Avis Southern Africa Arvostelua 

I wish I'd checked the reviews here first. Where do we start? When we picked up the car in Durban Airport, they told us we had to call Avis Durban to renew the rental before 30 days were up. (The rental was 48 days long.) As 30 days approached, we ended up ringing the Durban airport office multiple times for several days. Each time, the phone either rang out for 30 minutes or was answered and hung up. We rang Avis Johannesburg who connected us to the same line that was never answered. In the end, we had to drive a round trip of 120km to Avis to sort the matter out at huge inconvenience. Checking reviews, we see that is standard for Avis Durban Airport. They never answer calls. They also have no email address apart from a 'no-reply' one.
Then, when we dropped back the car, they alerted us to a tiny chip on the bumper which we could only see wearing our glasses. (The chip was probably there when we picked up the car, but we wouldn't have spotted a crater in the bodywork such was the torrential rain that day.) We asked to see the chip repair when it’s completed, but it was made clear that won't be forthcoming. I suspect many more customers will be paying for that chip long after us. They charged R1800 for the chip. When the bill was emailed to us, we also saw they charged us R237 for a two-hour late return. We were there 45 minutes late and have the petrol receipt from 3 minutes away to prove it. Regardless, in most reputable places you are given an hour's grace.
Also, as we worked our way through the bill, we saw they also charged another R400+ more than the original quote for no reason at all.
You have been warned. The only thing Avis excels in is shady overcharging practices and inconveniencing customers. Lesson learned. Despicable company.

Avis Cape Town is fraudulent in its charging. How about R560 for sand on passenger side carpet?!!! How about a security alarm system which you can't register for?!
Vote with your feet, go anywhere else, Avis is bad

They charged me for damage which was on the car when we collected. It was even noted down by their colleague and a picture taken. On the day of returning the car there was no issues, until a few days after we returned home when they took $300.
Customer service is non-existent when you explain the damage was there and noted on the form. Corrupt, is all I can say.

We live 400km North of Cape Town and last week due to our car breaking down in Cape Town, we had to rent a car. I shopped around and Avis was 40% cheaper than the next equivalent and available vehicle. I went into Strand Street and drove out 10 minutes later. I was due to return to Strand street today and called 2 days ago to change this to Cape Town International. No problem! A R78 charge which is half the uber fare from town to the airport. Car returned, through airport security and my husband called to say he'd left his wallet in the car... no problem! He called them, they had it and he has it back. Incredible service from start to finish. Thank you Avis Strand Street and Cape Town International Airport teams.

I hired a car for £175. They have taken £750 out of my account on blatant lies about vehicle damage. STAY AWAY! They will simply rob you. 84% reviews with 1 star, says it all!

I wouldn't be surprised if an INVESTIGATION of this company in a few years time shows extortionate amounts of money STOLEN from the public without the correct protocol and systems in place.

I am a South African living in the United Kingdom. Decided to go home with my partner for a holiday and rented a car with Avis.

We hit a pot hole and had to exchange car as there was a flat tire which I paid to repair myself - received email saying damage WAS COVERED by insurance.

2 weeks later £427 taken from my account without any invoicing.

I have a business where patient card details are on our programs and systems. We never take money out of patient accounts without WRITTEN or VERBAL CONSENT (WITH) appropriate invoicing details. IT IS ILLEGAL to sway from this protocol.

FRAUDULANT and CRIMINAL! Unbelievable service. How an investigation into this company hasn't taken place is disgusting! How can a company take money out of people's account without systems in place and invoicing explaining costs? IT. IS. CRIMINAL AND THIEVES! In 2023 huge companies getting away with being corporate bullies.

I will be taking this further.

This company is getting away with robbing people and making money off people - its CORRUPT. STAY AWAY

Very poor I returned the car on the 23rd of November 23 and still my money not released. When you call its either do not picking up the phone. Very 😞

NEVER EVER RENT A CAR THERE, i rented they gave me GPS. Turns out NOT WORKING. i had to come back to airport again after 30 minutes WITHOUT GPS. I delivered car with a WITHOUT DAMAGE paper signed by me and their agent. Then they charge me with EXTRA DAMAGE.

