Advantage Reviews 185

I am writing with some feedback on my recent rental with Advantage cars (booked via "Vehicle Rent") at Boston Logan airport:

1. The staff at the Advantage rental desk (Barbara) were not helpful and seemed incentivsed to sell as many add-ons as possible rather than genuinely trying to meet their customers needs.

We informed them where we were travelling to / from during our rental (Boston to Stowe, Vermont & return). They stated that we needed an EZ-PASS for the duration of our rental for toll rolls or taking a "60 mile detour to avoid toll fees". This was an extra $9.99 per day ! This was an unnecessary cost as there are no toll roads in Vermont ! Also only 1 toll in New Hampshire ( $1 each way) & 1 in Boston tunnels near the airport ($3.50 each way).

2. The first vehicle supplied by Advantage had not been cleaned or valetted

It was dirty inside, appeared not to have been cleaned, so we refused it and asked for an alternative which was supplied.

3. We ended up paying a lot more than the "$184.12 payable to local provider" as stated on the Vehicle Rent voucher with the EZ-PASS add-on and other charges added on.

Overall, this was not a great experience and we will not booking again with Vehicle Rent or Advanatge rental cars.

I rented this car at the Salt Lake City Airport.

The WORST part, I was rushing to the airport and forgot to fill up the tank with gas and they charged be $9+/gallon to fill up the tank. The tank was only half empty and they charged my $73 to fill it up the tank. If this isnt the definition of robbery, I don't know what is, this should be illegal!

On top of that the customer service agents rude and rushing me when going to get the car but the 'shuttle' which is supposed to run every 15 min took 45 min before it showed up and made me late.

This may be the worst experience I've ever had as a consumer. Ever. My reservation was made 3 months prior. When I arrived at the designated time, no car to be had. No prior notification there would be a 2 hour delay. In fact, at the counter I was told it would be 15 minute delay. "Customer Service" reps were combative, rude, argumentative, defensive, and lied to me at least 3 times. One "CS" person named Alexa told me to sit my a** down. Another, named Barbara, threatened to cancel my reservation and keep my money because I dared to be frustrated. I never so much as raised my voice, though they certainly tried to provoke me. The manager, Adamo, told me I could have free gas for my troubles, but didn't bother to tell anyone else. The person doing the paperwork asked me if I am a believer. I asked if he meant am I a Christian? Yes he says. Is this appropriate? Are Jews, Buddhists, Atheists not given the same (lack of) service? Do I pay more for not being a Christian? I could go on and on, but it'd seem as if I am exaggerating. Save yourself some aggravation. Spend the extra $$ and deal with people who don't insult you repeatedly for being stupid enough to book with them.

Do not book.......... Truly shocked by the level of service.Cars all damaged to some extent.The (least damaged car) we selected had no cental locking key. Do not use Advantage at Orlando Airport (MCO)
I am writing to the booking agents (Priceline)... They usually use quality car rental companies!!!!

Arrived at Denver after the long flight from the UK. Waited an hour and a half in the rental office with maybe 40 other customers in a snaking queue. Got to the desk (we'd already booked online and paid for extra insurance) to be told we hadn't paid for fully comp insurance - that option hadn't apparently been available online - and that if we wanted it it would cost 15 dollars a day. We felt manipulated but obliged to pay. V v unpleasant.

Rude and dishonest staff. Reached out to the company who only offered 15% coupon for future use. If you look on yelp, they have horrible reviews as well

