Advantage Car Rental Consumer Reviews - Page 6

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA -- On 01/13/12 we rented a car from Advantage in Charlotte, NC. Had reserved online but when we arrived they tried to charge more than the reservation quote. I insisted that we would pay the reserved costs and was given an upgrade and the correct price. We returned the car on 01/15/012 with 33 miles put on. We had our inspection done and was given the receipt. About 6 wks later we received a call stating that there was damaged done all along the right side and the entire right panels had to be replaced.

When we said we had been checked at the time of return and there was no damage, the person thanked us and hung up. In May of 2012 we received a packet in the mail with colored picture, reports and paperwork stating there was a claim for damage of $807 that needed paying immediately. Also in the packet was an incident report that had hand written on the bottom "did not want to sign damage report". THIS WAS A BLATANT LIE. No such thing happened.

After reading the paperwork and looking at the pictures of the odometer, I noticed that the odometer had 35 more miles than when we returned the car. After pointing this out to the person in the claims dept, I was told that they must have needed the car so rented it out before having the repairs made. Lo and behold, after I produced my Advantage check-out slip (car returned-no damage) the claimed was closed! I just wonder how many more people does this happen to??? Needless to say, we will never use Advantage again.

1030 W MANCHESTER BLVD, INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA -- There's a reason this company is the cheapest. Rented a car for three days at LAX over the weekend. Despite the car being reserved several days in advance, the car was not ready. Like many others here, it took an hour to get our car and the shuttle took a VERY long time to pick us up from LAX. The car was FILTHY and had to be returned TWICE just to clean the windows. After the first time out, I noticed a "clicking" sound from one of the tires and was told it was probably a rock. It was too dark to see so we continued to our hotel.

The next morning we awoke to find the left rear tire flat with a large screw in it (the source of the mysterious clicking). I tried calling their road service and waited for 30 minutes in the queue with no answer. I called the office and was told that the flat tire was MY problem! In the end I had to have the rental car towed to a tire shop and have the tire plugged at MY EXPENSE! No offer of restitution was made by Advantage. STAY FAR AWAY FROM THESE GUYS!

PHOENIX, ARIZONA -- My wife and I just returned from our bi-annual trip to southern Arizona where we rented a car from Advantage for the first time. We had received the 'best rate' through Travelocity, but when we arrived at the Advantage counter in Sky Harbor Airport, the woman at the counter refused to honor the price given to us by Travelocity, rudely telling me that there were "taxes that Travelocity could not compute", because the company was not familiar with the local taxes. When asked to speak to a manager, the woman at the counter responded by saying that "a manager won't come up here for this", and refused to call the manager.

When we went downstairs to pick up our rental car, my wife asked the fellow behind the counter if he could remedy the error made by the woman upstairs. He looked at the paperwork and made a face, saying that he 'knew what happened'. When she pressed him further he quietly said that the employees often add charges to the rental for additional insurance, without asking the customer. He corrected the paperwork to reflect what we had been originally been quoted. Although I am grateful to this young man for correcting this, his confession and this experience on the whole left a bitter taste in our mouths. We will certainly never rent from Advantage again.

TORONTO -- Do NOT ever rent a car from Autowise, an affiliate of Advantage Car Rental in Canada. I was quoted a price of $274 and ended up paying close to $500. Autowise slaps a mandatory $8.95 mandatory insurance liability charge for every day of your rental. This is not explained when you rent the car even though you sign a waiver saying you do not want insurance and they assure you that you do not have insurance. On returning the car, they say that you had waived collision insurance but not the mandatory liability insurance that the company requires. It's a scam and all the customers who came in to return their cars were shocked and upset at having to pay this hidden cost.

SAN DIEGO AIRPORT, CALIFORNIA -- We will not use Advantage again. Although we pre-ordered and prepaid online, it took us 1 1/4 hours to get our car. The desk agents had wrongly entered the information for the two customers before us and did not know how to correct their mistakes. We waited while they did a lot of talking without much action. Two days after we rented the car, we received a call from an Advantage representative asking what car we were driving. He stated he was trying to figure out the renters of 19 cars rented that particular day!

