Avis Rent A Car

Had a 4 pm reservation New Year’s Eve. Showed up at 4 pm to get the car, only to find they closed at 4 pm. Was told the safe is already closed and there was nothing they could do. Then they tried to charge a cancellation fee. Happy new year!

PREDATORY. If your credit check is declined (after you have paid them online, of course), you will be charged a no show fee and then not given a refund. You should not have to hire a lawyer to read their terms of service, which apparently contain a provision that in the event of a car not being rented to you, they’ll keep your money unless you beg corporate for it back.
The guy working the desk told me I had to call corporate to get a refund, even though he sitting around doing nothing. It’s been a week and I’m still $ 100 short of what I paid, because of a ‘no show fee’ (even though I showed up).
Take your business elsewhere! There are lots of rental places nearby, and Enterprise isn’t nearly as scummy.

I went in to pick up a car, but an arrogant representative was not willing to help with my reservation. No greetings and bad attitude is what I experienced in this location. Guess what, they don’t want my business? I will take it to Hertz. There are so many car rental locations near here, so please avoid this crappy place at all cost. End of the day lesson is you get what you pay. If you pay cheap prices for car rentals, then you get this horrible customer service experience.

On our last trip to Seattle in the end of July, we decided to rent from this location since it was cheaper than the airport. We needed a minivan, so I had called a week earlier to confirm. I was told, «You have a confirmed reservation so we will have a minivan for you.» Sent my husband and older daughter to pick up while the rest of the family was picked up from the airport by a friend. I made the reservation under my husband’s name. When he picked up the car, he was given a Chevy Traverse. When he inquired, he was told «This is what your wife reserved.» So he accepted the Traverse, even though it was too small for the 3 adults and 3 kids in car seats. When he got to the house we were at, I looked at our reservation again and indeed we had rented a minivan. That started the endless phone calls. We tried calling this location directly, but every time nobody picked up. We were transferred each time to the national reservation line, which was not helpful at all. They kept telling us to just call the local branch. They also kept saying, «They may have minivans, but they are all reserved.» Well, hello! WE reserved one too! The thing that I didn’t like the most was the fact that they LIED to us. Who does that! Oh, and I’m going to write a negative review on the Bellevue location too. They were just as bad. Called us liars when we asked if they had a minivan available, they said «yes», then when we told them we already had a car to exchange, they said we lied and that they couldn’t give us the van. Ugh. The only redeeming factor in this whole thing is that when I tweeted about Avis, their social media people tried to help as much as they could. We ended up never getting a van for our trip, we had to cram my poor daughter in a seat in the trunk with all our luggage and stroller.

Over 45 minute wait to pick up car. Incredibly poor customer service. This is not an Avis company owned location. That might be the issue here. I would avoid hiring from here.

If the option was available, I would have rated them 0 Stars.
First of all, I had scheduled to pick up an «economy rental». When I got to Avis, there was not an economy car available for me. They went to pick up a car from another avis location, they locked the place up leaving me waiting outside for approximately 30 – 40 minutes. They eventually come back and try to process the ford focus so that I can rent it out, but it turns out it had a hold on it «safety recall» I think she said. By now I have been at Avis location for over an hour. The only option she said would be to take the fiat for now, and then come back the next day to grab another economy car that was able to be dropped off at the SEA airport. I come back the next day, and it literally took 2 hours to get the Ford Focus. They are severally understaffed and obviously do not have enough cars on location. And also, I was really displeased that when I got into the ford focus it did not smell very pleasant inside there was remnants of a sticky residue (most likely from a spilled drink). It was pretty bad. But, honestly I had no more patience to go back and complain. I was only in seattle for 3 days, and just having to come back and forth to Avis and the car renting experience was just so time consuming and unpleasant. Not really happy with my experience at all.

Terrible service! Wish i could give no stars! Just go to dollar rental car around the corner on Boren ave! First, the Avis rep on the phone, told me that there were shuttles going from SeaTac airport to downtown, there was none! I had to take a cab ($ 50) to the location. She also told me that debit card was fine to use, they just hold amount higher than rental car for debit purposes, that money may not be available for my use until car is returned which is fine, money is not the issue. When I got there and presented my debit card, they tell me that a soft credit check will be performed, which I was never told about. Of course, their system said not to rent to me, being that my credit score is 675, I don’t know what their criteria is! So I’m highly irate at this point. The 2 workers (Hispanic and asian) were very nice, the Caucasian one with a beard however, was rude! Long story short, I called dollar, whom I always rent from, (don’t know why I chose avis to begin with), they picked music up from the Avis location, took us to their facility, and got a rental car, using the same debit card (mind you, they do soft credit checks as well), within 10 minutes!!! That’s customer service at its best!!! Sorry, not sorry Avis! Will never consider renting from you! I had a pleasant stay in Seattle, with the exception of my Avis experience!!!

