Advantage Rental Cars

I got a flat tire but the car had no spare
I called their roadside assistance and nobody answered for 2 hours, I called to the office (Logan airport) and nobody answered, I left several messages and nobody called me back
But the first thing their message says is «your safety is very important to us, an agent will be with you soon»

I’m using every bit of generosity I can muster to give this place two stars. The plusses? The sole agent working the desk was friendly. The vehicle I eventually got hasn’t completely fallen apart yet. That’s pretty much it.
The first car I was assigned wouldn’t even start.
The second one smelled like stale cigarette smoke, had cracker crumbs and trash in the back seat, had been sideswiped on the left fender and had a broken passenger side mirror. I don’t mean that the mirror wouldn’t adjust… I mean it has cracks across it and looks like a fun house mirror.
I chose Advantage to save $ 200. I didn’t dispute the car because I was in a hurry. Both of those were poor choices.
Save yourself the headache. Use an established rental car company… Not this half a$$ outfit.

We reserved a car under their scam alias EZ-​Rent A Car January 15, 2016. Our flight got in late that night and when we arrived they said they didn’t have the car in the price category we booked. They did the olé bait and switch. We booked for $ 9 a day, they said all they had available was an SUV for $ 50 a day. What?! They would not honor our reservation, we had no other options to get a vehicle that wouldn’t be significantly out of our price range elsewhere, and the smug women behind the counter couldn’t care less. No apology, no help, NO customer service whatsoever. (like on Seinfeld, The whole point of the reservation is the HOLDING of the reservation, anyone can take them!). I can’t believe in 2016 this is actually hard. Their phone numbers all over the Internet do not work. We have emailed, left voicemails with EZ to no avail. We were left to make my brother in law, who has a 2 month old, drive us around town. We were also traveling with my father in law who is on the older side… walking and public transportation were not a good option. I will always give a company the chance to redeem themselves before leaving a bad review. They do not care. Do not give them your money!

I have rented from this location many times with only minor issues, but will never rent from them again after tonight.
When I arrived to the counter, after a cross-​country flight, the Advantage employee refused to honor my reservation, which I made through Orbitz. Despite me having already given him all my information, including credit card, phone number, etc. he suddenly demanded a second phone number, and said he would not rent to me without one. Now this is odd because 1) I don’t have a second phone number, and had already given him my one and only number (my cell), and 2) I have rented from this exact location many times without providing a second phone number. I suspect they were either out of the class of car I had rented, thought they had a better shot at renting it for more than my reserved amount, or the guy had just had a raging case of male PMS.
When I could not provide a second number, the employee became belligerent and told me I could take my business elsewhere. When I asked for his business card, he said he didn’t have one, and then refused to give me his last name. Instead he handed me a loose name tag with «Irvin» written on it. I suspect that this was not Irvin, but perhaps someone posing as him. (For anyone seeking to identify this individual, he is short, approaching middle-​aged, and somewhat portly, with a receding hairline. And yes, ladies, based on his personality, I’m guessing he’s single.)
Anyway, I asked «Irvin» to talk to his supervisor, but (surprise, surprise) he told me that no supervisor was on duty. When I insisted on getting the name of his supervisor, he provided the following:
Steven Camerono — 769−610−7858
Given that this is not a Boston number, I highly doubt this is a real supervisor, but if anyone is feeling adventurous, please give it a ring and let the rest of us know who picks up. «Irvin» told me that Steven was currently at a wake so I did not bother to call him, figuring it was either a lie, or the guy was really at a wake. In either case, «Irvin» won’t be winning any customer service awards anytime soon.
Anyway, I’ve already contacted Advantage corporate and will be contacting the individual executives, including this guy:
William N. Plamondon
PRESIDENT at Advantage Rent A Car
I hope «Irvin» really is this guy’s name, because if it isn’t, I suspect the real «Irvin» is going to be looking for him soon.

I booked a car with this company and they failed to inform me that they do not provide insurance for local customers renting a vehicle. I went all the way to the airport and waited in line to pick up the car only to learn I could not rent from them.
Horrible customer service and horrible communication with their customers.

