Parents traveling with an infant are likely to rent a child safety seat along with their rental car. After all, it’s a legal requirement for children to be in such a seat. But Advantage Rent-a-Car has been renting out rickety old child safety seats that can’t be properly installed, that smell like vomit, or that are legally mandated to have been retired years ago.

Debbie Dubrow of DeliciousBaby.com has the full story.

This is the equivalent of renting a single person a car that failed inspection, with a duct-taped brake pedal, and a pile of dog poop on the rear seat. It’s unacceptable in every way. You wouldn’t put up with this if you were renting individually. Why would you put up with the equivalent if you were traveling with an infant?

What’s more, Debbie points out that this isn’t the first such incident in Advantage’s checkered history. The company is collecting fees for unsafe and filthy merchandise that’s potentially putting children’s lives at risk.

Advantage has been on my personal boycott list since 2003. (They screwed around with bait and switch pricing, plus the requirement that my insurance company fax them a copy of my policy before I could waive CDW/LDW… Forget it. We’re done. Why waste time and money when other car rental companies offer better service for comparable prices?) This is just the frosting on the cake.

Let’s be blunt here: Advantage obviously doesn’t care about your kids’ safety. You, in turn, shouldn’t be concerned about their financial well-being. Don’t rent from them.

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