San Francisco - California Highway 1 - Los Angeles - Las Vegas - Salt Lake City - Yellowstone Nation

Friendly and smiling staff

It's okay.

I had prepaid the full amount and arrived at the store at around 12:30 am, only to be told there were no cars available in the reserved category. They insisted I pay an additional $100 per day to upgrade, or else I could only get a 12-seater van. Unacceptable! I tried contacting the rental company, but their phone line was always busy. Online customer service said the rental company needed to provide proof of no available cars, which the AVIS staff refused to issue. They kept trying to convince me to pay the $100 upgrade. After much argument and a dying phone battery, I left the counter to charge my phone at a nearby table. Only then did the staff call me back, saying they had a returned car available. It took an hour of wrangling to finally get the car at 1 am. Shame on AVIS!

The store staff was quite helpful and managed to find us a Chrysler upon our request. Although it was a lower-end variant, it was the model we wanted as we are familiar with its driving features.

The cars from Avis in San Francisco are not very new. When I went to pick up the car, they informed me that the reserved model was not available and gave me a very old Ford instead, claiming it was the only similar model available. If I wanted to change cars, I had to pay extra. I saw many similar models at the pickup point, but after checking and returning to the counter, they still insisted it wasn't the same type and that I had to pay extra. The attendant was Chinese and tried to overcharge me just the same. I thought a big company like Avis wouldn’t have such issues. Finally, after arguing with the manager, they gave me another car, which they claimed was an upgraded Ford Explorer.