The representative at the counter was friendly. My husband and I were both sick after a rough flight. It was recommended to purchasing pre-​filling tank, but it didn’t take into consideration we were only renting for three days and would not use up a full tank.
I appreciated that the rep was honest about using the fast pass device though. We didn’t end up using it, but paid cash price for the tolls. The reason being we would have to pay $ 5/​day to use the pass in addition to whatever the toll was; it was worth it o just pay cash.
The cleaning products that they used to detail the cars smelled so terrible it actually made me feel worse than my rough flight.
The company doesn’t really care about scratches and stains that we pointed out before taking the car. When we returned the car, we weren’t fined for the pre-​existing scratches and stains thankfully.
The employees in the garage portion of the rental car area were nice and friendly.
Unilocal 100 Challenge — 64 of 100

DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER RENTING A CAR FROM ADVANTAGE!!!
Rented a car from Advantage/​E Z Rent A Car for a week and returned it 2 days early. When I reviewed my bank account to check for a return of my deposit I found that I was only credited for $ 30 of the $ 200 deposit I was charged. After 3 hours of dealing with «customer service» I learn that one of the employees took advantage of my early return and exchanged the car I had rented for another car and kept it for another week.
After 3 hours of trying to resolve this theft of my money I receive an email from Dawn Campbell who is the customer service supervisor. She says «upper management» is requesting my itinerary to prove that I left Boston early. I sent her a copy of my boarding pass and was hoping Advantage would do the right thing and credit my account with a full return of my deposit. She never responded and I spent another 2 hours dealing with «customer service» before realizing that I was wasting my time. I talked to Pavel and Eli in «customer service» and flat out asked them if they are trained to delay and ignore customers in hopes that they will just go away and Pavel wouldn’t answer the question. Eli chuckled.
My only choice now is to file a small claims case against them and ask the jury to award the maximum allowed in punitive damages. I’ll do an update after I teach them a lesson in Court!!!
PS: Posted a review on
and was contacted by someone from EZ and my deposit was refunded. I am not confident anything would have been done if I had not gone public. I still spent over 5 hours dealing with customer service and I guess I’m lucky the car was not damaged or stolen!

I wish I could give no stars! My experience was awful. I show up at 1 am from my flight to a sign saying no cars available and to call this number with no one at the desk. I do and they basically say sorry there is nothing we can do but issue a refund that will take 2 – 3 business days for someone in corporate to call me to issue that. I was furious! I’m exhausted from my flight, I’ve already pre paid for a car I can’t get and now the prices are double from another company for an even smaller car! What a mess! After talking with agents from other companies they say they do this everyday to people! How are they even in business? DO NOT RENT WITH ADVANTAGE! It may be a good price but it’s too good to be true!

The single worst car rental experience in my life.
Any savings this place might offer are not worth it.
Over an hour to get the car.
Horrific service, painfully untrained staff.
Gave us the wrong car without even telling us.
An absolute nightmare.
Avoid avoid avoid

We’ve rented from Advantage on two or three previous trips to Boston. The first time, we rented with trepidation because they offered cars about half the prices offered by more established companies. But once we found their tiny corner of the rental counter, everything went smoothly; we had no wait to speak of and ended up with comfortable Hyundais. This time, I think, success had caught up with Advantage. I waited in line something like 20 – 25 minutes to get to the counter, then got a car with (I thought) no problem. But when we went to pick up the car, I found that he had rented us an SUV, and there were only SUVs to choose from. We always rent sedans of one sort or another just so we can put the luggage out of site in the trunk, and of course rental SUVs don’t have cargo covers for the back. We asked the attendant for a sedan, and he suggested that we wait a bit; he thought he’d have one in half an hour. Sure enough, a Chevy Impala came in; he said he’d get it cleaned and gassed and ready in a couple of minutes. We waited, and waited. Finally, after another 15 – 20 minutes, I searched out another attendant. He explained that the Impala had a recall, and they couldn’t rent it, but if we could wait …
The next car to come back was another Impala. Apparently the same recall situation, although we never heard; the car simply left and didn’t reappear. After an hour or so, we were ready to take anything, but here came the guy who had rented me the SUV, along with another customer who had some complaint. Meanwhile, we had a nice chat with a woman who couldn’t get out of the facility because there was nobody to open the gate for her. She was angry because they’d charged her for an extra day when she told them she’d have to return the car an hour later than planned. Finally, the guy from the desk came over to say, «But I gave you an upgrade!» We explained that we didn’t care about the upgrade; we just wanted a car with a trunk. At which point a customer returned a Hyundai Sonata; they washed that and let us take it, only an hour and a half or more after we had arrived at the rental desk. But it was cheap!

Booked a SUV online weeks in advance. Fly in, take the shuttle bus, wait in line, get to the counter and agent says all of the small SUV’s have license plates that are about to expire. First he offers me a minivan instead. No, thank you I said. Then he gets on the phone, talks to an agent in the back and says wait to the side, they are checking to see if they can find me something. Fifteen minutes later he tells me they have a Hundai Santa Fe. This is bigger than I wanted but has blutooth so we take it. When we get to the garage it had been just washed to hide lots of scratches but overall turned out to be a good vehicle. The Advantage representatives treated customers way better than Budget so I would rent from them again in the future. They also give free upgrades for joining their rewards program.

They have the worst service you can imagine. It takes about one hour to rent a car when there is not even a line.
Don’t rent here. Awful.

