I had nothing but great experience with Advantage Rent-A-Car until I rented from their "new" office at the Maccarren Airport. They're apparantly joined in with US RentACar. Well, I had my reservation under Advantage as like always; when I got to the counter I had to give them my copy of the reservation (thank goodness I brought it) since they couldn't locate my reservation. The counter clerk took way too much time to assist people. He left to go into the back room for the longest time trying to locate my reservation to no avail. So then he had the nerve to ask if I wanted to "pay" for an upgrade.
I told him I never pay for an upgrade, Advantage always gives me an upgrade automatically if available (I never asked for one, they just gave it to me). He looked at me like I was crazy. He kept bugging me about an upgrade I said no, I'll stick to my original choice so he seemed to get a reluctant look on his face as he gives me an upgrade. I thanked him, although I didn't expect an upgrade. So he gives me the agreement but wait, it's on US RentACar paper. I told him I have a frequent renter's account & need proof that I rented from Advantage. He said he didn't know anything about the Advantage renter's club so I had to tell him what it was & how it worked. He said they hadn't gotten in the Advantage Logo receipt paper yet so this will have to do. He then said thank you & started to go in the back, "Um, excuse me, may I have the car key please?" He looked at me like I was nuts. He stated that he already gave it to me & I said no, he didn't.
We went back & forth over the key until I finally said something like "if you had given it to me, I wouldn't be asking for it." So he moved a paper & there it was (duh). SOOO I finally make it to the rental car lot, get dropped off. Ok, so I get dropped off but no one even said where I was to go or what to do, so now what. I looked around no one there. I finally asked the shuttle bus driver & he said the info is on the key but I'd already looked & there was only a number. He apologized & said he'd be right back. He went to ask about the car, told me where it was, just pointed & said, "last one on this row" ok so I go to the last car & the key wouldn't work. I said Oh great. So I looked at the key again & it said "suzuki".
Well the car I was told to go to was a Sebring. Ok so the next to the last one was the Suzuki. So I put bag in trunk & tried to open the door. This car turned out to be a complete LEMON! Not only was I not instructed on how to drive this foreign car but the next day it stalled on me as I was leaving to return the car. I liked to have never gotten it started. Although it was an automatic, it had one of those new type of gear shifts that after about 5 min. Of fighting w/it, I figured out you had to push down to shift. Then I had to figure out on my own after about 5 min. That the auto door locks didn't seem to work so I had to lock from the outside which coincedentally locked all the doors. Not only that but it didn't have the interval numbers/lines on the speedometer so I had to guess if I was going the right speed. It DID get me around to where I needed to go & thankfully back to the car return but I feel like the counter guy gave me this lemon of a car on purpose since I didn't want to pay for an upgrade.
When I turned the car in, I told the counter guy at the return lot all the trouble I had w/the car & he unsympothetically said, "hmm that's odd, we make sure all are cars are running properly." Didn't even offer me any special coupons or discounts or so much as a real apology. He just looked at me w/that "anything else I can help you with" look on his face so I had to tell him that he might want to take the car into the shop to have it looked at. He agreed but doubt they did anything about it. I asked about the receipt on US Car Rental paper & he said that's all they had but it should be sufficient & just let Advantage know that I did rent w/Advantage.
Well just as I expected, my frequent renter points were not added to my account. I hafta check to see if they were after contacting Advantage w/the email confirmation info. I doubt that I will use Advantage again at the Las Vegas airport. The only upside to this particular location is that it's VERY easy to get in/out of the car lot & very easy to find. I got a WHOLE lot better service w/national car rental at the McCarren Airport although they moved the car return lot & didn't bother posting signs on where they moved to so I drove around for 2 hrs. Trying to find it.
I even asked the Hertz employee 3 different times where I was to go. That person was very nice although I was embarrassed at having to ask a rival company's employee where to go. I finally found the lot & chewed the cust. Service guy out for the company not posting signs, he said that wasn't their problem that I had to talk to the airport people. Yeah right.
Beara
Brookshire, Texas
U.S.A.
0 comments