Advantage Rent-A-Car Reviews

After checking the car over, my fiance put our luggage in, and we could hear air spewing from the tire. We begin to drive to daytona, air is again spewing from the tire. Check tire pressure. So we pay to put air in the tire. Get to our condo, nap for 3 hours, drive to dinner, check tire pressure. The tire was at 24 pounds of air. So we call the next day. I spoke with Maria. I asked of we can return the car, it wasn't safe to drive. She agreed that she would give me something else, no problem at all. Drove 1.5 hours back to Orlando. We are stuck at the gate, no one is there to open the gate to let us in. My fiance had to get out of the car and yell at them to do their job and let us in the parking lot.

We get in, park the car, some young kid says, "Just leave the keys in the car and head out." I told him no way, we are exchanging the car. He begins to ask me what's wrong. So we tell him. Go into the building and again get greeted by some ignorant kid, we tell him what's wrong with the car, and he tells me that I dated the car and I will be reliable for the damages. Be brings me a picture off of his personal cell phone. It's a blurry photo of what appears to be a hub cap. Again it's so blurry I can't even tell what the picture is. He tells me that the rim is bent, the valve stem is shot and it will cost me $400 and that it didn't look like that prior to me picking up the car. There is no rim, it's a hubcap.

I argued with him, told him we never hit anything, no one hit me and I refuse to pay for someone else's damages because the inspection was not done correctly. He again tells me it's my fault. Gives me Maria's email to fight with her over it. Then he offers me a 2023 dodge charger. I ask him how much that's going to charge me. He states that it is free and on the house. Cool, we leave and all is fine. I bring back the car 14 hours later, filled up full with gas, shake the sand out of the car and clean it out. Pull in, they tell me to leave the keys in the car and head out. I yelled back and told them, "No, you will complete the inspection while I am present."

The kid does the inspection, take his personal cell phone out, and takes a video on the outside of the car and inside of the car and that was it. 5 minutes after check out, I get a bill for $601.00. Advantage charged me for the car plus the $400.00 and put a pending charge of $250.00 on my credit card. Total cost of the rental car for 6 days was over $1,000. I called my credit card company and reported fraud charges. I REFUSE TO PAY THIS BILL. Also upon returning and picking up the new car, Maria had the nerve to laugh at me while exchanging the car. Rude, disrespectful, scam, fraudulent company. Never ever again. You ruined my vacation that I worked 15 hour days for for 6 months straight. I will report to the BBB and see you in court if you come after me for that bill.

Supplemental insurance cost $250. Same as the" deposit " they put on the card, so I didn't catch it until the credit card bill arrived with the total charge of $500. I called customer service twice to dispute the charge, but it didn't result in anything but aggravation. And when you ask for the manager (Mike) or his email or phone extension-it's not the information they can provide. So Mike never got back to me. Also if you choose to use the ezpass for tolls, it's $10 a day and you would be charged this fee regardless of going through the tolls or not. Reading the reviews about Advantage rent a car I wonder how is the company still in business?

Of course after traveling all day I didn’t take the picture but I definitely checked the gas and car before we left, and returned it what it had when we got it. I would have no reason to lie about gas! If I knew I didn’t return it how I got it there is nothing for me to say like I didn’t dispute the toll charges! I also stated that I am NOT a smoker, so no one smoked in the car! When asked prove that I smoked in the car and about the gas, nothing! She couldn’t provide any documentation stating that they gave me the car on full and told me because it was “documented” that someone smoked in the car she was keeping my money and no refund. To see SO MANY people with similar fraudulent charges, these people are complete scams!!! Maria and her team are taking people's money! I also looked. They are rated F by the BBB! DO NOT USE them! Pay a little extra for a reputable company.

Got to the location to pick up the car. They kept saying I needed this and that and almost doubled the price of my reservation rental. Go out. put my stuff in the car look it over and climb in. Immediately the Change oil light comes on. I go back in and tell the counter guy. He says “they probably forgot to reset it”. And “hopefully that’s all because he don’t have any other cars”. He climbs in. Looks at it and says “yeah it’s not been done and is due, but he’s gonna turn the light off and to drive it.” So he does.

I get to going down the road and hit the brakes kinda hard (just checking them) and I hear a loud metal on metal grinding sound with a bad vibration in the pedal. Drive the car for a week. Return it with no damage. A couple days pass and I’m looking at my credit card statement and I have an additional $850 charge on my credit card. Began trying to contact the rental company. Never talked to a human being. Left numerous messages and emails took 2 days till I finally heard back from them and a woman tells me “that the car had a busted windshield.” I told her it absolutely did not have a busted windshield and my girlfriend agreed. It was not busted. The woman said that her supervisor would contact me. Still ain’t heard from them. I had to contact my credit card company to stop the charge. Would walk before I ever rented from this company again.

I added a carseat for my toddler and they gave me an old, dirty expired car seat. The woman who was working the desk up front admitted to how old these car seats are. THIS IS NOT LEGAL. They should not be giving out these carseats. I felt unsafe with my daughter in the carseat that I ended up buying a new carseat and checked it into my flight upon departing... The carseat was so filthy that my daughter developed some sort of rash around her neck. Do yourself a favor and rent elsewhere. I promise paying 25-75$ more with a well known name (Hertz, Enterprise, etc) will save you the stress, aggravation and money (and your child's life if you are renting a carseat).

By this point my daughter was hot, agitated, and hungry. I knew there was a potential meltdown on the way and I just needed a car and to get her food and to our room. When then small pin pad you you initial saying you agree to this, that, and the other I didn't think anything because again I thought the quote included deposit. It was until I received the receipt to my email that evening that I saw they had charged me $253!!! From $60 to $253. Are you serious. They had upcharged me for the vehicle they said they only had available. First of all if you rent a car and then they run out of the size, they generally don't penalize you. They waive any fees because that's not the customer's fault.

I immediately called customer service and disputed the upcharge. I was told the GM would get back to me within 3 days. I knew it was a holiday weekend so maybe longer. After a week no call. I call customer service again, they said they will send another request for a response. I send emails, no response. 3 weeks later I call customer service again and they tell me they closed the ticket. Too bad I signed the agreement. Not once did anyone call me, or send an email, or try to provide any level of customer service. The worst customer service I've ever experienced. I am not dropping this. This was almost $200 I had not budgeted for. This was my daughter's dream trip and this really hurt my budget to do everything I could for her. I'm a single mom and I work 3 jobs so to be robbed like this and taken advantage of when I worked so hard to make this trip happen was just unbelievable.