Don't book with dollar
 

booked online on hotwire. It was a pick up at Toronto Pearson airport on 11 am and drop off the next day evening in Buffalo airport. when I went to the booth, the agent says they are out of any cars I can drop off at Buffalo. Was asked to check in with Hertz, I was carrying some luggage and it wasn't easy. Hertz says they only have compact or a van and not the full size car I booked. Went back to Dollars for run around. Waited over an hour at Dollars rental booth that has no chair to sit on. Then I was given a mid size Kia forte which sure wasn't a full size I paid for and didn't have full tank but close to full. Told me to drop off at Hertz rental. I took and when I dropped off at Hertz in buffalo, I had to explain everything.


When I got back to the States I called to complain about this to Dollars customer service, The rep says the rental agreement was still not closed meaning I still am driving the car and he had to close the rental contract first before he could compensate me 2 or 3 $10 dollars rental certificate for future rental as a compensation!

On April 4rth, 3 days after I dropped off the car, I received calls from Dollars asking me where the car is and to call them. I called Dollar rental office in Canada, US and Hertz and all of them told me to contact each other.

I will post a full result on this.

Never rent from Dollars folks!

As frustrating as your experience was, I certainly plan to keep renting from Dollar and I don't think hyperbole will serve you or anyone else on this forum well. Do let us know how the situation is resolved though.

What did Hotwire say when you called?

hotwire said they are not responsible for this as the payment is made to Dollars even though booked with them and car is from dollars. I think It is not hotwire's problem. When I was there to pick up my car, the dollar agent said they are out of the full size car. They knew I had rented full size, after an hour of waiting and going back & forth between hertz and dollars I got a car more of a midsize.

A few observations:

• You do not state if you are a dollar Express member or simply a non-elite customer
• You state that Hertz ( who owns Dollar ) offers you a solution for a van or a compact car. You decline this offer and end up with a Dollar mid-size car which still does not satisfy you ( which means Dollar accomodates your most important need which is a vehicle you can drive across the border.
• Your unhappiness now concludes that people should not rent from Dollar.

It's never wholly satisfying when a rental does not meet expectations/requirements. To be fair, it should be noted that Dollar or any other car company will attempt to do their best to work out a solution for a customer, but each individual location has it's own constraints in terms of inventory & pick ups and drop offs at a different location. Even as a
Dollar Express elite, I have had a couple of instances in which they do not have the exact car I requested, but solutions were always offered albeit imperfect. In the OP's case, there is also the issue of moving inventory across the border which might create additional inventory issues.

Once again, what jumps out at me is that OP seems more interested in demanding the exact vehicle they want then are they interested in the ability to pick up and drop off at different locations. It sounds like Dollar itself attempts to arbitrage a solution through Hertz ( since the OP is told to return the car to a Hertz location and not a Dollar location -- this could account for the confusion on the drop-off side of the equation which is not totally Dollar's bad ).

Patience is a virtue and graciousness is an aqcquired taste, especially when there are hiccoughs during a trip. In any case, the OP completes their trip within the time frame required and non of this is a valid argument for not doing business with Dollar.

Enough said. :rolleyes:

barry

I guess people with Dollar Elite have a degree of patience beyond mine. It's bad enough having rental companies declaring mid sized cars to be full size. Renting a full size car is not specifying brand or model. It's expecting something that resembles a full sized auto. If you want to accept whatever they give you, that's your business. I want the category reserved, with the understanding problems can happen. It's different when the car is prepaid
and they want to toss a midget car at you. It's up to Dollar to make it right without having the customer do the leg work.

But go ahead and accept whatever substitutes big corporations want you to swallow. It's not just car rental companies doing this to you.

Don't deal with these crooks directly. Do a chargeback on your cc and have them deal with this.

I know this is an old thread but "crooks"...really?

:confused:

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to say I think the OP was correct in being upset. You should get what you ordered or better if they don't have your exact class. Dollar handled the issue like an immature company, and this experience mirrors my few attempts at renting from them. Perhaps one could say this crap is justified by the lower prices, but one should also know renting from Dollar you are getting a similar experience to Ryanair. IE no support if anything goes wrong, and extended conversations with people who do not understand a customer service model. JMO.