Advantage Rent-A-Car Customer Service Story Wrap-Up

Originally published at Small business, Marketing, Promotion and Web Design. Please comment there.

Following up on the story I started here and here and since I haven't heard from Advantage Rent-A-Car for two weeks, I decided to give them a call before disputing this through a charge back. After just 15 minutes on hold I got to talk to yet another rep that immediately told me that my contract didn't exist. Thanks, I know that much already, all I need to find out now is under which contract you charged my card. Fortunately, she was able to locate the contract the money were charged to and things started rolling again. I was given a "manager's personal fax number" (that was wrong, of course) and instructed to fax all the documents again to that number. The regular "we will call you back in 24 to 48 hours" cued in. After I figured the fax number was wrong it only took me another 22 minutes of hold time to reach them back and find out what the right number is. No big deal, right? In addition to the documents I have decided to document the whole story (the copy is below).

To much of my surprise someone from Advantage Rent-A-Car actually called me next day. Imagine that! I was told that they have recalculated my rates and the final amount would be something around 20 dollars less than the amount on the receipt I have. However, the representative declined the responsibility for overcharging my account. Overall I had a feeling she thinks she's doing me a favor.

Therefore I guess the issue is resolved. I will try my best to avoid Advantage Rent-A-Car given how horrible their service is and how time consuming it is dealing with this company. Please understand - I am still at a loss here, since aside from the overdraft of the account I had to spend a few hours waiting on hold, dealing with ARAC customer service and so on.

Below is the text I had included with the documents from my car rental for Advantage Rent-A-Car.

The following contract is the only receipt I have so far for the Advantage Rent-A-Car rental that has occurred between May 24^th to May 31^st. As you can see the amount on the receipt is $XXX.xx whereas the amount that was billed to the card is $ZZZ.zz. Overcharging the account has also resulted in bank fees for funds overdraft.

The reservation was first made through Expedia.com. After 40 minutes waiting for shuttle to pick us up I have arrived at ARAC location near the Orlando International Airport. I wanted to upgrade the rental to a better car - Ford Mustang, of which a contract has been prepared by customer service rep. At the time of creating the contract I have declined personal insurance but kept the insurance that would cover the car.

At the time of loading my luggage into the car I have discovered that the car was infested with ants. I have quickly removed my luggage from the infested car and asked for a replacement. The car I was given (Toyota Avalon) was showing rusted spots. It also had mechanical issues at the speeds higher then 35 mph which were obviously impossible to spot while driving through parking lot to the exit.

Upon agreeing on the car the customer service rep decided to amend the receipt by hand writing on the existing contract instead of printing out a new one. At this moment the overall time spent at the Advantage Rent-A-Car facility was about one hour, which is about four times longer than any other rental car agency I have dealt with so far.

At the exit gate of the Advantage Rent-A-Car parking lot the security guard stated that the contract is wrong, but he's going to let us through anyway because he's tired of diverting people back to the office.

The car was returned on May 31^st, at which moment I was called into the reception area because of "some problems with contract". After waiting just short of 20 minutes, I was told that the contract I had all along is wrong and not valid. A customer service representative spent another 20 minutes trying to enter a new contract into system, but for some reason was unable to do so. Another Advantage Rent-A-Car representative, who I believe was a manager, asked the rep who was working on our contract to draft one on a hand-written form to be able to let us go in order not to miss the plane, since the total time we have spent there was approaching one hour. The form was prepared by Advantage Rent-A-Car representative and signed by me. This is the only receipt I have in regards to this rental. I was also assured by Advantage Rent-A-Car customer service representative that $XXX.xx would be the final charge that should appear on the credit card statement.

Since Advantage Rent-A-Car failed to produce any other receipts that confirm that I had a rental agreement with Advantage Rent-A-Car/SimplyWheelz, I understand that the $XXX.xx is the final charge I am responsible for. Having my credit card charged for a greater amount resulted in overdraft of funds, and me incurring additional bank penalties of $68.00. Therefore the following charges are disputed:

Rental overcharge in the amount of:                                       $65.24
Bank fees resulted in account being overcharged:                      68.00
Total disputed: $133.24

On June 3^rd, 2009 I have called Advantage Rent-A-Car customer servce and spoke with representative called Denise. She asked me to fax the receipt and bank statement showing the overdraft charges to the fax # (800) 654-9925, which I did at around 3:40pm - 3:50pm same day. Denise promised that someone from billing department would get back to me within 24 to 48 hours period. Today is June 16, 2009 and I haven't head anyone calling me with this issue.

I would like this issue resolved promptly and completely as soon as possible. So far Advantage Rent-A-Car customer service hasn't demonstrated that they have any concern for the clients whatsoever. Hope you can break this impression and straighten things out.