Advantage Rent-A-Car

I don’t usually leave reviews, especially negative ones as I believe in karma but please renters beware. I rent vehicles all the time due to extensive traveling and have never encountered such unprofessional behavior.
My rental car rate was not honored, but to make matters worse, the representative was not upfront about this. I was told to wait for 30 minutes while they got my car ready. After 30 minutes I was told that the car I had that rate on was still rented out and they didn’t know when it would be returned! They offered me a minivan at a very high rate (I reserved an Economy car). I asked if I should wait and they said that if I could find a better rate anywhere else that I should take it as they didn’t know when the car I rented would be returned. I have never reserved a car to not have one ready for me when I rented in advance.
In seeking an alternative solution, while speak with another rental company around the corner I was informed that this company is privately owned at the Austin location and are not part of the Advantage chain and they have done this with several other customers. I was advised to demand the car I rented and walk across the street to the lot where I would see there were plenty of cars they could rent me. Only after doing this was I given a compact rental car at the rate I was promised. I will never rent from Advantage again.

I don’t usually write many reviews but after reading the ones already posted, I feel obligated to write my own. I was very pleased with advantage. Apart from being much cheaper than more popular rental places (which I have used and have had many issues i.e. long waits, few choices), the whole experience was pretty positive.
Yes, it was a little slow (a 15 minute wait with two people in front of me), but I arrived close to 11 PM and only one person was working. However, it was worth the wait. The man at the counter was kind and friendly. He even offered a free upgrade because of the wait, which i accepted! Yea, he asked me if I wanted a GPS/​insurance but didn’t force it on me. I declined on both and that was that. I definitely didn’t feel like I was trying to be upsold. I didn’t even need to put down a deposit.
The car was new and clean, with only 6000 miles. Eventhough, I would have loved a sun roof, the car still came with extra features. 4WD and heated seats. The 4WD was great since we were going camping. It took me five minutes to return the car and it was an incredibly short walk to airport (you literally cross the street). I was not charged anything extra, they handed me my receipt and was on my way.

By looking at all the reviews its obvious Advantage doesn’t care about Customer Service. The wait time at the counter was so bad that 3 of us in line all started chatting about how ridiculous the wait was. I was second in line and it took 15 minutes for me to be helped, they have a very limited selection of cars. Also it sounds like not a very big deal but Its outrageous that they wire every single key that comes with the car together. My key chain has 2 thick key fabs, a valet key and 2 key chains. I don’t wear skinny jeans but I do wear pants that fit and it literally does not fit in my pocket without digging into my leg and it wired together so you can’t take it apart. So I’ve been walking around carrying the keys in my hand all over town. They probably do this so you will set them down somewhere and loose them because if you loose every key to the car they charge you 500 dollars ! what an awful company. I rent a lot of vehicles and I recommend paying a little extra and going with a better company.

They did not honor my res. said they ran out of cars. Even the guy working their suggested never use us again. Then, he just left.

Reservation’s made on line simple and straight forward — it appears you will get a fare deal on a rental car.
THEN Standby for the counter Upsell Upsell Upsell — everything is at an additional charge. Oh you want a primary and 2 nd driver — that’s an additional $ 12 buck a day for the 2^nd driver — WTF — I have been renting cars for near 40 years never had to deal with that b4. I reserved a car, 3 of us on the trip, they wanted to upgrade me to a SUV — because BLA BLA BLA — better visibility more roomy — I and wife each OWN a SUV I wanted a car just a car at a fare price meaning, I was not there to buy the car and negotiate every little point be it car size gas insurance… I travel a fair amount and know my rental insurance coverage — they pushed back when I said I was covered on my auto policy and AX card, they are evidently oblivious to the fact that a pissed off customer remembers and votes with his/​hers feet! Oh and the final blow they charge your card at the time of rental the «rental rate and all add ons» plus and additional $ 200 bucks — what slick move they were given the privilege to use $ 200 dollars of my money for 5 days, then refund it me when the car is turned in. Believe me i will check my credit card account to be sure the credit is there! Use a name brand rental and leave these clowns to scrap for new customers — NEVER AGAIN for me!

I’ve rented here twice. Both times I experienced extremely slow counter service. I timed it at 15 min per customer. They also lure people in with low rates online then do everything possible to upsell you. Be careful if they tell you, «I can put you in a _​_​_​car for only $/​day.» They actually mean that’s what you’ll pay in addition to the rate you reserved.

