Complaint Review: Los Angeles Rent-A-Car - LA Rent-A-Car

At first this company seemed friendly, at least until we actually picked up the rental car (that we had paid a lot for to have for 4 weeks). Here is a short summary of what happend...

1. The rental car was of much lower quality compared to the advertised car on their website. The cars on their website all look new and shiny, yet this old rusty piece of junk had stuff missing, seats did not adjust and they had tried to "fix" the car with duct tape and regular screws.

2. The rental car broke down (the company later admitted that it was due to them failing to put a radiator cap on the radiator). We had to wait 2.5 hours on the side of the road in a late evening in the middle of Los Angeles before they came with a replacement car. No taxi back to our hotel or anything like that was offered. We had to spend 30 minutes convincing them to actually come and replace the car for us, and they kept stalling and saying that if we had forgotten to fill up with water & oil, that would be gross negligence and they would not replace the car.

3. The replacement car only had half a tank of gas but we had just filled up the car that broke down, causing us to "loose out" on half a tank of gas. They did not care to compensate us for this, at all.

4. The replacement car did not have a CD-player, even though the company claims on their website that ALL their cars are equipped with said equipment. The CD-player was of major importance to us as we were going to be driving thru the desert where there arent many radio stations.

5. After about 2 weeks, the replacement car would not start at all due to a bad/dead battery. The company representative would not help us AT ALL, claiming that the car battery was not their problem. No booster-cables were provided in the car so we had to go and buy that ourselves, but the battery was dead so the car wouldnt start anyway. Only 2 days later did the company agree to come and exchange the battery for us. We had to spend ~200$ on taxi trips because of this, and we also missed the first 2 hours of a concert we were going to.

6. When returning the car, we asked for the company to drive us back to our hotel, as their website states that they will do. The manager (?) got REALLY angry and refused to do this, screaming at us that they never do that and denied that their website stated such. After 10 minutes of trying to get him to listen, I could show him that their website offers to drive customers back to their hotel when they return their car. The manager still wouldnt listen and could not say anything rational or coherent. We had to pay for a taxi back to our hotel.

7. They tried to scam us into paying $30 for a "toll violation" on a road we never were even close to driving on. We would not pay but a few days later they called the hotel where we had stayed and tried to get them to approve the rental car company to charge my creditcard, which would be ILLEGAL. The hotel notified me instantly of their scam.

My advise to you is simple; STAY CLEAR FROM LOS ANGELES RENT-A-CAR, they are nothing but a bunch of scammers!

Simon
Stockholm
Sweden