Avis Reviews

SCAM ARTIST! Lied and overcharged! Would not fix the bill! Never again!

It started out with no issue. Reserved my vehicle three weeks in advance, pre-paid (which Ithought was good) but NO. It's not good to pre-pay. The day of pick up my car was not ready due to someone of importance was using it so it would arrive late (by 40 min). My trip ended early so before returning the vehicle I call Avis customer service to modify my contract, they would if it needed extension but to shorten the time I was told I didn't need to do that for when I turned car in it would adjust the payment at that time. Oh, it sure did with over $300.00 unused monies that is not refundable. So beware. AVIS will rob you blind. DO NOT PREPAY.

We rented a vehicle for one day to drive to Disney Springs. The brakes were awful. Two months after the rental, a charge showed up on my credit card for $107. When I inquired, they told me the windshield wipers were missing. We never even used them or turned them on. Make sure if you rent for them, you do so. I’ll be disputing this charge.

My issue is national. I have for years rented from Avis through my company, then put the reservation number in the App. It might change the rate by $2-3, no big deal. But since the beginning of this year, the App more than doubles the rate. First it adds insurance- which my profile clearly states I decline, then it raises the fees. (A recent rental went from $149.56 to $439.15 by using the App.) If I'm unable to use the App, I'm unable to use my preferred status and get credit for the rental. I have spoken to over 10 people in their so-called customer service and have gotten 10 or more different answers. Finally I wrote the CEO and enclosed documents. Today I received a voice mail from the "Avis Executive Response."

The battery in the car we rented died the day we were to depart for the second leg of our vacation. We called Avis Emergency Roadside Service, expecting service like AAA provides. Ha! That didn’t happen. The Avis ERS contractor did not carry batteries and told us not to turn off the car after he started it, and to go back to the airport to exchange the vehicle. It took us over 7 hours, much of which we spent in a hotel lobby, since we had checked out, waiting for the Avis ERS driver to show up. To its credit, Avis reimbursed us for the entire cost of the car rental plus $200. That was nice. But two days after we returned from our vacation, Avis had the gall to send us a bill for emergency road service! At the beginning of the rental period, Avis also initially charged us for an upgrade when it did not have available the category of car that we had reserved. That was an unwelcome first for us.

I returned my car with some sand in the driver's floor mat, yes there was sand but nothing that 2 minutes with a vacuum could not clean. The rest of the car was spotless. I later got a letter and a bill for a $125 cleaning fee. This is criminal, if you want to charge me $25 fine but even that is outrageous because the car has to be cleaned between renters but I could live with that. But I feel robbed by Avis. In the short run Avis may win but I will NEVER rent from Avis again nor will any of my friends.

I wish I could give less than one star. They didn't have the car available that I requested on the reservation. Due to the incompetency of the employee at the desk, I ended up having two rental terms open at the same time - one for the car I reserved and one for the car I got. They initially charged me almost $1000 dollars for a rental agreement worth around $250 (with refunded deposit, I should have been charged $450). When I called, they told me it wouldn't be resolved until I returned the car. The employee at the desk lied to me in saying that I would be refunded whatever amount of the tank I didn't use when I prepaid. Later, when I called again about them overcharging me, the customer service person told me I didn't prepay for a tank of gas.

We reserved a Mercedes 300 to take to Florida. When we got there we were offered a Nissan Central, a mini van or a 15 passenger van. Unacceptable. They made no effort to help us. We waited over an hour for some kind of luxury car to no avail. We spotted a Mercedes in the parking lot and asked about it. They said that was already reserved. Our confirmation email even had a picture of the car we reserved. Avis does the bait and switch on customers. They billed our credit card for more than the quote, plus the same amount is pending and they want to charge a $50 cancellation fee because we wouldn’t take a car they wanted us to have. We will never rent from them again. What they are doing should be illegal.

Very happy, especially with Mercedes at Atlanta turn in at Mall in Atlanta. Extending rental was easy and Mercedes was friendly, professional, and knowledgeable. A pleasure to work with! Would highly recommend.

