Universal Rent-A-Car

Sketchy. Hidden fees everywhere. We made a reservation with
. They subjectively won’t let you drive anywhere in the US except Buffalo. Retracted. Nice enough guys.

Booked through Kayak — Universal offered the best rates and occupied all the search results on Kayak when we looked for a rental car company for this weekend’s trip to Toronto.
I booked a rental car for $ 32 /​day (all in) for 3 days on Kayak.
Trouble started when I arrived at the Viscount monorail stop for the shuttle. IT TOOK 65 MINUTES FOR ANY SHUTTLE TO ARRIVE. I had to call Universal multiple times to get them to send the shuttle on a Friday morning at 10AM.
The guy on the phone kept lying and saying the shuttle was on its way (very similar to other posts here). Finally, he indicated that due to a GPS malfunction, there were no cars available at Universal and the driver would be taking us to Payless Car Rental to pick up our vehicles. There were 3 families squeezed into the car, because all had been waiting for so long.
Once the shuttle (a small minivan, no label) came, the driver innocently informed us that he was taking us to Payless Rental Cars because the owner had overbooked the lot (not because of the GPS issue)
We got to Payless, and they had not been informed that Universal would be sending over their customers. Only because I was first in line, did I receive a rental car, for the price of $ 75 /​day, not the $ 32 I booked it for.
Complete and utter terrible service, and outright lying on the part of the company.
The only really unfortunate thing is that I don’t know how to post these reviews on Kayak itself.
I guess the fortunate thing for me is that we didn’t end up renting from Universal, because it sounds like we would have been charged for a bunch of ridiculous and unnecessary repairs.

I wish I could give no stars.
This place is a scam. They claim they need proof of insurance and that this is mandated by the Province of Ontario/​Government of Canada. If you don’t have what they want YOU MUST buy insurance through them significantly upping the cost of the rental. So you show them your insurance card (mine was from Allstate… not exactly a fly by night company) they claim it doesn’t have all of your liability listed. Also despite the fact that your credit card covers you, they need proof of your 3^rd party liability. So then you go and print off your policy online. Well they won’t accept that your coverage transfers to rental cars. They want a specific form which no one at my insurance company has heard of. You ask if you can just decline the insurance like EVERY OTHER RENTAL AGENCY IN NORTH AMERICA and they say no and try to give you some pathetic excuse about how other rental companies secretly include these prices and they don’t to save you money blah blah blah. In the 2 hours I was there no one that walked in was able to produce what they wanted. And because they’re so far from the airport you’re basically stuck swallowing the extra price. This is a dirty scam to squeeze extra money out of people that are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
On top of all of this, their car was dirty (like literal dirt and grass etc. in the back seat, floor and trunk) had cigarette burn marks, smelled like someone smoked in the car, had blown right speakers and generally sucked.
Absolutely avoid. It is worth paying more for a reputable and trustworthy well known rental agency. These guys are crooks

Worst car rental place ever. Any good reviews are fake. Avoid at all costs. This place is essentially the Nigerian prince email scam of car rentals
Got picked up in a shady unmarked van with weird stains. The driver took us to some dilapidated office, got out and went behind the desk himself. Nobody else was there. Highlights include a dirty fishtank and a dry fountain filled with trash. Our reservation thru kayak (who should take these guys off their site) meant nothing. There was an up charge for everything and the final price was 150 more than the reserved price.
They said they were out of economy cars so they were going to bump us up to a mid size. The car that came out had dents, paint peeling, a beeper with no battery, hubcaps missing etc. the guy took me around VERY quickly to mark off any damage. Most of it he didn’t put on and I had to point out. No apology, no acknowledgement.
Horrible business that is only around to screw people over. Tell your friends. Have your lawyer/​cc company ready when they try to charge your card for damage you did not do.

