The Brandon Town Center AVIS is an absolute train wreck of a rental facility. I reserved an Elite SUV weeks in advance to ensure we got a car. Showed up 2 hours early (my bad) and was told they did not have a vehicle ready since I was early. Even though there were several cars outside. I asked if there was anything she could do and she said no since I was early. I asked if a car will be available at my reservation time and she said she would call me when a vehicle was ready. At the reservation time, she called and said she had a 15 passenger van for me. I told her that was not acceptable since I was taking a family road trip and that was not practical. She said that is all she had and immediately asked if I would like to cancel the reservation. I told her no, I needed a vehicle. She said they did not have any vehicles since it was Spring Break. I knew what time of year it was and that is why I made a "reservation!" After pushing back more, she finally said they had a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Not sure why she didn't say that in the first place! Told my wife to go up there to make sure we got that vehicle. Well, she didn't get the Jeep but was provided a very basic Dodge Journey. Also, these two vehicles were in the parking lot when I arrived 2 ours early and was told there were no cars!!!!
Even though I paid extra to have an "Elite" SUV, I was provided with a vehicle that had nothing elite about it. I called Customer Care to either swap for a car I paid for or only charge me for a basic vehicle. I was told that AFTER my rental, I would have to call them back to get a refund on the difference. I had no confidence in AVIS to take that risk. I was also told there were no vehicles in my immediate area to swap. However, they found one about an hour away. I asked for them to hold it and they said they couldn't. So it was another gamble to drive the distance and no car available again. I spoke to someone else in Customer Care and was told there was a car available at the airport and he was able to reserve it for me! I drove out there and swapped without any issue and they were great!
Now, the icing on the cake! After returning the car, I checked my credit card statement and they charged me twice!! I am in the process now of playing phone tag to get THAT corrected.
So stay away from the AVIS at Brandon Town Center!!! Unless you don't mind:
1) Ghost reservations
2) The runaround with what cars ARE available
3) Rude and apathetic representatives behind the desk
4) Being charged twice for a rental read more