Stanford, Silicon Valley, Yosemite National Park, California Highway 1, etc.

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!