Avis Jerusalem – King David Station

I loved my trip to Israel, but had a horrible experience with Avis’s local contractor in Jerusalem. When you book from the US it appears to be at a very reasonable price, say $20 a day for a compact. When you get there it ends up being around $60 a day with insurance. There is no set rate for insurance, they seem to change what they feel like when you arrive. I asked why it was so high for me and the agent bluntly acknowledged, “that’s the scam, take it or leave it.” I had no other options at that point since I was already late to pick up family and didn’t have time to research bus schedules (I would have never rented the car knowing it was $60 a day, not $20).

The tourist who rented the car prior to me was charged 1/3rd of what I was (I know that since they didn’t clean the car and their rental contract along with other garbage was still in the car). Even worse, I wanted to decline the CDW since I was using a World Mastercard (one of the only cards that covers rental cars in Israel). The agent said they would not accept Mastercard’s insurance and wanted me to sign forms acknowledge that I would be responsible for any damage, not Mastercard.

Then came the car itself. They first tried to give us a 4+ year old Nissan Tiida. That car was falling apart.

They then gave us a 2+ year old Nissan Tiida with 74k kilometers on it. This one had tons of cosmetic damage, a missing charger outlet and a broken passenger airbag, but otherwise worked.

Upon my return to the US, I emailed customer service. Their email team wasn’t very useful. They often just cut and past random non-sequiturs out of their handbook. Finally, after the second time I asked for a supervisor, their customer service manager called me. Wow, what a difference. He was really wonderful. He took the time to read the whole email thread and listen to the issue. He understood since he acknowledged that others have had issues with this same location. He told me that this would be added to the licencee’s record and be part of the review process Avis uses with their licensees. He is also intending to make an appropriate financial adjustment. If only all customer service people were so easy to deal with.

Note: I am still waiting for the adjustment, but trust it will happen.

Read more about our trip to Israel.