Avis Consumer Reviews - Page 6

USA, NEW JERSEY -- I'd like to add my "3 Cents" to Avis Agency Operator position. This position is a total misclassification of an independent contractor status that the State and US Dept of Labor is looking hard into. As a few other posts have stated, they sell you on the sizzle but when you look for the steak it isn't there and will not be found. THIS IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS, as they tell you, you are working for them for less than minimum wage - long hours, insurance costs, Workman's comp, employee costs.

These costs all come out of your monthly commission check. I'm all for hard work but when you get taken advantage of, that's when it becomes a problem. Be advised that if you have to sign a contract that has at a minimum of 50 pages in it, there is no protection for you. It is all one sided, in ABG favor. Most independent operators that leave are all small and do not have the time or finances to combat this practice.

The best way to do this is not with a class action lawsuit (it may tied up in the courts for a long time) but through your state dept of labor, Attorney General's office and a your state public representative. A lawsuit that is in CA right now has not gone away, and there is a good reason for this. Hopefully someone that is interested in this will not do it. You're better off working a few part time jobs. Remember if the contract is that big it's for a reason that benefits them not you. Makes you wonder why the other auto rental companies are not doing this IC relationship also?

WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA -- I rent from Avis almost on a weekly basis and always had good luck, that was until this past Friday. I returned my rental to find the manager on the prowl in the parking lot looking at vehicles. She finds a rub on front bumper and claims I am liable. I explained to her that if I did it my credit card and company insurance would cover it. It is just a matter of principle, trying to rip off the consumer, you would need to be an attorney to understand all the clauses in the contract. I also discovered that the Wilmington, NC site is a franchise and not a corporate location, so be careful in renting cars in small airports.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND -- I hope this email gets to someone in authority regarding rentals. I have been a loyal Avis renter for years. However, since I have been renting from your Baltimore (BWI) location I have on several occasion been offered a car FAR IN EXCESS of my profile. Most times I catch this, but my last rental is by far the worse!!!

I NEVER rent a car over my profile and, of course, would never rent a car in excess of $400. My last rental was for over $829.37!!! Outrageous! I feel as if this location is purposely upgrading or taking advantage. I plan on making public statement against AVIS via Facebook, and other social medias if I cannot get this rate lowered significantly!!!!

This is one of FOUR times I have had to deal with this location and each time they have up sold my rental without my permission. I hope to remain a loyal renter, but if not addressed, I will be in a position to simply bad mouth your company via social sites and more. I think that it would be worth your time to address this issue rather than lose even more business via bad publicity!!! I also recommend rentals to others of my business community so this would result in further loss to AVIS!

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS -- Watch out if you try to rent from Budget/Avis Rental Car. I rent cars very frequently. One week they changed my contract from a one day that I reserved through Travelocity to a three day contract FOR NO REASON. I admit some blame as I was in a hurry and didn't notice the changed - just signed the contract. DON'T DO THAT. I got stuck with a debit charge of $513 instead of the $150 quoted on Travelocity. I got with their customer service and their response was basically, "You signed the contract so tough."

THEN, I reserved a car through Budget, not knowing they are owned by Avis. The information online said they took a debit card with proof of residents. When I got to the counter the woman said they would run me through Equifax before approving the debit card. I knew my credit is great, so I told her no problem. It was DENIED. I came back home and checked my credit score with Equifax and they have me as 784. My debit account had over $4000.

Moral of the story. When they say they take a debit card, don't count on it. Have a back-up plan. If I can't get a debit card approved with a score of 784 then I am thinking it's a crock and hardly anybody - if anybody- rents one with a debit card there. Enterprise just usually requires proof of your current address. Go there and removed the doubt. I have never had trouble with Enterprise or Dollar - Just Avis and Budget.

PARISSIPANY, NEW JERSEY -- With the holidays approaching I want to share my experience. Although my car rental was related to an auto accident Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC. requested my bankcard for a minimal deposit until the insurance could be verified.

Having failed to either contact us to verify information provided on the claim, or bill the insurance company properly four months later a charge of over $400. was applied toward the bankcard using the same authorization number from the date in which the deposit was made. After contacting Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC., customer service department about the matter, I was made aware that not only did Budget fail to handle billing correctly, but they overcharged by a whopping 5 days.

