Avis Rent A Car New Zealand Anmeldelser 

Tale of two islands. Picked up a car in Greymouth to tour the South Island. Booking hall is cramped and busy on arrival of tranzalpine train. Was only shown small photos of the vehicle and no direct inspection. Had booked to have mechanical breakdown cover included but told us this was not included and we had to pay an additional costs for breakdown assistance. Also suggested they were doing us a favour by not charging for second driver when the booking had a second driver included. When I managed to view documents and confirm we already had breakdown cover customer service refused to refund the money they had taken. Just kept saying we'd sign the agreement and refused to consider that the second agreement was made under false pretences. Overall their customer service depart is an impenetrable web. You just go round in circles. Returned to car to Blenheim airport - no staff on duty just had to post the keys - so no opportunity to ensure walkaround or discuss breakdown issues. Picked up a second car in Wellington to tour North Island. Much better customer service from Wellington office - no issues with breakdown cover or second driver; all good. (Second car was a Mitsubishi ASX which is rubbish and grossly underpowered but that's another issue). Dropping the car at Auckland was a bit traumatic as the instructions about where to leave the care are not specific. Its in a car park and has to be on a certain level - but we got there eventually. Then managed to leave my (expensive) camera in the boot of the car. Hats off to the Auckland office they rang me to say they had found it and very kindly kept it at the office until I could call to collect it a week later. Offered a contribition to the staff Christmas party but they kindly refused. So 10/10 for customer service to the Auckland office 1.5/10 for the rest of the service and 0/10 for the customer service team.

We booked a rental in NZ for Rarotonga pick-up. On picking up we found that the quoted prices was in US dollars, not NZ. So we incurred another $400 of cost. ( NB- this is our 10th trip to Raro and we usually pay $50 NZ per day ). At the end of the day, we found their representative at Raro 'Louisa' to be quite rude and unhelpful. We brought the car back when she told us to- and then charged us an extra day. She didn't want to inspect the car whilst we were there - until we insisted, and again, got a bad attitude. She told us 'not to ruin her day' and, that 'she was always good to us people'! We would never hire Avis again and recommend that no one else does. It seems to be normal behaviour for Avis.

ok, I think this story typifies the care factor of Avis Car rentals. My licence was stolen and modified and used to rent a car, the car amassed a heap of tickets. the car was not returned to Avis and they sent an investigator to see me who agreed that it wasn't me and the police already knew this! I then contact them via phone (help desk) and email several times and they refuse to acknowledge that they are responsible for the tickets or even return my calls or emails. Unbelievably rude and incompetent. I will share the story to anyone who listen

Picked up vehicle in Auckland for our trip south to end up in Christchurch. We had an excellent customer service from Brendan who was very helpful, knowledgeable, friendly, funny but professional at all times.
The whole process was easy, vehicle was excellent - a Toyota Rav 4.
Dropping the vehicle off at Christchurch was equally easy and efficiently handled. Thank you for your assistance and based on our experience I would highly recommend AVIS.

Just dreadful
Made charges to my credit card nearly four months after my last (very last!) rental with them. Despite four emails to their customer "service" team I have still not received any explanation. Never again - there are lots of competitors ... I certainly will never use Avis NZ again. VERY unhappy.

Booked and paid rental for Friday 1 March 4,00pm pick up. Last minute my ride to Avis in Auckland cancelled & I was unable to get another. Picked the car up the next morning when they first opened. Copped an extra 250 AUD charge unbeknown to me...found out when my cc got charged. In dispute with them. But their 'customer service' who has been contacted on four occasions has not resolved the issue. Never again...UPDATE...finally got a refund. Thank you Avis......but it took nearly a month.

Update 08/04 - after a month later, AVIS refunded the £1,100 charge and only £1,072.97 of the secondary £1708.47 charge (THEY HAVE CHARGED ME £635.50 FOR A £35 CHIPPED SCREEN REPAIR!). I’m still disputing this remaining charge balance as it is completely shocking to be charging this amount for something so minor.

Customer service have been useless and avoiding my numerous emails.

Original post -
I declared a small chip during our rental upon return at Auckland airport. I now have charges of over £2.8k against my credit card and no one is coming back to me with the damage report with the correct costs for me to raise this with my insurance. I am now unable to use my credit card as the limit it max’d out.

I see that most reviews here are negative but I can only say what my experience was. No wait at the counter at Wellington Airport. No hard sell, juat a polite enquiry about insurance. A few minutes later I was in my nice and clean (and fairly new) RAV4. Very easy return at Auckland Airport to a cheery and helpful staff member. I used Dollar on the South Island and they were acceptable, but AVIS was better. I would use them again.

After my fully paid booking I was charged an extra $601 with no explanation. After going back and forth with customer service for weeks (offshore), I got back $425 in an attempt to silence me. I have all the evidence for AVIS' mistake but the offshore customer support team does not talk to the branch. Here we are.

