Action Car Rental

12/11/08

Avoid!

by mb555 at Citysearch

Wish I would have read the reviews prior to renting. Horrible customer service. The Downtown office is about 50 square feet and the two women are so loud, my husband has to leave the office. Convertible top did not work after leaving the office. Typical additional hidden fees to raise the rate of the rental. Avoid renting from here.

12/01/09

avoid at all cost

by agranddayout at Citysearch

rented a VW, a SAFE and GREAT car, according to their website. I inspected it in their dark and stinky garage, finding the driver door repaired, sounding hollow and cardboardy when shut.

Once I got home and was actually under some streetlamps, I discovered that the front airbag-column was hanging lose and the airbag was missing. AHA! the repaired door tells a story , that of it being smashed so hard that the airbag exploded and wasnt replaced!!!

Same with the plastic on the inside of the door, lose. The window made a whiney noise going down ...as if to say "enough already".

I am seriously thinking of suing them for reckless endangerment and false statements ...remember 'GREAT, SAFE CAR"

Oh yes, look at their fineprint in the contract. Its worth it, alone for the 100,000 "Thank you"s after sentences like "you break a tire, you pay for it, we are not responsible"

I rather BIKE to Vermont next time.

PS: Just like another reviewer I signed up for citysearch JUST to inform the world about this BEYOND-BELIEF sh**t rental company.

• Pros: not easy to find inside stinky garage, yehey!
• Cons: every single thing

11/30/09

Not great but not as bad as some reviews

by geko63 at Citysearch

I found this car rental service through Kayak. I called up and booked for a 24 hour rental, from Saturday 2pm to Sunday 2pm, weekend before Thanksgiving. The cost, as I recall, was about $75. The first thing that strikes you is that you have to pay most of the amount upfront (about $62). This was different from all the other regular car rental services I've dealt with (Budgets, Enterprises, etc). I figured I would put it on my credit card and hope that I could fight it if it turned out to be a sham. Right after I charged it, I checked out some reviews. My heart sank when I read some of the reviews. What made it worse was that most of the reviews appeared to be very bad, but with a number of very positive reviews that gave it 5 stars, all published on the same day! I decided I would try my luck, and simply dispute the charge if something egregious happened and just get a car through Zipcar.

I was the only customer when I went to rent the car. It still took me about 20 minutes. The reason was that they wanted to check if my credit card offered any kind of insurance. I'm not sure what would have happened if I didn't have such a card.

I believe I had asked for an Intermediate size car. The car I got was a Ford Focus, which was smaller than what I had expected. It had almost 50K miles on it, and was pretty badly dinged. I made sure every nick was noted. The inside had not been cleaned well. They noted the car as having a half-full tank, even though it was a little less. A minor nit but irritating.

The car drove like a small car that hadn't been very well taken care off, and with high mileage - it got me around but made enough noises to make me a little worried.

The return was uneventful, although it took about 15 minutes, even though all I needed was a receipt.

So all in all, a considerably worse experience than a regular car rental. However, the one (and only) saving grace - it appeared to be about 30% cheaper than comparable rentals that I could find at other companies. Also, many other rental companies close at noon on Saturdays and either don't open on Sundays or only open in the evenings. So you might end up having to pay for two days with other companies.

• Pros: Cheap, at least for Manhattan rentals that I found.
• Cons: Old car, poor condition, iffy service

11/29/09

WORST CAR RENTAL EXPERIENCE EVER!

by als82 at Citysearch

I've rented from this place a couple of times because I'm cheap and have tried to save a little bit of money, but NEVER again!! The customer service is the worst I have ever experienced. They are rude, unhelpful, unknowledgeable and there is never a manager available to speak to. There is also no higher authority to send complaints. What company does not allow you to speak to a manager for complaints??

Be warned first of all that if you reserve your car online, even if you receive a confirmation email -- Action car rental is just joking. Apparently you are supposed to receive a call to get your credit card information but if they don't contact you, you're out of luck... like I was when I showed up and there were no cars.

Out of desperation I rented a car again this weekend. The car was old, dirty, banged up and completely unsafe. The interior light was broken as well as the light in the shift gear console. Worst of all there was no window wiper fluid!! So dangerous! Oh and the check oil light was on from the moment I rented it. This place is a disgrace. Spend the extra money and rent from a reputable rental company.

