It was at this time that I was informed by the agent that due to certain laws in North Carolina, I w

I do not like to feel cheated, and I do not like to be lied to by companies italy vacation packages to whom I have chosen to give my business. As such, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you an experience I had renting from Dollar a couple of weeks ago. On June 19th, I arrived in Charlotte, NC for a four day long trip. I had booked a car through the Dollar website italy vacation packages and was to pick the car up at the airport. The car was available, and as was my usual practice, I informed the agent at the rental location that I would like to decline the insurance offered by Dollar as I know that between italy vacation packages my car rental insurance and my credit card insurance, I would be covered.
It was at this time that I was informed by the agent that due to certain laws in North Carolina, I would need to make sure that I was covered for Loss of Use of the rental vehicle, in the case of an accident. I informed the agent that I was covered for damages to the vehicle by my credit italy vacation packages card, but he assured me that he was intimately familiar with both American italy vacation packages Express and Mastercard policies (the latter being the card with which I was renting my vehicle) and that they would definitely NOT cover me in the case of an accident. He recommended insurance that would cover this Loss of Use, which resulted in almost $100 added to my rental fee.
Of course when I contacted my credit card company to inquire about Loss of Use, I was informed that of course I would be covered, but that by purchasing the insurance through Dollar I had prevented myself from being covered by the insurance provided by my credit card.
I do not expect your employees to be able to make any claims about my person insurance situation. However, when I am told explicitly by your representative, an individual whose job it is to deal with these things every day, that because of specific circumstances in North Carolina, italy vacation packages my card will not cover me, I am inclined italy vacation packages to believe him. To find out later that this information that I received was just false was to find my trust betrayed and my wallet significantly emptied.
Between the fluctuating rates, gas penalties and insurance, renting a car is one of the most stressful parts of any travel experience. My last experience with your company was certainly a unsatisfactory one, and I would challenge you to think about how you may serve your customers better in the future.
Dollar italy vacation packages did right by me and issued me a refund for the insurance portion of my rental bill. Amazing! I was honestly not expecting anything back from them, but I must give their customer service credit for listening to my concern and rectifying the situation in a way that is completely satisfactory to me. Nice job, Dollar.
As you found out American Express does cover Loss of use but Dollar s Damage Recovery Agents won t provide the info requested by Amex so Amex won t pay! Is this a racket or what? Who did you complain to at Dollar? I ve had no luck getting this issue resolved.
1) DELAY: We confirmed our reservation with Dollar italy vacation packages Rent A Car TWICE before departure. After presenting our reservation and payment details italy vacation packages at Dollar’s desk at San Francisco International Airport, we were forced to wait ONE HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES italy vacation packages before our vehicle was ready. Please note—this was not waiting in line to speak with a representative, this was AFTER a representative had confirmed our reservation and taken our credit card details. This after traveling for 6+ hours with two children, ages one and three years. italy vacation packages As an explanation, the Dollar representative said the car was “being cleaned”. The representative offered us a different type of vehicle that did not suit our needs and we refused.
2) DAMAGE CLAIM: When I returned the vehicle several days later, a Dollar representative conducted an inspection and pointed italy vacation packages out a mark on the rear driver italy vacation packages side panel. I inspected the mark and told the Dollar representative that it was only a MARK—not a dent or a scratch—that could be cleaned. The Dollar representative italy vacation packages did not indicate that the issue remained unresolved, nor did he tell me to expect to be contacted by Dollar italy vacation packages regarding damage to the vehicle in the future. The representative did not request my signature or comments on any damage report. Neither did the representative take any photographs of the vehicle in my presence. Imagine my surprise when, on September 17, 2007 I received a letter from Dollar claiming damage totaling $431.00 with an attached “Accident/Damage/Incident Report” and a photo of the alleged “damage”. Under the section titled “Describe How Accident Happened” italy vacation packages someone, presumably the Dollar representative who conducted the damage inspection, italy vacation packages had written “REFUSE TO SIGN” (sic).
