Avis Car Rental

"Summary: Avis delivered a vehicle to me an UNSAFE and DANGEROUS condition, said they would not reimburse me if I paid out of pocket for the necessary repairs, and then refused to provide any type of adequate solution for a replacement. I had to pay out of pocket for a full tire replacement due to the unsafe condition and WILL BE SUING if I am at bare minimum not reimbursed for the cost of replacement. Full Review: I rented a Ford Expedition for a one-way rental from Boston, MA to Orlando, FL for a personal relocation from Thursday, 8/22 at 6 PM to Sunday, 8/25 at 6 PM. I picked up the car Friday early morning of 8/23/24, packed up the car with some friends, and departed Boston on Friday morning of 8/24/24. I found the vehicle was vibrating on the road, but I thought perhaps it was just bumpy roads or the larger suspension. After traffic thinned out in New Jersey, and I reached highway speeds, I noticed the vehicle was vibrating pretty significantly, at one point violently vibrating. Fearing a tire blow out and the desperate need for a tire balance, I called Emergency Roadside Assistance and they confirmed they’d reimburse me for a tire balance. I immediately took the vehicle to a Mavis Discount Tire. Upon inspection, they informed me the vehicle was VERY UNSAFE and DANGEROUS to drive given the condition of all four tires: tires worn down to the wear bars, gashes in all four tires showing cords, and choppy and uneven wear. They also said the front suspension needed replacement. They were shocked any rental company would provide a vehicle in that condition. I called back Avis and wanted to confirm they would reimburse me for replacing the tires. I was bounced back and forth between Customer Service and Emergency Roadside Assistance for more than two hours, talked to at least 6 different reps, and was told multiple different things. They said they would NOT reimburse the tire replacement and said the only solution would be to replace the vehicle via two options. Option 1 was to drive the vehicle in an unsafe condition to the closest open Avis with a suitable replacement on a Saturday afternoon (the closest location with the same size vehicle was 2 hours away in Philadelphia). Option 2 was to have the car towed (which I would be responsible of paying for), get a replacement vehicle in another location, and self manage transferring of all items. For either option, I could not transfer the items by myself as I needed help during load in, and Avis said they would be unable to assist. Option 1 was unsafe and unfortunately not a real option (Mavis Discount Tire strongly advised against it saying a tire could blow at any moment). Option 2 was also not an option because the return site and replacement site were two different locations. One rep said the best solution would be to call the police or fire department, have them help me unload the items (including my mattress) outside on the ground, leave all my personal belongings unattended, take an Uber to the replacement vehicle (again, closest location with same size was found to be Philadelphia), and then drive back and reload. How was this the best option anyone could offer??? In the end, I felt my only option was to pay for the tire replacement out of pocket, seek a reimbursement, and pursue legal action if needed, especially since I needed to be in Florida by Sunday afternoon for a departing flight. The experience was extremely infuriating and I was shocked at Avis’ response. I plan to sue if they they do not at bare minimum reimburse me for the necessary tire replacement they neglected. Based on this experience, I will also share this story of poor service recovery with friends and colleagues to help them avoid a poor experience. For proof, please see the condition of all 4 tires as well as the report from Mavis Discount Tire."

"I really hope my review isn't premature and an enormous bill hits me next week. Until then, the 4* are fair. We had booked a Corolla or similar and we were upgraded to a Nissan Rogue, which despite its size (especially in the eyes of a non-American) it had good fuel efficiency and it was very comfortable on the road. A mile-eater. It wasn't brand new, with ~45,000 miles on the clock, but it was clean and well maintained. The employee at the desk was super helpful, her name I think was Karina and she explained in details the policies and all the extras. Well done to her. And her colleague to her left was also a great guy and tried his best with difficult customers. Return process was easy and quick. The reasons I deduct a star were two. 1. There was a huge queue on a Sunday at around 5 pm. You could spend easily an hour queueing, or even more. And all the desks were operating so it's not an issue of staffing. I know that some travelers have issues with their credit cards (especially overseas customers) but still the process seems inefficient. A quick automated delivery for some easier cases could save time and reduce workload from the desk agents. 2. Everything is opaque when it comes to extra charges. The desk agent is responsible for explaining in detail everything (adding to the queueing time for the rest of renters). And when you get the final invoice, it's not particularly clear what you've paid because charges are written with abbreviations or codes. You don't know which ones are taxed and how much, which ones are non taxable etc. A more transparent system would have been a much better option; it would reduce the workload of the agents, make the delivery process much faster and eliminate customer complaints. If someone wants to follow up on all charges, they should bring out a piece of paper and a pencil to do the maths and the tax calculations."

"I have rented a car with gps. Once at Avis office, there were no gps. I had to wait 30mins for having an old tablet to be used as such, with a battery lasting minutes, a charging cable not original and not useful to keep the tablet charged for the whole trip, and not updating its position wrt the trip. I had to add giga to my data plan for getting directions. Last but not least, the volume of the audio system was impossible to lower, being always at max level. A claim was sent to Avis on Aug 9th, on Aug 16th no answer from customer Service (but the cost of rental fully charged on credit card)"

"We’ve traveled my entire life and I have never 1. Waited this long for a vehicle 2. Picked up such a filthy car 3. Been given vehicles in such questionable/ dangerous conditions. At 9:30pm we waited with our family for 1 hour inside to reach the desk. We were told an agent would greet us in the parking garage and lead us to our car. We were not greeted by anything or anyone other than another 1 hour long wait in the heat in the garage. EMPLOYEES walked around laughing with each other or with their ears buds in IGNORING customers. A woman behind us in line stated she had waited in this line before for 3 hours AFTER waiting for 1.5 hours inside. At this point we stepped out of line and demanded a car (we had reserved an XP) the employee looked confused and pointed us to a minivan. The van did not have the carseat we had reserved at which point an employee sent us to a THIRD desk where they told us to wait (likely for another hour) at which point we simply went up and demanded the carseat. As you can see in the photos, the van looked like it had been through a war zone; keyed down the entire drivers side with dings and chalk markings on the rear. The surfaces inside were not clean and the van made cracking sounds (from the CV joints) every time we made a turn. But it was now 11:30 pm and we were desperate as we still had a long drive ahead of us to our destination. The next morning we took this hunk of junk van to the Avis at the Manchester, NH airport to swap it only to receive an attitude from the desk agent, being told all their vehicles were reserved… but we had a reservation too! The Suburban we ended up with has 58,800 miles on it, is also filthy inside and reeks of weed. Come to find out, on August 2nd Avis had 700 car rental reservations from the Boston airport but only had 300 cars to provide… no one can run a business in this manner. DO NOT use this company."