Avis Rent A Car

These folks that run Avis at the airport are very nice. The car we rented had lots of miles on it and didn’t run the greatest but got us where we needed to go.

Too bad I can not rate AVIS at 0! Thieving company end-​end.
So my company prepaid my car rental, including all optional insurances. I get an email that it was fully prepaid.
I show up at the location and per usual they ask for my CC as security. Sure — no problem. I asked for confirmation that nothing will be charged to my card. They at first said nothing. Then 5. xx$ shows up on the final thing to sign. I challenge them on WTF. Loose 30 minutes. The manager is unable to explain. So he overrides the system, and shows me that I will not be charged anything extra.
I get a Honda Fit (economy/​compact). Car comes dirty with bird s***t all over it. Ok, I am not picky and the car was relatively new…
Start the engine, and a blue temp light comes on. No one knows what does it mean (honda was cheap and did not do a proper temp gauge, and this just indicates cold start)… Anyways, I loose more time there, and their staff is completely incompetent. The light is not really indicating anything important.
Over the days (although only 5000miles) the car is somewhat slow on cranking. One day I get charging system failure. OK. Stuff happens, I call them, again completely incompetent on the phone. I take the car to the nearest office (close to Hayward bridge), and get a Ford Fiesta as an exchange (15xxx miles). I take the car (loose another morning on those losers), only to discover that the car has a SERIOUS suspension problem. Front suspension has no dampening, there is a loud noise from the front wheel when going over bumps etc. Trust me on this one — I am a gearhead and know a bad suspension from a dangerous/​completely shot struts/​shocks. Since I was in the middle of a meeting, I did not have time to exchange it, and lived with a dangerous car for a few more days. My time is precious.
Returned the car and complained about DANGEROUS car, without anyone taking any serious note to it. Look it has 4 wheels and is rolling. I am sure they rented out the same dangerous POS to someone.
I filled the tank and all (for the second time), and got 0 $ statement from them.
Today I open my ebanking and sure enough there is 7 $ CAD (likely the sam 5 $ us) charge.
I will NEVER EVER get an AVIS car again. Not only that, but they should be REALLY happy that I have no time to go after them, but someone SHOULD.
All I can say is THIEVING BA***RDS! AVOID!!!

Terrible terrible service attitude. End up $ 90 more than the quote on the website. Requested an AWD SUV, got a 2WD (and it was even more expensive than the AWD)

Do not rent a car at Avis!!!
I agreed on all extra insurances I could purchase, I had a personal accident insurance, no personal excesses, personal effects protection and a personal liability insurance. On our way from Las Vegas we had a flat tire, someone came to repair it, I asked if there were any additional charges which was denied and three months later they sent me a receipt of 155 $ for service & repairs.

Used
and was TOTALLY RIPPED OFF. Noticing within 3 seconds that I typed in the wrong return date I immediately tried to change it. Well, within 5 seconds my bank account was already debited for the entire amount (around $ 918.). No matter what I did they would not accept my request to change the date. I even sent e mails to customer service, begging and was told by the woman at Avis (over the phone) that Priceline is very BAD at helping customers. Priceline wanted the name of the woman I spoke to but I didn’t write it down. Anyway I’ve tried EVERYTHING to get it cancelled. Even got an email getting a MUCH CHEAPER PRICE FROM
, I called Priceline and Yes you got it… Even though they have a price match policy they would not come down. The reason being– somewhere on their unethical business pages under FAQ they say the lower price has to come from the EXACT (meaning AVIS) rental company. Who looks at FAQ ?
DO NOT TRUST PRICELINE– GO TO ANY LENGTH TO USE AN ETHICAL ONLINE BUSINESS!

if no stars were an option that would be my choice.
aside from poor customer service Avis has no ethics.
I’ve never experienced such horrible service and I would NEVER choose Avis, nor would I recommend them.

They have good price when I shopped for a rental coming to SF. However, the line at the check out counter was very long. Well, because everybody thought they got a good deal. We waited about 1 hour at the line. There were only 2 people serving about 20 customers waiting in the line. They increased to 5 reps when the line gets even longer. When I was at the counter, the rep was trying to upsell me the upgrade even thought I told her I don’t want it. Very annoying. The check out process took about 10 min. Then, when I picked up the car, the car is not at the parking spot. So it took another 20 min to get with Avis to find a car. Totally disaster. Should have spent $ 10-​$ 20 more to avoid the wasted time. Next time I will definitely not choose Avis at this location.

Is having the WORST experience ever! The flight took us 1.5 hours from Seattle, it’s going to take us 2 hours to get the car. Long line and slow service in a super crowded space. The Avis woman cruising around with some document kept saying: «yes you have to line up here even if you have booked and paid everything online, except if you are a preferred member.» No, not going to fall into that trap again! Will definitely consider any other companies whose lines are moving considerably faster! I didn’t wanna give even 1 star.

Waited in line for an hour to pick up a car.
They had 3 staff members on desk, and 1 staff member going up and down the waiting aisle reminding everyone here that if they were preferred members then they would have been able to just get the car but it is too late for them now. Why not just get behind the desk and actually help get people through the line instead?
Horrible experience

Incredibly caring employees!!!
Left my drivers license in the rental car. When I went back to the rental terminal the car had already been sent off premises. Phillip stopped what he was doing and between him and Michael 20 minutes later they found my license. I AM GRATEFUL. great job.
Thank you

SIGN UP FOR AVIS PREFERRED and you will thank me later.
If you book it beforehand on Avis Preferred you get to skip all the lines (which looked horrendous) and your car is waiting in the garage for you! I felt like a VIP member just skipping the line and heading straight to my freshly cleaned Ford. The checkout took about 30 seconds. You literally pull in and leave your car. The friendly staff reminded us to check for cell phones, ID, chargers, etc.

