We booked a car rental in the Dominican Republic and were charged $742.80 (£585.71). On arrival in Santo Domingo three days later, we were told by the agent that we had not yet paid for the car and had to pay there and then. Having just touched down and with no local phone facility, we had no way to check this and assumed - it's Avis, right??? - that this must be true. We therefore paid again - slightly reduced to £484.30 because we agreed to accept a larger collision damage waiver - added an additional named driver and went on our way. On our return to the UK, we discovered that the first payment had indeed been taken as well as the second. We were charged more or less double the quoted price!

When we approached Avis about this, we were told that the extra payment was an insurance surcharge which we had agreed to and so would not be refunded. This is a blatant lie - we told the Avis agent that we did not reqiuire any kind of extra insurance as we already had a global cover policy of our own. The only possible justifiable surcharge was for the second named driver we added at the airport (and were quite happy to pay for). But this charge, on Avis's own admission, comes to no more than $65 (ie just over £50). The remaining £430 odd has been a simple sham on Avis's part. Whether this is local corruption in Santo Domingo or simply sharp practice on the part of the whole company, I cannot say - needless to say, though, if Avis's quote for the rental had been £530 + £430, ie almost £1,000, we would certainly have chosen another company! And I suspect Avis are well aware of this.

NB - there can have been no confusion in the conversation with the Avis agent here - I am a fluent Spanish speaker and was in the company of two native Spanish speakers, my wife and brother-in-law. We all three concur that we were told our original payment had not been taken, and we all agree that we made it quite clear we did not require any added insurance. Clearly, we have been tricked.)

I left some glasses in the hire car in Calgary and went back for them less than an hour later, I hadn’t even left the airport and they couldn’t give them to me, even though they acknowledged the had them in their possession. I have emailed several times and they won’t entertain emailing where they are. How can you keep someone’s possessions if they are standing in front of the desk less than an hour after dropping the car off. No help at all just a long email giving reason why they are incompetent. Avoid like the plague

I booked a car with holiday autos and paid in full, I picked the car up from Budget/Avis via there shuttle bus, after returning the car and getting home I recieved a made up bill for €349.19 from Budget/Avis for premium top up Insurance I have contacted them over and over but they keep saying I signed for it which is nonsense and I have four witnesses to prove i told them I did not want top up insurance. I actually have an annual top up insurance which cements the fact that i do not need or want an additional policy for the same thing I will never use holiday autos, budget or Avis again.

We rented and prepaid for a Avis rental car from Nashville airport. As our flight to Nashville was delayed we rang Avis Nashville to tell them we would be 30 to 45 minutes late. They said that was ok and would note our booking. When we arrived within the extended time for picking up the car, Avis said our booking was cancelled snd though all cars now fully booked they would honour the rental but we had to pay again and this cost 30% more. So we had to pay twice for the same car. They blamed it on Priceline. But we had called the Avis helpline. We called Avis help twice. Got through second time and they then transferred us to a supervisor who did not let us talk and hung up on us. We called again snd was placed on hold for 1 hour 20 minutes or so. We gave up waiting. Will try again. But watch out with prepaid rentals with Avis!!!!!

I never had a problem with renting a car for Avis. The cars have always be clean and in good condition

I was charged £300 for alleged damages to a vehicle which do not exist! They claimed a small scratch on the underside rubber panel of the vehicle. No repair quote, no repair completed, but an arbitrary charge to me upon return. No response from Avis customer service, they even failed to provide me with a receipt! I had to enquire on the corporate website to obtain an itemised list of charges. Complete rubbish experience!

Booked a Group F car on the Avis website to pickup at Limassol office. From start to finish it was 5 star service. The vehicle was clean and undamaged. The station manager ran through all the paperwork and then gave a quick run through of the vehicle. I was even allowed to extend the rental for one day at a reasonable additional cost and had the vehicle picked up from my hotel on the last day. Well done Avis Limassol!!

However when we checked there was even a small dent in the wing. While my husband went to the desk to report this I noticed quite a few other customers reporting scratches etc too. The staff at the kiosk were just standing around and chatting to each other. I don't think they were interested in reviewing the vehicles prior to the customers taking the vehicles. We were hiring from Calgary Canada and it's the worst car hire we have ever experienced

Rented a car at Stockholm airport using a free weekend voucher so there should be no charge at all. Was asked to sign the agreement on a tablet and didn't see any extra charges and none were mentioned. Didn't realise until later that they had added windscreen insurance which they are refusing to refund as I signed the agreement. So make sure you read through the whole agreement before you sign as I suspect these extras are added deliberately and it is a nice earner for them if you don't notice before you sign!

We had a situation regarding the full tank of petrol. I filled it completely 6 kilometers from Cape Town airport, but was denied any acknowledgement that the tank was full. Our credit card was subsequently charged for two litres of petrol (68p per lire) and a fee for filling those two litres and a pro-rata of road fund licence for the 12 days hire, something I have never heard of before, totalling approximately £18. Along with that, three weeks later, the credit card was subsequently deducted approximately £19 for the waiver of a speeding ticket. Although I have asked the authorities of confirmation of the issue of a speeding ticket, no response has been given. I believe this is because only South African citizens are prosecuted and foreign nationals are exempt. We have just had another speeding ticket being charged, two months after our return to the UK and once again no one at Avis is responding. I caution everyone who hires a car in South Africa to obtain a full receipt when the car is returned confirming the volume of the petrol tank and also the condition of the car itself. This is the first time we have used Avis and obviously will be the last.

Hired a van From Avis to remove some furniture, They have made up a damage charge of £500 which I know nothing about. Some dents were on the van when I hired it, Now they are making this up. probably have to take them to court to fight my case. Avoid!

