Avis Rent A Car

The employees are nice, but… A few warnings:
1. Do not pre-​pay online. It’s a good chance you won’t get the discount.
You’ll hear: «we are out of that size car. I can sell you an upgrade for…»
2. Some of these cars smell like smoke. You’ll get no help from customer service regarding that, only, «sorry.»
3. Sometimes you have to find the employee. Maybe he’s hanging out in the mall. Do you have time to wait?
4. Cars are never clean and often low on gas.
There are other agencies close by. Heck, Dulles Airport is not far. And Enterprise (only 2 miles away will pick you up.
I’m cancelling my corporate account.

Scheduled a pick up at 8:00 to be on our way early… the car wasn’t on location when we got there and wasn’t even dispatched from the other location. There was free coffee at the wait area though…

Fans of Avis. This location did not disappoint. eTolls in rentals are optional if you swing the toll box «open». We did not. We also avoid toll roads, except the one (no toll) to Dulles. Good rental.

We rent from Avis a few times a year, but after getting ripped off by Avis etolls we will rethink this. We went on a toll road briefly and were charged $ 4.00. Great, and very convenient. But Avis decided to charge an eToll convenience fee on that $ 4.00 of $ 14.75. That is excessive. Otherwise, it was a good experience. I suppose I agreed to this with the rental agreement, but the math just does not work. Beware of Avis.

A change of plans dictated we get another car while in the DC area for the unplanned Channel 70 Productions get-​together. My temp assistant had a coupon for an Avis discount and this ‘Sears’ Avis was closest. I called ahead (friendly, fast, and, professional phone agent) and they honored the super discount coupon. Upon our arrival everything was ready — sort of. The paperwork (minimal) was a snap, but the car really needed a better cleaning. We were already behind schedule and just settled.

This Avis location is right by the Dulles Town Center Mall, and is located inside the Sears Auto Center.
They have a small counter immediately to the right as you walk through the Sears doors, and a big ‘ol sign that says «AVIS» in red letters so you shouldn’t be able to miss it.
Since they’re located inside the Sears Auto Center, they don’t have a ton of cars, and only one or two people who are working at any given time. The first day I went, they didn’t have any cars available (even though my insurance agent set up a reservation and thought they had cars… apparently there was a glitch in the system allowing them to overbook. The next day I called and they said they had cars in. The selection was OK and the customer service was just OK as well. It would have been better if the two employees working weren’t talking back and forth amongst themselves about my rate, and other information while I’m standing right in front of them.
The car drives fine, but had some interesting things left in it, even though the employees said they cleaned it. Allow me to break it down for you:
1) Cigarette lighter
2) Various trash (napkin, Burger king receipt, and some kind of foliage seeds I’m not sure what they were from)
3) A Hip-​hop CD (hah, I actually like the songs on it… finders keepers? Hrmm… tempting).
4) An EZ pass (um… does this mean I get free tolls with my car rental?)
Overall, an OK place to rent a car… and apparently you get «gifts with rental» haha