Easy booking but a nightmare on pickup!

My booking was for a Jeep Renegade or similar vehicle, which I paid extra to get. I was totally disappointed at hatchback Kia Stonic that was provided.

It was evident that AVIS representatives were not happy with a third party booking. Not sure if will book through third party again.

I booked the car for my mom. 1. Person at the counter automatically added "fuel top up" surcharge, which also increased the location surcharge (since it's 20% of the total price), and hence they said she would have to pay the extra when the car is returned. 2. He said if we top it up, then there will be no fuel surcharge, but there was still some money to be paid according to the contract (due to the increase of location surcharge). 3. After I figured this out, we had to ask for a new contract without the "fuel top up" service/surcharge. The original person at the counter was unwilling to help, but the second one happily printed a new contract, on which the correct price was written, where we don't have to pay anything extra (unless, of course, we don't return the car with a full tank). 4. Compared to other southern Italy rentals, I think it was pretty good and good price.

Overall it was a very good experience. I was disappointed that we were not provided a vehicle similar to an Audi A3 though despite that our booking said Audi A3 or similar. However, the Fiat worked out well for us. The pick-up and drop offs were quite easy and didn't take long.

Easy to use and book.

The counter staff tried to handover to us a manual drive car first and then tried to give us a smaller automatic car than what was booked for. after arguing and wasting 30 mins we got the car that we had booked. overall the car was in great condition and everything went smooth

Excellent service and great pricing.

My expectation was to receive what I ordered as I got a confirmation from AVIS about the availability. When arriving I was informed that the only car available would be a FIAT - which was nothing like a SUV car (Jeep). As I received a confirmation letter, I did not surch any further. And that is probably the "trick" that they play with the customer. When you arrive in the morning you have almost no other option but to take what they "offer" you. What can one to - ofcourse I would like to walk out, but then you have to start checking other options, and that would probably take many hours - and then the day would be ruined. I know that this type of car (FIAT) was not the same price category. I was not offered an upgrade /the offered me a VAN - which I did not accept/. I was not offered a "good deal" if I would accept the FIAT. I asked for Mercedes cars they had (2 ea) but they were not willing to upgrade me - asking for more than double the original price for the SUV. /I saw only four cars, FIAT and two Mercedes and a Van/. I have never experienced that a rental would not upgrade a person when the promised car is not available. I was then offered a Volvo V60 - which I had to accept as I was not offered anything else close to what I ordered. I was informed that I had to wait 10 minutes for it. It turned out that I did not receive a car until more than one hour after arriving to the rental. No "sorry" from the staff about all this "blunder" on their behalf. Just stating that the "computer" sent out the confirmation - like AVIS was just "free" therefore! (The person servicing me did not speak English - which was not helping, but one can of course not expect that at a small local rental, and that was not any issue). The car had not been washed - it was dirty inside/out. The car was "ok" though, but not a SUV as called for. This was not a good start on the day for me.