This review is both for Avis Car Rental Company in general, and this location…read more
Do. Not. Rent. From. This. Company.
I have never rented through Avis before and I never will again. When booking I was looking to rent for two and a half weeks as my new vehicle was in transit to the dealership and I had just sold my other one. I compared prices and noticed that I could get a larger SUV with a "pay now" discount for the same price as a sedan at Enterprise so I decided to go with Avis.
I went to the pickup location, which was not correct in maps and resulted in me going to an unrelated business first. I attempted to call them prior to pick up to ask a question and the phone number that was listed actually just goes to Avis' 1-800 number. The staff informed me that they do not have a phone number there. When I arrived, they explained they gave me the paperwork and said "initial here, here, here, and here". They did not once explain or read any policies to me, review the vehicle or do any kind of walk through. They just handed me the keys and sent me on my way. While walking out, my husband and I were discussing bringing it back early if my new vehicle arrived earlier than expected and the staff explained that if I did prepay, I would not receive a refund for the days not used, and that they could not doing anything about it because they were a satellite office and I would have to "take it up with Avis", which I was news to me. I went outside and did a walk through by myself and took pictures of the condition of the vehicle prior to leaving. I immediately knew the vehicle had previously been smoked in more than once. I am highly allergic to cigarette smoke and instantly got a sore throat and a headache. I've spent the last 3 days trying to get the smoke smell out and think it's finally remediated.
Fortunately, my new vehicle has arrived early and therefore I do not need the vehicle for as long as I reserved it for. I changed my reservation to end earlier than I had originally booked for. I noticed there was a negative number and assumed since they let me change the date, that I would be getting a refund. I called to see how that process works and was told that per the policy, I would not be getting a refund.
They offer a "pay now" discount which is where my problem therein lies. Apparently, with this discount, there is a policy that you will not get a return for any vehicles that you return earlier than you rented for, which is very much in the "fine print" and not explicit to customers. I (wrongly) assumed that the pay now discount was due to committing to and paying for it prior to picking up the vehicle, not that changes to the reservation would not result in a refund.
I explained to them multiple times that my problem was not with the policy itself, but the manipulation used by not making it explicit what the policy is at the time of booking, and the failure of the staff to review these policies. I rented cars MULTIPLE times and did not expect there to be any out of the ordinary policies as there wasn't a review of ANY policies, not even the standard "do not smoke in this vehicle". I spoke to a standard customer service representative and requested escalation to a supervisor. The customer service representative was not help but not surprising for tier 1 customer service (I have worked in customer service myself, as tier 1 support, and understand the hierarchy). The supervisor was very rude and combative. I'm sure she would say the same about me however, this situation does not sit right with me as they are manipulating and taking advantage of their customers. Being discreet about their policies, the failure of the staff at the pickup/drop off location and their inability to compromise at all is unacceptable. Not that it should make a difference, but I do believe that their customer service is outsourced to a third party company and therefore, you are not getting customer service from the company itself. I will not be renting from them ever again and would highly advise everyone to avoid renting from them as well.