COMPLETE SCAM OF A BUSINESS!
DO NOT RENT CARS FROM THIS SERVICE!
Please warn your parents (who do not use Unilocal or who may not be as tech savvy) to stay away from this company.
If you do not have time to read my entire review, please at least read this:
My dad’s credit card was charged $ 900 for damages to the rental car’s «windshield window» which my parents did not make, and damages which did not exist when the car was returned. If you search up reviews of this business on Google, there are others who have been scammed with the EXACT same situation: $ 900-​$ 1000 charges to credit cards for «damages to the windshield window».
If you go read through the «not recommended» reviews you will see that there are about 30 other people who have been charged $ 500-​$ 3000 for damages that were not their faults! Any review here that is anything above a 1 star is FAKE and is most likely the crook owner or one of his crook family or friends.
++++++++
My parents found this company through
. The rental was stated to be $ 50 a day.
When they arrived at the place which already looked incredibly shady, they were helped by a middle-​eastern. When my parents showed their ID to the man, he said that was not enough proof and they would need to provide a copy of their insurance policy… and so my parents had to wait around for a long time while this stupid guy made phone calls…
When he finally showed my parents to the rental car, it turned out to be an old 2007 Toyota Civic. There were MULTIPLE PREEXISTING DAMAGES on the vehicle however only 5 were accounted for although my mom tried to point out all of the others. The man seemed rushed, telling them they were closing soon and hurried them off on their way.
Then comes the day my parents needed to drop off the rental. This business opens at 7am — 7pm however they offer a «drop off» option for those who have earlier or later flights. You can leave the vehicle and drop off the keys in a box outside. This is the option that my parents took because they had no other choice since their flight was at 6am. Note, there were NO additional damages aside from the ones that had already been there. I have two of the most OCD parents and they did not make any damages to the car.
The next day, my parents arrive back in LA and my dad receives a phone call notifying him that a $ 930 charge had been issued to his credit card from Universal Rentals. According to the claim, there were damages made to the rental car’s windshield window. Once again, there had been NO damages made by my parents. NONE.
My sister and I searched this company on Google and low and behold, there are a NUMBER of scam warnings for this business. A number of individuals who had been placed in the EXACT SAME SITUATION. «Damages to the windshield window» $ 900-​$ 1000+ charges to their credit card.
UNBELIEVABLE.
THIS COMPANY NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN. Please spread the word and warn your family and friends to stay FAR FAR away from this business. DISGUSTING.
***** 10÷07÷14 UPDATE! *****
Several people have messaged me in regards to my review and asking about updates on my parent’s situation with this company and I just wanted to let you all know that my dad was finally able to get all his money back after 3 months.
The bank (Chase Bank) finally cleared the charges after further investigating the case and agreeing that the charges and situation was all very suspicious. They requested for my dad to contact the company for more information on the car damage charges however Universal Rent-​A-​Car never responded or provided more information. In the end, the bank must have found their lack of response and behavior to be strange which is why the charges were thankfully cleared.
Also, after I had written up this Unilocal review, I also send out a very detailed letter to the bank describing the whole situation and providing all necessary details to help prove our case. I highly recommend you all to do this as well. Hopefully you all will be able to get your money back as well and I encourage everyone to share your experiences through whatever outlet you can to help prevent this from happening again!

Extremely bad experience !
The manager of the company told me, that I’m cheating them. I will write a full review later on today. However, I will recommend do nor have any deal with this company ever!

Everything was good until the drop off.
I booked the car on
for $ 10.90 a day but once I picked-​up the car it was $ 21 a day…
I paid 70 $ and returned the car 25h aftet and they asked me to pay another 62 $ because they don’t do hourly rate.
Well I told them that I booked the car for 10.80 a day w/​o insurance so how is it possible to pay 132 $? They refunded me the extra 62 $ so check ur online rate and the one that they give u carefully when u pick up the car.
UPDATE !!!
1months after the rental I have been charged on my credit card 650 $ + 49 $
My bank is looking at those transactions under this company.
Update 2 … July 2014
After more than 6 months I finally got my money back from the bank unfortunately the garage got the 650 $ but my bank sent me some bills from them with my signature on it !!! I didn’t give them any right to do that so I guess they scanned my signature from the credit cart print that they took … Ppl be careful there.