Avis overcharges, check your receipt carefully. I have had two rentals where I was overcharged. I have had to spend over 5 hours on the phone to get resolved with their customer service. You are unable to get a consistent answer from a Customer service rep. Also, there is an issue with their app. I booked a reservation included credit for reward points. I later found out the reserve points were never applied. When I picked up the car, I was told I would get the credit after my rental was completed. When it was completed I was told they were never applied and cannot be applied after the rental is complete. I was also charged a gas refill charge when I had returned the car with a full tank. 50 mins on a call to get that reversed.

I am posting this to warn others about my experience with Avis, because what happened to me should never happen to any customer. In July 2023, I pre-paid $148.44 by phone for a rental vehicleand was to pick it up at the Corona, CA location. When I arrived to pick up the car, I was unexpectedly told I had to provide my Social Security number and undergo a credit check, something that was NEVER disclosed during the reservation process. After providing the information under pressure (because I needed the car urgently), I was then denied the rental due to my credit score.

Canceled my rental. No advice on Friday so I have no way to return the vehicle plus charged me almost 700 dollars.

I strongly do not recommend this rental company. Two weeks after returning the car, I kept receiving tickets from their third-party vendor in New York — even though I live in New Jersey, work in New Jersey, and have never even been to the locations where those tickets were issued. What's even more ridiculous is the variety of reasons listed on the tickets. If you've had a similar experience, make sure to carefully check your bills. There's also no customer service department to file a complaint. At first I thought it was a scam — turns out they are the biggest scam of all.

I had a really disappointing experience with Avis. After returning the car, I was shocked to be charged $250 for “cleaning,” even though we never took the car anywhere dirty — no beach, no mud, nothing that would justify that kind of fee. What makes it even worse is that when we first picked up the car, it was already dirty on the outside, but we didn’t make a big deal about it at the time. Now it feels completely unfair to be charged for something we didn’t even cause. I really wish I had read the reviews beforehand, because it seems like this isn’t uncommon for them to add unexpected extra charges. Definitely be cautious and double-check everything if you rent from here.

We had a terrible experience with Avis recently. We booked a minivan months in advance and the night before the local office closed told us our vehicle is not available. They said to call customer service. The customer service department is absolutely useless. They did not find another vehicle for us and said basically we were out of luck since it’s spring break. They then said we can get a minivan delivered to you. The day we were supposed to leave the vehicle did not arrive. Then again on the phone with customer service and said we were misinformed. They booked a minivan one hour away from our home. It was a terrible experience. We asked customer service to speak to a manager and they said they would reach out within 48 hours. That never happened. Awful experience and delayed our trip significantly.

I rented a vehicle for 3/8-3/10. My reservation was cancelled by Avis late afternoon on 3/7 because a vehicle was not available for me. After speaking to customer service I was given a new vehicle at a new location for same pick up and drop off. Upon arriving for my reservation I was told Avis didn't have that vehicle either. After hours on the phone with customer service Avis told me to seek a competitor's vehicle and they would reimburse me the cost of the new rental. I was given an online portal to submit the receipt from the competitor, which I followed through on. I have spent a month calling Avis trying to follow up on this. I was told many times that I should see that reimbursement within 3-5 days and an email confirmation.

If I could give zero stars I would. I booked a car with Avis on a Saturday at the Loews Hotel location in Arlington, TX, for a Wednesday pickup. I needed to get to Texarkana for an urgent personal issue on an already bad situation. I checked in with the hotel branch office of Avis Monday on my arrival first thing. They said there "should be no issue" with my reservation and they could call me Tuesday night to confirm. I had seen multiple reviews of customers mentioning cancellations or now cars available. However, I took the chance and went with it since it was at the hotel and Loews is a solid brand. I even paid in advance when booking on Saturday.

I had a terrible experience with Avis and would not recommend them. I booked a last minute rental due to a family emergency. My flight was delayed and I arrived in Orlando around 1:45 AM. Even though I provided my flight info, I was sent from Terminal C to Terminal A/B, which took about 20 minutes. Once there, I waited over 30 minutes with only a few people in line.

When I started renting from Avis 40 or so years ago, they were terrific – friendly service, fair pricing, good cars. Everything has gone downhill. I use Enterprise whenever possible for the reasons that once made Avis preferred. Latest example, had a five day reservation in San Diego. Called to move the pick up back by a couple hours, so shorter rental. They insisted the car would be unavailable at that time and I had to do a new rental for $200 more. Of course that’s transparent nonsense, that car did not evaporate. Yes their policy can be to gouge you. But guess what, customers also have policies. Avoid.

