Avis Reviews 

We hired a car at Brindisi airport which was substandard. We were forced to go back to the airport mid holiday to replace the car. The key fob on the replacement car had black masking tape on the back which Avis staff assured us did not matter; however, after we returned the car they changed us £400 to replace the key fob. Never again.

I am writing to complain about my experience with Avis in Skiathos, particularly Pavlos Raptopoulos. After collecting my car on 18 June, €500 was taken as a holding deposit. On return, the car had a minor scratch, which Pavlos estimated would cost no more than €400 to repair. He said €400 would be retained, €100 refunded, and documents provided so I could claim through my Zurich Insurance. Despite numerous calls, emails, texts and WhatsApp messages over around 10 weeks, I have received no response or documents. Avis Hellas has also failed to resolve the matter. I demand the immediate return of my €500 deposit and compensation for the rental fee, and will escalate the matter to the authorities and ECRCS.

Booked a car via RentalCars.com for…
Booked a car via RentalCars.com for collection in Naples. Arrived, the person at the desk tried to add extras like location fee, other fees. I declined all and then I was billed c£380 of fees I didn’t agree to. I have had to do a chargeback via my credit card and raise a complaint which has been ignored so far. Avoid and use a more reputable company. I’ll never use them again, most others I’ve used have been absolutely fine

Never book a car with this company. They let us book and then we get there and they say we are too young to drive a 7 seater. Why would they let us book on the website if that’s the case? They also don’t let you book if you aren’t the driver so watch out for that avoid these lot at all costs they don’t know what they are doing

I hired a car in New Jersey for 9 days. It was meant to be full to full for fuel but when I collected it there was only half a tank in the car. The manager said to take a photo and leave it at Washington Dulles airport (drop off point) at the same level and explain the fuel level at collection. I did and took another photo at drop off showing the same fuel level as when I collected it. My credit card was charged $134 dollars a few days later and when I contacted Avis they explained it was for the car not being returned full. I explained what happened and I sent them the photos etc. The person on the phone agreed with my point and confirmed receipt of the photos etc. The total car mileage on the photos reflected the mileage on the invoice too. She said she would get the charge refunded. Today I received an email stating that they could not refund the charge and they would need a receipt for the fuel purchase. How would the fuel receipt prove anything. Terrible company. Avoid at all cost.

Avoid AVIS — deposit retained for alleged damage with no proper evidence

One of the worst car hire experiences I have ever had.

I hired a car from AVIS through Booking.com and paid a security deposit, which should have been returned after the vehicle was brought back. I returned the car without any damage whatsoever. No damage was pointed out to me at the time of return, and I was not given any inspection report, photographs, repair evidence, or proper explanation.

Nearly two months later, I still had not received my deposit. After chasing Booking.com, I was told that AVIS had kept the deposit because of alleged damage to the vehicle. I strongly dispute this. From my experience, this explanation is completely unsupported and false. AVIS has not provided proper evidence showing that the vehicle was damaged during my rental period.

Their aftercare has been disgraceful. It took around two months to receive any meaningful response, and even then the response simply relied on AVIS claiming there was damage. That is not good enough. If a company is going to keep a customer’s deposit, it should be able to provide clear before-and-after inspection reports, time-stamped photographs, a repair invoice, and evidence linking the alleged damage to that customer. AVIS has not done that.

This has left me with the impression that AVIS is happy to retain money first and explain later, while forcing the customer to waste time fighting to recover their own deposit.

I would not use AVIS again, and I would strongly advise others to be extremely careful before hiring from them. Take detailed photographs and videos before collection and at return, insist on written confirmation that there is no damage, and do not assume your deposit will be returned without a fight.

A very poor, stressful and unacceptable experience.

We hired a car from Edinburgh airport. It turned out to be the worst experience ever. The car broke down and had to get a replacement. Got home to find out they changed me over 200 pounds for the hire of the replacement car that broke down, plus a charge for bringing it back to the same place it was collected from. Up to this morning after sending email after email, haven't even got a response. Never again.