!!! STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY !!!
I took a car for rent. The car came all scratched in stinky condition. The shop noticed it and took notes. When I returned the car, suddenly the noticed a small cosmetic scratch that maybe already had been on this car, something light, the one that you can remove in 5 minutes. I have a picture to prove it. We filled a report about this scratch and I was told that this something that I won’t be bothered. Worst case scenario I might be charged for couple of hundred of dollars. I was disappointed because of this result .
At the end of the day these thieves gave me an estimate of $ 1061 !!! Because of small cosmetic scratch my credit card was charged for this ridiculous amount .
I spoke with their manager and asked for getting a discount. His name is Peter .
He never called me back although he’d promised to call.
All the mechanics I went told me that this scratch is max $ 300 incl work.
When you’re renting a car you want a piece of mind. My suggestion is don’t deal with this scam company of liars.
What they’ll do is find a scratch and charge you for «estimate» that never will be fixed, see the proof as the car came already scratched to me.
This is the worst company and the worst service I ever had in my life !
!!! BE WARNED !!!
I can prove everything if needed.
I’m about to fill a complaint to BBB and spread this story all over the Internet

Awful. Sent one of my staff there with a confirmed rental from these guys. Website says open until 11pm, no answer on their phone for a pickup at 10:15pm. Left him stranded so I went online and ordered from someone else.
Stay away!

Don’t ever rent from these crooks. I rented a car @ 9:30 pm. in a rain storm. On return they found a hairline scratch which no way could you notice on a dark rainy night and charged my credit card over $ 1200 for repairs. Any savings are at risk and illusionary.

You get what you pay for. You have to call them to come pick you up. They tell you to take a shuttle to the pick up point, then call them again to come get you. i called them again, 15 minutes later to find out how long it will take and they said he just left and will be there shortly. What does that mean? 15 to 20 minutes more.
Now I’m committed, can’t go back, just have to wait. 1 hour and 3 calls have passed :(

Horrible experience. Had to call them from the to find out how to even find them (no signage at airport) and they’re quite a way off the airport. They couldn’t send a shuttle to the terminal to pick me up, so made me take the airport Terminal Link bus to get to a pick-​up spot about 10 minutes away. Then I had to call them again to say I’d arrived there. Then another ten minutes later they finally showed up in an unmarked van (couldn’t even bother to have their logo painted on their van) and took me to their office another 10 minutes away.
Their office was a little hole in the wall with about 3 cars for rent in a tiny parking lot out in front. Very unprofessional looking. More time spent filling out paperwork. They required me to buy a minimal insurance of about $ 9 per day which brought the total to $ 137.25 for 3 days.
Total time from when I realized I couldn’t find their name listed anywhere at the terminal under «Rental Cars» to when I drove away in a car: about an hour.
The car was OK, but they only gave me ½ a tank of gas and wanted me to return it ½ full. Do you know how hard that is to measure while pumping the gas? I ended up going over the ½ mark and paying too much for gas. Note that their website says, in their «Policy» page, «YOU WILL BE PROVIDED WITH TWO OPTIONS, BOTH STARTING WITH A FULL TANK OF FUEL IN YOUR VEHICLE AT THE TIME OF RENTAL.» They did not keep their own policy, which unfortunately I did not read until after I returned home.
The 12v socket didn’t work, so I couldn’t charge my phone while driving. (Though in fairness, someone on Facebook told me they’ve had that treatment from one of the major rental car companies too; apparently they disable them by pulling the fuses because they don’t want people smoking or draining the batteries; it seems chintzy to me. There are ways to keep people from smoking — charge them a $ 250 cleaning fee. And charging a phone while driving does not drain the battery.)
Finally, they took my credit card impression on one of those old fashioned blank unvoided credit card forms, so they could fill it out if they needed to, if I incurred any parking or speeding tickets. That felt kind of risky to me. Who knows whether some unsavoury character there would fill it out for some random amount and hope I wouldn’t notice. I’ve never been asked to do that by a reputable rental car company before.
So, in summary, all-​in-​all it was a cruddy rental car experience. Never again. I’ll go with one of the major known brands thank you very much.
Universal my foot. Had never heard of them before. Thanks
for saving me money, but I’d rather pay an extra $ 5 a day in the future and get a reliable company who can pick me up in a timely fashion and does things the normal way with gas and such.

We made our reservation through
. When we showed up they said they didn’t have any cars and they gave our rental away. They refused to honor our reservation.
We ended up having to walk to two other car rental places with our suitcases until we found an available car at budget for $ 200 more.

