A complaint and a tip, all in one email, what a happy day, albeit not one for Avis car rental.

You can’t fault them, though, they’re Avis and as #2, they really do try harder. It may not be to your benefit, but they try, nonetheless.

If you’re a pack of circus clowns on a budget, don’t rent from Avis. They probably don’t have a small enough car for you.

Find out more in Brian’s letter, after the jumparoonie…

“My wife and I just got back from a trip to San Diego. We rented a car from Avis (through Hotwire, not that it matters) for our 6 day stay. We rented a compact because it was cheapest and it was really all we needed.

When we got to the Avis terminal at the airport to pick up our car, the customer service representative was quite aggressive in trying to get us to upgrade from a compact to a mid-size car. We politely told her no, but she wouldn’t let up, even trying the “you’re really tall, how are you going to fit in a compact” line on me. We again politely declined, at which point she paused and said “Well, how about a free upgrade?”. We asked her what she meant, and she said “we actually don’t have any compacts left, so you’re automatically upgraded to the larger size”. So they were trying to sell us something that we were going to get for free!

If we had said yes, we’ll pay for the upgrade, would she really have gone ahead with charging us, knowing they didn’t have any compact cars left? I like to think not, but somehow I think she would have.

Here’s a tip–she said they only have like 3 compact cars in the lot on any given day, so odds are quite good that they will sell out and you’ll get upgraded to a larger size car. I assume this is the case for most Avis locations. The lesson–never, ever upgrade to the larger size!”

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