This was absolutely the worst rental car experience in 35 years of renting a car. We arrived at the Advantage Denver Airport location to find a line of over 100 people and only 3 agents. After over an hour in line, my agent told me they did not have the Toyota Rav-4 equivalent to give me but could substitute a nice Corolla - a nice downgrade from a mid-sized SUV to an economy car. When i refuse that downgrade, i was offered a Hyundai SUV. When we took that SUV, we found that neither the radio or the backup camera worked. We asked an agent outside about it, he said to just play around with it and maybe it would work. Of course that was nonsense. So, back into a shorter line to get another car. We did get another Hyundai SUV. As we drove from Denver to Boulder, we noticed that the A/C wasn't working well. The best the A/C could do was to get the inside temp down to 'warm' in 90-degree heat. By the time we got to Boulder, a tire pressure warning light came on. We drove around looking for an air station and found one and filled the tire. The next morning the tire warning happened again, so more driving to find an air station. At that point i tried to contact Advantage at their local phone number to exchange the SUV. The call went directly to voice mail to a full mailbox so that no message could be left. I called the Advantage 800 number and that went directly to voice mail system where customer support was mingled in with claims. I left a message there. I repeated this process many times over the next 3 days and never was contacted by Advantage. I rented through WiseCars.com, so i notified them. After a few emails, i asked them to contact Advantage and call me since I could not get through. I think WiseCars may have emailed Advantage about all of this, but i never did get a call, so we spent each morning driving a 'warm' SUV around looking for an air filling station. This is very insulting behavior on the part of Advantage. i will never use them again and will file a case with the BBB to see if i can get reimbursed. i did not pay to have a defective rental with no customer service.

The worst car rental service ever. They made us pay twice for an insurance that we already paid during booking process. We had that insurance on our voucher and they said it didn't count. We asked them many times to call the customer assitance of the site we used to made the reservation (easyrentcars) to fix the problem. We don't speak the language well and plus, calling an US number with our italian phone plan would have costs us a fortune. They always said no. We stand at the counter for about an hour to solve this, we stay there with a 1 year old boy after 12hours flight and receive no help at all. So, we had to pay this insurance again, 15$ per day, per 15 days of rental. After one month of discussion Easyrentcar customer assistance finally managed to get us a refund but only for half of the price we paid.
For those who travel with children: child seats were all dirty and ruined. I know that because they send me in a room full of child seats to pick one.

We had a great experience.
The shuttle was waiting at SFO, the driver was friendly.
The staff when we got there at midnight were as friendly. Reviewed gas prices, tolls and it was quick and easy, the car was ready and off we went.
Drop off was as fast and the shuttle driver brought us to our gate.
Our overall experience with them has been great.

1.0 star rating 9/17/2018
Very poor customer service at ARC Las Vegas McCarran airport branch spoilt our road trip - avoid at all costs! Overcharged me 2 days satnav rental at 40USD and then ARC would not adhere to the guaranteed rate provided on email and website screenshots from their booking agent at Europcar. At booking desk I was encouraged to upgrade to platinum protection for 7USD per day and then found at the end of the rental that they wanted to charge me a further 6USD per day for Personal Accident Insurance on top when I had not agreed to this! Guaranteed rate clearly included satnav in the price but Claudia & her manager (Kaela DeMatteo) at ARC unable to accept this despite clear documentary evidence to the contrary. At the end of the rental we reported to Claudia that the car was unclean as we found a half-empty bottle of Barcardi (photo below) in the boot. Rather than addressing our concerns around this Claudia adopted a defensive stance and sought to criticise us for not reporting the bottle until the end of the first day of the rental. She went further and sought to suggest that we were just raising the bottle as leverage around the guaranteed rate problem. Ridiculous! Claudia - it's kind of hard to report a bottle found in the boot when you are in the Red Rock Canyon with no mobile reception! Claudia & Kaela could have resolved this by simply refunding me the 20USD charged for satnav but would rather see me leave a very dissatisfied customer. I emailed Advantage customer services yesterday and have not received any response or acknowledgement and Kaela has not responded to my email last Friday.

Rented a car for Sept long weekend and denied the insurance and other extras that the Rep mentioned. But she NEVER EVER mentioned about the toll admin charges. Apparently, I took a toll accidentally and it charged 0.86$, but the rental company charged 25.86$ on my card. When I called the customer care agent and said, if only the representative should have mentioned this, I would have either expected my charges or if she had given any other choice to not be charged such high admin fee, I could have taken it. But NOTHING was mentioned or offered.
And the Rep mentioned, its a clause in the FINE PRINT at the back of the agreement and its at the very end, bullet point 8, about these charges. I was like, 'who reads all that? The things which the rep offers, is what we care about and she should have mentioned it and I could have gone for anything cheaper than 25-50$ admin fee'. And she was RUDE enough to say, you have to go through fine print. Well, lesson learnt.
1. NEVER rent Advantage

I have rented with so many other car rentals and no one over charged me like this. And whatever is the toll charge, will be put on the card after a week's time.

