Car hires in Downtown, Albany

They didn’t have a car for me to use so they cancelled on me costing me hundreds of dollars in changed travel plans

The pickup in Albany, NY was horrible. The desk agent had a very snide attitude and gave me a hard time regarding using my wife’s card when I reserved the car. Even if it’s your policy, which I don’t think is good for your company, his approach and demeanor escalated things to a point it did not need to go. The drop off in Norfolk was almost as bad. We pull into the designated area in the parking garage and there’s no one resembling an agent there waiting to accept the vehicle. We go into the terminal and wait in line for the Avis, not Budget desk because no one is at your desk. After waiting in line the desk agent says oh no, you just bring the keys back to the garage and put them in the drop box. Nowhere was there any signage indicating what to do to return the vehicle. Then we want to pay with cash and are told you don’t accept the legal tender of this country for payment. To top it off I get a text and a call later from someone there asking where the key fob is for the car as if there was someone or something other than the drop box to present it to. And because of the lack of personnel at Norfolk, we also left without knowing the final bill total. This is unacceptable business practice and why we will not use Budget or Avis again.

The car was great, customer service was terrible and web site was out of date. I called the local number to reserve a shuttle as per the web site, but was transferred to call center. Three calls and three hours later I had been given false info, transferred, and hung up on. There is no shuttle and no local number. P/U location was a mall, but there were no signs for Budget. Wandered for thirty minutes before discovering that the office was inside the Avis office.

Understaffed.

We inadvertently booked the downtown Albany location but intended to book at the Albany airport. This may not have been completely clear during the options available during booking. We understand and agreed upon the non changeable and non refundable booking policy but based on our senior status with some confusion it would have been nice if Hertz KAYAK to provide us some wiggle room to change the pickup and / or return location even if it meant a slight increase in fees.

Plenty of parking for my car and quick and easy rental. Will use again!

When dropping off they told me not to wait in line just that they’ll email me my receipt, but I still don’t have it or know how much I was charged. When I picked up car they made it seem like there were a lot of extra fees.

Nothing

I meant to pick this up at the airport, but somehow, I had to pick it up at a mall. I took an Uber there, and couldn't find the place, so I walked through the mall, asked questions, and finally found it. Had to drag my luggage around with me. The car was parked quite a distance from the actual office in a sketchy parking area. The car smelled of skunk - apparently the previous driver had run one over. Also, there was a loud sound coming from the tailpipe. Usually my experiences with Avis have been great.