Avis Rent A Car

Great service! We were in and out in no time! Everyone was very nice and they helped us install the car seats!

This review is for the Avis location nearby at 25 Bowery Bay Blvd, so I’m guessing they moved recently.
I came here expecting the absolute WORST given all of the negative reviews, but they were the cheapest place around for a weekend rental, so I was prepared to deal with long waits and crappy service (brought a book, some snacks, etc.).
Instead, I was in and out in 5 minutes! I had signed up in advance for their free Avis Preferred service, so maybe that had something to do with it. But for a Friday afternoon (2:30pm-ish), the place wasn’t busy at all. There were maybe 2 people in line at the main counter and 1 person finishing up at preferred when I got there.
I got a nice looking blue Ford Focus. The radio wouldn’t turn on at first, but after ~20 minutes of driving it was fine (not sure what was up with that). And it came with Sirius, which was great.
Returning was just as easy. I parked it in a line with other returns and an attendant checked me out in a few minutes. No overcharges, no headaches. The price was reasonable for NYC at $ 191 with taxes/​fees for 3 days (I used an AMEX AWD coupon code and prepaid to get a discounted rate).
I felt compelled to report this given the hellish experiences other people have had. So yeah — I’ll definitely rent from them again (and will update this if needed).

Bad bad bad.
ARRIVAL
I arrive to pick up vehicle and I’m told the rate has changed. I cancel the reservation and redo it. I get my rate back. The guy behind the counter was more busy gawking at he young lady next to me than actually attending me.
DROP OFF
I get to drop off location and there are no waiting customers. 2 attendants just stare at me then they walk away. I go inside and a rude woman asks: «what do u want?» When I tell her no attendants outside she points outside and tells me I have to go outside. Still nobody. Eventually another attendant helps me. I tell her it’s the dark Ford Focus I’m returning. She then proceeds to check in a silver Hyundai. I point to the correct car… Again… she goes back to the silver car. I had to physically walk over and show her the car. Another couple arrive and was late 6 min late dropping of. They asked if they would be charged then walked outside.
One they were outside… I overheard the rude woman laugh and tell her co worker, «I don’t care, I’m gonna charge them anyways». Wow 6 min late and being charged a whole day???
No wonder they have poor reviews.
NEVER AGAIN!

Worst customer service ever. People working here are futile. What a waste of business to be hiring these kind of people. I wish I can give a no star review for this Avis location.

2 people, ones the manager and has to stop every so often to answer questions, so in essence renting a car here on Saturday is a joke … No Prefered people about to jump in front … Horrible operation

10:45 pm in America’s largest city, 12 people in line. One person behind the Avis counter. Next time go Hertz!

Chose by size and price: lucky enough to get a Hyundai Veloster, nice car, clean inside, moves well enough for a 4-​cylinder and has great fuel efficiency.
The price was very reasonable: $ 40 for the rental for 24hrs, add approximately $ 10 for insurance. I didn’t like they charged my credit card over a month later. Just remember to bring it back with full fuel as they gave it to you or they charge you.
The M60 bus brings you about a 2 street walking distance to the lot. The Avis bus brings you through a circle around LaGuardia Airport. That morning of my scheduled rental they caused me a small shock. I thought they were closed, when I NEEDED a rental car to go out of state. There’s no one around and the front door has a sign not really relevant to whether they are actually open or not and no one is at the front desk but the door is open. You actually have to walk across the lot to get to the rental desk. There’s two people stationed there and a couple more workers handling the cars.
Pick up was pretty simple and fast, so was drop off, both very fast and efficient.
The customer service is not the greatest and a bit cold or unprofessional. But they do get the job done and weren’t rude or anything, just bland.
The whole lot seems clean and organized.
For the value it’s 3 stars –average– but the fact that it’s not a 5 star restaurant and provided me a whip on a Sunday fast and efficiently to get out of the City, I’ll add an extra star. 4stars.

