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Report: #95211

Complaint Review: Advantage Rent A Car - Advantage Auto - Advantage Car Rental - Mesa Arizona

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  • Reported By: Mesa Arizona
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  • Advantage Rent A Car - Advantage Auto - Advantage Car Rental Dobson&Broadway Mesa, Arizona U.S.A.

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I rented the dodge caravan on April 20th at about 3pm. On Wednesday the 21st the van was pulled over and DPS took the van because they did not think it belonged to us. Advantage rent a car did not have in the vehicle the proper registration, so the police had no choice but to impound the vehicle. The police were only doing their job.

I called Advantage rent a car toll free number and explained what happened, they apologized and said, they would take care of getting back the vehicle, and would pay for any expense's I incurred because of the local Advantage branch failure to include the proper paperwork, and should have never let a vehicle go out with improper paperwork They also stated that they would not be charging me for the rental, and they offered me a free rental the next time along with any expenses I incurred for this mistake. I was truly amazed and appreciative of customer service But, that is NOT what happened at all...

Initially I used my credit card to rent the car, but when I was renting the car they also asked for my debit card for identification purposes only! .,...I now realize that this was this was a scam from the very start!

I had asked in the beginning if I could just pay cash at the end of the rental and was told "YES".

On Thursday I was able to get a hold of the towing company in Tucson that had the rented van and they said they told Advantage rent a car that the towing bill was only $180, and the local Advantage Rent a Car place told me the bill was $500, I then said to him, why are you charging me for this! This was your fault, and customer service said I was NOT to be charged for anything, and that I was getting a free rental next time, and they would pay for any expenses I incurred.!!!!

I called the rental Car Company and they said that they had to get this but that they had a team that would pick up the van on Friday and call me on Monday.

On Saturday I was balancing my accounts and found a charge on my debit account for 261.46. Plus, he demanded that I come there and pay $561 now, and that would be refunded back to me. Just so he can correctly balance his books on his rentals, I never rented a vehicle before and I had no idea I was being scammed!

When I finally got someone on the phone, I asked who I was speaking to and was told I was speaking to the manager of this location, his name being :, Chris (the guy I had been talking to the whole time and the guy they said was out of the office) I told him I did not want to pay for any extra days it took to get the car because it was not my fault that they had not picked up the car. He agreed and told me that his crew had gone and got a different car on Friday instead of my rental because they felt it was closer. He said that they were still not going to be able to get it for another day, which would make it Tuesday or Wednesday. I asked about the charge to my debit card and he said that he would apply that charge to the amount due. When I checked my accounts no other charges were applied and I asked that he not make anymore charges to my cards at all.

He said that that was his fault for not having the car and that I had nothing to worry about because I had a receipt saying the matter was closed, he said that he could still charge my cards. Besides that, customer service already told me there was NOT going to be any charge for the rental! And that they were paying all of my expenses...

I told him if he did charge my account ,I would call the cops because I was not approving the charges.

Chris still would not give me the number. I told him to delete my card numbers from his system. He refused saying that they will stay until he is ready to take them out or the car back.

He also said that even then he might forget to take my credit and debit account numbers out his system.

By this point was to upset so I hung up and called my bank and told them to not let any charges go through from this company.

The total ripped off and charged to my account with-out permission is $ 948.72. not to mention all the aggravation and time making these stressful phone calls dealing with Advantage, more like a disAdvantag car rental.

Amanda
Mesa, Arizona
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 06/16/2004 10:37 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/advantage-rent-a-car-advantage-auto-advantage-car-rental/mesa-arizona/advantage-rent-a-car-what-a-ripoff-scam-advantage-likes-taking-advantage-of-its-custome-95211. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#2 Consumer Comment

threatened us he would report my brother to INS if we disputed the bogus charges to our bank account

AUTHOR: Julio - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, July 12, 2004

They've taken money out of my account too. We all shouold get together and sue, or maybe we should just stand in front of their company and tell everybody how they LIE, CHEAT, AND steal.

They took money from our checking account. The man working there would not give his name. He said he knew my brother that was with me was an illegal and he would report me to the INS government authorities if we reported the bogus charges to my account.



Can not believe it. how many more time will this company steal the peoples money?

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#1 Consumer Comment

CON-ARTIST AND THIEVERY ADVANTAGE RENT A CAR Quest communications giving false and misleading information along with the BBB

AUTHOR: John - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, July 11, 2004

I too was a victim of this very same office. My wife and I reserved a car for relatives coming in from out of town. They had the car for a weekend and even brought the car back half a day early. Next billing statement they were charged all over again. They called several times the manager and he would not come to the phone or call back.



Finally my wife and I called and we tricked the manager to getting on the phone posing as a new customer. The same nasty man named Chris started threatening, saying if we called the credit card company he would charge us even more money and stated he would win so we better shut up! Never in all my life have I dealt with such a person.



Our out of town relatives said they also received a threatening call from them later that evening from a man threatening the same thing to them. They are so upset they decided to not pursue this any further in fear of retaliation as threatened.



I will report them to the police and the attorney general.



I called the BBB, they said Advantage Rent A Car has a satisfactory record with no complaints. I later find out from our neighbor who worked for the BBB as a sales rep, that Advantage Rent A Car is also a PAID member of the BBB. Seems like another rip-off to mislead consumers, even bigger than Advantage Rent A Car! I did not realize and was shocked this was a paid membership to belong to the BBB! I thought they were a government agency because they are listed under government agencies in our phone book? How can that be possible? Quest Communications must know that this misleading to their customers. I will investigate and post my findings.

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