I have been trying to resolve an issue with this company since January.
They rented me a car that was unfit to drive. I almost got killed because the tires (i had no idea… the owner is saying I SHOULD HAVE CHECKED THE TIRE WEAR BEFORE I RENTED THE CAR … in the snow… at night… after flying in from California. Right. Mike was WITH me and we looked at the car, it seemed fine at the time. He agreed. we didn’t look for the tire wear. I will never forget to do that ever again!
RUBY the manager has told me the Owner would phone me today.
My US BANK is about to close my account on MAY 11^th and the folks at Universal Rent a Car know this.
Now, I called and Again but RUBY is out sick. This happens a lot, but I don’t understand why he hasn’t had the owner call me after our previous call. He had then left a voicemail asking for my info after I had already provided it. so I emailed it to
but they don’t seem to know how to communicate other than by phone.
So when I just called today, MIKE, the guy who is cool and rented me the car… said that Ruby now is saying that he’s DONE ALL HE CAN. well that’s just great.
Ruby told me the owner would phone. Me. Now the owner is saying NO?
The OWNER Hassani Tejpal is afraid to phone me to discuss this matter saying that they’ve DONE ALL THEY CAN and I should have checked the tires.
Forgive me if i’m wrong but UNIVERSAL RENT A CAR JUST took $ 3,500 from my US Chase bank account without warning.
— Why didn’t my insurance cover it? because its UNIVERSAL’S FAULT so its irrelevant. Trust me, i’m trying to get them to pay for Univeral’s mistake so I don’t have to, but the insurance company should be fighting this (they will win) not me… so now I have to unleash them on them… WE CAN RESOLVE THIS EASIER IF YOU CALL ME!!! 310– you have my number.
AT THIS TIME UNTIL THIS IS RESOLVED I DO NOT RECCOMEND that ANYONE RENTS FROM THIS COMPANY DUE TO POOR MAINTANANCE OF VEHICLES — THE CARS ARE NOT MAINTAINED PROPERLY AND IT COULD COST YOU YOUR LIFE. AT LEAST CHECK THAT THE TIRES ARE NOT WORN PAST THE WEAR BARS LIKE MY CAR THAT ALMOST ENDED MY LIFE WAS.
ALSO others say that when you bring the cars back, they MAKE MONEY from the damages. so Be AWARE of the car’s condition before you drive away.
I Was Rented An Older Vehicle that had:
A) THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT WAS ON, I NOTICED IT HALF WAY HOME.
B) The trunk OPENED BY ITSELF WHILE I WAS DRIVING — faulty latch
C) The wipers did not work with the fluid (NEEDED REPLACING)
D) The tires (i have photographs and tesitmony from an ex employee of The Tire Guys who INSPECTED THE TIRES AND SAID THAT THIS WAS A DEATH TRAP and should NEVER HAVE BEEN RENTED TO ANYONE.
ALL I WANTED was a normal rental. I took the car back and mike gave me a great car, we agreed that there would be no charge for gas… and away I went.
I returned the car, they said they would call me. NOTHING -*
THEN SUDDENLY: Suddenly $ 3,500 comes out of my bank account with no phone call or warning or discussion. I never agreed to the damages being my fault.
I was skidding on ice through a hiway and had to ditch the car to avoid certain injury. They didn’t even give a fuck about what happened to me. I was uninjured due to my Mario Kart skills but this was totally avoidable had they put proper tires on the vehicle… i was skdding for like 20 seconds and had all the time in the world to wonder WHY THE FUCK AM I NOT STOPPING and OH SHIT I BETTER HIT THE DITCH BEFORE I HIT THE HIGHWAY 12 WITHOUT STOPPING.
TO UNIVERSAL:
IF YOU FESS UP up and pay for the damages… i will remove this review. I was waiting to speak to the owner today as he was away. but he has decided suddenly not to call me because
«I should have checked the tires before i left»? what the fuck is that? its MY fault you rent cars with tires worn down past the wear bar? Maintain your fleet! it’s your fault this happened. just cover it and wer’e cool.
c’mon Hassani, stand up for your company and do what is right. I was hoping to speak to you and possibly rent another vehicle for june and july, GIVING you my business after you help me clear up this mess. WTF???
I also am happy to pay you the ~$ 37 fee for the 407 that I incurred, although a 50 dollar admin fee ‘written in pencil on the invoice’ is pretty fail! i’ll pay $ 5.00 to admin that only.
Can you believe this? okay owner dude, call me and let’s settle this today. If you help out I will remove this and tell everyone you helped.