Absolutely horrible.
They charged me an arm and a leg for a supposed dent and chip. I am pretty sure those were there already on the vehicle. Absolutely atrocious service. Whilst the sign on was quick, and handover of vehicle quick, this backslap was horrible. When I took the vehicle, it was at night, and a cleaner handed over the vehicle. It was very fast. I did not have the time or the training to look for every little dent and scratch. When I gave back the vehicle, it was day, and an inspector inspected the vehicle. He looked at very, very closely, inspecting every inch of the car with a fine-toothed comb. I couldn't even see the dent they said was there. I had taken a top-line insurance package they had, and they still charged me. Absolutely atrocious.

They will make you beg for your deposit.
Inspection on return of the car went smooth. They confirmed that all was in order. I had also put full tank petrol. It’s been a month of constant follow ups on twitter and their call centre about my deposit. I keep being told it will be released in 48hrs. I am still waiting. An entire month later. Ref E712033593

Scammers, trying to say I’ve caused an invisible dent by the mirrors, I had the car for just over one day, Avis/Budget I have pictures and proof and will contest this. Be sure to take video and lots of photos. Wish I had read more reviews!

All good, car, service price etc etc, until ......... return. Confirmed at return all good and fuel full, but no documents given to confirm. Filled with fuel. And then charged for filling. How ??
Not a lot of money, but makes an absolute joke of a full to full policy. Never happened before anywhere in the world.

I rented a car from Avis in Cape Town for 6 days filled the car up (as the agent informed me of a charge that I would incur if I didn’t fill it up before dropping the car off) and returned the car last evening only to be told I would be charged R600 due to there being some beach sand on the floor of the car. Myself and my family have hired car rentals for many years and not ONCE has there been any mention of additional charges for sand on the floor of the car. As a rental car service a basic clean of the car after use should be covered in the rental cost of the car (especially since I didn’t receive a particularly spotless car to begin with). Are we now expected to valet the cars after renting before returning??? It’s absolutely ridiculous. Not only that but a charge of R600 to remove a little bit of sand from the floor of the car is exorbitant!! I could have my entire car professionally cleaned for half that price!! I contacted AVIS to complain and they said I would have to pay because anything that can't be cleaned with their 'standard 20 minute vacuum routine' would require a charge for a full valet. There is NO WAY that the sand on the floor of the car could not have been removed with a quick vacuum. What is to be done about this because I honestly believe Avis is taking complete advantage of their customers and I will ensure myself and my family never do business with Avis again.

I rented a car from Avis on the 7th of July 2023 and returned the on the 3rd of August 2023. To date I am still waiting for Avis to release my deposit. When I contacted Avis they insisted it was my bank who must release the funds. I have gone to my bank and they have assured me that it’s an Avis issue and Avis needs to release the Deposit. I have called Avis numerous times and still NO ONE has bother to sort this issue out. Avis are very quick to take the money but when it comes to returning it they take their time or they either pocket it who knows. I want the funds released back into my account. Absolutely disgusting how you treat your customers.

I returned the car at 12pm on the 6 September. I even filled up the fuel. The car was inspected by an Avis gentleman and signed off in my presence that everything was 100 percent in order. There was no chip on the windscreen when I returned it.

The next day at 12:30, I received a phone call from Avis saying they discovered a chip on the windscreen whilst washing the car and that I will be billed for it. I told the gentleman there was no chip when I returned it and it over 24 hours and that he must check his records and with the gentleman who inspected the car on my return. He said the gentleman was absent.

Today I discovered an amount of R1178, 49 debited to my credit card. Then I get another sms saying I am liable for R2584, 78.

Please advise how I am liable when there was no chip when I returned it and the staff who inspected confirmed there was no damage to my vehicle?How can I be held liable for this 25 hours later, when the cars are parked in an open area, near the road when any other passing car could have caused it. Perhaps it was even driven by their team members when they wash it.

This is daylight robbery.

DO NOT!!! I say do not use this service company ever should you rent a vehicle they are the most terrible croaks I have ever met.
I rented out a vehicle from them and returned it and upon their inspection, they advised the vehicle was damaged with a dent that isn't showing clearly almost like a reflection.
They took my entire 2, 5k and it okay I got more where that comes from but as human being I thought I rather warm others who might not be in the same situation as mine financially and also for consumer fair policy. They are terribly don't use them at all.

