Avis Alquiler de coches - Bilbao in Bilbao

Beware: They add extra insurance to your car when picking it up. In my case ca. 300EUR worth of additional insurance that I never asked for(!!) I also did not sign anything(!!) when picking the car up and when the additional insurance must have been added by the receptionist. The pickup process itself was very quick (I am a President Circle member, AVIS highest loyalty tier, so they have my information), which is why I wouldn't even have considered they add anything I didn't ask for (plus, you would think this is a reputable company, but yeah...). I noticed the scam after I reached my first destination after a 2 hour drive. They send you an email with an updated invoice where I was very surprised to see the rental price surging to almost double the price I booked it for. I immediately tried to call their different "service" lines. That again was a complete disaster. Got stuck in a waiting cue for 15+ minutes each time I called (4 attempts) and each time I finally got a human to take on my call they told me they can't take the insurance I never asked for off my rental. They told me I need to suck it up or drive back to the station in Bilbao Airport. Yeah right, like I don't have anything better to do on my holiday than spending hours with your extremely poor customer service and then drive back and forth for another 4+ hours because YOU just add expensive insurances I never asked for and didn't sign!! I was also denied to speak to the manager of the customer "service" agent when asking for it, which again is showing the poor quality of AVIS customer support. I sent AVIS an email explaining my situation and frustration the day I noticed the scam. They still haven't replied to it and they have now booked the full amount for the car + insurance I never asked for off my credit card. I will of course block that transaction. Still waiting for someone to come back to me and if you read this dear AVIS do not just reply that I may reach out to you, instead you reach out to me! It's you who clearly fked up here!! Plus your customer service so far is just a joke. Oh by the way, during the week I rented the car and had this bad experience with being scammed by AVIS for insurances, they actually did send me an Email. An Email that informed me that AVIS leaked all my private information, including my credit card details, address and name. I'm not making this up... For now, avoid AVIS at all cost! I will update this review should I hear back / update with new exciting experiences with their customer "support" --- update After reaching out to Avis on Instagram I was in fact supported by a capable client support and the money charged falsely has been reimbursed to me. My rating has therefore now changed from 1 to 3 stars. My suggestion to Avis would be to have capable support also (and maybe especially?) via telephone.

Edit: after taking this to their chat service, which basically involves them gaslighting you, and acknowledging their poorly worded contracts (but jokes on you, consumer!), we got nowhere, except that a month later we're still waiting for the preauthorisation to come back to us (EUR860...a lot!). Seriously, go to Hertz. They give your money back in 3 days. The front service staff are fantastic, however the sleight of hand and poorly worded documents that you sign are a nightmare waiting to happen. Go to Hertz or Sixt, where you won't be swindled of your money. We were sold Super cover, with a verbal explanation, and a contract that stated the max excess we would pay in the event of an incident would be EUR200. Nowhere on our contract was windscreen not covered. Fast forward 2 days, we received a chip on the windscreen from a rock from another car on the highway. Tried to call all the assistance numbers and they all eventually lead to a dead line. So we continued and the chip turned to a crack. No worries, max EUR200 excess I thought. Wrong. Handed the car back and got slapped with a EUR890 damage charge. This is how Avis make money. Buyer beware - use a small local, or go to Hertz or Sixt. Atleast then you won't be handed a holiday ruining financial disaster. Not only did they then charge me for the original al hire fee plus damage, of EUR1562, they took another EUR860 on top of that - and that's proving difficult to get back! Poor contracts, dodgy wording, quick sleight of hand. I'll never rent with Avis again.

Nice lady at the counter but most cars here are manual. Instead of telling you this crucial info though, they'll try hard to sell you insurance. We sadly left without a car, such a shame.

Nice car, No fuss with the agent. But returning the car in AVIS in Bilbao centre was a nightmare. No signs to direct. Pure luck that we figured out where and How..

The office staff and the quality of the the car were excellent. And dropping off at a different point than pickup is very easy, no problems. The only thing to bear in mind is that if you are picking up the car in Bilbao, the Budget office is NOT in the train station, check the address of Budget beforehand so you can make arrangements to get there before the office closes for the afternoon.

I can really recommend this Avis branch. Avis lady working there was such a nice person, she gave me reserved car in few minutes with all details for my rental. What a perfect service. Next time, I will rent care in this place. We had Peugeot, brand new, clean, nice equipped. Thanks a lot!

Avoid this place. 2 months after returning the car in exactly the same condition as I received it, they sent me a bill demanding EUR35.00. No explanation provided. I contacted them twice to request an explanation. No response, so I refused to pay. They simply took the money from my card anyway. Bilbao was nice though!

There's a drawback when you want to rent a van: you don't know the availability at the moment. You have to pay the reservation, then wait from 24 to 72h or go directly to the nearest Avis center. They simply don't answer the phone...