I hired a car from Avis in Tivat airport, Montenegro. It was a firm called RentalDoo operating under the Avis brand. Upon return of the car, in the airport terminal building they presented me with a picture of a damaged car and charged me EUR 466. I was running late for my flight so didn’t have time to return to the car to prove it was the wrong car in the photo. Now back in the uk I have supplied all video and photo evidence of the car I hired to prove it wasn’t me that caused the damage - but all I get from Avis is “we are looking into it and awaiting information from the local office”. It has been 6 weeks and several phone calls and about 10 emails. I imagine I will never get my money back. These damage charges are just revenue for these companies. Outrageous.

Be careful when signing the rental agreement! Don’t trust the staff.
We have had to pay €368 and we 100% believe we were deliberately mislead when the agents took us through our contract.
Details:
We recently hired a car from the Nice Airport branch.
We spoke to them in advance saying we didn’t want to take any optional extras as we’d purchased 3rd party insurance.
We said exactly the same at check in.
The agent confirmed this was no problem and proceeded to direct our attention on the iPad to see the area on the contract that confirmed 0.00.
After the agent had circled that, and circled some other key points of note, he scrolled to the signature box and asked my husband to sign.
Now I know he should have stood and read it all, but after a long flight, he trusted the agents word, and was happy he’d been shown confirmation of the key points of the contract, so he signed it.
Now we are home, we’ve been sent the invoice and we have been charged €368 for the items that had been circled as €0.00 on the contract.
As he signed the contract we are being told we have no recourse.
So please take heed from our experience and DON’T TRUST THE STAFF.
They may be saying the right things, but we feel that we were deliberately deceived, and we are sure we won’t be the only ones.

Not worth 1 star absolute shambles, there appears to be a common theme to all the reviews, Avis take money from your CC once you are back from your trip and it’s near impossible to get to talk to someone and when you do they do not sort anything, emails are not answered. I returned from Atlanta to find a $436.34 charge to my credit card, after weeks of attempting to sort it out which along the way Avis downright lied and kept changing their story as to why there was a charge. The charge was totally incorrect but once they have your money they do everything in their power to keep it, by lying, making it impossible to talk to anyone, keep asking for further information hoping you will tire and give up. Disgusting behaviour.

Sadly I was conned out of £550 by Avis. Booked a car hire through British airways and paid £300 for the hire through BA. After returning to the UK I was charged £550 on card information Avis received from British Airways (I never gave them my card details as I wasnt expecting to pay anything more), turns out they’ve charged me for insurances and a full fuel tank that I never wanted or agreed to. They are refusing to refund as I signed the document for the car. I’m still trying to obtain my refund through avis and BA, as I’m not sure they should be sharing my bank details. But overall I feel conned. £850 for a weeks car hire…

The team at Newcastle international airport Avis/Budget are fantastic.
Graeme, Dan, Shirley and Cyle have always gone above and beyond to assist in anyway they can.
I am a repeat customer when I visit a couple of times a year from Australia and wouldn’t go anywhere else to hire a car.
The cars have always been reliable and if any issues they are quick to sort and rectify the issue.
What a great team and great service.

Terrible Avis experience – avoid this company

Our experience with Avis has been absolutely terrible. We are currently stuck with two small children after an incident with our rental car, and despite making countless phone calls, we still have no clear information about what is going to happen.

The telephone assistance has been completely useless. We have called again and again, only to be passed from one person to another, given no real answers, and in some cases even having the phone hung up on us without anyone actually explaining what we were supposed to do.

At this moment, my husband doesn’t even know where he is supposed to take the car, whether someone will come to collect him, or how he is supposed to get back to us. Meanwhile, I am stuck with two children in an area where, as we have repeatedly explained, there are virtually no taxis or alternative transport options.

This is not the level of customer service you would expect from such a well-known international company. We chose Avis precisely because we thought that being a major, established rental company meant we could rely on them if something went wrong. Unfortunately, we were completely wrong.

The lack of assistance, communication and basic responsibility has turned what should have been a family holiday into an extremely stressful situation.

