Advantage Rent A Car

This Car Rental organization is one of the most dishonest companies I have ever dealt with. I will never do business with them again, and if I could give less than 1 star I would.
We reserved a midsize suv, and received a compact suv. The stickers on the window of the vehicle indicated that it was a compact, and the vehicle was significantly smaller than the example vehicles for the intermediate class as defined on their website.
We repeatedly spoke with both the personnel at the location, and customer service, attempting to get the vehicle we had paid for. They were rude and dismissive, insisting that the Mitsubishi Outlander was an intermediate suv, refusing to comment on the evidence to the contrary.
Do not do business with this dishonest organization!!!

It was just horrible. My family and I reserved a car a month before we arrived, but when we went to go pick it up, they said that they didn’t have it. What am I suppose to do with that?!? We had to argue with the employee for an hour to find a solution. Customer service was horrible. The car that we ended up renting was beyond disgusting. It looked like it hasn’t seen a vacuum in months and the seat has unidentifiable stains. I would never recommend to anyone, not even my worst enemy.

This place is literally the worst, least compassionate place to rent from. Do yourself a favor and pay an extra 20 $ to rent from literally anyone else.

If I could give this place a negative amount of stars I would. DO NOT RENT FROM ADVANTAGE!
First of all the employees at this location trick customers into spending more. They upgraded me without my permission and made the statement «I’m going to hook you up with a suv instead of the car you rented.» Donald, the agent specifically acted like he was doing me a favor when at the end of it all he charged me more for the upgrade then you would pay by booking that vehicle online. I called to address my bill when I arrived at the hotel questioning why they charged me and said too bad you signed the contract so you have to pay it. Not a SINGLE rep or manager or head individual at Advantage would assist or rectify this issue! I called the main Advantage number and they claimed to fill out a report to address what had happened and it was COMPLETELY blown off by everyone. THEN, to top it off after and awful experience returning the suv, they turned around and made up some random return time a day later and charged me even more money for an additional day plus upgrade fee, even though I was already literally back across the country at home the day before. When Donald, the rep behind the counter was questioned when I returned the car he acted like he didn’t do anything wrong and looked at me and said that’s what she agreed to and had nothing else to say. I was in disbelief at this point. I didn’t even ask for the damn upgrade nor would I have taken it if I knew there was an additional charge. I also witnessed the sales reps at the counter trick people into buying extras that weren’t necessary. For example, watched a Chinese couple that didn’t speak a lot of English, and the con artist behind the counter ran them up for every extra insurance gas gps toll pass etc that you can imagine. Before that poor couple left the counter they could have purchased a brand new car and skipped the rental all together. The BS reasons the jerk behind the counter gave them as to why they HAD to have it was unreal. The other red flag, was that I had to stand in line for 15 – 20 min waiting for angry customers in front of me that were clearly pissed at the reps behind the counter! I travel over 3 weeks a month all over the country and rent cars 3 – 4 times a month. I HAVE NEVER HAD SUCH AN AWFUL EXPERIENCE RENTING A CAR. This company is not trustworthy and will cheat you to make a buck and commission off the dollar amount you spend.

Disadvantage is more like it. If you are given a rate that is cheaper here than at other companies I still recommend avoiding this company like the plague. I was overcharged by $ 100 on refueling — and am still waiting on resolution — and customer service is beyond atrocious: a 75 minute wait in line to get the car, no answer EVER at this location’s phone (and all mailboxes are full), only two people at the counter working very slowly (while some guy — the manager perhaps? — sits at the desk inside the office staring out at the long line), and a dirty car. Every other rental company counter at Newark Airport was moving quickly. Avoid Advantage: it can ruin your vacation.
UPDATE: After this Unilocal post, I received a message from Advantage to help fix this issue. The person was professional and responsive and finally resolved the issue, refunding my account for the $ 100+ overcharge. It took a long time — and phone calls to the national and local offices didn’t seem to work — but Unilocal helped make a response and I am thankful and glad that it has been resolved.

Dreadful experience. Do NOT use this business. Horrible customer relations.

My 6 year old found a syringe in the backseat. Tried to call the rental location, no answer. Called the company directly, said I had to sort out this issue with the location. Let’s see how this is resolved. Will update my review to reflect how this was worked out. In terms of my reservation/​pick up process, it was relatively easy and had no problems with the customer service, though the customers next to me had a very rude representative. Was surprised that an economy car for the price was a Prius.

Absolutely the worst!!! We rented a car a week ago only to be told you needed a separate car insurance as a local renter. What a stupid rule! Other places accept credit cards with car insurance built in mind you. Poor service, long lines
Stay Away from these guys. They will ruin your vacation!

This place sucks.
Massive wait unlike any other rental desk at this facility.
They don’t know how to use their own computer system.
Can’t find the rentals.
Dirty when I got the car
Lots of nasty people working here, bad attitude all clueless to the meaning of customer service.

7 people in line only 1 employee. Dollar, Budget all on the same counter and no line with multiple employees.
Never again!!!