Myself and my boyfriend have rented from universal a few times, mostly to make short trips to London, Guelph etc. whenever we rent we always ensure to have ‘unlimited kilometres’ included in our rental agreement. This has never been a problem until today. I returned a vehicle after driving 440 km in 2 days (London Ontario and back). They charged me an addition $ 12 despite my confirmation email and reservation details EXPLICITLY stating ‘unlimited kilometres’. The gentleman assisting me then stated that within the rental policy it states that local renters (i.e Ontario drivers) have a 200km/​day cap despite what the confirmation said. I showed him my copy of the confirmation and he acknowledged it, however said in their policy there is a cap, a secret cap that no one seemed to share with me when I picked up the vehicle or made the reservation? Long story short this company is a little bit sneaky and inconsistent, the car interiors are always absolutely disgusting and the customer service is very very poor. And sure, its only an addition $ 12, but its the general lack of respect that really irked me. I also find it really suspicious that with my boyfriend as the primary renter we have never been charged for additional mileage. Despite the several hundred dollars worth of business we have give this company, I certainly will not be returning.

This is for a recent rental made through
under Universal Rent-​A-​Car and is billed under a company called TRAC.
I had to find out the hard way on why these cheaper rental car companies exist and how they are operating. Contrary to popular belief, they are not cheaper just because they are not at the airport. They work out car leasing deals from local dealerships and attempt to rent to recoup for more than the cost of the lease. Also the cost is artificially deflated because they will charge you a $ 15/​day insurance fee if you do not have proof of insurance on you when you pick up the car.
Process:
— After initial paperwork is finished, the driver will bring the car up front.
— An agent will go around and notate all the existing dings and scratches
— When you return the car, they will go over your car from top to bottom (10 minute process at least) to see if they can find anything.
— Even the slightest questionable mark will require them to get a complete fix it quote from the dealership.
**** In my car, even though the bumper in the front was dented and the front and rear fenders were scuffed, they said that this tiny bump the size of a nickel on the lower portion of the side door needed a FULL QUOTE from the dealership. ****
Honestly, I don’t think I caused that and don’t think that the mark happened during ownership of the vehicle. They even lost my paperwork so they were basing the damage on a prior rental slip. Unbelievable.
My cheap 4 week rental of $ 330 turned into a MONSTEROUS rental bill of $ 1100. They claim that it will be all covered under your credit card anyways so I shouldn’t worry about it. I just received my latest credit card statement and that charge is definitely passed down to the user. It’s currently under dispute and I hope Chase fends them off because it’s on the verge of being a credit card scam.
Bottom Line: If you’d rather not play shenanigans to save a few bucks a day, I would grab a deal from one of the major rental car companies.
!!! CAR RENTERS BEWARE !!!
**Edit — also note the 25 filtered 1 star reviews. This place does not really have a 3 star rating but one that is substantially lower — the only reason why those reviews do not show are because those Unilocalers have only this one place reviewed.**

I will never use this service again… I tried to rent a car through here… I confirmed and sent what I needed to universe rent a car in toronto canada … I made sure they had all my information and insurance information… I arrived at 944pm as I told them and they said they would be available until 11pm… when I arrived and called there was no answer on both the toll free number and the direct number… there I was alone, a woman at the toronto airport at night not knowing what to do and not able to get to the car I reserved… I tried until 11pm before I gave up and found another car for 2 times the price… if they couldnt give me the car because I was arriving too late they should have told me… I will never use this service again… it is useless…

Every time I am in Toronto I’ve rented my car from universal. They are a little ways from the airport, but they are always prompt and it’s worth the money I save to go with them.
As for service, they’ve always been great, they know me by name now and are always nice guys.

Despite the other reviews here, we rented with Universal, through Kayak. The price was half what the ‘Name Brand” car rental companies offered, and we were very happy with our car. They provided exactly what we requested, and everything was terrific. They are not on the property of Pearson, so they pick you up from the Viscount Link train station but we knew this in advance and had prepared for it. I would definitely recommend them if you need a car for your trip to Ontario.

A bit off the beaten path, but they’ll drive you right to your terminal when you return your rental. Price is very good. Service is also very good. They’ve been courteous and attentive every time I’ve been there.
They have not been sticklers with me about any car scratches, etc.
Their cars aren’t all the newest, top of the line cars, but this is a value rental place. I recommended this place.