Avis Rent A Car

Took long time to find the car. Charge you for suspending return. Took forever for the return. Don’t used it

I would like to give zero star if I can. They refuse to give me a car even I had a reservation because they do not have a car! They just said it is because of their system problem, but this is the second time it happened and I can’t believe they haven’t fixed it.

Avoid this location at all costs!!! Have been here for an hour and have not gotten my car yet!!! This people are so disorganized and it is really frustrating to deal with!!! Never use this location! Do yourself a favor!!!

Worst rental experience I have ever had. Pickup is very slow as the counter staff are not prepared, the cars themselves are in an unmarked area with staff in unidentifiable clothing, and we had a ridiculous situation where one employee had 3 cars to clean and the other had none but refused to help the other. On drop off, we were not informed that there are no after hours key drops so were forced to return the next day. Location is run horribly with staff who have no interest in providing customer service.

If you don’t have patience don’t rent a car in this Avis! Every Friday or Saturday morning you need to wait 1 or 2 hours in the line and every time your car isn’t ready! If you have an appointment is sure that you’ll be late!

Have rented a car from here now twice and have not had any issues. Line has never been longer than a couple people, if at all. Customer service is hit or miss. This last time I picked up a car the staff member was having what sounded like a private conversation and never spoke to me, just handed me papers to sign without explaining anything. He didn’t give me keys and just told me to get them from Cody in the garage. Had to search the garage for this guy to get the keys, bit of a hassle. For the price and convenience to/​from city I’d definitely rent from here again.

really really bad experience the worst rental spot i ever had.
I used priceline, it had a cheaper price, but can’t cancel. and also I couldn’t know the exact rental house before paying. but it’s fine. on that day, I went there.
1.There were only 2 signs which said: return cars arrow to a parking lot. So I thought it’s in a parking lot. spent 20mins to find the rental house is in the lobby of the shopping mall.
2.Then, I booked a mid sized car. they gave me a really small Ford Fiesta.
3.The officer asked me to go to the parking lot to pick up my car. I went there. the guy told me I should go back again to get the key.
I went back to the front desk, I only need to get the key. everything else was already fine. But the officer still said: please wait in the line. you will be the next… it just took 3 seconds to give me the key.
5.then I used the ticket from the rental house to get out of the parking lot. I drove to the 1^st floor. didn’t work. drove back, the guy told me I had to swipe the machine on the second floor. THEY didn’t told me, so wasted a lot of time.
6.and now, i just notice, I used the driving license translation file. they didnt gave it to me back… tomorrow 6am I need to go and rent a car… no file…
REALLY BAD SERVICE.

I just want to chime in that I’ve rented from this place many times and I’ve never had any real issues. Sometimes it can take a bit to check in or check out, as they don’t have many employees, but everything else has been great: no hidden charges, rudeness, whatever. My only real complaint is they often sell out of cars so I have to rent from somewhere else!
Also, like, it’s not this place’s fault is the map at the mall kiosk is wrong, so it’s kind of funny to lead a one-​star review with that.

Lousy customer service, rude staff, no clear direction on how to return the car. Overall experience is terrible.

We have rented the car from this location many times. Everytime there is a delay since the staff is very ignorant and irresponsible. Many a times we had to face issues while renting out the car either because the system was down or their employees were careless.
Do check out the cars before you rent because sometimes the cars are not cleaned and also smell bad.

Terrible experience. We had a prepaid reservation at 10 am. When we asked about the car, they said we need to wait for up to two hours for the car. They don’t care about the customers and their time, and the guy on the front desk was so annoying and arrogant.
Ps. It is 12:30 pm and we still don’t have the car that we paid for days before.
So unprofessional! Just avoid them.

The service staff is rude and ignorant of the concept of customer relations. They don’t have a separate desk for Preferred customers either, so you are waiting on line with leisure travelers even when you are in a hurry to get on the road for business.

I booked Avis after getting a great deal using Priceline. Then I literally freaked out after reading some of the reviews below. But I had a great experience, clean car, and could even drop it off on Sunday. If you’re reading these reviews to decide who to rent from, Avis worked well for as have most of the rental car agencies in JC.

