I like Dollar and rented with them a few weeks ago. Although Den_Mot's rant isn't very helpful to mo

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I have found the cheapest car rentals at Dollar Car Rental - in the San Francisco area it's about $200 (pick up at OAK) to $300 (pick up at SFO) versus the other companies (Alamo, National, premier holiday travel Hertz which are at least $100, to in some cases much more than that over the price at Dollar. So - anyone have anything positive or negative to say about Dollar Rental Cars?
We always rent from Dollar when in SF, but we get the cars IN the city at the Union Sq location. The prices are way lower than airport and they do not charge extra to return the car to airport location!
I often rent from Dollar and have been happy with the cars and the service, but as with all these companies, there are differences with the cities. I don't have experience in San Francisco, but I've used Dollar premier holiday travel in Orlando, Las Vegas, Tulsa, and a few other places with no problems.
isabel, I always rent from dollar. I joined their 'fastlane' promotion so I can skip the lines or at least go to the front of the lines and if they are getting short on cars are given an upgrade. I have never had a problem that was not fixed immediatly.
I'll echo what zippypop said. The first thing you MUST do is join the free and easy "fastlane" group with Dollar. If you don't, then don't complain later about poor service or having to wait an hour to get your car. In many cases, the difference in getting your car can be like night and day if you are a member.
The car was about 10 years old, and looked and smelled dirty. It had too many scratches and small dents to count, and had manual windows. When I asked for a different car, the agent said that was the best one available, and took me to the lot to prove it. Amazingly, the only other car available was even worse.
panecott, I find that to be the case with alot of Caribbean car rental places. The cars really take a beating, have been [ab]used as beach cars, windows left open so rain gets in or just wet bathing suits, etc.
As far as the "bad" experience with Dollar--do you know if another company would have done the same thing? Yes, you do have to refuse the waivers and add ons, and yes, you do have to check the fine print.
I like Dollar and rented with them a few weeks ago. Although Den_Mot's rant isn't very helpful to most people, I would add that Dollar is a bit more aggressive about add-on fees (returning the car late, returning early, extra fees if you don't buy a toll-ass, though they are clear when you rent in an area that has no-cash tolls).
There are an increasing number of areas in the country where automated, no-cash tolls can be a problem, notably Dallas premier holiday travel and Orlando for visitors. But many localities are turning to this form of toll collection. It's not a visitor-friendly policy, but you do need to do your research and decide if you do or don't need a toll pass. But that's not at all the fault of the car-rental company. Even if the fees they charge can be exorbitant, they can usually be avoided by paying a fairly premier holiday travel modest fee (a few dollars per day or per rental for the toll pass).
I got a very good deal with Thrifty on a recent rental, and I am very pleased with the way they dealt with me and my insurance company in resolving premier holiday travel the payment for damage that occurred when somebody put a dent in the rear bumper of my rental while I was parked.
A word of caution to everyone, who intends to rent Dollar/Thrifty cars in Germany. Dollar/Thrifty uses a licensee in Germany with very dubious, misleading, deceptive and fraudulent business practices. When you order the car on the Dollar or Thrifty website, you will receive the usual confirmation, which breaks premier holiday travel down the rental cost in its subcomponents such as airport fees, VAT, road tax etc. Nothing was mentioned of a mandatory insurance premium of 20 ($28) per day. For every car I ever rented anywhere in the world, the credit card paid for the insurance premium. My AMEX Gold card specifically mentioned this coverage. It was the counter agent at the airport, who insisted on another 400.- ($560.-) premier holiday travel insurance premium. It is highly immoral to spring this surprise on customer who just arrived on a sleepless trans-Atlantic overnight flight. It made this car the most expensive car I ever rented.
In addition, the car had no air conditioning and when I started phoning the agency on the 0700 number premier holiday travel supplied on the rental agreement, I was constantly put on hold and transferred to other agents and found out later, why. The 0700 is not toll free number, but costs appr 1.- ($1.35) per minute. Should you be in the unfortunate position to have to call the agency for help, use their German direct dial number 0203-348-5422. It will still be a long-distance call, but infinitely cheaper than the 0700 number. I spent an additional $50 in calling the agency for help, which I never got. I drove around in an oven for 3 weeks with temperatures of over 30C (85F). It later turned out that the connecting hoses for the A/C were missing.
I always had a good experience with Dollar, as long as you rent from them in the US. I have rented Dollar cars when they cost $1.- per day, hence the name. The problem is in Germany, specifically with the Dollar/Thrifty licensee Terstappen, a dishonest, deceptive and dubious company with only one goal: Screw their customers and screw them big time. The sad thing, however, is that Dollar premier holiday travel does not seem do do anything against these deceptive practices and thereby soils it own good name. When you read the comments of disgruntled Terstappen customers in TripAdvisor, it makes your hair stand up. Dozens premier holiday travel and dozens of Dollar customers who have been taken to the cleaners by Terstappen and had their travel budget and their vacations ruined.
I recently rented a car through dollar (used kayak.com ) for a one way rental from San Francisco to San Jose. It was supposed to be $35 prepaid with $0 due at rental premier holiday travel counter, so I thought. I didn't realize until I was told by the counter agent that the contract required me to purchase a full tank of fuel at $55 and an additional $11 in taxes. Thus it costed me over $100.
When I rented from them they gave you the option of paying for the tank of gas upfront and then you could return the car empty, or you could return the car full - or if you didn't prepay premier holiday travel for the tank of gas and you didn't return it full then they'd charge you a high price per gallon to fill it up. This was the same option we were given last summer when we rented from a different premier holiday travel company. I take the 'return it full' option cause otherwise, unless you are able to time it right that you breeze in there on empty, you are effectively giving them some gas that you paid for.