Rented a car from Auckland Airport Avis
Upon returning the car I left my Beats Pro headphones in the back seat and had a phone call so distracted me from grabbing them as I left
Have phone numerous times and apparently the entire car was cleaned out and they didn’t find my headphones
100% they were on the back seat
Someone had obviously decided to swipe them and not do the honest thing and report them

Customer service is ridiculous as they say they have no phone contact with the Auckland office and email replies take 2-3days they say
No help at all

I would not recommend Avis Auckland
Disgusting behaviour, bad communication and the process for lost property is non-existent.

I was stranded in Oamaru after my car broke down, I needed to get back to Christchurch. There are no one way rentals in Oamaru and the AA couldn’t help, Avis Timaru to the rescue! Georgina from Avis drove down and picked me up then sorted a car for me and had the AA pay for it. She was amazing! Absolutely above and beyond friendly service, I can not recommend Avis highly enough or express my gratitude clearly enough. Just incredible!

Questa azienda e la piu bassa forma di fecci Sulla terra. Abbiamo fatto danni minimi all’auto, ci hanno prelevato 1800 euro dalla nostra carat Di credito

Normally no problems with avis.
But this time at Wellington the young lady was responsible for ruining our holiday and leaving us with no money for food accommodation petrol. The support team just said sorry but no alternative to help or transfer us to a manager despite asking.
This girl stated we could not pick up and drop off at different places. She actually cancelled our contract without permission or confirming. Then without permission or our knowledge money was taken out of our holiday account not once but twice.
We had to then contact home o.s to send $. We felt abandoned. Ignored. Vulnerable scared. And robbed. To be told we had to wait till Tue as Monday is a public holiday this happened on Friday afternoon. What a way to ruin someone. All because of an incompetent person.

Would not recommend avis nz. Picked up at auckland having prepaid via my travel agent. A huge bond of £2500 was pending on my credit card for the whole trip meaning i was near my limit. After drop off i was charged for the whole hire period (£2500!) despite me having paid prior to pick up. Customer services not interested in investigating- blamed the travel agent. Shocking treatment- ive hired cars all over the world and never come across such a shambles. Im atill waiting for a refund but will be seeking legal advice if its not forthcoming soon.

I'm very happy with Avis at Timaru airport. One time my suitcase was badly damaged in the hold of the aeroplane and unusable so the staff member went to her home to lend me her suitcase so I could keep travelling. This was off the last flight, and later in the evening. That was a very kind thing to do. They always do the best for me.

If I could give 0 stars I would. Unprofessional, rude staff at Timaru airport branch, ineadequate advise about the vehicle, made to sign damage report before viewing the vehicle. Ended up having to pay for AA call out, easily avoided if staff were properly trained and customer friendly! Never had such a disappointing experience renting a car. Stay away!

I, too, was billed for nonexistent damages to the car I rented, though I rented from Budget (same company). I will NEVER rent from Avis Budget Group again. I was billed $550 for damage to my rental car without being notified, and the corporate "customer service" office's stance is that I signed a rental agreement, so they don't have to provide me with any proof that the car was damaged. I have no idea what "damage" they claim was done to the car. We drove the car from Nelson to Queenstown without incident, and returned the car at the Queenstown Airport location. No one was there to check the car in, and I was directed to simply drop off the keys at the desk in the terminal building, which I did. Like an idiot, I didn't take pictures of the car first, trusting that a reputable corporation like Budget wouldn't bother to cheat me out of $550. Apparently, I was incorrect in that assumption.

I promptly refused the additional charge to my credit card and filed a formal complaint. A year later, they are still refusing to provide any explanation for the charge and are sending bills to collect the additional money.

Rent from anyone else. Avoid Avis and Budget at all costs.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL IF YOU RENT CARS AT QUEENSTOWN AIRPORT AVIS.

If you do please make sure you have a video with someone before and after to check the car is not damaged. They will be as hands off as possible to make sure you cannot argue if you get a bill. If you are nervous or seem compliant you will be defrauded. Make sure you take someone with you and examine the car with you and ask that you drop the car into a person not the mailbox.

Have your own insurance and also if you’re relying on your own credit card insurance you need to take out their basic insurance as well to be covered otherwise it doesn’t cover you. Never agree to just take the car as is. These people are aiming to make money off you. They will note down if you are a good mark. The girls on the counter seem nice but they are in on it because of their commission. The panelbeaters they use are also in on it. The prices quoted make no sense and the “Treatment” does not match the damage.

I have recently been pursued for a fictional damage incident and have contacted the police. I refuse to be extorted by a company for something I did not do. I spent the entire trip worried about damaging the car, little did I know I would be stung anyway.

Seems we have imported that foreign problems of car fraud commonplace with AVIS worldwide. I can afford to pay the bill but what about those people who cannot? Let’s get rid of them. Stay safe consumers.

I had exactly the same experience as Alexander described below. I was overcharged after returning my car to Auckland Airport office on Jan 17th, but with no explanation. More than a month later, after several emails and phone calls, i am still waiting for an explanation/ refund from Avis. Hope they read this review.