East Coast

Waited in line for over an hour

Advantage rental car company recommended the EZ-Pass for tolls and bridges. For an East Coast road trip, the route was New York, Boston, Falmouth, Jamaica, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and back to New York. When picking up the car from Advantage in New York, the staff mentioned that some cities only have automated tolls without manual payment options. To avoid complications from unpaid tolls, we bought the recommended EZ-Pass from the car rental company. It ended up costing us an extra $30+ every day, and upon returning, we realized the tolls might not have been that numerous. We felt ripped off by Advantage.

We waited a long time to pick up the car, but that can be overlooked. The main issue is that this rental company is really unreasonable. Be aware that their cars are equipped with an automatic toll payment device. If you refuse their $25 per day toll-inclusive automatic payment, you have to pay manually. There are many toll roads in the eastern US, which you might not notice. If you use the device unintentionally, it will cost you $25 plus the toll. Using it twice will cost you $50 plus the toll... I accidentally used it 8 times.

Picked up the car early, waited in line for over an hour, but the service was good. Returned the car early but still charged for the full time; not sure why.

What a coincidence, it turns out the shady rental company from last time has just changed its name but continues to deceive tourists. They even asked me to pay for a previous rental's fee, which was not charged to my credit card. I had no choice but to pay since I had prepaid for my current rental and wouldn't get a refund otherwise. I advise travelers to avoid this seemingly cheap small car rental company. Although the rental cost is not high, they have many hidden fees in the contract which are impossible to understand if you don't know English. Almost all toll roads in New York have no cash payment options, and the company charges $25 per toll payment to tourists, not allowing them to pay online themselves (big companies don't do this). If you pass through toll booths five times a day, that's $125 in service fees alone (excluding actual tolls). After two days, the service fees and tolls were more expensive than the car rental itself. The car's condition was very average. The hybrid car didn't start after one day of not being used due to snow, and there was no after-sales service. I had to spend more money to get it towed. It's a scam company with just a new name. When I called the rental platform, their service attitude was terrible, simply stating that everything was clearly written in the contract. How many tourists can actually understand the contract?