Avis Car Rental — Local services in San Bruno

If I could give zero stars I would. Our flight was delayed and we arrived, 8 of us into San Francisco at almost 2am in the morning. I had reserved an eight passenger luxury SUV weeks in advance so that we would have enough appropriate seating for every member of our family. When we arrived, we were told that they don’t guarantee 8 passenger and can only guarantee 7. I even called two days prior to make sure that the reservation was correct and the agent at the counter told me there was no record of that phone call or confirmation. He made me wander around by myself out in the parking lot with a map going to every SUV that they had checking them to see if they had 7 or 8 seats in them. There were none. I came back to the counter and told him that I was terribly sorry, but we were going to need to find another company that did have 8 passenger vehicles available. I handed him the contract back and he assured me it was going to be shredded and that we would not be charged because we didn’t rent from them and we walked right over to Alamo and received amazing customer service and within minutes had an SUV with 8 seats for our family trip. I was very surprised when a week later I was charged over $1300 from Avis for a car rental that never happened. I called the customer service and I left multiple voicemails and never received a phone call back trying to get this resolved. So I finally filed a dispute with my credit card company. Now a few weeks later, I receive a nasty letter in the mail saying that if I don’t resolve my debt to Avis that I am now banned from renting any cars from them. I assure you that I don’t plan to rent from them ever again anyway. They provided an email for questions regarding the letter and this is the response that I sent almost a week ago…still NO response! I wanted to write to address a letter I received regarding our rental agreement U390150961. We had reserved a rental online with Avis for our trip to California at the end of May and when we arrived at SFO and the Avis counter late that night, they did not have our car available for us. We had reserved a premium luxury SUV with 8 seats due to our family size and the only SUVs available had only 7 seats, which is obviously not appropriate. The agent at the counter made me go out and wander around the parking lot for almost 40 minutes looking in every car trying to find one that would appropriately fit all 8 of us. Meanwhile my 7 other family members were exhausted and waiting. It was around 2am. Then the agent told me that, even though I had called several days before to make sure that an 8 passenger was available, he said that there is no way to reserve an 8 passenger with certainty and there was no documentation in the reservation notes that I had ever made a call to confirm. I told him that I would need to cancel the reservation and go to another company because we had to have 8 seatbelts. We ended up walking over to Alamo and successfully had an 8 passenger SUV within minutes. I went back to the Avis counter, and I asked the agent what I needed to do with the paperwork to cancel the reservation and he told me to give it to him and that he would shred it. He assured me that there would be NO charge because we did not rent from Avis. Much to my surprise a week later when we had a charge of $1342.91 on my credit card from Avis. I called the phone number and left a voicemail for someone to call me back to get the charge removed and nobody ever called me back so I filed a dispute with my credit card company. The way the situation was handled was completely unprofessional and inappropriate and very disappointing. In addition, I don’t appreciate getting a nasty letter in the mail saying that my car rental privileges have been terminated. I never even rented a car from Avis because you didn’t have the car that was promised to us that I had reserved weeks prior. Also, don’t you have a record that an Avis car never left the lot?! I would appreciate a response to let me know that the situation has been completely...

I rented a car from this location on March 9 around 7:30A.M. The car was not functioning correctly, so I went back to the location to exchange the vehicle.

Once arriving back to the rental car location, I pulled the car into the "returns" section. I kindly asked the employee numerous questions and ended up deciding to exchange the Tesla Model Y for a different Tesla Model Y.

The employee doing "returns" printed out the ticket I would need to exchange the car for a different one. She explained I just have to go to the "Avis Preferred" counter on the 3rd floor.

Before exchanging cars, Employee1 pointed my husband and I to the direction of another Tesla Model Y. He told us it's possible to switch to that one if we like it; and everything works.

As soon as my husband and I reviewed the new Tesla Model Y, I walked to the "Avis Preferred" counter and informed the employee I am here to exchange a car. Before I got the chance to hand over my paperwork, Employee 2 rudely asked what car am I trying to get. Then, said we don't have that car here. I explained that Employee 1 allowed us to see the car already; and it's parked in the garage. The employee then smirked and rudely said "Well go tell employee 1 to rent you out the car than." Employee 3 chimed in and said can you bring us the key for the new car; and they can search in the system if the car is available or not.

