YELP does not allow no stars or negative stars. I've been treated worse in my entire life. My brother who is a AVIS PREFERRED was late for his flight, mine was about 45 minutes later, so I told him I will go inside and just have the $10 coupon added to the bill while he ran upstairs to catch the Airtrain to the terminal. I walked into the AVIS and told the attendant I have a 10 coupon to be added to the bill. I looked down at the bill and noticed that it was $320!!! for a 2 day rental. And that $68 dollars for an hour overage, I asked him to explain the bill, and all of a sudden he started yelling at me, asking me who I am, and why am I driving the car!!. I had to explain that my brother is on the phone, he is on the Airtain rushing to catch his flight, I just came in to have the coupon applied to the bill for him, I DID NOT DRIVE THE CAR! I AM merely giving you the coupon for the bill since my brother was late for his flight. My brother was on the phone the whole time and asked to speak with this AVIS attendant, and explain the situation, that the car was picked up and pulled out of the lot at 5:42 pm Saturday and he returned it at 5:40pm MONDAY. The attendant at the Gate who checked him out wrote the time on the rental contract, since it wasn't updating on the computer, so the attendant just said to show the signed contract upon returning the car. The attendant that I was speaking to told me "he is not talking to him" and just dismissed me. I was trying to show him the check out contract and that the attendant gave my brother when picking up the car, and he disregarded me like I was invisible and moved to take the next person. The attendant that I spoke with was Incredible rude and COMPLETLY Unprofessional!. IVE NEVER BEEN SO INSULTED IN MY LIFE. his name is BALDEO and he should be fired!. I went in to ask him for the managers name so that my brother can just call, he completely ignored me, while speaking to another AVIS attendant ABOUT ME! while I was standing right there! He was telling the other AVIS attendant. I cannot even begin to explain the mortification I endured and the disrespect. When all I asked him was to explain the charges. AVIS really needs to FIRE this man! This goes beyond poor customer service. I was breaking down in tears because of the embarrassment this man has cause me, since all I was asking him was for the managers name so that my brother can call and get this thing straightened out. I hope that AVIS can do something about this man, his NAME IS BALDEO. read more

Worst car rental by far. Be careful when returning your car. I returned my car at 1:30 am on a friday. When we arrived we waited by the car for about 15 mins for someone to arrive to check the car in. When we realizedno one was coming out to help me i then went in side and waited in line to return the car. When i got the counter the associate said that they dont do returns at the desk that we had to leave the keys in the car and my rental recipt in the box. I didnt feel comfortable doing ut because im so use to getting a recipt at the end of a car rental. My husband persisted and they told us that was our only option. So we did so. The day leaving NY i noticed multiple charges to my card from Avis so i tried calling no one answered customer service was closed i arrived home and had received a letter in the mail stating my car had not been returned and if i did not return the car id face 1 year in prison and up to a $1,000 fine!!!!! I called immediately and they told me theyd put in for an investigation. Now today being 1 week from renting the car I reached out to Avis and they told me the car was returned and reversed my fees. I asked them how much was being returned to my car and tried to say i had a fuel charge im sorry but i filled the tank 5 mins away from the airport before I returned it. The worst headache and inconvenience. I will never rent from AVIS ever again!! read more

Terrible service, poorly run office, employees who are openly rude, dismissive, and insulting to customers who are tired and confused. I witnessed an Avis clerk ridiculing one customer who was trying to understand the sign-in system, and badgering another who was trying to read parts of the contract before signing it. We waited in line for an hour and 45 minutes with only 6 customers in front of us. The Avis clerks were bantering with each other and clearly had no interest whatsoever in their customers. I've rarely seen such incompetence and open contempt for customers. Judging from the previous comments on this page, this situation at Avis/JFK has continued for some time. Avis management appears not to care. The days of 'We Try Harder' are long gone! I, for one, will never, ever rent from Avis again. read more

AWFUL! HORRIBLE! DISGUSTING! RUDE! Avis at JFK should receive no stars at all! Customer Service at this location is awful! Even the manager Matthew lacks customer service! The manager Matthew is very rude and likes to yell at customers! Any car you get from this location must be inspected by yourself. DO NOT take the workers word for the vehicle being "ok" or in "good condition"! All of their cars are in shitty condition as they are mostly damaged and not cleaned very well or even not cleaned at all! Do your selves a favor and DO NOT rent from this location! Just look at all the reviews for this location and that tells you this location is AWFUL! Either this location needs to lay off their disrespectful employees and close shop or the general manager, district manager, regional manager, and CEO needs to reevaluate what kind of services they are running at that particular location as well as what kind of employees they are hiring! read more

Exceptionally rude customer "service", incompetent staff unwilling to help you, explain anything or even just put on a smile, say hi how are you. Moreover, hard to understand due to strong accent, which must be even harder for foreigners not fluent in English either. Avoid if at all possible! read more