I thought it was worth throwing in there that I’ve rented from this location multiple times, and I’ve never had any issues. I did read reviews in advance so I knew how to find the location (kiosk inside the mall). It’s not a great set up, as others have mentioned, because the cars aren’t right there for you to inspect with a staff member. But I come here for the rates which are often half (or even less) of Manhattan rates. Customer service has always been fine. Sometimes there’s a long line because of all the New Yorkers trying to get the better rates. I’ve been «upgraded» to a larger car than I wanted sometimes (I prefer smaller for better gas mileage), but that happens at lots of off-​airport locations as they have to bring in the cars from the airport, which gives them the cars that they’re trying to get rid of. They’re one of the few locations that is open on a Sunday, particularly in the late afternoon, if you want to rent a car for the weekend, which usually makes it the best option for us. Never really had problems with returns, either with waiting excessively long or damages or any issues.
We walk to this location from the Grove Street PATH station when we don’t feel like transferring trains to the Newport Station, and it’s about 12 minutes.

Literally no signage to find this place. Wandered through the parking garage, around the mall… The mall map is literally WRONG. Wasted nearly 20 minutes wandering with heavy bags. At least have signs directing you to it outside and in the mall. Common business practice. Come on! Oh also, the cars are quite far from the desk. Enjoy!

The most pathetic and disorganised service. Each person will typically take 15 minutes at the counter because of their extremely inefficient service reps. Most disgustingly, their record keeping system is a notebook. A notebook!!! Whatever happened to IT.
The only reason I bear this torture is due to their location being the most convenient and rates being reasonable. If I can find even a slightly better service for a premium, I’ll take it.
I just wish zipcar would stop charging their insane weekend rates and it’ll be goodbye forever to avis

We rented a car from Avis Newport Centre after all the car rental prices in the city were $ 130 and up. I found a car here for only $ 30 — yes, only $ 30. After taxes and insurance, it was still only $ 51. That was pretty amazing for the area, even if it meant I had to take a trip down one subway, then on the PATH train to Jersey with all my bags. It was worth it.
Keep in mind, the counter is in the middle of the mall, on the first floor under the food court and movie theater. It is not a storefront, but rather a desk just like Guest Services on one side of the main elevator. It’s easy to walk right passed.
When we arrived, we were greeted and taken care of quickly. We had requested a compact car, and we were *upgraded* to a subcompact Chrysler 200. I mainly prefer compact because of the gas mileage more than anything else. Nonetheless, we accepted. After all, we had read previous reviews about someone waiting for over an hour just to get a compact car.
Where Avis Newport Centre loses a star — is although helpful — no one is dressed in a uniform, and the staff is not exactly the most professional. Once we were done at the counter in the mall, the guy sent us to pick up the car in the parking garage, where someone would be waiting for us. There was someone, Maurice, who was in fact waiting for us — in street clothes — who seemed bothered as we checked out the car for scratches and damages etc. Maurice was friendly, however, and did try to help us as we checked everything out. He noted that the gas was at a ¾ tank.
When we returned the car, the Avis Car Return was kind of hidden in the garage. But when we finally found it, it was just a few spots designated with an Avis sign at the front of the garage next to the mall entrance. We did have to wait a short while back at the counter as there were two parties in front of us returning at the same time — but it went quickly. There were no surprise charges thankfully, but for some reason it was noted that the gas was given to us at a full tank, when as mentioned above it was actually ¾. The staff did change it accordingly after a very brief back and forth.
All in all, I would rent from here again — just with the right expectations. Keep in mind, they give you a paid parking ticket to exit the garage — but for some reason some of the gates wouldn’t take it, while another would. Literally, when I pressed «help» on the machine at the exit gate, the person at the other end told me to back up (luckily, there were no cars behind me), and go to a different exit gate.
Also, when you bring the car back after you are finished with the rental, you have to bring the parking ticket you receive when you enter the garage to the Avis counter. If you lose either ticket (the one to exit, or the one from when you bring the car back, we were told it is a $ 25.00 charge.