So, always ask about these charges in advance and if you are at Advantage, just skip it! You are better off going to other rentals

Hired a mid size SUV from San Francisco Airport. Car hire is a reasonable distance from the airport, but no problem there, good shuttle.
At the desk, I was told they have no size of car that I ordered. Told to come back the next day and maybe they would have one. Sent away with a standard family size car.
Arrived the next morning to receive a small jeep, no way mid sized SUV, but better than the original car. No way to fit luggage for four people in though.
Returned a few days later and managed to get a larger SUV, the day after, the engine maintenance warning light came on and noticed the tyres were very worn.
Eventually got to another advantage office in Vegas. In fairness, the experience improved a lot here. I was given a good car and in good condition.
Overall, spent a day of a 14 day holiday sorting out rental cars with a couple of very poor customer service people, others were good and helpful.
Final nail was getting charged £70 with no invoice or explanation. When I queried with advantage, they removed the charge. This could have been a simple mistake, but my brother in law had the same charge, so I expect they hope you will just accept the charge.
Worst car hire experience ever, do not use this company.

This review is for Advantage Rentals, not for Wisecars. Picking up the car: they just pointed at it. No one escorted me to the car to show me anything or ask any questions or even tell me which way to go to get out of the airport garage. So after driving around 3 levels, I finally figured it out.

The day I was supposed to come back, the tire was flat. Took it to a Sears Auto where they told me the tire pressure monitor was broken and the tire had likely been leaking air for days. They were unable to repair the tire, nor did they have a replacement in stock. This was a Sunday and they were the only place I’d found to be open.

Long story short I bought a tire gauge and drove the 4 hours to the airport, stopping to check/fill the air in the tire. I had to pay $99 to reschedule my flight because of the flat.

Arrival: I informed the girl at the counter of my dilemma and she snapped back that they weren’t going to refund me for that.

I realized I’d left a bag in the car and went back to the drop off point to check. I was met with 3 or 4 attendants rudely shrugging their shoulders, yelling “I don’t know where it is now!” when I asked about the car I’d just returned. Finally a guy offered to go up to the next floor and look for me. He came back with my bag and I was very grateful.

I will NEVER use Advatage again. Aside from just being horribly rude, they let me leave in a broken car with no spare tire. I had told them my destination was 4 hours away. Guess it’s all about the money. I mean, I can’t expect them to care about my safety, right? If that’s important to you, I’d steer clear.

There is a reason (more precisely, during my recent experience at LAX I found several) why Advantage often prices car rentals lower than its competitors:

-- Rental counter staff make up new rules and restrictions to sell additional insurance to unsuspecting renters. I am generally well prepared to deal with these shenanigans (I maintain permanent car rental insurance), but at my rental in late July, Jose at Advantage LAX simply declared that the full insurance package in my Europcar rental voucher (Advantage is Europcar's US partner) had been 'invalidated' due to my use of a New York State driver's license. The voucher stated no such condition, but I was forced to purchase new insurance at a cost of more than $100 -- otherwise I would have been stranded in the industrial area near LAX in the middle of the night.
-- Rental car stock is poorly managed and old. I had booked (and prepaid for) a full-size SUV, but the rental agent tried to persuade me to accept a small SUV or van instead, claiming that no full-size SUV was available. When I insisted on being given the proper car type, a Hyundai Santa Fe was found, but it was extremely old (with more than 40,000 miles on the odometer), dirty, and significantly damaged.
-- The first impression is telling: While mainstream car rental companies operate professional-looking and clean shuttle buses, those used by Advantage at LAX are old, dirty and smelly, with poorly functioning air conditioning.

Conclusion and advice: It is worth paying extra to secure a rental with a proper provider.

Rented a car at Denver airport.
There was not 1 advantage to renting a car from Advantage. Please, just don’t!