The representative kindly adjusted the bill, which zeroed the balance out, right? Not so. I was reimbursed by the insurance company as expected, but another four months later this past October. Avis Budget's 5 day overcharge was re-applied to the bankcard using the very same authorization number.

Although Avis Budget has a contract with my auto insurance carrier in eight months not one of their representatives attempted to contact us to verify the information on insurance claim. Adding insult to injury although the overcharge had been previously adjusted, and the date of the rental's return is verifiable Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC. Representatives have refused to re-adjust the bill, or forward the matter to their corporate office for resolve. Please assist me by posting this alert so that others might be informed.

OHIO -- I am currently an agency operator for Avis in the state of Ohio, which means Avis pays me a certain amount of money every month to run a location. When I first started I was so excited, and the people that I spoke to in the management field hyped the company up, so I dove right in - big, huge mistake. The location I run is dirty because my supervisor whom I am supposed to contact to fix things, who also works for Avis doesn't fix the place and the carpet is filthy, it has been stained for years. I have had so many customers tell me that my location is disgusting, and yet when I contact my supervisor about it he says "well, there's no money to fix anything", blah blah blah.

And they don't even do any advertising for my company, but if I don't get a certain amount of rentals, I get a phone call, and the supervisor says "well maybe I need to get a new operator or maybe this business isn't for you." So please whatever you do, don't become an agency operator for Avis. They have no respect for you, your customers, as an agency operator you are representing yourself and Avis, and the fact that Avis would treat their operators like this, it's horrible. This is not how a company should be run, I tried to locate an email address to get the situation taken care of, and there isn't one.

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA -- Our company rented a car in DC. DC DMV issued a citation on the car. Avis charged our card for the citation back in September. It's now the end of December and Avis continues to send notices saying that it remains unpaid. The Avis Virginia Beach processing center (the office that handles citations for DC) never return a single phone call or email after we left 27 messages for them. Avis national customer service (US & Canada) did nothing to help and kept bouncing me around. I've tried with a lot of patience to get someone to help me. No one at Avis knows anything and their customer service overall is horrible.

I got bounced around 11 times and not a single person was able to help me. Horrible! Horrible! Horrible! We rent at least 8-10 cars every week and use 2 major rental car companies. After this experience, we had a meeting and collectively decided that all of our nationwide offices will never use Avis again!! This may seem harsh especially since it was 1 episode. Nonetheless, this was a very serious and bad experience and we do not want to experience anything of the sort again.

I particularly want to point out the non-responsive departments. Avis's national customer service department is completely lost! We spoke with 9 reps + 3 supervisors. No one helped and they all kept transferring us around. DC citations office - Virginia Beach processing center. No one answers the phones there. I have left 27 messages between 12/5 and 12/21. No responses to a single email we sent. Left messages for supervisors K. ** and A. **. Sorry to have to mention their names here...but they completely failed us.

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA -- I prepaid for a rental from Avis in San Jose, Costa Rica for 10 days. It was a little over $600. They specifically told me when I booked & prepaid that mandatory insurance had to be purchased at the time of pickup and that it would cost me about $9/day... about $100. When I pick the car up, they said it would cost $59.99 day, over $600, as much as the car rental itself. I had no choice and two other customers who were picking up their rental cars at the same time were also in complete shock.

We had all been lied to and, being in a foreign country ready to pick up our cars with no other choice, we had to pay the requested fee. I could have paid as little as $24.95 for 42 consecutive days of insurance coverage through American Express and similar inexpensive premiums for rental cars through other independent insurers. Avis totally screwed me and others I observed when we picked up our vehicles. We were all in complete shock with no options. Be smart and don't fall for this trap. Get your insurance if you are renting a car in another country, (especially Central or South America), through American Express or other company and avoid getting grossly over charged.

QUEBEC CITY -- The worst car rental experience of my 65 years! They promised to pick me up at the cruise terminal - WRONG. They promised to reimburse me for my taxi ride (they forgot). There were 10 people in a single line that took 45 minutes to process with one employee only on a Sunday morning. The promised to get me back to the cruise terminal - WRONG!

They left me to wander through a huge hotel into the next building and down three flights to an enormous parking garage to find my car. They never responded to five emails subsequent to the awful experience. Stay away from this particular rental facility of Avis at Hilton Hotel in Quebec City.