Our online order stated "all taxes and fees included". It turned out that $20 more in taxes was included in the final bill with a response of "those are the taxes." The car itself, a Dodge Avenger, was fine. Our relatives on vacation with us used Enterprise. None of them had any problems and were processed very timely.

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA -- I rented a car from this company on July 2. Shortly thereafter on a drive to Rock Hill (30 miles away), I noticed that the low tire pressure light had come on. It's 9PM and I'm on a highway in a wooded area now having to find a full service station to check the tire and ensure I don't have a blow out (Try finding a full service station at that time). But thank God, I was able after a pretty frustration period of time to get help.

The next day, while in Uptown Charlotte, my light went on again. I went to the gas station and they put in more air, hoping that would be all it took until I returned the car the following morning. The gas station attendant observed that Advantage rents cars in this condition all the time. The next day as I'm returning the car to the airport the light comes on again. I ask the rental employee to note that on my receipt as she told me to speak with the manager, **, about my experience.

The manager was not in, so I relayed my experience to the counter personnel and asked that an adjustment be made to my bill. The next day someone called me back to inform me that they were subtracting $5 from my total bill of $113. What an insult. This rental company is a joke. Do yourself a favor and do not rent any cars from them. If you do, check carefully that the cars are in good condition. They clearly rented me a car that was not in good condition.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- Road trip turned bad! We had a van that luckily we noticed the tires, yes tires, that were through the belt. We called the customer service and that went over like a lead balloon. I talked to ** and he said "We will drive a replacement vehicle to you or you drive it into Salt Lake City". We were 200 miles from Salt Lake City and the tires were through the belt. He insisted these were the only two options we had. I said "we have 5 kids under the age of 12 and two diabetics, we cannot stay here for 3 hours on the side of the road, and I refuse to risk our lives and drive it with these tires."

** said "We have to be the ones to do the repairs so we can't have the tires fixed on the road, sorry. Either wait for a vehicle or risk your life." After demanding to speak to management for over an hour on the side of the road, I was able to speak with the GM In MS and he had to pay for the tires to be replaced with his own credit card! In the morning when we drop off the car, this delivery will not be a friendly one!

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA -- I would not recommend that anyone rent from this company. Three things went wrong with our rental car while we had it and all they did was note our file about it. The thing that topped the cake was our tire pressure light went off and I called in and they said it could be a number of things like the cold weather. The last day we had the car we got a flat tire 160 miles from the rental company.

The company was rude to us about it and did not care. They wanted us to use our own AAA to fix. Told us there was a spare tire in the trunk and it wasn't. We were 1 hour late returning the car because we had to fix it ourselves with fix a flat and ride slow on the freeway to get back and they still charged us an extra day.

Advantage was listed substantially lower in price than all other car rental companies when I did a search on Travelocity and a few other sites. I was skeptical since the price was around 40% cheaper and thought there must be a catch. I took a chance and went with Advantage, thinking that I would probably get an older vehicle, poor service, or hidden charges.

Surprisingly, there were no surprises. The shuttle came quickly. When we reached the pick-up location, the lines were quite long, but understandable with the low prices. When I got the car, I was pleasantly surprised to get a relatively new (less than 4500 miles), well-equipped Chevy Malibu with XM satellite radio. When I returned the vehicle, I was charged exactly what I was quoted (I had declined all options). No surprises, pleasant service, a nice new vehicle. Will definitely rent from them again.

The worst in customer service and a real bait and switch. They are also Hertz so you will get no solution to the problem. Every number to solve the problem leads you back to the office you rented from. Hertz and Advantage don't care about you and your well-being. The office I rented from was the Advantage in the Hilton airport hotel in West Palm beach. You get there and you are stuck to rent from them. So they have no office space at the airport so you wait for someone to pick you up. Don't deal with Cheapo.com either.