Avis Car Rental - Chicago Midway Regional Airport - MDW - Illinois - USA

I made my reservation 2 months ago. Called to confirm my reservation and vehicle (Ford Escape) the day prior. I arrived at Midway airport at 12:30am. Kelly at customer service was horrible. She had attitude, very rude, and failed to explain any question I had. I was not given the vehicle I reserved (which was confirmed the day prior) but was offered a downsize or a mini van. Since my husband is disabled, we didn’t have a choice and took the mini van, felt like we were driving a bus. I was charged $200 more than the price I was quoted. I’m new to the area and was not aware of how the ipass worked because she never explained how to use it. The van’s transmission was slipping and the windshield wipers didn’t work very well, it rained 5 of the 8 days I was out there. Upon returning the van, the customer service rep, Racheal, gave us a discount of $75 which was really nice of her to do but I’m sure will only cover the tolls that may have accumulated during the week. (I won’t know because I don’t know how to retrieve my toll info). My experience was terrible and I would never recommend this rental company to anyone! Kelly should be fired and never have a job working for the public again!!!!

We rented this car for a business trip to Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee and had customer appointments set up for the three days we were in the area. On the first day, our car broke down on I-355 in Chicago around 1:40 pm, 2 hours after we rented it. This car was fairly new and just all of a sudden lost all power.

We called the Avis number to report this and they said they had a location 8 miles from where we were and they would get us a new car. We then got a text from the tow truck company saying he would be there at 3:53 pm with the new car. Needless to say we were not happy about this and called in again to explain we had customer appointments we were going to miss, that it was almost 90 degrees outside and we were stuck on the side of the highway where cars and trucks we whizzing by at 75-80 miles per hour and we did not feel this was a safe place to be. We asked the Avis agent to send someone from their location 8 miles away to pick us up and get us off the road, where we would be safe and in air conditioning. Instead they said they would get the tow truck driver to us more quickly. Well, that was a lie because the driver showed up exactly at 3:53 pm. So we had no water, in 90 degree heat for over 2 hours and we missed our three appointments which will result in lost sales to our company.

After this we exchanged several email with Avis to ask how they planned on making this up to us for the inconvenience and lost time and sales. They replied by saying we had to address it with the Avis people at the airport when we returned and that there was nothing they could do. Upon our return, the Avis people were not at all familiar with what happened or interested in hearing what happened. They gave us credit for one day of the rental. Now we had a Vice President and a Regional Sales Manager stuck in a hot car on a dangerous highway for over 2 hours who missed 3 appointments, and that loss of productivity at about $320, plus the loss of sales, is a bit more than the $68 they gave us in a discount. After the fact, we emailed them one last time to give them a chance to make this right and they refused.

Avis had a chance to make this right. It is very short sighted on their part to do nothing further. Even just good customer skills would have helped smooth things over. The least they could have done is credited the whole amount and apologized. The cost of the rental is not our concern as we have people traveling the US, Canada and Mexico every week and $250 is not going to break our company. The issue is how we were treated, left in a hot and unsafe environment and our concerns all but disregarded. Avis has been removed from our list of approved car rental companies.

First let me preface this review by saying I travel frequently and we always rent from Avis, we are a corporate direct bill customer with specific rates pre-established. I arrived at MDW and was shuttled to the rental car center. I generally check with the counter as it is hit or miss if I am on the "Preferred" check in board. It is usually no issue and at nearly every other airport the Avis staff have me on my way in minutes. This however, was not one of those occasions. I stopped at the counter, explained that I was not sure if I was on the Preferred board, but that I did have a reservation. The attendant checked my reservation and driver's license and then told me they would have to check if they had any cars. She told me I could be on my way immediately if I wanted to take the Lincoln Navigator for an additional $45 per day over the $67 per day corporate rate. I declined and asked for the standard mid-size SUV that I always rent, Explorer, Equinox, Journey, etc...she said she would have to call the "shed", which I took to mean the booth outside in the lot. She called and called and called, 20 minutes and could not get an answer. She checked with another agent to confirm the extension was correct, and called again. After several more minutes of no response she again offered the Navigator, this time at an additional $25 per day. I said no, I would not pay, nor have the company pay any additional fees over the corporate negotiated rates, and if they did not have the car I reserved, they should just give me the next best thing. She again offered the Navigator and I said sure, if it is no additional charge. Ah, but no, it would be $25 additional per day. I again declined. Suddenly, she was able to get through to the "shed" and they told her that they had a Ford Flex for me. Then the additional upsells...Navigation? No thank you...Additional insurance? No, thank you, please check our rate info, we have a negotiated insurance waiver...oh, right I see...how about gas? No, again please check our rate, we return empty or without refueling and we are billed for the fuel at the current prepay rate, it's all right there in our corporate agreement. Finally, 35 minutes standing at the counter and I was on my way...Avis should try harder to not try the upsell so hard, there must be a heck of an incentive or bonus for those upsells...for a business traveler, getting in and out quickly is the real upsell.