I’ve used this particular Avis branch several times over the last two years and the service has always been great and the prices are often more reasonable than heading all the way to SeaTac. Note that the base prices are always cheaper at the airport, but once you add in all of the fees and taxes, you get more bang for the buck renting here off 5^th Ave.

Terrible experience with this rental car location. It is an Avis/​Budget branded location run by an independent. They overcharged me for fuel… after an argument they agreed to remove the charge from my credit card… but then they never processed the charge. It left a bad impression about Budget. In any case, be careful if you decide to rent here – check your billing and watch out for overcharges.

**This place is under new management.**
The whole car renting process was painless. Customer service was top notch. Easy. Breezy. I was in and out with a flash with no issues whatsoever.
Rented a car for a road trip to avoid a lot of wear and tear on my car. Got unlimited miles on a Prius which was sweet. Spent next to nothing on gas on top of a good rate.
Centrally located in the heart of the city — right across the street from the Westin Hotel which is super convenient for out of town visitors or tourists who are staying in the area. You don’t have to go all the way to the airport to rent a car if you decide last minute to see other parts of the city.
I’ll definitely be back if I ever need to rent another car.

Everytime… slow service. Always say there so busy and always just one guy working!!!

Great service from staff named Charles today. Had to extend a rent more than two months. Charles did this as quickly as possible and found a way to give me the lowest possible price. (Hate it when they try to squeeze money out of me — Charles did not)
I will return to Seattle many times — and rent from these guys at 5^th Street again.

Service was fast, but it was terrible.
the guy missed a lot of steps during our registration — forgot to double our car ahead of time for scratches, didn’t ask us if we wanted to buy gas, and didn’t fully understand their insurance terms.
however, car rental is car rental. ill be back here when I need a car.

Charles is super friendly and helpful, they come pick us up at our location and after we drop off our car, we realize we have left our house keys in the save of our hotel, Charles immidiately help us and our problems was quickly resolved as a result. Location are right by downtown and good for business travel. Our car is very clean and roomy. I will use their service again!

I reserved a car online, and took a cab to pick it up. The guy took my credit card, license, and SSN and then, told me he couldn’t rent to me unless I gave him another card. I only had my debit with the Visa which has served me well. So I asked if there was anything he could do, he got hella sketchy and nervous but insisted that there’s nothing he could do. Total bullshit. So now I’ve got to pay $ 100 to take a cab, cuz I’m stranded without a choice. He tried to pawn me off on some other sketchy company… forget it. DON’T COME HERE! SAVE YOUR MONEY AND TIME!!!

When this place is busy, there is just no way for them to handle business. It took about an hour to pick up a car, which is totally unacceptable. I had the car reserved for 10am, showed up at 10:10, and my rental agreement shows that they printed it at 10:47. However, it was at least 10 minutes after that that it took for them to actually get me the car, fill it up with has, and hand it over. In addition, they don’t offer preferred service at this location. The whole point of preferred service is that when your preferences and cedit card are pre-​verified, you don’t have to go through a whole dialogue with the desk, saving everyone time. When asked about this, they said if I wanted preferred service, I could go to the airport location, which in Seattle is a long way away. When it’s not busy, this is not a bad place, but they can’t handle any increased volume. There were about 15 people in line, and it took 40 minutes to deal with that. I don’t know how they make any money.

They kept insisting we could fit in a smaller vehicle with our luggage and be comfortable but that was totally a no go. I would have been having to sit on top of luggage with a arm draped over driver, leg over passenger, and same over luggage in back. But they were really nice and eventually were able to provide us with a larger vehicle which was nice and comfy. The suv was in great condition and rode well.

Super convenient when in town for business. Staff here is always friendly and helpful.

Bad experience.
First off they didn’t have the car for the level we reserved, which normally means free upgrade to a much better vehicle. We got upgraded to an SuV, which only cost us about a third more in gas prices. Yeah it’s nice having a slightly larger vehicle, but not at the gas prices these days. I asked for a credit for the extra cost and they refused. I guess $ 40 is too much to part with.
Secondly, we crossed a toll bridge. They catch your vehicles’ tag and send the bill in the mail, but in this case it went to Avis and I was charged the toll plus $ 3 a day (for EVERY day) administration cost, even though we drove over the toll road one time. I called several different people in the chain of customer service and they said there was nothing they can do.
I hate when people try to scam you out of your money. I’ll be damned if I ever rent from this company again.
Along with all the other complaints, I would HIGHLY suggest not renting from this place or Avis in general again. I’ve had a hugely better experience with Alamo.

This place is a total crap shoot in my experience.
Sometimes it is super easy and quick, sometimes it takes 45 minutes to just pick up a car even if you already have a reservation. The primary reason it takes so long is that they allow people to make reservations in person at the desk and that there are a huge number of international renters who don’t speak English well. This no fault of Avis or of the renters, but it is incredibly irritating while you wait and wait and wait even though you have a reservation.
My other two issues with this place are they have done absolutely nothing for people who are Avis First members and the hours for the weekend suck.
If there was anywhere better to rent from I’d go there, but there really isn’t.