We have never hired a car from Avis in the past being very aware of their bad reputation. It appears AVIS are the only ones unaware of how they are perceived. Unfortunately, car failure whilst we were on holiday, necessitated us leaving our car at a local garage in Nelspruit and finding an alternative to drive ourselves back to JHB. The garage suggested AVIS at it was near close of business by the time we had towed the car back to Nelspruit and although we were resistant to the suggestion we felt we had little choice in the matter considering the time constraints. The car was collected for one day's hire in pouring rain and no pre-check was done. We returned the car to OR Tambo airport before 2pm only to be told by the check in clerk that the car was not leased under our name. We went directly to the AVIS counter to clarify same and closed the account, although it took almost an hour and we had to argue about the pre-lease damages to the car which were eventually found on record. We were assured that the reserve amount on our credit card and the bill would be finalised within 3 - 5 working days. This has been our experience with every other car hire company we have used and without complaint I wish to stress. The hire car was returned on the 21st July. It is now the 8th August. The reserve amount has not been reversed and we have been debited for 4 days car hire totaling almost R19 000 impacting our ability to fully use our credit card. In the interim we have been in constant contact with the AVIS dispute department and made three visits to the ORT branch, taking valuable time from our businesses, to demand that the account be corrected. In 40 years of hiring cars both locally and abroad we have never experienced this level of deliberate ineptitude. We have had our money fraudulently debited and treated with a level of disrespect that is unacceptable.
AVIS should be ashamed of themselves for daring to advertise themselves as a premium car hire choice. Ashamed of themselves for shocking administration, shocking professionalism and shocking service. To treat anybody with this level of dismissal and abuse of rights is unacceptable but to treat older people so even more so.

I have recently returned from South Africa and hired 2 cars one from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and one from and returning to Jo'burg airport. I have been charged extra for filling a full fuel tank for the Johannesburg car hire (I took a photo of the full fuel gauge when I handed the car back and kept the receipt for the final refill). I have been charged for e-Tolls for the Cape Town car hire - while there are e-Tolls in Jo'burg, there are no e-tolls in Cape Town as far as I am aware, just toll booths where I stopped and paid each time (I'm not sure the Cape Town car was even fitted with the electronic tag that reads e-tolls). The amounts are small, but this still feels like corruption / fraud, or at the very least incompetence. The cars were hired through the BA website and prepaid in full, Avis are even trying to add extra for car hire that was fully prepaid! (no additional extras were added at the time I picked the cars up).

Bad experience from start to finish. Vehicles not correctly maintained. No accountability. Terrible at answering phones. No leadership.

After using Avis' competitors for a few years, I decided to give them a try as we are frequently in CT on business. When booking, I was given the option to input all data at that point, to expedite the experience at the desk. After dutifully doing so, and being specific around the type and brand of vehicle we wanted, we arrived at Avis to collect the car. Frustratingly, it took ages at the desk, as they recaptured all the information I submitted online. Then (despite it being the middle of the week, with no major events on in CT), we were told that the car we had booked was not available, and we were given another car. The car was dirty, with bird poop down the windscreen right in my field of view. I asked them to clean it. They said we should just use the wipers. Said bird poop was too set in and dry, so we had to hunt down a windscreen cleaner, and the windscreen was cleaned. Then we set off. As soon as we hit the straight out of the parking lot, we realized the steering wheel was so off-centre, we would need to drive with it 45 degrees swung to the right. Highly annoyed by now, I return straight back to Avis and demand a car in proper condition. Another vehicle was brought to us, as they lazily watched us transfer our luggage without offering to give a hand. No pre-inspection was done, but we were now late and decided to just get on the road. The car was not brand new, to say the least. This appalling experience was concluded by an email (no phone call, and the "assessors" don't have direct line numbers) saying that we had damaged the rim of the car and would be billed accordingly. I am still awaiting evidence from them to this effect. I certainly never damaged the car. But be that as it may, the whole experience was absolutely shocking. This is not a premium brand - stay away! Update - after speaking to one of their employees for an extended period of time a few days ago, neither she, nor her manager, bothered to call me back. We have since been debited for the "damages" despite them saying that they would show me photo/video evidence first.

I rented a car with Avis at Durban airport. I had to bring it back early in the morning due to an early flight meaning no one would be able check at the time of drop off. There was no damage or scratches on the car, yet they still charged me 2600 rand without notice or reason. I had to email them a couple times and threaten them with a lawyer before they reacted. They then sent me photos of a scratch which wasn't mine. Now I have to escalate it. Absolute scam. Don't rent with them