*** (12/07/2017 00:17)
Terrible Terrible awful rude and would never book again. We were late coming in due to transportation delays Planes/trains and such. We booked with Avis and it said they had "on sight in the trains station counters" when we arrive no such thing exists. First off, no car companies are IN the train/gare stations as you might see in normal areas like Paris, Bordeaux, etc. We walked outside and across the street was two auto rentals but NOT Avis. we walked all around in the blistering sun, to Finally find a tiny Avis sign on a door behind the side door of the train station. EXCEPT when we walked over to it, locked shut, out of business looking and abandoned. We called the # 4x trying to find them via phone. no answers EVER. No one in the Angouleme station was in the "information" area, and its a tiny station with no services whatsoever. except for SNCF office that had 8 people deep. we kept walking around for another 15 min and finally stood in line at SNCF to find someone to help us. the two ladies tried in our terrible French and their terrible English to help us. Finally, she went in back and after several minutes a lady came from behind and said in very broken English that Avis is outside, up the street and very hard to find. she said "sometimes they have someone there and most often not!" FINALLY we walked totally out and away from the train station, up the very steep street into town and and FINALLY see a tiny sign showing Avis in this "garage" looking location. like where they fix cars not rent them! unknowing whether this was correct we enter the tiny office only to be met with the RUDEST man ever as the counter person. Its 33+celsius and they have a tiny box fan pointed at this rude man, at a "fix it garage looking interior" office. He very very rudely states" you were suppose to be here 2 hrs ago" "I walked ALL the way down to the station to meet you and you weren't there!" as if you EVER had a rental car place meet you at the station like a limo service??? So hot and so frustrated, I simply let it roll off and waited. He then made another rude snipe about us being late and I simply said no idea what you mean. My husband chose to say nothing and try and humor the man who then, did the rental arrangements and admits he is ENGLISH not French and has lived in France for 10+yrs! Trying to ignore the rudeness we let it go until not 3 but 4x he says something snide about our late arrival and him having to walk ALL THE WAY to the trains station! I no longer could handle his rudeness and went off on him. he just badgered further and rudeness continued. then he gives us the keys and tell us to walk ALL THE WAY back to the train station, beyond it to the dirt/rock parking lot to get our own car that was sitting in the 33+ degree sun with windows up, dirty and NOT the car we rented. a terrible OLD dodge Ford Fiesta or some such, with 20k+ miles on it, dirty with the same power as a hamster! TERRIBLE TERRIBLE NEVER EVER RENT FROM THEM AND THIS ENGLISHMAN SHOULD GO BACK TO ENGLAND AND BE FIRED