Car was fine.
Pick up from JFK fine.
But the EZpass charge is a total scam. The guy at the counter assured me that there is no way I can drive on a toll road without paying their EZpass fee (turns out a lot of tolls have cash booths, but I guess some don't). Can't use your own EZpass, no way around it. Either pay up, or get a fine. Or of course avoid the toll roads.

Most tolls are only a few dollars but but Advantage charges $23.99 PER DAY to include all tolls. But wait, once you get the bill they add Concession Fee (?) State Tax and something called NY Car Rental Tax (surely that's made up) so really you pay $32.35 PER DAY!! Just to drive on toll roads that cost a few dollars. Many days we didn't even drive on toll roads.

Total stitch up. Total scam.

Beware. Or just say no and avoid toll roads.

Orlando Airport Advantage, July 2018
While returning our rental van, an Advantage worker backed another rental car into the van as we were unloading it. It pushed the van into my bosses knees and nearly knocked him over. The worker checking us in acted as if it were no big deal and just looked at us when we asked him if he saw what happened. The driver sped away and the girl at the return desk could have cared less! After several emails to customer service, it was very apparent that they didn't care either. We were also overcharged for a service which we declined at the beginning but they tacked it on anyway. DO NOT RENT A CAR FROM ADVANTAGE!

I was flying into Denver on June 6, 2018 and I needed a rental car for the duration of my trip; I was flying out on June 9, 2018. I booked through a third party do to the low rate provided and I paid for said vehicle prior to my arrival in Denver. The shuttle service took me from the airport to pick up my prepaid vehicle. While picking up the vehicle I purchased the insurance in the amount of $25.99/day. This amount was to be billed to my credit card on file when I returned the vehicle. About 4 hours after picking up my rental, while driving down the highway, a rock hit the windshield resulting in a large crack. I called the company and asked what I should do. I was told to return the vehicle for a replacement which I did. I returned the replacement vehicle on June 9, 2018 at approximately 2pm. I asked for a receipt and was told that it would be emailed to me. On June 13, 2018 I received the receipt via email as I was told would happen. This receipt claimed the vehicle was returned June 13, 2018 at 9:04 am! I immediately called customer service and explained the incorrect return date. I was asked to email a copy of my flight itinerary, which I immediately did, to prove that I actually did fly out of Denver on June 9, 2018. The customer service agent I was working with said he would get this matter taken care of and contact me within a day or 2. Well, about a week or so goes by and no response as I was promised despite 2 subsequent emails to the same agent that went unanswered. I then look at my credit card statement and see there are 3 additional charges from Advantage...$423.18, $82.36, and $68 for a grand total of $573.54. Mind you, this was for a 4 day rental in which I already paid $147.84 up front. So according to this incompetent company I was expected to pay a total of $721.38 for a 4 day rental of a Hyundai Elantra! Who in there right mind would pay that? I acknowledge that I owed 4 days of insurance that I purchased at the rate of $25.99/day and I had no problem paying that amount, plus any ridiculous fees they tag on to it as well. I have since disputed these unfounded and incorrect charges with my credit card company and here we are over a month later and it is still not resolved. This half rate company refuses to acknowledge their screw up and expects me to pay. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE avoid Advantage Car Rental! The little bit less you may pay up front compared to other car rental companies could potentially cost you exponentially more in the long run!

I returned the car on time. The reported that the car was returned two days late and charged more than $200 extra. Their customer service sent me a single email and stopped replying.

They will figure out how to get your deposit.

Made a reservation for a car by Holidaycars.com in February and prepaid it then. When we picked up the car at Advantage car in Orlando airport, we was told, that they didn't got payed. They reserved the excact amount. When we returned the car we spoke to an employe at the airport. We prooved to her that the car already was paied. She was Very helpful and seemed to understand our frustration. She made copies of every proove we got and made sure, that they would made a refund. She Also spoke with her manager. We were promised a mail from the manager in few days and Also the refund. Nerver heard from Them. The money has now been withdrawn from my creditcard. So paied for the car twice. Thank you so much. Urelaibly company, employees Who Lie to your Face. Cool business.