Avis Budget GroupReviews of avis-europe.com

I will hire car again in future

We rented a car in Gozo from Avis/Budget from a place very near the harbour. We were greeted well by 2 members of staff, 1 Maltese and 1 Welsh (Ewan/Ieuan) The car we wanted was available, it was clean and had a few knocks and scratches. The details of all these knocks were written down and shown to me. We drove away with a full tank of fuel. After driving back to our villa a matter of 10mins away, we could not get the air conditioning to work. I took the car back, and Ewan/Ieuan said to me that he would have new cars back in stock in the morning, and we could swap if that was ok. He said he would call me when a car was available early in the working day the next day. We agreed to that. He called the next day to say that no new cars were available today, so we had 2 options. 1st option was to try again the next day, or 2nd option take it to a garage and get the AC checked over and hopefully fixed. As we were planning to drive round Gozo that day, we decided that i would take it to the garage as we had 2 teenagers with us, and having no AC in the car was a no no! I took the car to a small garage approx 15 mins away. I was told by Ewan/Ieuan that they would be expecting me. I got there and drove straight in, a mechanic looked at the AC and decided it needed refilling. He never said anything to me, mind you, apart from saying hello and why i was there, i never said anything again to him till the end. When in UK, my own car had a AC refill, and it took 15 mins max. This took nearly 3 hours! When the car was being refilled, the mechanic left the garage several times to move other cars, and fix them in the street including a refuse truck! After about a hour, he came back and looked at the AC, walked away and brought in a big merc truck into garage behind my car. After a few mins they decided my car was now ok, and wanted to move the Merc......it failed to start, and after another 1 hour wait it started and they moved it. Instead of getting my car out the way, they brought in another car!! OMG i am a patient person, but i was getting a tad miffed. Eventually i got out. A morning wasted, and instead of driving round gozo or sat on the beach, i was stood in a garage with now seating etc. I called Ewan/Ieuan, he was out, so a collegue talked to me, and after a language issue understood my problem. I asked for a refund, and was told i could return the car when finished with no fuel in it. A few days later Ewan/Ieuan called me and apologised for the nightmare morning, obviously it was not their fault, but a AC should have been checked before the car went out. He then said i could return the car with half a tank of fuel as a gesture of good will. I told him a colleague had already said i could return it with a empty tank. Ewan/Ieuan said that was ok. As it was we dropped it back with just under half a tank. As stated before, the wait at garage, and the haphazard way that garage did things was not Avis/Budget fault. The AC not being checked or the promise of a new car a day later was their fault. In the end of the day it was only 3 hours, but when you are on holiday, everything is planned and we lost 3 hours of our holiday. Ewan/Ieuan was great, as was Avis/Budget HQ who got back to me quickly also.

Easy to book online and flexibility to return the car in a different location. Helpful customer service. Would use again.