Avis Portugal Reviews 

If I could give 0 stars I honestly would. I am another of many unhappy customers and had enough with customer services to try get what belongs to me back.
Today is the day it COMPLETES ONE YEAR that I have hired a rental car from Avis Budget in Faro, Algarve Portugal.
Firstly I would like to mention the fact that I've been given a huge car instead of the one I had booked and was lied to , when the lady said that the car had no scratches and was brand new. It was night time and no way to see that but I still double checked the car with the torch and it was very scratched in several areas, if I hadn't seen it before I left he airport I would have been charged for it. Also the audio system for me to listen to my own music didn't even work which they said it did.
Secondly to that, the next day my neighbor in Lagos (Portugal) scratched the car whilst parking his and after a lot of drama the police came and sorted the problem out, but until this date for some reason I have got no information what so ever about the incident and my ~400pounds deposit ?I have called customer service more than 10 times talked to several people and no one was useful to tell me where my money is that. Last time I have checked, which was a couple of months ago, the gentleman on customer service said he would make a complaint for me , so that they do something about it because like he said "its ridiculous that after almost 1 year you haven't got your deposit back".
I am in rage to be very honest. How is it possible that just because I'm not in Portugal that I can not get any informations about something so important?
Portuguese system is always full of scams and people do take advantage just because we come from different countries and dont know how things work. Even a little thing like motorway charges, went wrong. I paid 40 pounds so that highway charges would be avoided and after 4 months of me returning to UK, the portuguese motorway took money from my british account? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE AND WHY DIDNT THEY REGISTER THE FACT THAT I HAD PAID MOTORWAY CHARGES IN ADVANCE ? Such an incompetent rental car company it is ridiculous.
If you don't want to be scammed and dont want to be taken advantage of, NEVER ever hire a car or anything from this company. Full of scams, lack of professionalism and care for their customers.

Worst experience ever!! Hired a car from Lisbon which broke down 2 1/2 hours later. It was a hybrid Toyota. Rang assist and was told it would be 1 hour for a tow truck. So 3 1/2 hours later the truck arrives by which time its dark and 5 degrees. Got a lift to teh nearest town and checked into a hotel. Then had to take a 2 hour taxi back to Lisbon where we were offered a replacement car by which time our whole drive holiday was blown out. THEN, we got charged the full rental and when tried to get our money back surprisingly no one at AVIS speaks English anymore!!! The worst hire car on the planet.

BEWARE ! We booked and paid for our AVIS car rental from FARO AIRPORT to Porto before we left Australia. We were scammed into thinking everything was paid for as we left the Avis pick up zone , and found that we were charged for over $400 Australian later on my credit card. We were not advised of any additions to our rental, nor of any additional costs. The person who served us was Nuno. Upon enquiring as to why we were charged all of the extra fees, and our travel agent doing what they could to remedy the situation, we were basically told that it was just too bad. The drop off area in Porto is next to the railway station with absolutely no indication of where to go. We wasted over one hour trying to find the drop off zone which has no signage whatsoever, and no nearby parking to find the office. This was a particularly distressing experience.We will NEVER use AVIS car hire again if this is how they treat their customers.

I rented a cart at Avis Porto. Everything was prepaid. I gave the car back. There was no problem. 6 months later they charged my credit card for no reason.

At Avis Porto Airport. When I went to return the car, Carlos greeted us with the mobile Avis device checked the full fuel, then casually asked me to sign on the device. I saw the total amount to be over €140 when in fact I declined all the optional service and insurance, as I have my own insurance.

He cheekily smiled and said, yes you didn't take this insurance. This is why my bosses are drinking pina colada in Bahamas!

He took away the additional charged and I didn't have to pay any extra.

What a scam.

I had booked my car way 2 month in advance. At that time the most suitable car for us from available on the website was Audi A4 or similar. When time came to pick up the car we were given Toyota Corolla, because this is what they had available. We were still charged the same price as for Audi. I felt cheated. All my complaints to customer service did not result in any credit. I was just given runaround with worthless excuses. Keep a eye on what you book, what you get and how much you are charged.

This is a shame , more than 40 minutes waiting to get to thé desktop !!! 2 agents , unexperienced , for 30 people !!!
My worst expérience

Picking up a rental car at Lisbon Airport may be a challenge, but we had a positive experience with Avis this time. On arrival, the hall at the rental desk was packed and it looked almost like chaos. We noticed that Avis had further expedition over the parking lots, and tried to go over, but of course they were closed. Back again, where we found that the queue tickets obviously didn't work. Now you start to think that it can only get worse. However, manual operation was set up and a friendly lady called us out little by little. At the counter we were met by a smiling and friendly young man who spoke perfect English. He dispatched us quickly and efficiently. He of course asked if we had the assurances we wanted and when we just answered yes, it was perfectly OK for him. Nothing to push further. He would recommend that we return the car with empty tank, which means that we had to pay Avis for fuel, and our first thought was "Overpriced", but the price turned out to be quite fair, so a very good suggestion when we had to deliver the car very early, and did not have to look for an open gas station. He also suggested the road bizz, which we were also very happy about.
The car was perfectly OK and as expected. It was also the model we had ordered and not a "or similar"
As mentioned, we had to deliver very early in the morning before Avis opened at the airport, and had been a little excited about how it would work, but everything went really well and there were no problems. The key we could just hand in a box
Thanks for an overall positive experience, unfortunately you hear so much about car hire in Southern

Do not use this Avis branch!
I travel to Faro fairly regularly and have used Avis car hire along with my booking with BA.
The staff are always very thin on the ground and miserable, I know that’s how it will be.
This trip waited an hour to be served.
As usual I decline all extras. I take out excess car insurance which covers breakdown assistance etc.
Two days after arriving home. 103 euros have been taken from my credit card . 1300 is held as an insurance for excess .
On phoning Avis U.K. am told this was for break down assistance. Having told their “customer services team” that I declined all extras I am now waiting to see when and if they refund my money. Naturally I am furious chasing it all up takes hours.
Have read other reviews about this branch in Faro, people have similar experiences and believe something is going on.
I intend to follow this up through my bank and BA.
None of us can afford to be ripped off like this.
Appalling.