My two experiences with Avis at JFK were terrible. One while returning a car and another while renting a car. The feeling I got was that they try to fleece you knowing that you have little or no choice once you get there since you have just about to catch a flight or you have just landed and just want to get to your destination. I had booked a one way rental to JFK airport. When my wife and I got there the Avis attendant gave us the impression that there was no way to get our luggage to the airport and offered to 'help' us out. So, for a tip, we agreed to have him drop us curb-side which was convenient but did not appreciate being misled (which I found out later on my return from my trip abroad). I had booked my rental with my points and pre-paid the taxes due, so was not expected to pay anything on returning the car at JFK. However the clerk insisted I pay up the FULL rental price for the car. Since I had to get to my flight, I did not argue as I thought I would take it up with customer service when I returned. For my return, I had pre-booked a 1 day rental to be picked up at noon at JFK and return to DE at noon. I arrived at Avis at about 10:00 am, so the clerk duly added a full day rental for the extra 2 hours ASSUMING that I would return the car at noon. What I did not know was that he had locked me in for a minimum 2 day rental. Common courtesy would have required him to ask me if I was intending to return the car 2 hours earlier since I was picking it up earlier. Alternately he could have tagged on the extra day but giving me the option to return it and NOT pay for the extra day. Fortunately I have a good relationship with the AVIS staff at DE since I rent from there every week and the clerk there adjusted the whole thing and I ended up paying for only one day since I returned the car within 24 hours of pick-up. I also called customer service and had my points credited back to my account so that worked out. But BEWARE THE AVIS staff at JFK. The do not seem to be out there to serve the customers but to fleece them! read more

Do not rent a car from an airport location. they will charge you extra fees which is Concession Recovery Fee 11.11%, Transport Fee, higher taxes and higher rental rates. Your better off renting at a non airport location. I rented the car for a day and half but they charged me for 2 days plus a late fee because i had a blown tire and I had to exchange the vehicle at another Avis. they'll blame you for the blown tire and expect you to pay for the damages. luckily i had the full coverage whew. I ended up paying $414 for 2 days which is ridiculous. the cars they gave me drove it like was about to fall apart. poor suspension, lots of body roll and poor fuel consumption. to me it seemed like the vehicles were poorly maintained. do not go with the fuel service option which is they give you a full tank of gas and you can return it empty but they'll charge you for the full tank at a higher price and you don't get anything back if you bring the car back with fuel left. your better off replacing the fuel for a cheaper price and a gas station. do your research if this is going to be your first car rental. read more

Need to be very careful with this place. I had reservation and prepaid for 3 days rental for $189 base price. The representative recommended me to upgrade my car to SUV for additional $40 because it is raining. I agreed. I was in a hurry, didn't carefully check the agreement. It turned out that it is $40/day. I ended up paying $305 as base price. read more

Despite making a reservation, they told me that my credit card did not have sufficient balance, when in fact I had 0.00 balance. The receptionist did not try my card again even after I asked him to do so. I got a car from Budget (same company, I'm told), without a problem. I will never use Avis again. read more

This is by far the absolute worst rental car ever. They were unbelievably slow, rude and generally ignorant. Do not rent a car from them at hdl! read more

I had booked the 12 passenger car at JFK location. When i arrived staff was nice enough to help very much professional. The problem was when i picked up the car. The associate who came with the car looks like straight from a carwash all whole car was wet and did not even bothered check with me or go over the car what is what. He just left. since i picked up in night time did not know car was not vacuumed...food crum all over the seats and floor, water bottles, toys, tissues where lfet from previous rental for me to clean. NO Ezpass. When I went to returned the car was told hold for manager since i wanted to bring the attention of what kind of service was provide. The manager was nowhere to be found and even after 4 time he was paged. I waited almost 30min for him to show up and got tired of waiting so left. The one star is for the front desk people who help me and they were nice otherwise love to give them 0 stars read more

I had the most horrible experience, our rental SUV breaks down they send a replacement after 3.5 hours, which is a Ford Fiesta, no room for our luggage and baby car seat, terrible customer service, can never reach the JFK location by phone, terrible service. Will never rent from Avis again. read more

great people. huge thanks to Gabriella for listening to all my requests.

This place is awful. I arrived at JFK and looked to rent a car. They wouldn't let me rent because i only had a debit card. They needed a credit card. They could have over ridded the decision. Instead i had to take Greyhound back to Ohio. What a bunch of jerks. read more

Had a poor check-in experience. I had an issue with the rate they charged me being too high. Tried to discuss why the rate didn't make sense with the sales clerk, but when I finally asked him how the rate made any sense, he just said, "I don't know; you tell me!" I called Avis customer service after the fact and they provided the proper refund. Experience with the car itself and customer service were excellent, but the location service was poor. read more

BEWARE OF SCAM, DO NOT RENT/RETURN HERE. Staff lost car keys and are now trying to charge us $257 for lost keys. We dropped off our car at this location, car was checked and everything was found to be in place. Avis staff who checked our car told us to drop the keys into the key box instead of taking over the keys. We did so, and got a receipt from the office after that - proof that all is in order. Subsequently, Avis is charging us for lost keys! Their staff probably lost the keys in the key box and are trying to charge us for that. They refuse to open an investigation and are forcing us to pay the extra charges of $257. BEWARE OF THIS SCAM if you're dropping off here. Make sure the staff take your keys and do not listen to them to drop the keys into the key box. read more

