Oct 22, 2026
Like most travellers, Yueho Huang budgeted about $1,000 for his week-long car rental. The booking was for a family trip that would let the Huang family explore various points of interest throughout Quebec and Ontario. But when the Huang family returned home to Toronto, they were surprised at their car rental bill: Global rental firm, Avis, had charged the family $5,900 for the week-long rental.
Confused, Huang reached out to Avis. He was told that he’d blown through his prepaid mileage allowance by logging 28,933 kilometres in just seven days. The problem: He hadn’t wracked up that kind of mileage.
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Turns out the Huang’s would’ve had to drive around the clock at 172 kilometres per hour for 168 hours straight — with no stops for gas, food or sleep.
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The Avis bill was obviously wrong, but getting it reversed took weeks, a stalled investigation, a rejected card dispute and a call to a newsroom.
Like the Huang family, many Canadians end up losing time, money or both in the gap between being right and fighting to get your money back. It’s a lesson in how to fight billing errors — no matter how long it takes.
What went wrong with the Avis bill?
To start his trip, Huang flew from Toronto to Montreal on Sept. 11, 2026 to pick up his rental car, according to CityNews, the news outlet that first reported the story.
From Montreal, the family looped through the city to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario. According to Huang’s phone the entire trip was roughly 1,400 km. And not all of it was spent driving. The Huang’s spent a lot of time walking around cities and hiking in different parts of both provinces.
Aware of the massive discrepancy — he clocks 1,400 km and the bill claimed almost 29,000 km — Huang disputed the charge with Avis. The rental firm agreed to investigate.
Weeks passed and the Huangs were not offered a refund. When he inquired he was told to resubmit his complaint.
That’s when he then turned to American Express; when the credit card company inquired, they were told by Avis that the original bill and subsequent charge of $5,900 for the week-long car rental was valid.
It was only when CityNews’ Speakers Corner contacted the car rental company, did the firm respond. It only took a day, and the response vindicated Huang’s complaint: “Following a thorough review, we confirmed that a data entry error resulted in the customer being incorrectly charged for excess mileage.” Only then did the company apologize and confirm that it was processing a refund while reinforcing procedures with its rental teams.
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Is this a one-off or a pattern worth watching?
The Huangs were shocked — not just by the massive mistake in what they were charged, but with how long it took to get a refund and an explanation. But it turns out they weren’t the first customer to experience this situation.
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According to CTV News, in 2022, Vancouver resident Giovanna Boniface was billed more than $8,000 after Avis recorded 36,482 km on a three-day rental from Toronto Pearson International Airport. She’d driven about 300 km — not 1000x that distance. Avis apologized and refunded her — but only after the media got involved.
The two cases share a pattern; more importantly, these cases offer Canadians a bigger lesson: per-kilometre fees, overages and other post-rental adjustments may not show up on your credit card statement for days or weeks after you’ve returned the keys. By then, it’s your word against the company’s system.
Why didn’t the credit card dispute work?
For many Canadians an incorrect charge on their credit card is easily sorted out — with chargebacks on cards treated like a guaranteed safety net. But it isn’t.
When you dispute a charge, your card issuer asks the merchant for its side. If the merchant insists the charge stands, the issuer may accept that, which is what happened to Huang.
That doesn’t make the process useless. It just means you will need to offer more information and evidence if you get a first-round rejection. Typically this means providing documentation of your claim, including communication with the merchant.
If customers are still unhappy with the result, there’s the opportunity to escalate with the internal complaints department of the credit card, or to escalate to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI), a not-for-profit that became Canada’s single external complaints body for banking on Nov. 1, 2024.
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To be clear, Amex Bank of Canada, the Canadian arm of American Express, lists OBSI as its escalation route in its complaint-handling procedures.
Finally, you can seek advocacy through publicity — through media attention.
How can rental car customers protect themselves?
If you plan to rent a car — from any car rental company — consider taking a few precautionary steps.
Before you drive off the lot:
- Photograph the odometer, fuel gauge and exterior at pickup and drop-off
- Confirm the kilometre allowance and per-km overage fee in your contract
- Ask for a closed-out receipt showing the return odometer reading
- Turn on location history or a trip-tracking app for longer road trips
If you return from your trip and the invoice or charges look wrong, consider the following steps:
- Contact the rental company right away and ask which odometer readings it used
- Put your dispute in writing, with photos, phone data and fuel receipts attached
- File a dispute with your card issuer and note your attempts to resolve it directly
- If the issuer sides with the merchant, use its internal complaints process, then OBSI
- Check your issuer’s dispute deadline so you don’t miss the window
In Huang’s case he had evidence from the start to show that the charges were incorrect. What he needed was someone willing to look at it, confirm the error and rectify the problem. Documenting your rental at both ends won’t stop a keying error, but it gives you the proof for a stronger dispute, and that can shorten the time it takes for you to get justice.
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Romana King, Senior Editor at Money.ca, also writes for various North American publications and the RKHomeowner blog. Her book, House Poor No More, is an Amazon bestseller and five-time award winner, including the 2022 New York CPA Society's Excellence in Financial Journalism (EFJ) Book Award.
