Worst car rental experience ever
Fordeler: Nothing
Ulemper: Pickup was a horrendous experience. I've always been able to grab a car earlier than my reservation time. I understand it’s ultimately based off availability, so when the front desk attendant told me I couldn't get it sooner than one hour before my reservation time, I was okay with that. That was until I was assigned a car which had been clearly sitting on the lot before I arrived - a complete waste of my time.
I usually pay for car rental insurance through 3rd party vendors, which is always fine. But for some reason, the front desk attendant told me I wasn't insured. I said I was and just paid it through Kayak (at $27), and he said that my file says I did not pay and had to pay Avis if I wanted the car insured. I dug through my emails and showed him the receipt proving I was insured through the reservation, and he tells me that it only covers changing the reservation. When I downloaded the PDF and showed that I was actually insured for damages to the vehicle up to $40,000, he said they didn't accept Allianz anyways and I had to cancel with them and pay Avis 90 euros to protect my car against damages. I told him that it didn’t make sense for Kayak to offer insurance that Avis wouldn’t accept and asked if he could tell me about their policies with 3rd party rentals. He said he doesn't have that information (could be true but still a reflection on Avis having terrible training policies - insurance is a big/complicated deal and their front desk attendants should understand the ins and outs of it) and goes on to say the car is only protected if I purchase through Avis. I obliged as I was tired of going back and forth and trusted that he knew more than I did being that he is an actual Avis employee. After doing some research, it sounds like I would have been fine through Allianz. This is incredibly disappointing as I feel I was manipulated through scare tactics to fork over more money for an already overpriced reservation.
He also knew I was traveling into Portugal, and offered no help or assistance in regards to potential tolls, bridge fees, etc. All he seemed to car about was making me pay more and trying to spend as little time as possible providing actual customer service.
