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| - I booked a car for a week with Advantage, and found them via RentalCars.com. Because third-party sites convey little to no information about the quality of the real rental experience, it's good to know you're always taking a bit of a gamble unless you're booking direct with a trusted company (e.g. Enterprise or Avis). I've taken plenty of gambles in my life for the sake of both personal and business travel (Dollar, Budget, etc.) but this has to be the sketchiest encounter I've experienced.
Understaffed service counter? Check.
Garage staff with either feigned or legitimate lack of English proficiency? Check.
Sketchy accountability around keeping track of damage to the car? Check.
Cars that seem to have been sourced from a salvage yard after homeless people have slept in them? Check.
The first thing I noticed once I got in my car was the significant number of stains on every single seat in the vehicle. After driving in it for 20 minutes after leaving, I confirmed that the weird smell I was experiencing was coming from the AC system. With any other service staff, I would have requested a trade, but the Advantage team made it clear that they weren't interested in helping anyone, and they pretty much vaporized once I made my way around the garage.
When I exited the garage, the attendant at the window took my "damages checklist" slip. When I returned the vehicle, I was forced to fill out an 'Incident Report' because I didn't have my "damages" slip on me. Because the attendant took it from me 5 days earlier. Right.
Check, double check, and triple check all receipts and statements from this company. They're a low- to no-tech company, and all accountability for the state of their highly damaged vehicles apparently rests on each new customer that rents them. I'm not saying they're trying to scam anyone, but they've got all the mechanisms in place should they decide to start doing so.
I'll be walking a wide path around this company in the future.
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