Ugh. I have been warned about Avis before but when I get such a good discount I have to go for it.
Here’s a plus, the pick up counter is conveniently located inside Newport Mall a nice walk from the PATH so I didn’t have to worry about getting lost trying to find my way. But the good ends there.
Despite there being 4 employees behind the counter, service moved so SLOW. There was a single couple ahead of us trying to get their car, and I watched with annoyance as only one of these employees helped them and everyone else stood around staring into space or shuffling through papers.
When we finally got to the front of the line, the lady assisting us seemed very confused and spend too long shuffling through papers to look up what available cars there were. Don’t get me wrong she was very very pleasant, however it was clear that things just were not organized whatsoever. After what seemed like forever we finally got the papers to pick up our car, she directed us to the garage where a young man would be waiting for us.
We walked to the parking lot area that she directed us. For one, there were no signs whatsoever to indicate where the Avis rental vehicles were. The only reason why I knew we were in the right area was I recognized one of the employees who was standing behind the counter (it would be important to note that with the exception of the lady who was helping us none of the other employees had a name tag or even anything that would indicate that they were employees) walking up and down the lot.
After we chased him down, and handed him our papers for the car he dug through his pockets and pulled out at least 6 sets of keys. He fumbled through them for a bit and after glancing at our papers he told us he didn’t know which car was ours and proceeded to pull out his phone to dial into the lady at the counter.
When he got off the call he informed us that he didn’t have our keys but someone was coming shortly and just to wait. Then out of no where a car comes driving up and a gentlemen gets out of the car looking like he just rolled out of bed and handed me the keys. He pointed at a car indicating that it was ours and walked away.
I’ve rented many cars before, normally the agent does a walk around marks off any dents or scratches, starts the engine to insure the gas is full and that the car works. yeah none of that happened.
I am really not sure what to say, the car we rented was fine it was clean and it served it’s purpose well but how the location was unorganized and how it was run makes me very nervous. Even when we dropped off our vehicle there was no final inspection thank goodness there were no mysterious fees tacked on that to dispute.

As a bit of a road warrior, I rent at least 2 – 3 cars a month. Perhaps my experience with Zipcar has totally soured me with the need for interaction with humans during the car rental process, but this particular Avis location provides a truly unique customer experience.
I’m the first to admit that a business that relies on lending people cars and hoping they return them on time and in good condition has it’s own unique set of challenges to deal with, that said, I’ve seen it done better elsewhere, and frequently.
In my experience, the Newport Avis staff have all been very nice, but there is something in the setup/​systems/​training at this particular location that is so uniquely raising the ire of fellow Unilocalers (and I assume anyone else who rents here).
For starters, upon arrival it’s as if you’ve caught everyone by surprise. There are so many buttons to push and papers to rifle through I feel like I’m getting my taxes done instead of picking up a car quickly and efficiently which I’ve done many times before. Now add to this the fact that only one human behind the counter (and at times I’ve seen up to 4) appears to be tasked with serving customers. I’ll give them the fact that there is no «back room» where whatever tasks are being tended to may occur at other locations, but after standing in a line of 2 people for a (very literal, I timed it) 15 minutes the average customer looks at the extra humans and begins to wonder if something has just gone terribly wrong.
Add to that the fact that the cars are quite physically far away from the counter (in a parking garage) and then add to it that no matter what, while you stand there like a goober, someone will need to traverse out there to do something with your car (including possibly search the two football fields of spaces for it) and your wait time just passed the mildly frustrated to the «I’m so giving them a bad Unilocal review» phase.
Again, no one has been rude to me, in fact quite the opposite, but something is very wrong in the way this place is run and I just can’t quite put my finger on it. Perhaps being the only Avis in the area has it’s luxury.
All of that said I do remember reading something about this location being a franchise and not actually run by Avis Corporate which may explain a lot of the operational issues Unilocalers report.

Absolute joke of a company. Slow, unhelpful, and full of employees just looking for a paycheck. I got here on time a little before 8, and it took over an hour for me to be on my way. Why? The staff. They took forever at the desk reconfirming everything that I had already confirmed online, had a «printer problem», and then were told to go into the parking garage to find our car, only to find it eventually a few aisles over. That’s putting aside that they can’t just bring you the damn car. No apology, no nothing. Extra employees were standing around by their desk in the mall. The only somewhat helpful employees were in the garage. Only you won’t be able to tell they’re even employees, as they’re in plain clothes and are mostly just talking shit between each other (nice guys though).
I don’t care if they’re much worse than the other Avises or not, I’m never dealing with Avis again – and especially these idiots – if I have any choice what so ever. Dollar Rent a Car is also bad, but at least they’re cheaper (Avis was like $ 300 for 2 days for a subcompact). Never again.