Dollar in OKC...weird experience
 

Had a weird experience this past weekend with Dollar, and was just looking for an explanation...

My rental was originally with Enterprise, but when I got there, they informed me that they were completely out of cars. No big deal, they sent me next door to Dollar and made sure that they had cars available at a similiar rate to Enterprise, which of course they did. While going through the paperwork, the Dollar agent explained that since I had been sent over from another company, that regardless of what happened to the car, I would not have any liability whatsoever (and no I didnt have to pay or sign for any of those damage waivers), and all that would be on Dollar's shoulders should something happen to the car.

Of course, nothing happened and the rest of the rental was very smooth, but my question is, what's the rationale behind Dollar accepting all liability simply because I was sent over from a sold out company???

Thanks in advance!

That has to be an insurance tactic, something Dollar/Thrifty is natorious for...In the court of law, that wouldn't hold up for a second.

i think Dollar could still subrogate any damage to you... perhaps even if you had not signed any documents with them. If Dollar had you sign the releases before sending you to Enterprise, the subrogation would be fairly straightforward. If they did not have you sign anything, they might have to sue you in order to collect damages (and the degree of difficulty in collecting would vary by state / locality in which the loss occurred). Of course, its all moot since you returned the vehicle intact.

Rental agents (regardless of the company) are always trying to keep their sales percentages up (to get higher bonuses, etc.). Based on my experience in the rental industry, I'd bet you this is what happened:

Enterprise's rate was $35.00 per day. Dollar's rate was $25 per day. Enterprise talks to Dollar and says, "We have a reservation we can't cover. The rate is $35.00 per day. Can you match it?" Dollar says, "Why certainly!" The Dollar agent then books the reservation at $25 and adds the $10 LDW, for a total of $35. The Dollar agent then gets credit for that $10 LDW, getting that agent a few extra bucks (and keeping that agent's sales percentage high). You as the customer don't know any differently--it's still $35 per day.

Read your contract very carefully and make sure you don't see any charges for LDW, SLI, PPP, PEP, or any other three-letter acronyms that could be insurance charges. If you don't find one, then I'm not sure how they've done it, but I suspect it's something similar.

Another case could be that there might be some oddities due to the reservation being originally with Enterprise and therefore getting that third party tangled up in the process, so that location has instituted a policy that all referrals include some form of damage or liability insurance. (I think this would be unlikely, though.)

When you say you didn't have any liability for the vehicle, what specifically do you mean? If Dollar is offering to cover damages to the vehicle, that would be damage waiver, whereas third-party liability (also know nas supplemental liability insurance) is a separate coverage--these are two different packages, and you have to be careful to understand which one you're getting. If it's the latter, perhaps that particular Dollar location includes third party liability in the rental--some states require that by law, and some franchise agreements or insurance company contracts stipulate that as well (it varies location to location), in which case that liability insurance would be provided regardless of whether the rental was a referral from another company.

I strongly disagree with (and resent) nwaaok's comment that Dollar and Thrifty are "natorious [sic] for" "insurance tactic[s]." As a former Thrifty agent, I can confirm that almost all of the agents at our location were almost completely apathetic when it came to sales (despite the prodding from a nationally-known sales training consulting company and a fairly generous bonus plan) and really prided themselves on good, friendly and personalized customer service (we had a lot of frequent renters), and I've been harshly "sold to" at other companies in other locales. The rental industry has a bad reputation (which is, unfortunately, sometimes deserved), but just as almost every company in any field gets its equal share of complaints, so too does every rental company engender anger and frustration in some way or another. (Try www.failingenterprise.com, for example.)