I would like to give them a -1 review. We had a reservation for a Kia Telluride and had been promised they would have one set aside for us to pick up. When we got to their office to get the vehicle they had already given it to someone else and wanted us to settle for a smaller vehicle. The people who got it did not have a reservation and were just walk ins that morning. The person at the counter was non-caring and made no attempt to satisfy our request.

I used to be a frequent renter with Avis. My rental preference has changed over the years based on better service, customer experience and generally better cars. I tried an Avis rental again while on vacation recently based on what appeared to be better price. Nothing wrong with the car but the checkout and check-in process was my worst experience ever on thousands of vehicles rented. They have pissed me off so bad and I’m still fighting charges while they flat out lie about shit. Fire everyone and quit now. I will be watching your bankruptcy.

They breached the agreements and charged 500$ for unauthorized transactions. I contacted the law firm of possible class action against the company. It sounds that they do not care too much because they think that they have an arbitration.

I found out in February that I have been paying an Avis Preferred Membership that I did not even know I had. Once I tried to cancel, you simply cannot cancel through the website, app or By Phone! It is crazy how difficult it has been to cancel a service I did not want it and do not use it.

I booked a rental car for pick up in Tampa on Feb. 15th, and received daily email confirmations from them of my reservation. On the day of pick up, I spent $30 on a cab to get to the pick up location and was told no cars were available. No assistance was offered on site other than the provision of a 1-800 customer service number who said they couldn’t be of any help because there were no other cars available and there was nothing they could do to assist. So, out of pocket the cab fare and the 3 hours it took to make alternative arrangements. Given Avis doesn’t honour confirmed reservations, why would anyone consider booking a car with them? We’ll never attempt to rent a vehicle from this sham organization again, and everyone I have told the more detailed story to says they won’t either.

I opened a corporate account at the Bowie, MD Avis and tried the service myself first. I reserved a Ford Expedition a week in advance, but on pickup day I was told only a Suburban was available and it would be 3 hours late. When I arrived, the SUV was extremely dirty (so dirty I paid $12 for a car wash), it was only 3/4 tank, and it smelled damp. The inside windows were dirty enough to cause glare at night, it was out of washer fluid, the USB/power plugs didn’t work, and CarPlay kept crashing to the point I had to pull over and restart the vehicle to get maps back.

Extremely disappointing experience with Avis during a medical emergency. I made a same-day airport reservation online, received a confirmation number for an 8 PM pickup, and then was told at the counter that they do not do same-day rentals and to come back the next day. This left me stranded at the airport late at night with no car while trying to reach a hospital over an hour away where my husband was in emergency surgery. I was forced to take an expensive Uber because Avis would not honor their confirmed reservation. Their website is unreliable, their policies are not communicated clearly, and their lack of accountability caused serious stress during an already traumatic situation. Completely unacceptable.

Pearline AVIS employee @ San Antoino Texas Airport always give me an excellent when I'm in town. Was very professional, friendly, and incredibly helpful. Her and her crew they went above and beyond to make sure everything was smooth and easy. Truly outstanding customer service!. Thank you Pearline, keep up the good work.

I had my reservation and confirmation, pick up car at Iah Report in Texas. They gave my car to someone else and bad customer service, end up give me ev car without adaptor. My son had emotional distress.

I return the Van with no problem and they returned my 200 deposit. 2 weeks later they billed me 450 for cleaning fees. I communicated with Avis budget manager Richard **. He assured me that he would take care of it, but he didn't. Also the customer service reps are unprofessional.

If you plan to rent a car at the Palermo, Italy airport, DO NOT rent it from AVIS. I prepaid $680 for a car with the insurance coverage through AVIS. When I went to pick up the car, the woman at the counter refused to give me the keys and let me pick up the car I already paid for unless I purchased the Super Collision Coverage and Wind Damage insurance for an additional $923.21. I called AVIS International while I was at the counter and the customer service rep said there was nothing they could do bc it was an open rental. They could fix it and refund the additional $923.21 when the car was returned. I called them and emailed them when I got back to the US and sent them all the proof and information they asked for and now they are ghosting me. Tried to dispute with Capital One but AVIS fought the dispute and Capital One recommended to try again with AVIS.