Flew back as usual to YVR from TYO where people bend over backwards, speak to you with keigo and smile on their face. At YVR, Avis makes me wait close to an hour because they don't have my class vehicle, won't give me an upgrade and I can't fit luggage in a downgrade vehicle. Finally they bring me the car... no apologies. One way rental to a suburban Seattle location which closes at 6pm or something. I'm already an hour behind , but I still have time to spare. Then I get stuck in bad traffic en route. I call ahead to let them know I'll get there very close to closing time. In fact, I got to the counter literally less than 30 seconds after the hour on my cell phone. Unbelievably the Avis lady says she's closed and can't help. Told her I'd spoken to her on the phone and asked her to cut me a break since I'm there right on the dot. She says her system's already shut down so she can't do anything. After a few more exchanges, she finally says she'll see what she can do. Then miraculously she starts typing stuff into her "system" that was supposedly already shut-down and, less than a minute later, she's got the vehicle return completed with receipt printed out. She tells me I'm lucky she was still around and that the "system" still let me get checked out. I'm thanking her profusely, but I'm thinking to myself 'what a joke' when I'm the customer and none of this would've happened if it weren't for the screwup by her Avis colleagues at YVR. Felt sick to be back in US, realizing my home was US and not Jpn.