36,000 km in 3 days? Rental car company alleges BC woman nearly drove earth’s circumference

A woman from North Vancouver was shocked to discover an $8,000 charge from a rental car company this month — because her receipt alleged she drove more than 36,000 kilometres in three days.

Giovanna Boniface was dropping her daughter off at university in Toronto and says her total trip totalled something more like 300 kilometres. But that’s not what her receipt from Avis car rental says.

Eric Glenn/Shutterstock

Boniface told Daily Hive she picked up a GMC Yukon Denali from Pearson Airport on August 13 and drove to Kitchener to pick up items from her in-laws. After dropping off her daughter she returned the car using Avis’ express feature on August 16.

The receipt she got back indicated she’d driven nearly the circumference of the earth at its equator.

“I could have driven to and from South Africa and still had several thousand kilometres to spare,” she said. “Of course it’s ridiculous. I don’t even put that many kilometres on my car in a year, let alone in three days.”

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If Boniface were to have truly driven 36,000 kilometres in three days, she’d have to have travelled at a speed of more than 506 kilometres per hour with no stops. That’s faster than some commercial jets.

She initially stashed the receipt in her bag as she left to catch her flight and didn’t notice the $8,000 charge until she was through security.

Can u can drive 36,482km in 3 days? @Avis thinks so & charged us $8k+ for the km🤣 Also, no-one answers the phone at YYZ, so this should be fun to get a refund. While we wait, let’s see how far this is…I could visit my fam in Capetown with 3600km to spare #help pic.twitter.com/Vo0r5fbNq7

— Giovanna (she/her) Boniface, OT (@BonifaceGio) August 16, 2022

She spent the entire 90 minutes at her gate trying to phone Avis’ customer service but said she couldn’t get through. She also phoned Visa, but the company said there wasn’t anything it could do since the charge was still pending.

Can u can drive 36,482km in 3 days? @Avis thinks so & charged us $8k+ for the km🤣 Also, no-one answers the phone at YYZ, so this should be fun to get a refund. While we wait, let’s see how far this is…I could visit my fam in Capetown with 3600km to spare #help pic.twitter.com/Vo0r5fbNq7

— Giovanna (she/her) Boniface, OT (@BonifaceGio) August 16, 2022

When Boniface was finally able to get through to Avis, she said both her calls to two separate representatives got disconnected — she’s not sure if she was hung up on.

She didn’t make progress until she went public with her story, speaking out on Twitter first and then with North Shore News.

She said a representative from Avis has been in touch confirming the 36,000-kilometre charge was human error. The company said it will refund her, but she hasn’t gotten her money back yet. Apparently, it still needs to be processed through Visa.

“At this point, I’m trying to find the humour in it,” she said. “But going forward I’m going to be less reliant on speed services… I’m used to flying [for business] several times a month and renting cars pretty regularly… you just get into the habit of being trustworthy of the systems.”

A spokesperson from Avis confirmed the company apologized to Boniface, and said it has issued a refund.