3) THOUGHTS: How extremely irritating that a) a family traveling long distance was forced to wait over an hour for a car that was reserved in advance; b) a Dollar representative would point out a dirt mark and try to pass it off as “damage”; c) a Dollar representative failed to communicate to the customer that he considered the matter unresolved and that the customer would likely be contacted by Dollar in the future; but instead led the customer to assume that the transaction was complete; d) a Dollar representative would indicate a customer had “refused to sign” a damage report when in fact such a request had never been made of the customer; d) Dollar would claim $431 to clean a dirt mark off the vehicle.
After receiving this letter, I conducted an Internet search using the words “rental car damage dispute”—please note that I did NOT include the word “Dollar” in the search. I was shocked to note that TWO OF THE TOP THREE search results returned italy vacation packages were links to websites that detailed Dollar customer complaints regarding disputed damage claims. How interesting…
Initially, I conceived of this communication as having two separate, unrelated complaints: the one hour and fifteen minute wait, and the frivolous damage claim. However, after contacting a representative italy vacation packages from my credit card company, it occurred to me that perhaps there was a connection. I asked the credit card company representative if he could provide advice for disputing a damage claim from a rental car vendor. He said, in short, that car rental companies’ business model is not only to make a margin on renting cars; the margin contribution italy vacation packages also comes from selling insurance to customers. In addition, a percentage of fleet maintenance italy vacation packages costs can be mitigated by claiming damages against customers who do not purchase italy vacation packages rental agency insurance packages. He said that car rental companies routinely claim damages in the $300-$900 range from customers who do not purchase the car rental company’s insurance package, because most customers have personal car insurance, or a credit card company, that will cover such charges, up to a certain amount. italy vacation packages In this way, the car rental company can pass on the bulk of maintenance costs to those customers (and the customers’ credit card and car insurance vendors) who do not purchase rental agency insurance packages.
If this is true, the motivation for Dollar managers to maximize the sale of insurance packages, and also to maximize damage claims against customers who do not purchase insurance packages, clearly exists. One way to increase the probability of being able to file a damage claim against a rental customer is to minimize how much time the customer spends inspecting italy vacation packages the vehicle prior to exiting the rental facility—theoretically, that would make it possible for the rental agency to claim damages against italy vacation packages a customer who did not, in fact, cause those damages. What types of customers are least likely to conduct a thorough investigation? High on that list would have to be parents with young children on a long trip…force italy vacation packages that customer, likely already stressed and exhausted, to wait an additional one hour and fifteen minutes, and the amount of time he spends conducting a thorough inspection further decreases…
Clearly, my speculation on the motivation for Dollar managers to file damage claims against non-insurance-package-buying customers traveling with young children is just that—speculation. Interesting perhaps for an investigative journalist at a national newspaper, or maybe for whomever is responsible for Dollar Rent A Car customer satisfaction, but not a discussion I want to continue with Dollar. However my denial of your damage claim is not speculation. I want this damage claim waived immediately.
Unbelievable. I have a story that will blow your mind. My husband and I rented a car from Dollar at the Seattle Airport on August 1 to be returned on August italy vacation packages 5th. We drove the car to Spokane to attend an event on August 3rd. The car started making a terrible sound and caught italy vacation packages fire as we were driving it back to Seattle on August 4th and had to be towed to the Spokane Dollar location. We were terrified when the car caught fire on the highway. When we called Dollar to assist us, they told us that they would have to send a tow truck to Spokane from Seattle which would have left us sitting on the side of the highway for 4 hours. italy vacation packages We ended up having the car towed at our own expense to the Spokane Dollar location. The manager at the branch in Seattle told us they would reimburse us for our tow and for another car rental to get us back to Seattle. The Manager, Pele, from the Seattle office insured us that all would be taken care of and we would be refunded our money. When we got back to Los Angeles all that changed. italy vacation packages They no longer allowed the manager to take our calls and told us that Claims would be dealing with the matter. Via Internet Search, we discovered that 85,000 of the make and model of our rental car, Nissan Altima 2006, have been recalled for engine fires. Dollar falsely claimed that we ran over something that caused the engine fire. Our insurance company has been handling the claim with Dollar. Yesterday, we received a bill from Dollar charging us for 11 weeks of car rental which they charged to my credit card. The amount is $4,151. They have had the car looked