no traffic. No production car could do it, and no human could stay awake for it.
Yet that is exactly the mileage Avis used to justify a $5,900 charge on Yuehao Huang’s credit card.
Huang, a Toronto resident,prepaid more than $1,000 for a one-week Avis rental in September. He flew from Toronto to Montreal, picked up the car, and drove his visiting family members through Quebec and Ontario. The total distance, according to the GPS and motion logs on his iPhone, was around 1,400 kilometers.
When he returned home, he found a separate, shocking charge from Avis for excess mileage.
“I just said to myself, this can’t be right,” Huang said in an interview with a consumer-affairs news segment. His immediate reaction was to compare the bill with the facts: the car had not been driven anywhere near the claimed distance, and if it had, it would have needed an oil change and maintenance long before the week ended.
Avis initially defended the charge. The company told Huang that he had exceeded the mileage allowance on his prepaid rental by a massive amount. Huang challenged the bill with documentation, including the GPS data from his phone. Avis said it would investigate, but weeks later, no refund had arrived. Huang was then told to resubmit the complaint.
He also took the dispute to his credit card issuer, American Express. The card company investigated and contacted Avis. That path also seemed to lead nowhere.
“Just yesterday, I got the reply from Amex and Avis basically told them ‘charges are valid,’” Huang recounted.
After the consumer news outlet contacted Avis directly, the company reversed course. The explanation: a data entry error.
“Following a thorough review, we confirmed that a data entry error resulted in the customer being incorrectly charged for excess mileage,” an Avis spokesperson said. The company apologized for the frustration and delay and said a refund was being processed. It also said it was reinforcing procedures with its teams to help prevent similar mistakes in the future.
The Avis mix-up is a useful reminder that rental car invoices are not always accurate. Odometer readings are usually entered manually at pickup and return, which leaves room for human error. A single misread digit can turn an ordinary road trip into an enormous bill.
Rental contracts often include a per-kilometer or per-mile overage charge. In the United States, those fees can range from 15 cents to more than 50 cents per mile, depending on the company, location, and car class. If a data entry error adds 10,000 phantom miles to a return receipt, the financial damage can be severe.
For consumers, the first line of defense is documentation.
Rental-car experts and consumer advocates consistently recommend the same step: take photos before and after the rental period. A timestamped smartphone photo of the dashboard shows both the odometer and the fuel level. A short video walkaround can also capture existing scratches, dents, and any other condition issues before the vehicle is officially in your hands.
At return, do the same. Keep the photo until any pending charges have been resolved. Many rental companies email a receipt within hours, but errors like the one Huang experienced can surface weeks later.
Huang acknowledged that he did not photograph the odometer when the trip began. He does plan to do so on every future rental, no matter how familiar or trusted the company. “I just didn’t realize this was going to happen,” he said.
Credit card chargebacks remain one of the most effective tools for consumers who are billed for services they did not receive or were not accurately documented.
For U.S. cardholders, the Fair Credit Billing Act provides important protections for billing errors on credit card accounts. Card issuers must acknowledge a written dispute within 30 days of receiving it and must investigate it within two billing cycles, generally not exceeding 90 days. The law also prevents consumers from being held liable for the disputed amount during the investigation.
Consumers should note that the law requires the dispute to be submitted within 60 days after the first bill containing the error is mailed. That means it is important to review credit card statements promptly and act quickly when something looks wrong.
Huang’s case also shows that a credit card dispute alone is not always enough. Avis repeatedly told American Express that the charge was valid, which delayed the resolution. Public attention can help move a stuck dispute forward, though it should not be necessary.
If a rental charge looks wrong, follow a simple checklist:
For Huang, the outcome was a full refund after weeks of frustration. Avis says it is processing that refund and has promised to review its internal procedures. Huang is glad the charge is gone, but he notes that the process took longer than it should have.
“No matter how you trust your rental car company, based on previous experience, remember to take a photo before you start driving and after,” he said. The advice is simple, cheap, and effective. A two-second photo could save a traveler from weeks of phone calls, emails, and credit card paperwork.
The rental car industry processes millions of transactions every year, and most are error-free. But when an error does happen — a typo, a swapped digit, a misplaced decimal — the result can be a bill that makes no sense. The best defense is not just customer service. It is proof.