It was just okay. The wait wasn’t long. A little pricey. The car I was given did not have any paper work in the glove compartment. I was quickly given a replacement car with the correct paper work. The car was nice and clean. If the price is right I will do business again at this location.

I dunno why the hate for this avis location, but I’ve been here pretty frequently and I have not had any issues.
I’m here Sunday evenings for the Avis preferred service and service is fast and friendly and I can always pick and choose different cars. I always find the shuttle when i walk out of bag claim (knock on wood).
I guess after a long flight, the last thing you’d want is to have to have any inconveniences.

Wow, this place is awful! How come everyone that comes through here always has an issue? Why does it take half an hour to wait and then another half and hour to process out information? Why does the customer service rep always have an attitude? Why why why???

Avis is located on Bowery Bay Blvd off Marine Terminal Rd, across from the BP. Definitely not where Unilocal’s map says it is.
The car pickup area moved from one building to the next and back again without the proper signage to clue people in.
Service can be quick and efficient or agonizingly slow. Cars are clean and rarely in need of oil or a checkup. I’ve also picked up a couple Zipcars here, same experience.
I used to take a cab here until I realized I could hop on the Q69 and walk from 81^st St.

There are slower processes than renting a car from this Avis location… Like the Ice Age, having your pancreas removed, raising your kid from birth to adulthood. But they’ll all feel faster than the endurance race of getting on the infrequent shuttle and completing the rental process to the point where you can drive your crappy rental car out of parking lot.
We spent over an hour waiting for the rare combination of a clean car and nondisgusting child safety seats only to learn that there were only TWO seats in the entire location. The seats available were both extremely dirty and essentially unusable.
We had to settle for boosters or the option driving to a store (on July 4^th) to buy seats for our kids and have our account credited for some random amount of cash.
Oh, by the way, how are we going to get our kids to said store without car seats?

If possible go to any other Avis location. In fact, take a train to Newark or pay an obnoxious premium to grab a car from Manhattan. Walk if you have to.
Everything from the lack of customer service to the quality of vehicles and general lack of efficiency appalled me. We were once given a car with snow in the back seat. SNOW!
This is not an affront to Avis but this place should really be shut down. It’s evident that the employees don’t give two quacks about their customers!

This place is AWFUL from customer service to logistics. Every rental here never goes smoothly– lost receipt, cranky service reps, wet seats, slow service, broken email alerts… Goes on and on. I’m pretty sure it’s the worst Avis facility in the country.

3.5 stars
My experience here was alright. The good thing was that I received a nice and new car in Altima. I was very satisfied with the car.
I didn’t like that the clerk who helped me wasn’t clear about the upgrade. At first she sounded like I was getting a free upgrade from a full size car. Then when the check in time came, I realized she was just promoting a special rate, but not a free upgrade. I ended up switching back to what I made reservation in the first place. It would have been better if she started the whole process by saying «we have a promotion where you pay this extra for certain car»

«Lost» reservation in their computer system. Even though I could pull it up on my iPhone with my Avis Preferred number. So name not on board — had to go in to the building to get a car which took them 10 minutes to figure out. Upon return the check-​in guy could not provide a receipt so he jotted some hieroglyphics on a scrap of paper for me to give to the «inside» folks. Problem here is that «inside» girl can’t read or figure out glyphs. She also can not find that I have even rented the car I was recently driving. I leave it to them to figure out and email me a receipt.

This Avis is worst of all Avis. There is no info of where your car is even if you are a member. Cleanness is a foreign word, once I had vomit on side of my car. Maintenance means your rental car looks better shape than yellow cab. Shuttle is a joke — I highly recommend WALKING, esp for Delta Shuttle, I don’t care what port authority cops warn you, walk to the terminal because buses never show up! And often time return agents are not working in the lot, so you’d have to write down all info, walk in the building, find counter, wait in line… oh is that my flight?! Exactly.
But if you read my review and thin Avis @ LGA is worst, welcome to NYC, this is what you get no matter which rental car place you’d rent from. I had similar experience at Hertz and other brand names.