Never again Avis. I strongly advise anyone considering renting from them to think twice. If you are reading this before booking: stay away. You may regret choosing them when you actually need help.

They are an absolute disgrace. Took extra money from my account without notice after returning the vehicle, it’s took me 2 weeks to finally get through to them after several email and phone attempts, to be told it was for damage to the vehicle and that they had not informed me because they didn’t have my email address. I’d received several booking confirmation emails and also the vehicle agreement sent by email so this is a complete lie. I’ve emailed to refute the claim and 2 weeks later still no response. Their MO is clearly to take unwarranted fees and just ignore people when they are rightly questioned. Crooks

After about 15 years as a loyal Avis President Club customer I now vow never to touch them again. Avis UK ruined our holiday!

At Heathrow T4, we were given a car with so much damage that I had to take about 5 minutes of detailed video on pick-up (missing wipers, damaged rims and underbody, scratches along every door - this car would not pass MOT). Luckily, I did as the only thing not already on their long damage list (damaged tyre sidewall) was immediately inspected on drop off. The lady literally ran to the tyre and pointed at it after reviewing her ipad. There was obviously a note on the system. She argued with me about it but I had very clear video of it on pick up. These people are scammers.

Then I notice that they charged me $2200 instead of the booking quote of $800. Since, I have spent 8 hours total on the phone and sent over 20 emails to them to resolve this. They are uncontactable. Waste of my life!

Finally I get through and they said they would refund the difference, however they actually charged me the difference instead of refunding me. Again complete scammers.

Would be zero if I could. Got to the desk and after the desk staff were initially rude before I’d even spoken to them. They the said ‘ I can rent a car to you today’ so it was pre booked, prepaid and I’m a privilege member so had done all the pre-work to make the process simple and quick. They refused to explain, help or offer any reason. I assume it’s because I had a dispute with budget last year who inflated the price with lots of add ons without agreement. Anyway I was stuck at the airport in the US with no car for my familnys 2 week road trip and they didn’t care one little bit. I can only say be really careful you might get to the desk and be told no with no explanation. Absolutely disgusting company

Avis has very very poor customer service!! I have been waiting for a refund for over 3 months, to be told they do not agree with what is due, and trying to make money on excess insurance we didn't agree to!! This has happened more than once!! Its just all about the bottom line 'Money' with Avis.

As a preferred member, and knowing that their cars are mostly clean, the staff can appear very rude, they do not understand costs, and its just doesn't make the experience very nice especially when you use them all the time.

I think its time to look elsewhere!!
Sorry for this review, but i'm very upset with a case I have raised months ago!! Not what you want knowing how we have used them a lot this year, and booked in advance which we are now reviewing!!

Signed up for their so called "preferred" membership - to try and get a decent service - its actually the worse I have encountered - customer service is all done by AI - not possible resolutions at all - complete joke. I cancelling everything with them

Sadly our whole generally very positive experience of hiring from AVIS was completely spoiled by their aftercare from the moment we returned the car. The attendant who received the car confirmed the fuel top up charge would be £60, but they subsequently took nearly £300 from our account. As soon as we realised we co tacted the branch who said there was nothing they could do and to contact the customer service team. Despite several and regular emails to the customer service team over many months, we have never eceived a response. Appalling and very dissapointing, particularly as we are long standing customers of the organisation. Never again.

DO NOT USE! Upon returning the car I found a charge of £1,590.20 on my credit card. When I called to enquire, I was told it was for changing my drop-off location. This was completely untrue and I have all the paperwork to prove the car was returned to the location originally booked. I was told that someone would back to me after 7 business days. This was 3 weeks ago and I am still yet to hear from Avis! Fortunately, I raised a dispute through Amex who sorted it out within a week.

On top of the billing issue, we had paid extra for a guaranteed Mini Cooper, but upon collection, we were handed the keys to an Opel Corsa instead. I logged a complaint about this before the unexpected charge hit my card, and I am still yet to hear back about that either. Terrible service from start to finish.