Airport Van Rental
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LAX Airport Van Rental Review
If you want an extremely dissatisfying experience, fraught with unprofessional employees, this is the place for you. I reserved 182 days in advance. After an arduous journey to even get to the rental place (involving 2 different shuttles and standing in a parking lot, out in the heat, with all of our luggage, to catch the second shuttle), I entered the Airport Van Rental (AVR) building, only to be greeted by at least 4 other disgruntled parties who did not look impressed, as they were waiting for their own van rentals (which were late). I was informed by the employee who assisted me, that I would not like any of her answers (at least she was honest- that I appreciated). She said there are no vans available right now, but you will get "something" sometime today. Thank goodness for vagueness. I reserved a 15 passenger van, only to be greeted by a 12 passenger van. Unfortunately, the group I was travelling with were ALL afraid to conquer LA driving, or else I would have abandoned AVR and would have gone elsewhere to rent two regular sized vehicles. However, I was far braver and had no choice but to rent a larger passenger van from AVR! I would even have brought an absolute stranger with our group and rented two 8 passenger SUV's to avoid this place (hind sight is 20/20). It gets better, continuing reading... The VAN arrived two hours late and don't forget the wrong one, not the 15 passenger we had reserved. However, we were told that AVR could not give us a time when a 15 passenger would be available, so we relented and accepted the 12 passenger (which we received no discount for a smaller van rental). Now, due to the extra time it took to shuttle to AVR and the LONG wait to rent the van, I got to waste time in rush hour, yeah! Upon entering the VAN, the olfactory senses were walloped by wafting urine and sweat. All seats were cloth and soiled. I immediately asked for air fresheners… what I received was a lite mist of some crappy spray that lasted until I reached the first corner. Well, at least I got to shop, along the way to our destination, for air fresheners at TARGET (we don't have target in Canada anymore, so I enjoyed being able to shop there and erect a forest of Pine Trees in the van). If you closed your eyes real tight you'd swear you were in a real forest somewhere nice, definitely NOT this lousy land barge that wreaks of other humans odors. Fast forward to day four, when I used the windshield wipers to clear dirt off the window at night, as the glare was awful. The driver’s side wiper was ruined and didn't remove anything. It only spread the dirt around, making it difficult to see. Now I had the pleasure of finding a gas station, to properly clean the window, at least I got to Ace Venture my way there to avoid striking objects. One would think that AVR would check all lights, fluids and wipers as all have to do with safety. Not this place. At the end of the trip, I followed the directions given to me, and dropped the VAN off at the adjacent building CL (parking), as it was early in the morning. I asked for a receipt and the attendant stated he didn't have any and that I would receive an email soon, confirming that I had dropped the VAN off. This is an important fact to remember. Almost 48 hours later, I get a call that sounds like this, verbatim, " When are you gonna bring our Van back?” I said, "I dropped it off Saturday.” The employee reiterated where is our VAN, when are you gonna drop if off? I said I am in Canada and I don't have your van. We will look into it and get back to you. ….Click the phone is hung up. This was a conversation that lacked any form of etiquette. I REALLY appreciated this person calling me at 23:10 hours on a Sunday evening. This made me worry all night that I got duped at the airport and someone actually stole the van. Never did get a call back from them. I then called the General Manager the next day, Mr. Batchelor. I told him about all of my concerns and he asked “where is our VAN?” At this point it became painfully obvious, this business has no form of inventory control, professionalism, common courtesy, they are void of core competencies associated with success, professionalism and interpersonal dynamics. Mr. Bachelor ended the conversation stating he would get back to me, he never did. I am assuming they located their van. At a bare minimum I would have expected AVR to reimburse me for the pine forest I purchased, to mask the odor of the urine express. Instead, Mr. Batchelor had a battery of excuses to address all the concerns I had. I also advised him that I had a discount card that was not honored, silent response to this as well. It pains me to rate AVR a star. I think a moon would be more appropriate. I truly hope someone other than the General Manager reads this review and develops a strategic plan for this location. The plan should include professional development across all domains. If the General Manager reads it conduct a SWOT analysis of you and your team. I am sure you will find something to work on. If you’ve done a SWOT do another one the first one didn’t work. Overall, I would avoid this place at ALL costs, unless you want to author a review like this.