Avis Car Rental

I booked a car at YUL Airport , through an agent . I booked a Tesla EV. I phoned before flight to confirm booking and I spoke to a female member of staff , who needed to go on a customer care course . She managed to confirm booking and gleefully told me insurance added when I arrived was 60 dollars a day , twice the price of car rental. So I cancelled booking. I booked with avis after years of solid bookings in UK , but sadly booking a hire car at this airport feels like being scammed . 6 days and every hire company and not one has given me any confidence that when I arrive , I won't be robbed .!! Stop the nonsense just tell people what it's going to cost upfront, so you don't get the hard sell at the rental office. It ruins everything, flying these days with the suitcase and seats scandal is hard enough. Avis come on, the best hire Company reduced to this . Have had to cancel booking because I don't trust you .

The car had high mileage and damaged all over the place, which I had to come back to point out. Front bumper broken on both sides, side motor cover gone on one side, windshield base cover gone on the other side. Later while driving we realized the motor cover was dragging below the car making all kind of noise. I tried to call a dozen of times during our trip to get a replacement, but couldn’t reach anyone.

Extremely rude staff, terrible service and you don’t get what you paid for here. Make sure you ask for availability before you hand over your credit card and driving license. I made an online booking for a full-size vehicle and when I arrived they had no vehicles ready and asked me to wait. The counter staff were super rude and unfriendly. Take my advice and avoid this place at all costs. If you’re desperate try to book a car outside the airport.

Over 50 min wait to pickup a car after a transatlantic flight of 8h. ONLY 1 employee de serve over 20 clients for both Avis and Budget counter. Another employee for Avis Preferred and Budget Fast Break. Complete lack of management and organization skills in the midst of high season August. AVIS /BUDGET for the love of God, HIRE MORE EMPLOYEES!!!! Edit: when we reached the counter, our car was not available. We have to wait for other customers to return their cars at that location. Our car was booked for 4pm, and it’s already 6:30 pm and still no car !nUpdate: after waiting for 2h and making a scene, we ended with a huge, truck-like car instead of our booked one. Not practical for parking on Montreal’s narrow streets. We’re going today to another Avis location to exchange it for the category we booked originally.

Unreliable, poorly maintained cars.nnAvis Montreal airport rental location was completely overwhelmed on Aug 10th evening, with a long queue of waiting passengers and very few cars to give out. After an hour of waiting in the Avis Preferred line in relatively sweltering conditions was told that I would have to pay more to get the only car available a premium Audi, since they couldn't give me that car as part of my Full size rental contract. Watching my hungry kid by my side, after a long delayed flight, and the hour wait we had endured, I paid more and took the car.nnHowever, they gave the car with 3/8ths tank full, and unclean inside. I pointed out that the car had 62 thousand kilometers or more and was worried about its reliability. I was told, that's normal and the cars are well maintained. Untrue.nnNext day, after filling up gas at the gas-station, the car wouldn't start. I was stranded with my child. The car started give lots of warning messages on the dashboard and basically I was stuck at the gas station occupying a gas stall with people honking, trying to get past the call. I tried calling the AVIS roadside assistance, five times -- calls dropped frequently not because of cellular coverage, just the system hangs up, once got routed to US roadside assistance and they could do nothing for Canada and finally when I reached someone they demanded another $120-200 to send someone for a jumpstart, since I didn't buy breakdown insurance.nnThis is literally highway robbery after giving me a bad car in the first place.nnLuckily my mother-in-law lived not too far away and I requested her to drive to the gas station with jumper cables which she had to borrow from a neighbor. I was able to jump start the car, left my child in my mother-in-law's care, drove two hours in heavy traffic back to the Avis location. They wouldn't pick up the phone given how busy they are servicing at the counter, so they only option was to go back there in person.nnI waited yet another hour in the lines, quite apprehensive of whether I would get a replacement car same, situation as the day before, and they were verbally telling waiting passengers that if they made reservations day-of or the day-before, those wouldn't be honored, Luckily they gave me another car. Again quite old 63K kilometers and unclean inside. I took that car and requested that they remove the premium car surcharge, which I think they did. At least I got that.nnLuckily the new car did not breakdown though its wipers were basically useless in the heavy summer rain and the tires were worn down causing slipperiness in wet/slick roads. It showed signs of age, but at least it was more reliable.nnThis was about the worst rental experience I've had. I have lot of sympathy for the hard working folks at the counter. The counter folks were patient and courteous. I feel for them. I have no beef with them. They were as helpful as they could be.nnBut the experience as a Avis Preferred customer was extremely poor:n- Having to pay more since they didn't have the car type I reservedn- Car broke downn- Unable to get roadside assistancen- A half day of precious vacation time lost in dealing with the car.n- Waiting multiple times in long queues.