The employees here are absolutely lovely and friendly which is what has saved this from being a 1 star review. Avis is very very busy. Right now there is a queue around 15 people long. Each car hire seems to take around 15-30 mins and there are only three people working, one of which frequently disappears out the back for extended periods of time.
The wait aside, we have been decidedly unimpressed with the service here. Some issues that we have had with our car rental:
1. We prepaid for the bridge toll passes as there was a discount with it. However, we were not supplied with the passes and had to pay again at the booth. They did refund us on return of the vehicle but we then missed out on the discounted toll.
2. On return of the vehicle we were charged for windscreen insurance which we had declined at the time the car was picked up. Apparently on the booking site we had failed to uncheck the box that requested it. However during the lengthy hiring process we had explicitly declined all insurance. The cost was trivial so it was not a huge issue but still reflected the inconsistencies with this store.
3. On hiring the vehicle we had been told that we could return the car without filling it and that we would be charged only market rates for the fuel we had used. This surprised us but we happily returned it with 7/8ths of a tank only to be informed that we were to be charged for the full tank (as is usual in most countries)... they allowed us to take the car back to fill it but it added over an hour to our day.
4. We hired a smaller car on return of the first vehicle. We had not booked online as we were not certain whether we would be simply swapping the car or starting a whole new agreement. However when we went to set up the new contract the price offered was almost four times the price that had been available online!!! And they were unable to price match (for their own company!!!) so we had to leave and book the vehicle online and then return to the back of the queue.
This process (returning one car and hiring a second) took around three hours even with our Avis preferred status. I was unimpressed to say the least. This all occurred in a narrow corridor which was shared with all the other rental agencies (and which meant that people leaving the other companies to pick up their car had to push their way through the very long Avis line with all of their luggage in order to exit the building.)
In saying that, the staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful and I had no issue with them personally. But the company seriously needs to rethink its policies in order to make this an efficient (and competent) outlet. read more
