Avis Rent-A-Car

Walked in and right away Adam took care of me and got me into a nice SUV at a fair price. Very clean and nice lobby. Friendly staff that treated me like I rent cars from them all the time. I’ll be renting here every time I’m back in town. Save yourself a ton of $$ by taking the light rail train from the airport to downtown and then renting from this location which isn’t far from the train station in downtown.

Changed ownership a couple weeks ago and it is clearly noticeable. Replaced the previous courteous employees with new employees that have zero customer service skills. Avoid this location unless you like to wait 45 minutes for your car, like your car to smell like vomit, or to pay more than your online confirmation.

I couldn’t help but think «I must be on Candid Camera,» but sadly, I was not.
I’ve used Avis many times, all over the world, and have had nothing but good experiences until I rented from this shop. Renting from this particular Avis flushed away years of good service in a matter of 45 minutes. What took 45 minutes typically plays out in less than 10 minutes at most Avis and major car rental locations. Clearly this Avis is understaffed and has not received adequate training on customer service and communication.
For those of you interested in the debacle, please read on.
I made a reservation to pickup a car at 8:00AM. I was running late so I called the store to make them aware that I would be late. Before I could even get a word out, I was told that I was being placed on hold. After waiting on hold for 5 minutes I decided to call the toll free number for Avis reservations. I explained my situation to the call agent and she explained to me that my reservation would be held until the store closed at 4PM.
I arrived at the location around Noon and there were a handful of people waiting around with just one agent to help. The agent (Cindy) was wrapping up the paperwork for Guy 1. The agent called another employee on a walkie-​talkie and asked him to bring down the car for Guy 1. Guy 1, takes a seat (for a very long time).
Guy 2 steps up and ends up getting a Lincoln SUV (this becomes funny later) after discussing all the available cars with the agent for a good 10 minutes. Meanwhile numerous potential customers have come in and left.
The agent is repeatedly radioing her co-​worker on the walkie-​talkie and it’s very evident that her co-​workers walkie-​talkie is somewhere in the room. (I was wondering if he quit) This get’s pointed out to the agent who then calls her co-​worker on his cell phone. The two get into a heated argument and she asks the co-​worker to bring the car down for Guy 1.
Her co-​worker shows up a while later – without the car. He’s more interested in locating the walkie-​talkie. They play around with the walkie-​talkies for a while and they eventually locate the missing walkie-​talkie — in the bathroom! Classy.
Off the co-​worker disappears to get the car for Guy 1 and Guy 2. Which car do you think he brought down? Yup, the car for Guy 2.
Another customer walks in to return her car. She starts asking the agent numerous questions about her return. The agent stops serving the customers who had been waiting for a long time. One of the customers in line reminded the agent that we had been waiting to be served.
Guy 3, who has whatever the Avis status is, has reserved a «premium» car. The agent tells him that he’s getting a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Guy 3 and the agent discuss other available car options (Guy 3 wasn’t too happy with a Cherokee) and the agent tells him take it or leave it. Guy 3 informs her that he had reserved a Lincoln SUV – the car the agent just rented out to Guy 2! Guy 3 asked for a Cadillac (the car runner told the agent they had one earlier) and the agent flat out denies they have one available. Guy 3 reminds her that we can also hear the walkie-​talkie conversation. The agent decides to give him the Cadillac SUV – but the car doesn’t have any fuel.
Meanwhile more people who had been waiting left.
The car for Guy 1 is finally ready so now she has the guy fill out the paperwork and tells him to go pickup his GPS from another Avis. How kind of her!
Guy 3 is forced to take a car with an empty tank of fuel because the car runner said it’ll take 15 – 20 minutes to get gas. At this point we had all been waiting for 30+ minutes so he opted for the empty tank.
Lucky me, it’s my turn to join in on the fun. The agent told me that my car is no longer available because I was late. I explained to her that I had called earlier and that she had placed me on hold so I called the toll free number to inform them of my tardiness. The agent said she did not get any updates stating that I was going to be late. The agent gave me two options 1) upgrade or 2) wait until my class of car returned (she didn’t know when this would happen by). I explained the situation to her again but she was having none of it. I was already running late so I ended up begrudgingly upgrading.
If you have plenty of time to waste, or find pleasure in frustrating experiences, then this Avis is definitely your place! If you want to be treated with respect and have a pleasant experience, there is a Hertz down the street which I have rented from without incident.

Attempting to rent a car from avis has been a horrible experience and a tremendous waste of time and energy. The only way I can be assured they will have a car ready, is to take what they have. That means I need to either downgrade to a car that won’t really work well, or upgrade and pay about 60% more than originally quoted. Making a reservation early accomplishes nothing. The counter rep could not tell me what the $ 10.36 in surcharges/​fees consisted of. She said «probably taxes.» That is not the case. The taxes were detailed otherwise.
The 7^th street location is closing today which is probably a good thing. The poor counter rep was the only one there and she was trying to help 3 – 5 customers at a time.
I called in advance to ask if the car was ready. She said yes. I asked if it was a problem to come in at lunch (2 hours early) to pick up the car. She said «No problem. come on in.» It’s not a problem as long as you don’t mind paying a full-​day rate for the two hours.
I really don’t see ever going back to avis.

I had a lot of trouble returning the car because the lot was full but it appears Erich will make this a good learning opportunity for his team and I appreciate the 1 days credit given to me for the trouble. I originally gave 1 star but I’m happy to see the immediate attention my problem got. 3 stars for now. I will rent here again and hope I can give it 5 stars.

Recently rented a car from Avis to take a road trip to Vancouver.
4.5 Star review!
They were organized, prompt and super easy to work with. We got an economy compact Ford Focus. Everything worked on the vehicle. Pick up was super smooth and without a hitch. Returning was easy too.
2 day rental — $ 76.96. Unlimited mileage. 3^rd party insurance up to $ 1M. Overall this was a great deal. For that amount, it would equate to barely a 1 day rental with Zipcar.
The staff was friendly and very amicable. I would rent again here in a heartbeat.
The location is super close to Pacific Place. Right after the rental return, I just walked back over to the Macy’s and took the bus back to where I needed to go.
–1 star because they’re not equipped to handle cash. I wanted to pay in cash and they could only accept if I had exact change. Fortunately they’re located next to a Homewood Suites. The front desk clerk there helped me out with no problem.
I know I’ll be renting here again!

Our family planned a quick 2 day trip to Vancouver & Whistler. Originally we had a small SUV reserved. After the 5 of us having walked (with 2 rolling luggages each) from the light rail, we made it into the Avis office. Erich greeted us with his friendly personality. He has great people skills! Erich answered all our questions and was sooo patient as we contacted our insurance company. Finally it was time to get our car. To our surprise Erich hooked us up with a Ford Flex! SWEET! Our 3 boys were ecstatic! Such a cool car, with plenty of room. No one fighting for space! Best part, it didn’t cost us extra! THANK YOU ERICH! You are the BEST!

What a great rental experience. My wife and I were beginning a west coast road trip, and we were picking our car up in Seattle on July 5. We had initially set our rental for the following day but we had a wedding in a Seattle suburb that was farther out than we expected so we needed a car for an extra day. On top of that we had some miscommunication regarding the corporate partnership discount that we received from my wife’s work.
Erich helped us with all of this, in a fast, friendly, and understanding manner. He was able to quickly get us just one car for the week (instead of the one car for one day and another car for the remaining days) and he helped us navigate through the corporate discount situation. Within minutes of getting there we had a vehicle that worked great for our needs and we were ready to take off on our trip.
If we ever need to rent a car in Seattle again, we will absolutely rent a car from this Avis location.