Worst car rental company coming from someone who regularly rents cars. Normally we use Enterprise but went with Advantage. Literally have never waited more than 5 minutes. I’ve now been waiting over an hour and I’ve asked what the hold up is. The manager didn’t even look at me and said, «give me a moment.» The counter lady is super unfriendly and didn’t seem to want to be bothered. I finally find out when I get an answer from one of the employees, «oops I forgot about you.» Seriously?! I asked for a free upgrade but she just walks off…

I guess you get what you pay for. I rent from advantage because that is what is in the company budget, but I would never rent here if I had a choice. I have to rent a car at JFK 2 to 3 times a month. Half the time they don’t have enough cars so I have to wait 1 to 2 hours. Then on top of that, the staff are terrible communicators and no one does anything to try to make up for thier terrible service and lack of inventory. I even rent my car from thier website and still have no car. Last week I had to take a van to Newark and exchange it for a car and they wanted to charge me $ 50 more to keep the van.

Good prices, long wait and lines. You pick! 2 people working, one stopped working since it was 10 pm, but yet was at the counter doing paperwork while 10 people waiting in line. Not a good customer care and service. Sorry

I wish there was something called ‘0’ star. To begin with, they gave us a car with no spare tire and we realized that after we had a flat tire. Halfway on our trip to Virginia from NJ, we had a flat tire. We (3 girls) were stuck/​stranded on a highway in the middle of the night. As we had Roadside Service Plan, we assumed we will receive assistance in no time. But let me tell you, we were stuck on that highway for 2 and a half hours straight. We were then told by these brilliant people to leave the car with the keys and find our way home. We took an Über ride home because apparently they didn’t have a car at their nearest rental service.
The car was then towed to GOD KNOWS WHERE!
We were charged $ 400 straight on our card and were not returned the payment we made for a 3 day rental service. (We had taken all sort of CRAPPY Insurances these people can offer)
Brilliant ADVANTAGE! *slow claps*

I read all the bad reviews but I said to myself, «how bad can they really be?». Well, when I arrived to pick up my car, they said. «We have your reservation but we don’t have any cars. It will be about 3 hours before we can get you a car.» When I looked, there about 5 people in front of me waiting for their cars. So I had no idea how long I had to wait. I wasn’t going to waste my time. So i cancelled the booking and reserve a car with another rental company using my phone. It was just slightly more expensive but they had a car!
Stay away from these guys. They will ruin your vacation.

Advantage Rental Car was almost the Grinch that Stole Christmas. Be warned that if you live in the local area, you either need to have local car insurance, or be able to show a round trip airline ticket. If you have two brain cells to rub together you see immediately why this is ridiculous, but I’ll spell it out anyway. If I am local and have car insurance I presumably have a car at my disposal. So, why would I need to rent from you? Alternatively, if I’m at Newark airport, live locally AND have a round trip, it is most likely to SOMEWHERE ELSE, so again, why would I be renting a car from you when I’m about to fly away? I get it that perhaps 5% of the population may fall into these bizarre rental categories, but we do not. We wanted a car for Christmas travels. We had a moment of panic at Advantage, as our reservation was canceled because we couldn’t produce an airline ticket. Thankfully that panic was swiftly ended by Budget, who rented us a car, at the window, for about $ 5 more than what we would have paid with Advantage. I recommend sticking with the larger Budget, Avis, Enterprise companies for rentals to avoid this type of booking trap. I hope they all get coal from Santa at Advantage!

My cousin reserved and prepaid a rental for yesterday.
At the gate in the airport she doubled over in pain and had to be taken from the gate to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a kidney stone.
Jet blue credited her 100%.
ADVANTAGE RENT A CAR WOULD ONLY CREDIT MY COUSIN 50%.
This is outrageous.
It was a medical emergency!!!
RENT A CAR FROM ANY OTHER COMPANY.
UPDATE: Company credited all but $ 50. Better then before, but they still had to go through the aggrevation

Hard to fathom this company is even in Business.
Thee total people in line
First guy took over 20 minutes.
And the lady who checked him in has to walk him out into the parking lot to let h in the car.
Unacceptable
Never will use them again

As New Yorkers, we rent cars because we don’t own cars. I’ve never rented with Advantage before and my friend booked through them because of using a service like Expedia or Hotwire. Turns out they fail to make clear a very important company policy: You can not rent a car with them if you do not have car insurance.
If you don’t own a car, you of course do not have insurance. Where is this policy stated? No where except in a book that is only kept behind the customer service counter several pages in and in fine print. (To clarify, we *purchased* the car insurance to cover the rental. This did not matter.)
We had to cancel all our travel plans. There were no cars available under $ 400 which is significant when you budget to spend $ 150.
This company needs to realize this policy is not inclusive to its customers and it’s a very important one to make sure is stated clearly and explicitly before making a reservation. A huge waste of time, horrible customer service (the clerk adorably said, «Yeah, we’re the only company that does this. It’s pretty stupid»), and questionable policies.

If I could give zero stars I would. I reserved for a car and when I arrived they had none. That alone is not reason enough for zero stars. This place is for a lack of a better word Ghetto– horrible business etiquette, lack of customer care, and lastly rude employees.
Please don’t rent from this establishment– spend a little extra because the only thing you will get from this place is attitude and a headache