I would like to start off by saying that I have severe PTSD as it relates to car rentals. I typically always have a good experience renting from Avis, but one time in particular, not at this location, I showed up to the rental location and I realized they had given my reserved rental car to someone else. I didn't know that a reservation had to be timely (I arrived an hour late on a busy weekend), so from that point on, I've always been afraid that I'd show up to get a rental and they wouldn't have my car! Anyway, in preparation to pick up my rental, I figured I would check the reviews of this specific location. I saw all of the negative reviews and it did not calm my anxiety of rental car places one bit. Admittedly, I didn't know if I showed up if this location would even be open with all of the reviews I saw. To my pleasant surprise, I was greeted by Mike in picking up my car this past weekend and Mike quickly tended to my reservation and got me in and out quickly. I got a very nice, clean, newer small SUV. I was in and out in less than 15 minutes. Mike was on his own and was extremely friendly and helpful. Good customer service goes a long way. It's unfortunate that some have had bad experiences here. I am glad that I had a good experience and I'm happy to leave my review here. I would definitely go back if Mike is working at this location! Great service! read more

IF YOU RESERVE On Summer weekend DONT BELIEVE THE APP - CALL to make sure they still have cars!! There was a long line to get up to the counter and three of us had reservations, but no cars available to rent . Hate wasting time like that! Learned you have to call ahead and make sure better yet. Reserve early . If this was based on the capable guy at the counter- he gets five stars. read more

Michael needs an education in customer service. I rent often, but after this incident I will not be back. Ian has always been helpful, but failed to properly get the vehicle ready for the next customer. read more

If you want a horrible experience visit Essa at this location . Does nothing to help customers but belittles them .Because I used my wife's credit card he had me call Avis to change over to my card . The location was out of cars so Essa said I could pay to get the same car but he was trying to charge me 200 dollars more plus a deposit . For the 400 dollar rental he hand wrote a 600 dollar quote . Snake like business with snake like managers . Don't ever rent from Avis . Especially on spring break . read more

If I could give this budget/avis company 0 stars I would. They will screw you out of your money. First off, I tried to reserve over the phone. The guy quoted me at $435 for the weekend, which was a full $150 more than if I book it online. So I reserved the car online with apple pay. I get to the counter and because I used apple pay to prepay, the guy can't help me. I have to call into corporate. They can't transfer the apple pay to my debit card. All they can do is cancel the reservation and have me re do my reservation online. They said if they redid the reservation for me, it would be significantly more money. But they also can't guarantee that I will get the same rate. What?! So I rebooked it online. At this point I should have just walked away. But I didn't. Fast forward to the next day. My people that I was going to go visit have cone down sick. We need to move our visit forward a week. So I call the budget/avis counter. Again they cannot help me. They are completely useless. I have to call corporate. So I do. Corporate will not refund any of the days back or transfer the reservation to the following week. Apparently since I prepaid, it is in the contract that I don't get any refund. I will never use budget or Avis again. They are an incompetent company who doesn't care one whit about their customers. read more

I had an issue with a car rental that I rented at a different location. I drove to this location and the individual working there, Ian, was rude and quite frankly looked like he hated his job. I would not recommend this location. read more

Ian is a POS liar. Don't go here unless you want added fees and bad service. Take pictures of everything when you pick up and return the car so you have enough proof to show AVIS he's a liar when he stacks on fees. read more

My husband and I have been renting cars exclusively from this business for many years. We were always pleased. We have had 2 bad experiences recently and will not be using them any longer. The first bad experience was a $250 pet hair charge. Keep in mind we don't own a pet. So, before we deliver the vehicle we vacuum it out. The second bad experience was this past weekend. We rented a car for a weekend getaway. We did not the check the car when we drove it off. We dropped it off on Sunday and received an email on Monday that there was damage to the vehicle. They found some scratches on the bumper and now we have to pay to get it fixed. I recommend you take pictures of the entire car before you leave the lot and let the owner know if you see even a small scratch because they will make you pay for it and make sure to vacuum the car or you will have a $250 fee . I'm totally serious it's happening to us right now. read more

Ian closed prior to 5PM. I know because I pulled in at 5PM and the office was closed and dark. He claims to have been inside with the side door open. "You should have known to come in the side..." he said to me. Then, denied it when I called him out on that statement. He also lied and said he heard to key drop at 5:40PM. I looked at my phone purposely when I dropped my keys at 5:10PM. Do anything other than rent from Avis. This location is clearly looking to screw the customer. read more

Horrible, rude, not customer service oriented, filthy office with hundreds of dead bugs on the window sills...just a bad experience! I would not recommend this plastic to anyone! read more

