Rent-A-Wreck
reviews and complaints

Please help me get my money back. I never drove the car because it was in such a bad condition (please look at the picks). I paid market rate (what you would pay to reputable companies) for this car and look at the condition. Please help. (I can provide invoice if you can help me).

I rented a car from rent-a-wreck in Jun 2016 for a vacation with my family. The family was flying in from various parts of the united states as well as internationally to all go to this vacation after a long time. The reservation went well and I went to collect the car on the schedule day.

When I reached there I find that there are only 1 or 2 options for the minivans that we had booked. I was given the car keys of a minivan and off I went towards the car. As soon as I opened the car, what I found was shocking. The car was in a very bad state (pictures tell you everything). There were all food crums, debris lying in all the door storage. All seats were heavily stained with liquid spills and was so dusty as if it felt it came from a junk yard. The door mats were stained as if they had never been cleaned in a 7 years. The car was smelling like swamp gutter. And there was much worse damage. You can look at the pictures I have posted.

Not only this, the tires of the car were almost running out of tire tread. The headlights were lose. You can see the pictures. The car felt really unsafe to drive. Especially for someone who is renting it for 5 days and going on a long trip traveling 1000 miles. Externally there were so many dings in the car. Please see attached pictures.

I along with my brother immediately returned the keys to the renting office and we asked for our money back. We were told that we need to call a number. We called the number and have been trying to get our money back because we never used the services and that was solely because of the condition the car was in. This is a case of fraud and a scam company. We never drove that car because it was in an undriveable condition from quality, health and safety perspective.

Business Address : 200 NJ-18, East Brunswick, NJ 08816

In the spring of 2015 I reserved a minivan from Rent-A-Wreck. Soon after making the reservation I was contacted by a customer service rep. telling me that if I didn’t want to get one of their old cars I would have to pay an additional $200. I declined. A little while later the rep called me back and said she would have to cancel the reservation because I was not willing to pay the extra $200. She said this was a policy dictated by the head office. I told her I expected to get the best car available at the price quoted in the reservation. I checked the Rent-A-Wreck website at that time and could not find any mention of different pricing for different aged vehicles and the same vehicle for the same time was still available for the same price.

True to her word, the vehicle we received was in horrible shape – The car had over 200, 000 miles on it with major dents on all sides of the vehicle and duct tape on the side window. The tires were so bald that at one point while driving up a straight not-very-steep hill on a major highway the tires started to skid out.

The dirtiness and smell of the interior was truly disgusting. We had to air out the car before we could even get in. The car had not been vacuumed or cleaned and had less than half a tank of gas. We also had to pay a parking fee to a third party when we picked up the car.

While using the car it died and we had to call for road-side assistance to get a jump start. The battery had not been installed properly and we spent a day of our trip finding a mechanic and getting the electrical system looked at as well as one of the tires repaired. This resulted in us having to book an additional hotel since we could not make it to the hotel we had planned to stay in.

While we were dealing with getting the vehicle repaired the customer service rep at the Rent-A-Wreck head office insisted he would take care of us. When the repairs were complete and I asked for compensation for costs associated with dealing the repair of the vehicle he said he wouldn’t be able to help us and immediately his phone started cutting out and went dead and I never heard from him again. I tried emailing him the receipts for costs but never received a response. I also emailed my request for compensation to the office I rented the vehicle from and never received a response.

Stay the hell away from these bums! After they get your card number they tell you about all the secret handshakes on how they are going to screw you! Scared to death---I said forget it! The deal is off! THEY CHARGED ME $50 FOR CANCELING MY RESERVATION! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ABOUT! I made the reservation 45 min earlier by phone and had to give them a card number, and they were never up front. Regardless . . . these guys play a game of Gotcha, and when you see how they do business they should not be rewarded for rude and deceptive business practices.

When I complained, the rude toothless counterperson barked at me telling me, "Hay! We had to wash it!" (I am not kidding! That is what he said!) By then I just wanted to get out of the building!

I rented a car from AVIS . . .

DON'T DO IT! These people are crooks! Don't give them your card!

I rented a vehicle from this location for my sister to use on her & my mom's visit to the DC area. This was from the Peachtree village in Alexandria location. I dropped my sister off at the location and headed off to work after giving the location my credit card. They had to get the car ready and my sister had to wait. The car they gave her was "filthy" inside and she was told no one was available to clean up the car that day. She took the car and started to drive to my home in Alexandria to pick up mom. A loud thumping noise started. No one from the company picked up the phone when she called several times that day. She drove the car to my home in Alexandria and waited for me to come home from work and immediately returned the vehicle that day. We asked for another car or a refund. No other car was offered and I was told no manager was on duty to issue a refund but my credit card would not be charged and I would get a call from the manager the next day which never happened. I kept leaving messages and got no response. I called corporate Rent a Wreck and did get a call back and said they would contact the franchise with my request for a refund. I also never heard back .All I want is my refund for $51.03 .