• Pros: none
• Cons: terrible customer service, disgusting unsafe vehicles

10/19/09

What a complete disaster / bunch of thieves

by Speedo at Citysearch

I don't care how desperate you are (and we were in pretty dire straights) - you must avoid this place at all costs. I actually just joined Citysearch for the sole purpose of warning people about these crooks:

1. Even with an Amex Platinum card, they will force you to take their Action Car Rental insurance program

2. When picking up the vehicle, they will look for every single slight nick and/or scratch (which is hard to protest when you return you car after hours and cannot be physically present the following day)

3. The car has to be returned "three quarters" full... now granted I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but can someone people tell me how exactly you fill up a tank three-quarters of the way? So... if you're "challenged" like I am you wind up putting in too much and giving them a full tank

On top of this, they are rude beyond belief behind the desk. I honestly have never seen anything like this in the City and I frankly rent cars for work every other week

• Pros: location
• Cons: "hidden fees" and horrible customer service

08/10/09

Worst experience ever

by joestock12 at Citysearch

You deserve to get ripped off and screwed if you rent with this unprofessional car rental agency. Once you deal with the customer service team of Jazmine, Ada, and Leslie, you will soon realize that you are in the wrong place. If you can not get a Hertz or Avis car and are desperate to use Action Car Rental, I will tell you simply that you are much better off getting a car service. Be very wary of the cars they are sending you. Our car which was delivered was NOT safe. Jazmine delivered a car to us that was unfit for the road, when I asked to speak to the manager, she said "she was the manager", it was all downhill from there. Needless to say, we refused to take an un safe car. This place should be put out of business by NYS. It was the worst rental experience ever.

• Pros: None
• Cons: Everything

08/04/09

The worst experience i've ever had!

by sonayny at Citysearch

So I had requested a benz slk 500 for a very special day for me. I reserved the car on friday, for a sunday 2pm- monday 2pm usage from their hempstead location.

I got a call on sunday 1pm saying that the place closes at 3pm so try to be there abt 20 mins before.....no problem, since im about 10 min drive away.

I got to the area 2pm and spent the next 15 mins looking for the place.....i called up their customer service which was of no help at all and finally ended up discovering that they rent out of a gas station!

Anyhow, i go inside and the attendant states that hes got the key but hes got nothing to do with action car rental and i would have to wait for the guy who has to do the paperwork and hes about 45 mins away.

I tried to call the customer service for some explanation or to see if they could expedite the process, and they kept telling me that im calling their manhattan office and i need to be calling their long island office. Even though i was dialing the long island number which was being redirected to their manhattan facility i guess since it was a sunday. Now im not a expert in running a car rental operation, but shouldnt your employees know how the business operates; that on sundays they need to be aware of the ongoings of the other locations.

Anyways, the only person who was someone helpful was Noela and after talking with her for a while, the guy who was suppose to do the paperwork showed up, totally ticked off because he wasnt made aware that someone was going to be picking up a car on that day.

Even he stated how horrible the company is and how they treat their customers.

Anyhow, after all this business, i decided to walk out of that place without giving them my business.

As you can see, i wrote quiet a bit, simply because I really wanted to express how badly i was treated by this company.

Forget about getting any service from them in the future, i would sincerely hope that they experience the worse type of punishment which is to lose the business of other customers who realize what a sham of an operation they have there.

THEY RENT CARS OUT THE SIDE OF A GAS STATION!!

LEARN FROM ME, DO NOT RENT FROM THEM!

• Pros: none!
• Cons: customer service clueless, not willing to help at all

07/17/09

lasr minute bait and switch BEWARE

by andreaandtara at Citysearch

After reserving at a rate from Car Rental Express at a rate for twoday weekend, caliing and talking to a Rep and leaving a deposit I arrived to pick up the car and told that the rate was a mistake. No one had called me even though they claimed to, stuck in a time crunch on a Friday evening far from any other agency. They charged me twice as much, did not even offer a smaller car at a lower rate and stuck by "some called you, there is a note here". I verified the rates and had all paperwork with that quote sent to me 2 weeks before renting and their response.." Well that person doesn't work here anymore". Never again! Unless you are renting one of their expenseive luxury cars you are treated like dirt

• Pros: none
• Cons: Will not honor rates at time of renting

07/09/09

Terrible service

by MGAY at Citysearch

I made an online reservation and then called the office to confirm my reservation. I was told that they received the reservation. The clerk was clearly busy when I called - too busy to inform me of their deposit policy. I received no confirmation email so I called the office prior to going to pick up the van. I was told that I had not made a deposit so the van was unavailable. I was told that they had tried to reach me by phone and email (I did not receive and email nor did I receive any phone messages despite leaving 3 contact numbers). So on the day that I was to pick up a 15 passenger van to take a bunch of kids and adults to camp. No van. The woman (Chareen) was not the least bit helpful, but very quick to point out that it was all my fault. I am very angry and all I can do is write a review and hope that intelligent and kind people will heed it and rent from another agency.

04/02/09

friendly, clean cars

by DrLou at Citysearch

I was very happy with action. I rented a 15 passenger van and a minivan for my yearly outing to Lake George with my whole family. The vans were clean and we had no problems on our 5 hour trip. I forgot her name but the counter agent was very helpful by printing out mapquest to our hotel. Good business.

• Pros: Friendly staff, clean cars
• Cons: need more locations

03/30/09

Happy Customer

by ThomasGeld at Citysearch

I have been a customer of Action since 2003. The girls are always friendly, and my car is always clean and ready to go. If you want to rent a good car, rent here

• Pros: good cars, fast service
• Cons: What are the drawbacks?