This Is My First Review I've Ever Made On A Business But I Would Like To Say That Avis St. Joseph Is Worst Service I Have Ever Experienced In All My Years Of Renting A Rental Car. The African American Man Was Extremely Rude. Beware This Avis Location Has Extremely Bad Service. Go Somewhere Else. read more

I suppose they don't feel they need more people working here Checking in at 10:00 am on July 28th with 10 people in line It's time to PONY UP and hire more people read more

What a horrible experience. I rented a vehicle for a one way trip. The rate provided at the desk was about 800.00. The person at the desk said this is an independent franchise, if you rent on line you will get a better rate. So I did and it was significantly cheaper. So far so good. With the online rental, I opted for,gps, Sirius radio, gas refill, and navigation. Now I pick up the car on the day my trip begins. There is not a gps, there is not an ezpass. Of course, I did not notice until I left the dealer. Turned around and went back. The desk guy can't help me. They don't have any ez pass or gps. I said ok, well just take it off my bill. Oh, gee I can't do that because you rented on line. So I called the 800 number, guess what, they can't change the reservation either. Oh by the way, Avis says, we never heard of anyone having this problem before. They did offer to allow me to drive to South Bend and swap the vehicle. I declined. I see a sticker on the windshield, printed locally, that says this vehicle is automatically charged for tolls and fees will apply. So I ask the desk guy, am I going to be charged twice for these tolls, nice for open road and then again every time I have to go through a boot? Yes, you are. You can get your money back when the contract closes. Of course I can! So I am loosing my cool by this point. The last straw is the desk guy says "we are an independent franchise, my paycheck does not say Avis on it, so it does not matter what you book on line" WHY CANT YOU JUST PROVIDE THE SERVICES YOUR CUSTOMER PAID FOR. I CAN ONLY THINK OF ONE REASON. If I end up getting soaked on this rental, this review is just the beginning of my efforts. read more

Regina is the person at the reception desk Who helped us get our car. This woman was super patient and efficient. There were others in the office at the same Time who had rented on line as well. We rented on line at the last minute she did her best to get us a car as quick as possible and was very calming as I was anxious. It was memorial day weekend. She remained kind and courteous the entire time with everyone. I returned the car on Sunday and was greeted by a very kind and polite young man. He was also very courteous and efficient. Thank you both for making my experience smooth and pleasant. Regina, you go above and beyond your duties. Thanks so much!!! read more

Well....I got a car, but it was a stressful situation, so I learned that they do a credit check at the counter to verify through Equifax that you are credit worthy enough to rent a car with them. Second thing is that they dont have unlimited miles as a option and are limited to 150 miles a day. Not cool. That per mile fee is going to lose them all mu future business with them. Disappointing for sure. read more

We had to rent a car due to our car having to be in the shop for body work. From the get go, the younger man working the front desk was rude to my husband. The car itself was clean and a 2021. Unfortunately we had to keep the car an extra day so I called first thing in the morning before our time to return it came. I was in a rush so called to rent it for another day thinking it would be a simple thing. I finally got ahold of someone after calling a dozen times and being put on hold. I was told to call a 1-800 number. We didn't want to wait and be put on hold again because we didn't want to be charged with a million dollars in late fees. So we go into inside strictly to get it over with and due to the unpleasant staff we wanted to be in and out. So I was showed the 1-800 number on the pamphlet and patronized for not responding when he asked how we were doing. Obviously not good dealing with a situation we don't want to be in. Then the older man said "Tough Crowd." No were not a tough crowd. We just paid hundreds of dollars for a rental for an entire week plus 1 day extra with unpleasant service. So Avis we will never go through your company again, the service was terrible, rude and the staff should be canned. The feeling of I'm Happy To Never See This Staff Again And Will Never Use Avis St. Joe Again. I would give this reviews zero stars if I could but the car was nice so 1 Star Experience. Go Somewhere Else. Take Your Business Elsewhere. Don't Deal With The B.S. Like We Did. read more

I reserved a car went there to get it . people that didn't reserve a car got a car first and pretty much told me sorry. very unprofessional and they don't care about their customers when I called corporate they hung up on me and told me to go to their competitor. I will never go there a again. read more

I still contend that Yelp should allow zero stars as an option for reviews. Horrible experience with this place. Made reservation on Orbitz. Read Avis policies on Avis.com talking about extra authorization money if using a debit card. Fine. I arrive to pick up the car and wait for 10 minutes in a full lobby. I provide my debit card and driver's license, and wait another 10 minutes. I then have my cards handed back to me and I'm advised that I'm not approved to rent a car because of my credit. WTF? I never authorized them to run my credit. The agent stated that I didn't meet their criteria. I asked what said criteria was and he said he does not know, only that it's between Avis and Experian. WTF? At no time did I authorize them to run my credit. At no time was I advised that they can run a credit bureau with my debit card information. Lame. read more

