A customer caught an Avis worker talking bad about her via a written note they forgot to take off her car key. What they said brought her to tears.
In the viral three-part video series, with more than 4.5 million views, TikToker @tobebluntaz explains that this unfortunate chain of events was set off when someone hit her car, requiring her to go into Avis for a rental car.
In the first video, @tobebluntaz (who’s admittedly sensitive to smells) says the scent Avis sprayed in the vehicle was so overwhelming to her. She says that within an hour of driving her rental, she felt so sick so she had to drive the car back for an exchange.
In another video, she adds that she almost passed out and threw up violently and couldn’t drive herself home safely.
As she’s filming herself talking to an Avis employee, @tobebluntaz looks visibly upset, as if she’s holding back tears.
“I didn’t mean to be so dramatic, but I was seriously hanging on for dear life. I was so sick,” @tobebluntaz says. “That fragrance—that should be illegal. The way that that made me violently ill.”
The car rental service had limited options of cars that didn’t already have the scent sprayed on, so she ended up with a large, bright red Dodge Charger that may not even fit in her garage, she says. But @tobebluntaz says they did their best to accommodate her. She says they told her she could come back the next day and that they might have some better car options for her.
At first, @tobebluntaz says she felt satisfied with how they handled the situation. She says the worker she spoke with was “super nice,” and she was starting to feel better after being away from the scent.
The note
But things took a turn when she walked in the next day and spotted a purple sticky note on the car keys for her new vehicle. A message on the note read: “Don’t clean!!! crazy lady doing vehicle exchange.”
“That is so inappropriate,” @tobebluntaz tells the worker she’s confronting. The worker quickly rips the note off.
“That’s not fair. You don’t have to videotape me. I apologized for that. I didn’t write the note,” the worker @tobebluntaz is interacting with in the clip says to her.
The pair ended up going back and forth. The worker continues to apologize. @tobebluntaz asks for both the name of manager and the worker who wrote the note.
@tobebluntaz says she was trying to keep her composure and not get overly upset at the worker since she knew none of this was her fault and continued to be genuinely helpful.
She ended up crying in the car and says she was struggling to calm down enough to be able to drive home.
“I tried my hardest to not take it out on her. But I was livid… I had been nothing but nice up until that point and to be called ‘crazy’ because I had a severe reaction to the toxic spray they use in their cars left me emotional,” @tobebluntaz said in the caption.
@tobebluntaz I will never rent a car from Avis/Budget ever again. On Monday, I dropped my car off at the body shop and walked over to the Avis to get the car that I had reserved. The rental car had a smell/fragrance that had me extremely sick within minutes. An hour into my rental, I went back to Avis and complained about the smell only to be told that they spray every car with their “signature fragrance”. They didn’t have any other cars for me to swap out to (only a pickup truck, minivan, or Dodge Charger). I took the Charger while they waited until they got another car to meet my needs. Today, Thursday, I go in to exchange my rental only to see the desk agent had left a note on the keys that read “Do not clean! Crazy lady doing vehicle exchange”. Once I realized the rep that was there was not responsible for the note, I tried my hardest to not take it out on her. But I was livid… I had been nothing but nice up until that point and to be called “crazy” because I had a severe reaction to the toxic spray they use in their cars left me emotional. #rentalcar #avis #budget #avisrentalcar #budgetrentalcar #toxic ♬ original sound – ToBeBluntAZ
The cleaning product
In the final video @tobebluntaz says the manager gave her the name of the product they use (it’s seemingly this Ecolab cleaner made for cleaning surfaces and removing odor from fabrics).
@tobebluntaz pulled up the product detail sheet on a green screen behind her. It has a hazard warning that specifies the product shouldn’t be inhaled. If it is, the person needs to be moved to fresh air, and they should “immediately call” poison control or a doctor.
The TikToker has comments turned off across all of the videos, seemingly because of how rude some people were being toward her.
The Daily Dot reached out to @tobebluntaz for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message as well as to both Ecolab and Avis via email.
Update 8:49am CT July 2: In an email response an Ecolab spokesperson explained that the when properly diluted the disinfectant can be used on cars for odor removal.
Avis has not responded to a request for comment or confirmed if this is in fact the product they are using.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