If it werent for hotwire, i would not have booked through avis. i have never gotten a car through avis and i will not do this again.
I had no problems with the car or the process of getting the car on line.
My problem with them was the service at the office. After a long flight from the west coast, we arrived at the office to find one person working the desk. there was another person running around like a madman but they seemed to have a lot of problems finding the right car for the customer they were serving. It seemed like they did not have enough small cars and were pushing everyone to take either intermediate or special cars. After a long wait, we finally got to the desk and the guy tried to push me to get an electric car so that they could «get rid of» the non small cars. They were not friendly or efficient.
on the way out, they had no one working at the booth to lift the gate — omg. after all that, they delayed my exit… completely and utterly dissatisfied…

My experience with Avis was terrible. I will give 0 star if I can.
I booked a Standard SUV. When I arrived at the counter, they asked me if I would like an upgrade. I declined. They gave me a 7 seat SUV and showed me a bill of $ 242, which is lower than the price I paid for my reservation. So I had a 5 – 10 mins conversation with them to confirm that it was not an extra $ 242 on top of what I have paid, no upgrade, just the original I had. They confirmed everything and guided me to sign for everything on the screen. I also declined all the insurance and roadside assistance.
I got the car but it had 35k miles on it already and was very dirty.
When I was driving on the highway, it suddenly appeared that the power steering wheel stopped functioning!!! I had to pull an emergency stop in the middle of the highway. The problem disappeared when I restarted the car but it came back again after 10 mins!!! I called up Avis and luckily got an exchange. It could have killed me on the highway at 70mph without a working steering wheel!!! The exchange wasted me about one and a half hours and totally ruined my first day.
That was not the end. When I got my receipt after I returned the car, I was charged $ 242 extra for an ‘upgrade’ and a roadside saftynet fee of $ 41. The receipt says I have a ‘Standard SUV — 7 Pass’.
I called up the Avis airport and Avis customer support. The Avis airport manager said they gave me a ‘Standard SUV — 7 Pass’ which is an upgrade of a ‘Standard SUV’. The Avis customer support manager said they gave me a ‘Standard Elite SUV’ which is an upgrade. And they indicated that I had roadside saftynet signed up which I did not!
First of all, a Standard SUV is a Standard SUV, putting ‘- 7 pass’ or ‘elite’ into it is a cheap trap.
Second, there was no misunderstanding when I spoke with the counter before I picked up the car, I did not sign for an upgrade! You simply just can’t misunderstand people if you spend 10 mins talking with them about one thing for several times. I was 100% clear that the car was an upgrade. They did say that I signed on the paperwork electronically at the counter. Even if I did, it was a mistake that they printed out. And every time, I just ask the merchant what I’m signing for, the merchant will explain and one doesn’t make a mistake like this. This Avis counter lied to me about the upgrade and guided me to sign for this trap on purpose.
I’m going to avoid renting cars from Avis anymore. If I have to, I will make sure I spend 15 mins at the counter to read all the paperwork before I sign anything.

Adequate for a rental agency, but below par compared to other Avis facilities I rent from. The cars here are higher mileage, but they are OK. Not a lot of folks to help you out with questions. When we checked the car back in, no one was there to greet us or check us in; we had to walk into the facility to get our receipt.
Side story: Seems this branch has different rules than others for renting. I witnessed a gentleman trying to rent a van to take some teenagers on a missions trip to NJ from NY. He only had a debit card and they wanted a credit card. He had called ahead of time to corporate who told him it was OK. The manager was visibly annoyed and agitated which I consider poor customer service.
It all worked out in the end, but that would be annoying to me as a customer to deal with a nonconforming facility and a condescending manager. All customers deserve respect. Knocked the rating down a star for that. Tempted to knock it down two on pinciple, but the overall experience was… acceptable.