What a death trap they gave me at the rent a wreak linden nj it wasnt even what i reserved and was told thats all they had it had bald tires stalled 2x key didnt work in the doors seatbelt didnt work at times when i tryed to exchange it for another i was told they didnt have any cars but when my son called on a differnt line and different name they had cars what a ### company i hope they go out of buisness and the presedent of the corperation crashed in one of his crap cars they are dangerous vehicles i will be complaining to the NJ dept. od motor vehicles.

Had rental reservation told they would pick me up. They did not then told me they did not have a car.

Overall attitude there is Rude! Asked a few normal questions in no manner was I mad even though I did not have a car. The person on the other end got mad and told me not to bother to visit as he would not rent to me. I recommend not renting from them as it appears they say one thing, and then when it is time to pick up the car change what they say. Customer Service apparently is not part of their vocabulary.

Rented a vehicle for 2 days only, made a verbal contract before written contract for the 2 days only, employee at rent a Wreck said they charge automatically another day so make sure vehicle is returned on time and I will not get charged.

This vehicle over heated on us on the highway and we had to sit on highway shoulder for 2 hours to let this truck cool down and since we had water with us we poured the water into the radiator as it was low . and it had over 181, 000 miles on it, way to much for a vehicle that has that many miles on it.

Vehicle was returned 2 hours and 57 min before due time and on due date with more gas in the tank then given to us on take out.
Only a few additional miles were driven over and that is it.

I returned truck as per instructed by Rent A Wreck employee and even cleaned up the truck in a car wash.
when I went to pay for the additional miles I was told I was being charged another day, I said the truck was returned as agreed in contract. The owner of Rent A Wreck was very rude and told me what don't i understand, I am charging you another day.

I filed with BBB and Rent a Wreck refused to answer, I now filed with the Federal trade Commission which they are governed by
I filed with the state and the dept of revenue as I showed them the charges they brought against me and one thing is they over charged me state sales tax so this is how these thieves are making extra money over charging state sales tax.

my day charges were $85.00 per day, $20.00 per day for insurance and an additional driver was $6.99 per day =$111.99
they charged me $128.95 a day now is that a rip off and they said they had to put a gallon of gas in but charged $10.63 and gas was $3.91 at time and this is the same amount they charged in sales tax, funny both items should be the same figure. sales tax was only $8.96
Rent a wreck will not fix the problem, of the billings errors and charging for a day i never even had the vehicle.

I rent from Enterprise or Thrifty but we had fires here and firefighters were brought in from other states and the trucks were loaned out to the firefighters to help fight the fires and Rent a Wreck was the only place in town that had a truck for rent, I understand why no body wanted there trucks, after renting one, never again
I had done over 1 1/2 year of rental with Enterprise and have all copies of rentals plus rentals from Budget, U haul and Thrifty and all the rentals from them were going out of state and coming back, and not one has ever been turned in late or turned in with less fuel and this states so on all contracts from all these other places, how come i can be responsible and return all this vehicles on time when I took them out of state & put over a thousand miles on them return on date due or 1 day early and with same amount of gas or more, and I am so irresponsible and cant return a vehicle that I just rented local to rent a Wreck on time and can't return it with gas
does not make sense

I will never rent another vehicle from Rent a Wreck, they are worse and should go out of business, they lie and hid charges from you.
I called headquarters and told them about this and they said they would like my business, i told them when hell freezes over and that is not going to happen and that i will tell everyone what ripoffs rent a wreck is and rent a wreck thinks the BBB is a big joke and told me they filed a complaint against the BBB is this shoddy or not they think they are above the law
turn them into the FTC maybe if they get enough complaints they will shut this business down for good

Rent-A-Wreck - our worst car rental experience!

We do not own a car by choice and have been renting cars from various companies over the last 10 years and have never experienced this low level of customer service before.

We rented a car from September 19, 2008 to September 23, 2008 to attend a wedding 700km east of Vancouver BC. On the day of scheduled return, the car suddenly broke down on the on-ramp to the I-5 in Burlington WA, at 3:30PM. It appeared to have an electrical problem, originating at the battery. We found the clamp to one terminals was loose and the connection extremely dirty. Attempts to troubleshoot the problem were unsuccessful and we phoned the representative at the franchise. He offered absolutely no help and had no suggestions what we should do. We arranged for a tow truck and got the car towed to a service facility. The great staff at the Bavarian Autohaus in Burlington were an example for outstanding customer service and worked past closing time but were not able to fix the car. They dropped us and our luggage off at a nearby motel and we phoned our respective employers to notify about our unscheduled day off. The Autohaus staff picked us up again the next morning at 10:30 and the car was ready to go. We drove back to Delta to return the car. The franchise only covered the cost of towing and the car repair. Adding insult to injury, they offered to wave the charge for the extra day we used the car!

As a result of the breakdown, we incurred considerable additional cost for motel, meals and 2 lost days at work. As well, we experienced the stress and anxiety of going through the ordeal. Rent-A-Wreck made no effort whatsoever to acknowledge or compensate us for this in any way. As a result, we are extremely upset and disappointed with Rent-A-Wreck and plan never to rent from them again. I am posting this complaint to prevent future customers from having a similar experience with Rent-A-Wreck.