My experience thus far with my 1^st (last?) rental with Advantage:
No one at the counter.
Had to travel to several floors of garage as signs gave inaccurate directions to find help.
No economy or compact cars.
Given van, unwashed, license plate blocking part of rear window, and no gas in van. Is that how you do it… give the customer a vehicle with no gas in it? I almost ran out of gas!
Had to return to airport to swap cars.
Cruise control did not work.

Read all the bad reviews and thought I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. They ended up being very courteous, helpful, and fun at the desk. Also got a much better car than we signed up for.

Picking up a vehicle after hours is nearly impossible with this company. All other companies at this airport have agents staffing their counter inside the rental center all night but Advantage doesn’t. A vague sign directs you to find an agent in the (outdoor, freezing cold) parking garage. This took me 20 minutes just to find him.
The car they gave me seemed fine until I drove it about 60 miles and the oil light came on. I checked the oil and found NONE on the dipstick. I added some and checked it the next day, when I found smoke due to the oil leak. I called and they said since I didn’t pay for roadside assistance all they can do is swap out the car which would require me to be in one place with it for a few hours and be available to swap out keys. Since I was in town for a funeral this was impossible.
The manager on the phone told me to see him upon my return and he’d take care of it.
I added oil again and made it back to the airport but was nervous driving it for the rest of my trip. He did credit me $ 50 for my trouble but after the cost of the oil that’s only $ 40. I thought one day free out of the 4 days I rented would have been more fair. It’s their job to check the oil, not mine.
I wouldn’t rent from these guys again. They are cheap for a reason.

I saw the reviews but my husband said hey it’s a good price. Never again!!! Everyone is right stay away, how is this place still in business. First, what a pain in the butt to get to the actual car and the lady at the counter gave us the wrong slot number. So of course the guys downstairs have to scramble around. Also, why does the customer have to pull the car around? What are we paying for? Second, they want to charge you all this additional crap. We ended up doing to gas thing so we wouldn’t have to fill up on the way back. Third, we get back to the airport and wouldn’t you know they have no record of the gas purchase! The same lady was behind the counter and was extremely rude, my husband asked to speak to a manager and the manager never showed up. I work in customer service and she kept egging my husband on with her attacks. I hope this place has a BBB listing because they are my next stop. With the service I can’t imagine the «manager» is any better!

I booked a car at Advantage and cancelled reservation at the counter. It seems like that they just let someone else took the car and charge on my credit card which totals more than 700 bucks. I couldn’t believe how this thing happened.
I called their manager more than three weeks ago and kept following on the updates of their so called research on my «contract», but they had done nothing to prove that I did not pick up vehicle and are not willing to give me refunds.
I just called my credit card company today to report disputes on the charges because I have waited so long for nothing.
I will update if there is any news about this.
Again, I am really disappointed about their service. Do not rent from advantage only if you are ready to be taken advantage of.

Poor customer service, I had very bad experience with those guys.
I pay upgrade for awd and I got rwd, I ask if I can switch
when i check out and the representative told me «not a problem at all» when I check out I been surprised to see that they already charge my card.
They can let you wait 50 min until they check you in.
Also you can’t switch card in the check out

No me respetaron la reservación que hize por internet, ni el precio ni el carro que había reservado, pésimo servicio.

The mind-​numbing friendliness of those at Advantage’s service counter can be seen as both a blessing and curse, but clearly more the latter.
Nothing could spoil my excitement for visiting Boston more than standing in a 20 minute-​long line as employees have painfully slow and drawn out conversations with everyone in front of me as if the line didn’t exist. When it was finally my turn, they treated me wonderfully as well. However, I kept glancing back and smiling apologetically at a long line of exhausted, impatient travelers while the gal asked me everything from questions about legroom on United to the weather in Sacramento. Some welcoming chit-​chat is fine during off-​hours when no one is waiting, but friendly speed and efficiency are what’s appreciated when it’s busy. It doesn’t matter how friendly you are; people just want to get the hell out of the airport.
Minor rant aside, the process of getting from your plane to the car is typical airport madness. Hike outside, wait for a crowded shuttle, travel ten minutes, go upstairs, wait in line at the rental desk, go downstairs, find a guy in the far corner of a parking lot and be on your way. The name «Advantage» must have been applied ironically.

Holy crap!
I was just about to give these guys 5 stars for price and convince. But after being told I needed additional insurance on the car after I already bought Priceline insurance, because I’m a local renter, I wish I could give them 0 stars! Plus they wouldn’t just sell any additional insurance as even an option!
The man behind the desk was NO HELP and he tried calling my insurance company to see if they would cover me, but then they hung up and told me to try calling them on my own. Wasted 45 minutes! If someone would have told me that I need to have extra extra extra car insurance to rent from here, I wouldn’t have even stepped up to the counter!
Any place is better than this!!!
STAY AWAY!!!