Avis Car Rental — Local services in San Francisco

Very poor vehicle maintenance if any, very unhelpful staff.

Rented an SUV from this location for a couple of days. The first vehicle we were given was a Kia Sorrento (which seemed nearly brand new) until I tried to adjust the seat and realized that it seemed incredibly loose. Upon further investigation it was clear that the seat bolt was either missing or sheered off entirely. I also made note of a bunch of other damage to the vehicle. I asked for a different car and was promptly given another vehicle. This vehicle was much older but seemed to be in working order so I was on my way. About 10-15 minutes into our journey we noticed that the acceleration was lacking and while merging into the free way we had the battery and other lights come on the dash. We pulled over and contact roadside assistance who told us to continue driving and they would locate a car near our destination. 30 minutes later we were told that there were not any cars in the area and we would have to “drive back to San Francisco Airport” to get a replacement. We weren’t about to drive an hour back the opposite direction in a car that we were not sure worked. We stopped in Napa and had a shop there verify that the battery was able to hold a charge and we wouldn’t be stranded.

We return to this location to drop the car off (a few minutes past their closing time- to be fair) and when I tried to signal an employee inside to simply explain the issues I was having - they rudely dismissed me and told me to come back tomorrow. I can understand not wanting to stay late and being off at a specific time - but a business owner should always have someone around who can address special issues like this concerning safety and vehicle problems. It is both unprofessional and rude of the employees or owners to dismiss my concerns without even hearing what my issue was. They were so incredibly carefree about the problems my family had experienced as a result of the poor service they provided. To add insult to injury - when I spoke through the closed door “hey this vehicle had problems and could have left us stranded” the worker inside laughed and said “come back tomorrow”. They then left with their heads down and locked up and walked right past me with zero regard for my issues. This is maybe an example of quiet quitting or employees who have zero care for their customers.

The situation is not yet resolved as I still haven’t been able to speak to anyone there. I will be returning first thing in the morning to close out the rental. I will never in a million years rent another car from any AVIS location. Which is too bad because I’ve rented cars from them all over the world - but I don’t feel comfortable using an agency who’s maintenance and customer service is allowed to falter in such drastic ways. They are lucky they don’t have legal action over the seat issue from the first car. That car if not fixed and rented out to someone else - could...

Paid in advance for a hire car with GPS as we were doing a California road trip. We’re given an “upgrade” ( god knows how bad the original one would have been! ) - a Cadillac with a broken front bumper that had been (badly) repaired Needless to say the car did NOT have GPS so when I walked back to the office the so called assistant said “what do you want me to do. You’ll have to claim the GPS element back from the company you hired through (British Airways) “ so I had to turn on my roaming at a cost of 10$ a day for 11 days and link to the car’s system Also, the car made an absolutely horrendous noise underneath and I could feel bumping and banging under my feet when doing 20 to 50 mph I called to complain and was told I’d get a refund of $166 within 3 days to 5 days…no refund so I called the day before we left the car and was then told the refund would be 3 to 5 days AFTER the car is returned, by which time we’d be back in the UK!! I’m willing to bet I’ll never see the refund!! AVOID AVIS AVOID AVIS AVOID AVIS!

UPDATE

After returning to the UK I was emailed by a Brian Corbit the Unit Manager saying he was sorry for what we had experienced and they would take “immediate action” and “address the situation personally with the team”. He also said “we are determined to earn your trust”! WHAT A JOKE!!! We returned the car 2 weeks ago today and, you guessed it…still no refund for the prepaid GPS that we didn’t get and that we were told on two separate (recorded) calls with Avis Customer Service (there’s an oxymoron for you!!)that we’d get within 3 to 5 days! I say again...

This specific AVIS Branch (500 beach st, san francisco) rented us a vehicle which put my families lives at risk. On the 22/09/23 we rented a vehicle. We had requested a smaller SUV but we were given a large Jeep 4X4. When we took it out onto the freeway approximately 30 minutes later the right rear tyre had a sudden deflation. The freeway was six lanes wide and my wife and two young children were in the car. I managed to somehow get it off the freeway. Upon inspecting the tyres I noticed they were bald. Some had so much damage there were deep cuts down the the canvas. This damage was on all tyres. Clearly AVIS did not perform a safety inspection on this vehicle prior to leasing it. Whilst stranded on the side of the road I was then forced to change the tyre and then drive the 4X4 to Oakland airport. AVIS later sent me a report stating I was to blame for the tyre damage. I had the vehicle for half an hour! I have photos of the vehicle which are date and time stamped to prove it. Plus we are at Oakland airport perhaps 3 hours after taking the vehicle off the lot at San Francisco. So it was impossible to cause this damage on four sets of heavy duty 4X4 tyres. This is ongoing. AVIS themselves have been disgusting during this...