Brussels Car Hire

Avis swore at me in front of my kids

Cons: I have rented cars for 10 years and have never been treated in such a disrespectful and rude way as I did at the Brussels airport during our family's Christmas vacation. When picking up the car, I was pressured in multiple ways to get insurance. Neither the man at the desk nor the man at the parking garage seemed to respect my decision not to get insurance. They implied I was not smart to decline insurance. When I picked up the car, I noticed a large dent on the right side that was not documented. I drove it 100 yards to the office and the man was very suspicious of me. He made comments that I created the dent myself in those 100 yards. He was reluctant to document it on the form. He did not sign the document. The fact that he did not sign it, and the fact that there was an undocumented damage to the car, are important for the rest of the story. The car had a lingering cigarette smell in it during the entire trip. The car, a Peugot suv, performed very well during our trip. When I returned the car, we had a short amount of time before we had to make our flight. We were treated to a fifteen minute inspection of the vehicle, with no interest paid to the fact that we were on a timeline. I have never in 10 years of renting cars been subjected to a fifteen minute car inspection, whether or not I had a flight to catch. During the inspection, the Avis man (a different one from earlier -- named Ciorbea - a bald man shorter than the original employee) was extremely suspicious of the dent in the car. He questioned me, then I told him it was the other man, a taller man with more hair, who documented the dent. The two of them discussed it, and it was apparent the two employees had little respect for each other. The form was not signed by the original employee, nor was there a picture taken of it, when I checked out the car - this is what Ciorbea didn't like. The bald man finally accepted that the dent was not my fault; but what if the original employee was not working the day I brought the car back? I do not have any hope that Ciorbea would believe me. Ciorbea found a light scratch on the front left of the vehicle. He consternated over this for another five or ten minutes and questioned me on this. We pointed out that there is no way to prove that we caused the scratch, because we found undocumented damage on the car to begin with. This angered him and he dismissed our point. Then, he assigned two separate "small" charges which totaled over 300 euros. I questioned him: "how do you know it will cost 300 euros to fix this?" He got angry with me and told me he was just doing his job, and that there are "American smart asses upstairs at Avis" who make the rules. I declined to sign the contract because I disputed the damage assessment. I wondered to myself, if charging customers for damage repair is so important, how did I receive a vehicle with three major dents, unrepaired? Where does the damage money go? I was astonished as this man swore in front

Unhelpful

Pros: Nothing

Cons: The drop off process takes too long and is also really confusing to find out how to actually find the drop off location in their maze of a parking garage. There was only one guy, and although he was very thuroigh, it resulted in us sitting in our car for 20 minutes before actually dropping off. At drop off I realized the price was shown in euros as opposed to dollars like it should have been. When I alerted the gentleman to this he informed me I needed to go upstairs to the counter to deal with it, no problem at all. After going upstairs and explaining my concern, I was told “well you signed for it so it’s closed, nothing I can do.” He stated doing anything was “literally impossible” which seemed odd to me. I asked him if I could use a phone to call the other office and I think they’d be able to help as they made the reservation, and it was like pulling teeth to get him to let me use a phone. I called the original office and got no answer, then called the customer service number and they told me their systems were down. I went on way and found a way to call the original office about an hour later and after a short 5 minute conversation the price was adjusted back to the original like it should have been. The Rotterdam office made this experience great, and then happily fixed it when it went bad.

Fraudulent and terrible company

Pros: Car was clean and somewhat new. Original deal sounded good.

Cons: I booked via Kayak, then got a confirmation email from Avis. I am from the US and was booking a luxury car (E class or similar) for Europe. I was quoted 563.29 (USD) at that time, which is why I booked it. The problems began when I arrived at the car counter in Brussels. 1) they requested that I have an American Express card only (never heard of that in my life) to put a large deposit down on the car. I don't have an American Express card and did not book with one. Not once on any email to me did they mention I needed that. 2) so, I was forced to not get the car I wanted for the trip of a lifetime in Europe. Instead of an E class Mercedes, I was told I would get a VW Toureag, then was given a VW Passat Wagon, NOT EVEN CLOSE to an E class Mercedes, for a new price of 967.44 Euros = 1160.93 USD. I'm sorry, what?? So I get a worse car and my price DOUBLES? Not to mention this experience took over an hour and had to be restarted 3 times, taking away from my vacation time. 3) When I dropped the car off, I end up being charged 1293.02, even MORE than the above figure. I realize I purchased insurance, which would be more. I also realize that I returned it with less than a full tank, and was charged over $105 Euros (how is that even legal for a half tank refill?), but my price increased by over $740 for a WORSE car. I would like this email to be sent to a supervisor so I can get a refund on what I can only call very shady and misleading business practices. I was unable to change things at the counter at the time because I was overseas.

Cons: I was ultimately charged more than three times what I was quoted through your site and I later learned that by using KAYAK my price was even higher .

fraud

Cons: We paid a very high premium at the airport for insurance. The clerk took advantage of the fact that we arrived in the evening with 3 children. The price came out 796 Euros for 9 days. The site had only a supplementary insurance option. Finally we only made basic insurance. Finally we came out with the highest price of all the companies. We have often rented vehicles in the past and this is the first and last time we will hire Avis. We are considering filing a claim due to fraud.

Cons: Wanted a car I could get into and out of easily, got a Megane which was very difficult for this old guy.