Laila is an angel. She made it her personal priority to make sure we were taken care of & beyond happy with our rental. From the moment we started conversing with her she was nothing short of pleasant & a joy to experience the second we set foot in SF.
Not only did she walk us through an (amazing!) upgrade, but then went as far as to make sure we were completely happy with it by walking out with us to make sure our luggage fit.
I couldn’t have asked for a better rental car experience. Thanks Laila, you made the day!

OMG! 2 hour wait line to pick up a car that was reserved and paid for on-​line. When I called customer service, the women (very nice and thus why the company is receiving at least 1 star) says «i am not supposed to tell you this, but we/​AVIS has recalled thousands of cars and we don’t have enough to provide to the customers». How great is this??? I went to a competitor and paid $ 110.00 for a car for one night. Ridiculous. I would never use AVIS again and will tell anyone and everyone that will listen to rent from their competitor.
Completely frustrating but heck, I understand that AVIS has enough business that they don’t care about the negative feedback on Unilocal.

After a six hour flight, do you love standing in line for an hour and a half to get a car? I certainly hope so, because if you’re not Preferred, GFY (I think that’s Avis’s unofficial motto.)
I hate rental car companies as much as the next guy. And this would be a review of how ridiculous it is to have the elevator indicate Avis is on the 3^rd Floor, when in actuality only Avis Preferred is on the 3^rd Floor, and they don’t care about their other customers.
This would be a review about how it would just make sense to put Avis and Avis Preferred together, so that the two employees doing nothing at the latter could be in the same place and lend a hand to the two employees with a line of 50 people upstairs.
It would be a review about how useless it is to pay an employee with a clipboard to just move through the line and ask if anyone is Preferred. You’d probably be better off paying her to do something else. I dunno, like checking people in at one of the eight unmanned computers, and giving them cars so they can get out of here faster.
(I might be a little bit bitter about the Preferred thing.)
But this isn’t a review about all that. Because Avis, you have a smart, personable, funny, efficient employee who is a credit to your organization. A man improbably named Vincent Vega. Although I’m sure he hears all sorts of Tarantino bullshit all day long, he was still happy to talk to me about it, and relay that his younger brother’s name is actually Vic. He revealed the secret to being married 36 years for me,* efficiently got us in a car and on our way, and turned this review from a 2-​star into a 4-​star, singlehandedly.
The man might as well be a superhero.
_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​
*There is no secret. He says it was 36 years of uninterrupted terror. And I feel that.

Can you give no star?! Because thats what the customer service deserves. Just spent an hour and half waiting to just get to the counter. After getting there they said insincerely that they are sorry it took so long and maybe contact corporate because they are just an employee. All in all terrible service.

Returning a car IS ABSOLUTE HELL.
— terrible customer service
— inconsistent
— watch for double charges (check your receipts)
1) drop off says SFO. Luckily I’m a local so I know my way around. But for non locals coming from 380 you will see SFO exit to the right and Car Rental exit to the left. Just follow the car rental sign from the freeway
2) you drop off in the garage and the staff takes your keys and checks out. They don’t speak to you, lack of any customer service or engagement. So I’m confused? Wtf is my check out paperwork. She points me to the transit.
3) counter service is BS. Expect to wait in the line FORVER regardless if it’s long or not. Staff at the counters lack any kind of customer service. Guy who helped me was clueless as rocks and then told me go downstairs again. I was so confused. I guess someone downstairs are to give you your receipt.
4) triple check your receipt!!! I was CHARGED DOUBLE. Downstairs check in staff said any questions go upstairs to the counter. WTF I’m a ping pong ball.
5) counter service — went back to the same guy. He sees the double charge and passes it off to someone else. Next guy sees the double charge and tries to claim and justify them. Then he sees its a double charge and fixes it.
1hr later… I finally leave. Imagine if you are running to catch a flight!!! What a mess.

If I could give a no star I would have. Make sure you check and double check your contact before you pick up your car since they change our and added insurance without asking us if we want it or not and we end up paying $ 60 per day for a Kia Optima when we complained both managers of the location told us «you signed it» no refund.
We will never rent a car from Avis again.
6÷29÷2015
I file a complain with the company and they answer sorry we can not do anything about it!

Be careful they cheat on price. I ended up paying more than double for the one which I called and reserved. They do not inform you anything while booking but charge you a lot. You get so many other good deals with other companies.

Pretty seamless rental and drop-​off. The only downfall is that I had to walk past a line-​up of Maseratis and Z06s to get to my little puttputt (which was not as fancy or fun as the aforementioned, haha).

I have used this particular facility at SF airport for years and it’s consistently good.
They always have a decent selection of cars and they try to get you on your way as quickly as possible.
The return facility is also quick and within a couple of minutes of pulling up into returns you can be on a train heading into the airport.
I have come in here during daytime and night and in a couple of occasions they have had a shortage of staff but generally it’s been good.
If you have a preferred membership then it’s even easier as you can walk over to your car straight away and be on your way minutes after getting off the train.
Prices are reasonable and a few times I retuned the car without filling up the tank and it did not cost me too much.