Another scam at Faro airport, please do something about this Avis!! We rented a car via Easyterra and got scammed with additional insurances and services that were already booked via Easyterra. Costing us an additional €451 on top of the payed rental charge!!! We did not agree to these additional costs and the rental agreement was in Portuguese. Very nice to take advantage of two people with a little baby 😡

The staff spoke perfect English and asked plainly if I would like the additional insurance. I politely declined. They explained the excess was around 1300 euros if anything happened highlighting the figure on an English printed version of the rental agreement. I again declined. The assistant accepted this.

He then took a “holding charge” on my credit card and got me to sign an electronic version of the rental agreement in Portuguese which unfortunately I cannot read.

When I got home I saw they had taken for the additional insurance I had specifically declined and they referred me back to the rental agreement I had been made to sign in a language I could not understand.

We have been charged twice the price of insurance from the rental branch in Faro, we ended up paying twice the agreed price. We left the car in Porto, the branch personnel was not helpful and very rude, I would really advice not to use them.

The worst. Rented from Avis Downtown. They are a bunch of crooks. First they rented me a car with no AdBlue in the tank. After they told me not to worry about that. Then I had to decipher Portuguese to figure out why the car was beeping. Then go to a garage on my vacation and figure it all out. Barely an apology. Then they dinged me with a huge charge- about 400 Euros because they said I scraped the bumper. Total BS. The worst customer service on the planet. Rent from anyone else.

Lisbon Airport ..... 2 hours waiting !!!!!!

I’m writing this review while I’m waiting for my rental car. I have been here for 2.5 hours. I booked an extra day in Lisbon for my holiday. I can’t believe I’m spending it like this. My advice to all others considering renting a car with Avis Portugal, either don’t or bring a tent. If someone finds my fossilized remains near the Avis counter please tell my story..

I can honestly say that this is the worst customer experience I have ever had.
I rented a car on our visit to Portugal last year on the basis that Avis is a brand that's been around for years and I don't object to paying a little extra for peace of mind.
We were visiting my Brother-in-law and someone unknown had hit the rental car whilst it was parked. On returning the car I paid the sum of 400 euros to cover the cost which I would claim back from the Insurers. On my return after I had been paid in full by the Insurance company I looked at my credit card statement on line and Avis Portugal had taken an extra 79 euros. I was upset to say the least and after a 3 month bout of emails I am no nearer understanding what it was for. They reply with a different set of maths each time. In the end I just gave up (obviously what they wanted) so, I went to the booking agents Holiday Autos who in my view are toothless.
I will never use Avis again or book through Holiday Autos because if they want their commission they have to be prepared to work for it. Unlike Avis they can have this review for free.

We rented a car in Madeira Airport, the price included an airport charge of 20 eur. On their website, they say "not to worry" since the airport charge cannot be more than that. As we discovered later, the airport charge is 14% of the total bill. We got in an accident and on top of 2000 franchise + 600 VAT they charged us 400 Euro an airport charge. A person in customer support could not indicate where the rate of 14% came from since it was not indicated in any document on the website. I will try complaining and going to court if necessary. But this totally ruined our holiday.

I usually never write reviews but my experience with Avis in Portugal was so horrible that I thought I should talk about it. We picked the car from Lisbon and dropped it off at Porto. We had prebooked an infant seat and yet we turned up to pick up the car they didn’t have one ready. It took them over two hours to get it for us. The told us the car was damage free but when we inspected the car it had several scratches and small dent on the left rear door. Thankfully we had paid for the full insurance option which I highly recommend. I wouldn’t trust these guys to be professional about dealing with preexisting damage. When we went to drop off the car at Porto (sao bento) things got worse. The office is located at an intersection and there is no place to stop or park. One needs to make several attempts to hand over the car - each one taking about 15 mins to bring the car around again. The person at the desk was unhelpful and didn’t seem to care about the inconvenience caused to the customer. She asked me to search for parking and then told me to wait there till her colleague came to check the car and collect the keys. If Avis isn’t equipped to collect cars at this location then they should just not collect cars at this location. I would have happily dropped it off at the airport. This process took us almost an hour and a half. With an infant on board this was really painful. Overall I wouldn’t recommend Avis to anyone travelling with infants or anyone who values they’re time.

I haven't ever submitted a one star review before but I would leave a negative if I could for AVIS/BUDGET.

Waited 2.5 hours to pick up the car rental at Lisbon Airport. - tip - the other companies have no wait times.

I returned the vehicle out of hours due to a 7am flight. I later found a 301 euro charge on my invoice under 'misc. charges'. I called customer service- they informed that there was damage documented. There was absolutely no damage to the car upon return. I asked for proof of damage and have been told I will need to wait up to 15 days for more information. Luckily I took plenty of photos and a video on return so I will be fighting this all the way.

I've hired cars numerous cars and will never be using AVIS/BUDGET again.

Returned car at 8pm,full of petrol,with receipt,to Faro airport. Avis weren't interested in inspecting car for damage or checking petrol gauge. Before midnight they had taken over £191 from my credit card.
Total crooks. Avoid.