I booked a car via a travel booking with British Airways, flying into the UK from Washington DC to Edinburgh Airport. I was clear when I booked that I would be here from end October to end December. I understood that, because the period of hire was longer than 28 days, it would have to be renewed once, which could be done easily over a phone call which Avis would make to me, in the middle of the hire period. This is exactly the procedure that Avis have used for me when I have made extended hire bookings with them in the past, and it has worked just fine. But not this time... I did not receive the call: on 27 November I received a text message telling me that my hired car was two days overdue for return, and that I had to take it back to Edinburgh Airport forthwith. Although I was at the other end of the country, I did as they asked and returned the car - which apparently was at the end of its rental life and had to be returned to the manufacturer for refurbishment and sale. That's fair enough - but why send it out for a lengthy booking in the first place, if that was the case? In any event, the whole fiasco took around 7 hours out of my day. I was issued with another, similar, car, and was told that I would have that till 29th December, but that the current booking contract only ran till 14th December, on which date I would receive a call to extend the booking to the 29th. Yet again, I did not receive the call, and instead received ANOTHER text message on the 17th, telling me that the hire car was overdue and needed to be returned to Edinburgh Airport. Again. Understandably, I think, I was annoyed - and reluctant to go through all that palaver a second time, especially since Avis were the ones who had screwed up - TWICE. I called their customer service line. What a misnomer. I spoke to an extremely rude woman who responded with "Well, in that case, we'll just cancel the contract"... and hung up on me! WOW... Two further phone calls later, to two other - helpful - members of staff, I am given to understand that the matter has been resolved and the hire period extended. However, the overall experience has been absolutely appalling. A fiasco from start to finish. I am very, very disappointed. Booking via British Airways is potentially useful - but not if this is what ensues. I'll book independently elsewhere from here on. Never, ever again.

Added on loads of extras that we explicitly said we didn’t need, hid what they had added in really poorly displayed documentation, took advantage of the language barrier then took a substantial amount of money (hundreds) from our card when we returned. The complaints team take weeks to get back then say they can’t help. Then 3 weeks after travel have taken an additional £15 off card with no invoice or explanation. Really dodgy practices, taking money from cards - avoid at all costs!!

I recently rented a car with Avis in Glasgow, using autoeurope.com. It took me twice as long to pick up the car as it should because the guy at the Avis counter did a major hard sell, trying to get me to upgrade to a bigger vehicle. The staff who were supposed to bring the car round for me were disorganised and didn't know which car they needed to fetch. The car itself was mediocre and appeared poorly maintained. It looked very smart on the outside but the ignition was very difficult to turn off (requiring an unusual amount of force) and the gearbox was in poor condition - I wouldn't have been surprised if either one of them had failed during the trip. The windscreen wiper fluid had not been topped up and was completely empty. Although not disastrous, it was a poor experience and I wouldn't rent with Avis again. (Side note: Autoeurope was great and I have no issues with them.)

Through Holiday Autos I booked and pre-paid for a car in Malta to be picked up at 8.00 pm. At the desk I was presented with the usual reams of conditions of hire, which included some "Optional Services". This listed "Up front fuel charge" (which I did not want) and "Additional services". Further down, under "Additional services" after four other services which I did not need, was "Included Meet Late Arrival". When I got home 25 euros had been deducted from my credit card account. It turns out that late arrival means arriving at 8.00 pm even though that was when the car was booked from, and the quoted price and prepayment did not cover it, even though there was no way one could hire a car without it. Needless to say no one mentioned it at the time.

arrived to collect the car from clarenden rd Boston America. The operator gave no help on the service they were offering regarding were the car was other than saying there is the lift the car is on the fifth floor. He did point out there was a $151 estimated costs with no explanation what they were for. He tried to sell us the fast track machine which we were told it was $10 dollars a day which we did not use we paid the tolls by cash as we came to them, except one which was the bridge coming into Boston which was fast track only, the cost was $3 the operator said it would be charged onto my credit card today I was charged $17, they tried to charge me $10 a gallon to fuel the car when I had prepaid for a full tank. Would never use Avis again and if anybody has any sense they should not use them.

I ordered a hire car from Avis but through Rentalcar.com. I was due to collect it at 11:30pm. Unfortunately my flight was delayed, and I didn't arrive at the Avis desk in the terminal building until 11:50pm. The desk was closed, despite the fact that they had my flight details and should have been aware of the 20 minute delay. The rep at Europcar rang the Avis on his mobile, but he refused to return. I had to hire another car! My payment had been refunded but minus a 'Cancellation Fee' So far Avis have not responded to e-mails! Never will I use them again.

Tried to charge for a full tank of diesel, even though only €10 below full. Took car to fill up again to avoid that one. Quoted €25/day for better insurance, but despite only 3 days rental, tried to charge €114! (As any aside, the insurance is not worth it anyway) Staff eventually adjusted the final amount, but only after lengthy dispute. They tried to blame vat, airport tax and "other services". A minor plus was that the staff eventually relented. Not sure if other car rental companies are better, but Avis have zero respect for customers.

The local staff in Palma were rude and unhelpful. We returned the car with the three quarter full tank we'd left with but have been charged anyway. We left a very expensive pair of sunglasses in the glove department but when we rang first thing the next morning we were told they couldn't find them. I asked them to please double check but then they refused to answer my calls for the next two days at which point we were flying home anyway. Back in London I tried to ring Customer Services to complain but got totally fed up with being put on hold endlessly for two days. ...When I finally did get through the person I spoke to might as well have been a robot - completely unhelpful and unsympathetic. The whole experience basically cost us about £600 - for 4 days car hire!!!.