After walking back in the garage and retrieving the car key, I arrived to the counter. I did not even have to hand over the key, Employee 2 states "Oh. We have the car available." Then, he finally decided to take my "exchange receipt" and proceeded to read my name "Tseng Mathis" off of the paper. He whispers to me "Are you Asian?" At this point I felt racially profiled. Employee 2 proceeded to process the vehicle exchange .

While I was at the counter doing the vehicle exchange, my husband calls me from the rental car garage and says, "Someone is putting their belongings into the new Tesla." I explained that is impossible as the employees told me to retrieve the keys from the car prior to doing the vehicle exchange; and they were completing the request to switch cars. Employee 2 informed me to tell my husband to tell the customer that the car is already rented out to us.

My husband and I begin to put our items into the new Tesla Model Y. Another employee pulls up in a Tesla Model S with his manager standing outside the car. I informed employee 1 what was happening; and he informed me that he gave the Tesla Model Y to the gentleman(the new customer). His manager was confused as I explained what had happened on my husband and I's end as well.

The manager explained that the situation is not our fault; and the customer was given another car.

All in all at this location:

I felt disrespected and like my time was wasted(walking back and forth to a parking garage just to have an employee tell me the car was in the system; and I didn't have to walk back and forth to obtain the key).

This location lacked proper communication between employees(Employee 1 says the car is available, I can inspect it to see if that's the car I will exchange with the current car I have, then gives it to another customer without informing me.) Employee 2 states that the car is mine. The exchange contract is complete.

I felt racially profiled by Employee 2 for whispering am I Asian based off my skin tone, features, and last name.

My husband and I were celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary that weekend; and we are in the process of deciding between a Tesla Model Y vs Model S. So we intentionally booked a Tesla Model Y in advance.

To have felt racially discriminated, disrespected, and inconvenienced trying to rent a car from Budget was a horrible kick off to a beautiful weekend. A process that should take up to 20 minutes delayed us over an hour. I can assure we will never rent from Budget or Avis again after...

PURE FRAUD, AVOID AT ALL COST! I booked the car via Booking.com and picked it at San Francisco airport. The lady at the pickup asked me if I would like to have any extra insurance, to which I answered no. She also asked me if I would be crossing any tolled bridges, to which also I said no. She then said that they needed to authorise a deposit on my credit card, but assured me that it is a temporary hold which will be refunded once the car is returned in order. I obliged with this, as this is fairly standard, and I was also expecting it given what was written in my voucher from Booking.com. Incidentally, I had to put my signature on a tablet, but never got any receipt or contract at that point, either printed or electronic. All I got was just a little piece of paper with the car’s registration number to help me find it in the garage (which I still have in my possession).

When I returned the car, another lady finally gave me a printed receipt, and I was shocked to see that the total charges stated on it where $815.82 USD, almost twice as large as the fee on Booking.com (£375.90, or around $475). I went to complain to the personnel that took my car, but they said that I needed to speak with the desk instead. When I went to the desk, there was a massive queue, which I simply could not wait in, as I needed to catch my flight.

I knew something was wrong there and then, but still harboured a small hope that maybe I misunderstood the receipt, and the total number somehow included the deposit, which will be refunded as the lady promised. I wrote to Avis customer service for an explanation, but never got any reply.

A few days later I checked my credit card account, and can see that Avis has charged me £302.59, exactly the amount that was originally authorised as the “deposit”, but now somehow shows as $374.43 worth of “non pkg items” on the receipt they gave me. My partner (who is currently in the US) called them, and they said that there is nothing they can do because apparently I agreed to the extra charges and signed the contract. They then sent her an electronic contract with my signature showing that apparently I agreed to some roadside assistance and… freaking TOLLS, which I have specifically said no to! Never been asked about any roadside assistance.

I would like to reiterate that I have explicitly said no to any extra insurance and items offered, I did not request any extras myself, and I explicitly was told that they needed my credit card exclusively for the deposit purposes. Substituting the deposit with a bunch of optional items I never asked for is pure fraud, either by the particular clerk at the desk, or, worse, by Avis as the company. Seeing many similar complaints on Trustpilot, I cannot help but conclude that this company systematically defrauds its customers of large sums of money, and legal action must be...