This company is RUINING my credit for a car they rented me that would not start. Avis is charging me over $10,000 for a rental car I had for less than 24 hours. I drove the car less than 82 mile from Long Island to New York City and parked the car in a garage across the street from my hotel. I had a flight the following morning so I got to the car in time to return to the airport and the car would not start. Just made a click sound. So I called road side assistance while waiting for a cab. I was told that I should call back when I had the exact address for the garage I was parked in and they would come to get the vehicle.. I made it home that evening and called the Avis roadside assistance number. After almost an hour I was able to direct the tow truck driver Avis had dispatched to the vehicle. The tow truck driver called me to put me in touch with the garage employee so I could pay the parking charge . I spoke with garage employee who would not take my credit card over the phone. I live 1500 miles from the garage, and the tow truck driver told me he would call me back if there was a problem. I didnt hear anything for almost 2 weeks until a guy from Avis called to tell me I needed to return the car. I was confused and told him to call his roadside assistance people . I never heard another word. About a month later I have a charge on my credit card for over $10,000. My card has a $2,500 limit. Avis did not retrieve their broken car knowing where it was, and say that I abandoned the vehicle. I would have never left a car to sit in a garage at my expense for a month frivolously. I could have bought a car for ten thousand dollars. Capital One who is supposed to protect me from unauthorized charges is allowing them to do this. They did not perform the service they promised by giving me a car that would not operate as it was guaranteed to. They had the vehicle and chose not to tow it away as they were supposed to do. They say they did not know where the vehicle was, yet they dispatched a tow truck to retrieve it. I have disputed the charges and Avis sent a copy of the original rental agreement I did sign to Capital One, along with the updated agreement reflecting the additional charges I have never signed and Capital One is upholding these charges. Now my interest payment is 300 a month. My credit shows that I am so far over my available credit my score is the lowest it has ever been. I was trying to refinance my own vehicle and cannot because of this being on my credit. Is there anyone that can help me? The rental car company could not authorize the rental on my credit card because I had no available credit had allowed me to rent with my debit card, and limited my upgrade choices stating with a debit card I could not rent the BMW I wanted. In this case they have harvested my credit card number from a previous rental contract and applied the charge to the a card I did not use while at the counter renting the car because it was physically broken, and Capital One is fully supporting this fraudulent business practice. Avis is a greedy corporate bully, and have told me that I am being charged for the lost revenues during the time they chose not to get the broken car from the garage. Downright rude about it too. The most hostile customer service experience I have had speaking with the department that handles this. Thanks alot AVIS. read more

I didn't like this place. We got there 15 minutes before our scheduled pickup at 3pm after catching a 6am flight from Phoenix, AZ to JFK . We were a family of two adults, two senior citizens, and a 1-yr old baby. We reserved a minivan on June 18, exactly two months earlier to the day. They gave us a cargo van. We were to be driving all around - upstate New York, New Jersey - and they tried to force a Ford Transit cargo van on us. The thing is huge - way bigger than what we needed, and not what you want to be driving around New York - and the seats are not comfortable. When we complained, they said there were no other vehicles available. It was August 18 and I had made the reservation on June 18. That is two months in advance. They said all the minivans had been taken and the cargo van was in the same category as a minivan. I explained that no normal person thinks that a cargo van is in the same category as a minivan. We asked to speak to a manager. After arguing with the employee for easily 20 minutes, the manager came. He showed some sympathy, and arranged for a Dodge Grand Caravan from another car company. Apparently a different manager told the employee to tell people there was nothing else available. They said it would be here in a few minutes. We waited and waited, no Grand Caravan. We must have asked about 5 or 6 times, and each time we were told it would be a few minutes. Eventually it arrived. We did not leave the place until well after 5pm. We missed our event at 7pm in Beacon, NY as a result. When we returned it at 5:15pm five days later, they tried to charge me an additional $60 for being late by two hours. This was easily the worst experience I've had with renting a car. read more

Thee worst experience with car rental I have ever experienced! My trip was booked through JetBlue vacay package so my rental was already paid for. All they needed was my debit card for a hold.. Fine i knew that already. Then they wouldn't except my card. Why??? It's the same card I paid for the rental with.. So now we're stuck without a rental that's already been paid for... So the manager.. Says I'll call u taxi so u can go transfer money. We say ok. He calls one of his buddies and charges is 40.00 to take us 0.9 miles to a BOA. The killer was after my husband gave the "taxi" his money he came into the Avis and gave the manager the money. Needless to say this was 2 hours after our flight arrived so I paid for a rental that I didn't use for 2 hours. Was not reimbursed and had to turn it in early because of my flight time... So again thanks Avis for getting my vacation to NYC started with drama and being hustled. read more