Advantage Rent A Car gave away my paid reservation to someone else
I landed at the LAX airport late because of my flight being late. The printed confirmation I had from Expedia mentioned that there will be an Advantage Rent A Car counter at the airport that would give me my reserved car right at the airport. At the airport, however, I found out that the counter was closed, and that I needed to take a shuttle to the Advantage Rental Car office. That took another half an hour or so. Once I arrived at their office, I was told that my reservation was given to someone else because I was late.
I was surprised. I told Advantage Rent A Car that even if I was late, I had paid for the car, so the car should be kept in the parking lot for me even if I was not driving it. They told me that I had paid Expedia, and not Advantage Rent A Car. Therefore, according to Advantage Rent A Car, I had not “completely” reserved a car with them. I was told to contact Expedia directly regarding this.
Advantage Rent A Cars’ only solution was for me to pay for the most expensive car
I asked Advantage Rent A Car what choices I had. They told me the only choice I had was to pay for a Chrysler PT Cruiser, which was around $50 more a day than what I had already paid. I tried reasoning logically that I did not need to pay anything more since Expedia makes reservations for Advantage Rent A Car, and that I had confirmed and paid reservations for a car through them already. I had been charged, and I could verify this with my bank, but Advantage Rent A Car did not bulge. They did not want to listen to what I said, and instead kept on insisting that I was misunderstanding the whole situation, and that I was mistaken that Advantage Rent A Car was required to keep a car for me waiting when I booked through Expedia.
I had a lot of appointments that day, and I felt as if I did not have any options. I was texting Valerie and SP back and forth, telling the whole story. I tried a few recommendations and suggestions, but nothing worked. Advantage Rent A Car did not do anything; they knew I was desperate for a car, and they wanted to make sure I paid them for the most expensive car available that day.
Advantage Rent A Car wanted me to buy car rental insurance through them even when I had that already
On top of that, I was told that I needed to buy extra insurance for the rental car. Expedia has previously told me that my current automobile insurance covered rental cars and that I did not need to pay anything extra, but Advantage Rent A Car told me that I was “wrong“, and that they did not honor any such agreements. Before this trip, I had never heard of a rental car company in California which required customers to buy rental car insurance even when they already had such a coverage through other insurance companies.
Nearby rental places had cars for almost the same price, or they were all booked
After they kept arguing for a few hours, Advantage Rent A Car told me clearly that they did not make any mistake, and that I should take up any issues with Expedia directly. I decided to check the neighboring car rental companies, and walked around for a while. Almost every place was completely booked, or the deals they had were for the same price as Advantage Rent A Car. I could have gone to more places and would have definitely found something cheaper, but I was running out of time. I had to meet a lot of people and visit a lot of places, and almost half of the day had already been wasted. I decided to go back to Advantage Rent A Car.
I had no choice but to pay Advantage Rent A Car, even though I had already paid Expedia
I paid Advantage Rent A Car for the PT cruiser and the supposedly required insurance coverage. I also paid for their gas as they charge a lot of money if one does not bring back the car with a full tank of gas. The lady at the counter who had argued all day told me that if I brought the car back with any gas left, I would be refunded for the entire tank. Since I knew I was going to drive a lot, that sounded better than paying almost $4 per gallon for a car that drank gas as if it was orange juice.
The car was fun to drive though
I drove the car around for around 6 days, and it was a lot of fun. The car handled nicely, and the seats were comfortable too. It did eat gas very quickly, though I was happy that the car was very comfortable. The PT Cruiser is like a box, so sometimes you cannot see nearby cars clearly if they are behind you by the sides. It took me a few minutes to get used to reversing and checking the roads, but once I got used to it, I was thinking that in the future I might rent similar cars for my travel needs. Also, the car was blue. I like blue!
I did not get any money back for bringing the car back with a full tank of gas
The day I had to leave, I drove back to Advantage Rent A Car. The car had a full tank of gas, but after it was checked back in, I was told that the company would not give me back any money for the tank of gas. I told the person who inspected the returning cars that someone at their office had told me before that I would get the money back if I brought back the car with any gas in the tank. I was told to come around noon to talk to that person directly, as that is when most of the employees that I had dealt with before would come in to start their workday. I had to check in at the airport before 10 am, so I simply left and decided to take care of it later via the phone.
What is the verdict? Advantage Rent A Car took advantage of a customer
I am still in the process of taking care of things. I do not think I will be renting a car from Advantage Rent A Car in the future, unless I make sure I get what I want beforehand and have something in writing from Advantage directly. Maybe I do not need to use Expedia in the future and instead need to contact Advantage Rent A Car directly. Maybe services like Expedia that act as connecting wires between customers and businesses can cause headaches. I am still trying to sort out things to figure out whether Expedia was at fault or if Advantage Rent A Car did not honor a binding contract. Expedia told me that they would refund me the money soon, after their corporate office looks into the matter.
Regardless of what happens, I now know that even if I pay for something online and have a printed confirmation, some companies still do not honor any agreements with customers due to various reasons.
Stay tuned for the next post that will tell you how Advantage Rent A Car contacted Expedia regarding my dilemma, which resulted in my hotel reservation being canceled completely!
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” in an online chat window, but if you say that in the offline world, you facial expression, your body, your behavior and everything you control needs to reflect the sorry state that you just expressed to someone. Otherwise, you are probably going to look like a fool and may end up hurting someone unintentionally.