Beware!!! (1) The car reeked of smoke; and, the car was entirely unclean (inside and out) (2) Service provider had a careless attitude (3) I was double billed for the rental - and, they refused to correct it locally so I had to dispute it via my credit card company to get it resolved. It pains me to state this as I like to support local businesses, but consider renting your car in South Bend, IN as the other options in the area aren't much better...imo. read more

This place is awful they charged me a toll fee and didn't even use.called nobody would help so look out for extra charges on your credit card!!!! Use enterprise read more

Worst car rental experience ever. We made a reservation thru the corporate 800 number, and got a confirmation number. Called Ian at the Stevensville office a few days before to change the pick up time, and they lost the rez. No big deal, made another one. My wife goes to get the car, and they tell her that her debit card doesn't have enough money on it for the $250 deposit. First we heard of this. No problem, she pulls out my debit card (well over $10,000 in account) and my platinum American Express card with NO limit. No says the unhelpful Ian, we can't use this card unless he's here. That's not true, she uses them daily. And why weren't we told about the extra deposit? Ian says it's not his problem, and refuses to do anything else. Then my wife comes home (WITHOUT the rental car we reserved TWICE) and checks her bank account. Not only was there more than enough in her account, Avis has already taken the money out of her account! Apparently my wife failed a credit check that they also didn't mention, and that was the real reason that she couldn't get the vehicle. And yes, Avis STOLE her $250. Now we have to call the fraud department at the bank on a weekend. Horrible customer service. Never again. Addendum: Went to Enterprise in Benton Harbor and everything was fine there. read more

4/14/16 I did reservation on line for a rental, once I got there, there were a few people in line. The sales rep was rude not sure if he was having a bad day or what. He took my credit card called it in because he stated that the computer was down. He put a hold on the credit card for what he say was $400.00 to find out later that it was for $450.00. I took the vehicle because I was going to a wedding in Alabama. I return it on the 18th and the customer service person tried to run my card and he told me that the transaction was denied. I stated that you put the hold on the card for $400.00. He ask for another form of payment. I stated that he need to use the credit card that I gave him. He call his manager and he told him that it was a prepaid card. I said yes it's prepaid His manager stated that I need to use another form of payment, because they do not take prepaid credit card. I was never told that by the customer service rep,nor is there any sign in the store stating that nor is there in thing in the literature stating that. I was also told that they would charge me 10 dollar a gallon because I didn't bring it back on full. It was 3/4 full. The customer service rep didn't go over any of the company literature he just hand me the keys. This customer service rep need training to learn the business and it seems like the field manager didn't do a good job at training. read more

Be careful when using their online booking Avis, no clear stipulations placed to accept and surprises provided once money paid, then punitive cancellation fees now been made known after everything is done. Staff on call center have no power to fix anything with a booking and was told that it was not a good idea to have booked online, they wanted to pass the problem around knowing that no resolve would occur, requested supervisor only to find out Supervisors don't have the power to give you what you thought you were paying for no matter how many mistakes are on their part, it ended up costing more in the end. Finally read through your bill at drop off hidden fuel charges even though tank was filled before drop off was told that because their electronic reader said the read it was out by .5 off a litre different i was been charged, I guess they don't account for the fact the gas station is not next door. They removed it but I would have been overcharged a second time if i was not paying attention, to many monteary mistakes and hidden charges in their favour I would caution using this company not entirely honest. read more

This place is HORRIBLE! DO NOT RENT A CAR FROM AVIS! First off I called and talked to this company multiple times to make sure everything was set to rent a car and take it down to Florida. The morning came to get it. First off they do not tell you that if you use a debit card they will hold $200 on the card. You also have to have a credit report ran and they will not do it until you go to pick up your car. Well if you get denied you are just screwed. They also told me it would only be $28.00 extra a day to drive if you are under 25. So we get there and they say no it is $40.00 extra a day to drive it. That is CRAZY!!!!! Then they also wanted to charge $20.00 for an additional driver that I was also never told about either. This is CRAZY!!!!! It would be so much cheaper to fly. There service was HORRIBLE!!!!! Carrie was the only one there and she was not nice at all and did not care at all! She basically handed our stuff back and said she didn't have to rent the car to us. Then she told me she would contact a manager when she had time. They are only open from 10-12 on Saturday and closed and Sunday. We were supposed to be on the road at 11:00. Needless to say we were screwed over. We were left with no car on the day we were supposed to leave. I still to this day never got a call from the manager. Luckily my mom let us take her car or we wouldn't have been able to go to Florida at all. I called Enterprise which was the only other place in the area and they were completely out of cars. So, DO NOT RENT FROM AVIS!!!!!!! You will not get anywhere! I can't believe they are even in business. read more