Tried to tell me that they didnt have the vehicle I reserved… only wanted to charge me $ 10/​day more for another. When I protested they relented. Long wait. Tried to upsell me in a number of ways. Same experience last year. Never. Again.

everything went fine until 6 months after my reservation, when i received a letter in the mail saying that i had received a parking ticket and that if i didn’t call them by (2 weeks prior to the date the letter had been mailed) they would charge my card for the ticket (they had already charged my card by the time this letter came). i absolutely did not receive a parking ticket. i called corporate customer service, who said they had no idea what i was talking about and to call the local office, who said they had no idea what i was talking about and that it was absolutely the corporate customer service people i needed to talk to. i’ve now called corporate two more times and no one seems to have any record of any of this. fun fun!

Read very well the pre-​purchase fuel option. You will not receive a credit if you return the vehicle with more fuel than when rented. We were told at the counter that we had nothing to loose by pre-​purchasing a full tank, because if we came with less fuel, they would credit us the gas not spent. When we came back with ¼ of a tank, we were told that they won’t refund any money. if we came with ¾, they won’t refund either! In summary, the information provided by the sales counter was different than the information of the contract, and we did the mistake of trusting the seller. I hope it was a misunderstanding, and not a dishonest way of selling a product. The rest of the service was great and the car in excellent condition. The person that receives the car didn’t help us at all to fix the misunderstanding, and the person at the counter listened and dealt with the issue.

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY! Advantage has introduced a clause in their contract which holds you responsible for «Diminished value of vehicle» if you get into an accident. This cost is not covered by any credit card or insurance provider. The only way to protect against this charge is to by their «collision damage waiver «. This is not fair. To explain the severity of this scam, lets say I got into an accident and I had coverage from my credit card company. The credit card insurance pays $ 7000 is parts, labor and income lost to the company. Advantage will take the money, do the repairs, turn around and sell the car to salvage for a diminished value of $ 5000 less than market price, and then bill my credit card for that $ 5000 dollars. This is an immoral business model. Please do not rent from this company. They are running a scam.

The Advantage rent a car in Austin was a mess! One person at counter and long line. By the time I got my car it was 45 min after I arrived. Then on top of it he commended the same car but with gps when I told him I might need directions. When I was given my car it did not have gps. I told the girl who handed me keys this and she. walkie talkie someone who thought I was mistaken even though the reciept clearly said $ 12 a day upgrade. They made me wait another 30 minutes in the heat for a gps unit… not the car I paid for. On top of all this the guy insisted I pay the $ 40 prepay for gas and I only used about $ 10 of their gas :(definitely felt taken advantage of at advantage car rental Austin airport.

Scummy, rude and condescending employees. Trash cars. This place sucks.
(1) The scummy bastard at the counter. He tried to up sell us from a «midsized» which we had purchased (not knowing that their «midsized» only qualifies as mid sized if your name happens to be Bridget the Midget) to an Altima. When we said, «no, not unless it’s the same price» Mr. big shot replied, «well, I guess it’s out of your affordability range.»
Wow. I guess hitting rock bottom is the schmuck behind a counter at the airport calling you poor. Maybe I’ll go hold a sign out by the freeway. On second thought, fuck him, twice.
(2) Not only was the counter guy an asshole, he was a moron too. (Big surprise!) He told us to get our car at space 22 and wrote space 22 on our stuff, and we got to a space 22 with no car in it.
(3) The «customer service» rep out in the parking lot was even worse than Mr. sunshine at the counter. When we found her and showed that we were apparently booked for the invisible car, she gave us a look like we were stupid and radioed down. If you were wondering, no, she didn’t apologize for the error.
Upon seeing the piece of shit that we were being given, with dents and scratches all over it, she was mighty annoyed at us making her write down every dent and scratch so that they wouldn’t try to charge us for it.
One of the scratches she shook her head and said, «That’s not a scratch, that’s tar.»
That’s tar? You’re giving us a car to drive that has tar on it?
If it’s not obvious from my review, Advantage Rent-​A-​Car sucks. There’s a reason why it’s half price on Priceline. Starting a business trip (or any other trip) pissed off because you have to fight with some dumb apes is not good and from now on we will deal with non-​bullshit companies when we rent cars.

So you reserve a car. You get here. It’s time for the upsell.
«Would you like to upgrade to a Mustang?» No. If I wanted a Mustang, I’d have reserved a Mustang.
«Would you like to upgrade to a Jeep Liberty?» No. If I wanted a Jeep Liberty, I’d have reserved a Jeep Liberty.
«Would you to upgrade to a car with satellite radio?» No… If I wanted… Well, you know.
«Would you like extra insurance?» No. My credit card covers it.
«Actually, your credit card insurance doesn’t cover damage to the vehicle.» Actually, it does. I said no.
«Would you like to purchase our fuel plan, so you don’t have to fill it up when you return? It’s only 39 cents per mile up to 100 miles.»
I did the math. 39 cents… 100 miles… That’s 39 dollars. Assuming about 20 miles per gallon (and I bet that’s being generous)… That’s 5 gallons of gas… For $ 39.
$ 7.80 per gallon. Seriously?
«It’s $ 8.50 per gallon if you don’t fuel it up before bringing it back.»
I’ll fill it. Gas is seriously about $ 3 /​gallon in Austin, which is amazing. I wish I could mark someone else’s product up 200% and sell it. That’d be some great business model right there.
«Would you like a map or a GPS?»
No. I want a car. Seriously, the questions were non-​stop and every last one was trying to upsell me on something I didn’t want.
Pass.

i made reservations weeks ahead of time 4 an economy car. when i finally arrived in austin i get a mazda 6 which is kinda like a minivan. CLEARLY this is not an economy size vehicle. he says thats all they have left & other same size cars but he wont charge me 4 a bigger car. why would he?! its not my fault they gave away all their cars even tho i reserved mine weeks ahead. i took the car anyway cuz it was midnite & i was ready 2 get 2 the hotel. it was a nice car but i didnt feel like drivin around a big car since there was only 2 of us usin it.

Take Advantage of You Rent-​a-​Car is more like it. I’ve previously rented from the north 183 location, which no longer exists, and always got exceptional service there. The airport location? Don’t even get me started. I called with a complaint and the manager told me, «Well, we have a lot of new staff.»
Ummm, train your staff. I’ve rented from Advantage for over 5 years now — if you want to lose a long-​term customer, keep hiring people with no customer service skills whatsoever. They also need to explain their rental policies and charges when the car is rented so there are no surprises.
I called ahead to make sure I wouldn’t be penalized for turning in a rental car early — Hurricane Ike shortened my vacation by three days. I was assured I would be credited for all three days. The girl at the counter handed me my receipt and it showed a credit of $ 26 — one day’s credit. I was like, «OH HELL no.» I was examining the receipt, told her I’d spoken with the manager the previous day, and was told I’d be credited all three days. The girl punched some numbers on the phone and shoved the receiver at me. WTF?
So the girl on the other end of the phone started telling me some nonsense about how my weekend days were free with my rate, so I was only being credited one day. (This turned out to be WRONG.)
I was pretty pissed by this time — so I left, came back and talked to the manager. It turns out two additional days had already been credited on an interim receipt — I had three pieces of paper with three different charge totals on them. I had nothing showing that these additional days had been credited. To top it off, when I turned in the vehicle the woman who came out and checked it in asked me, «Do you want your receipt?» HECK YEAH I want my receipt — even if there are three different versions with three different charge totals!
I won’t be renting from these guys again — don’t care how low their prices are. I MIGHT try one of the other locations, but it’s doubtful.

A group of us from UCLA flew into Austin on the Thursday before the Final Four. Our plane was delayed so we asked Advantage if they would keep the place open, and the Advantage representative took down our information and said he would have the cars ready as long as we came before 1am.
We landed and rushed down to the rental cars by 12:35am. Turns out that they ran out of cars. They had to turn away about a dozen people from the flight that came in before us (they landed at 11:45pm and had been waiting in line for 45 minutes with reservations) as well as about a dozen of us on the later flight who also had reservations.
Telling customers that you will hold a car for them and then having to turn around at least two dozen people is not good business. If they were running out of cars (whether they were on the phone with us or when people were waiting in line), they should have told people so they could have gone to another place before they ran out as well.
We were lucky enough to get one of the few cars left from Budget Rentals, but I know a lot of other people who came in for the Final Four were not as lucky.