DOLLAR CAR RENTAL
My experience renting a car in the Uniter States. Is it worth it? uhh...
- If you are reading this, you are probably one of those people who, like me, are or have been a tourist in some country and thought that finding a rented means of transportation would be the best option to move around, visit different places without worries and with a lot of comfort. And maybe so! but you will have to take into account several aspects before making the final decision.
My journey...
- We made an online reservation with the agency "DOLLAR CAR RENTAL", opting to pick up the vehicle at one of the locations near the airport. When we arrived at the location, the agent who attended us validated our data and asked if we wanted to take a better category car for an additional cost of $25 USD per day or accept to add travel insurance service, loss, damage or preferential road service, to which we answered no to any additional service, we did not want anything else apart from what was already specified in the reservation made. The guy proceeded to swipe my card and asked me to sign the contract, but before that we asked about the toll service in case we wanted to leave D.C. or incurred any cost to which he replied "no no, pay cash, pay cash, no problem" and even though we insisted 2 times to get toll payment information, his answer was the same and his way of answering a little rough and accelerated during the whole process, as if his only concern was to close the deal.
- The next day an inconvenience arises and we are forced to go and return from New York the same day, we were afraid because we did not know much and we did not understand anything about the road laws and the dynamics of the tolls in the North American country; even so, we trusted what the Dollar Car Rental agent told us and we decided to go on our way. During the trip, we had to pass several tolls that could indeed be paid in cash, but 2 of those were electronic tolls, which when passing through the toll booth, would automatically scan the license plate of the vehicle and the agency would be charged.
- In the end and after much fighting and even being blocked from social networks by Dollar, they had to reimburse us part of the amount debited ($103 dollars), we for our part had to assume the $33.98 for the use of the "platepass" service that according to them we refused at the counter. As much as we explained that we were never offered the service and that we actually paid most of the tolls in cash, we ended up paying each of the tolls incurred for the second time. However, it was not all bad, due to this situation we realized that the additional services that we refused at the beginning had also been charged without authorization, charges that evidently had to be refunded and after a struggle we went from $402 to $170 USD.
-The trip went smoothly and the car was returned on schedule. After 15 days we received a transaction notification in my TC, the agency had debited $17 dollars for "dollar toll" we assumed it was for the 2 electronic tolls incurred. Again, 10 days later we received another transaction notice with the same description "dollar toll" but this time for $128 dollars which should not be normal anymore; and yes, after reading so much, in the agency's policies I discovered that they did have a toll service called "platepass" which cost $16. 99 per day and covered the total tolls incurred by the driver, but that by not accepting it and in case of incurring toll expenses, it authorized them to charge an administration fee of $90 dollars plus $15 dollars for each toll. All this madness was surely known to the agent who attended us, but he chose not to mention it in order to persuade us to rent the car and fall into the error that would lead us to pay these exaggerated figures.
- In the end and after much fighting and even being blocked from social networks by Dollar, they had to reimburse us part of the debited amount ($103 dollars), we for our part had to assume the $33.98 for the use of the "platepass" service that according to them we rejected at the counter. As much as we explained that we were never offered the service and that we actually paid most of the tolls in cash, we ended up paying each of the tolls incurred for the second time. However, it was not all bad, due to this situation we realized that the additional services that we refused at the beginning had also been charged without authorization, charges that evidently had to be refunded and after a struggle we went from $402 to $170 USD.
- So I can conclude that, although renting a vehicle can get us out of trouble and make our trip more comfortable, it is always better to read the policies of each agency before booking. Although on this occasion we were able to recover most of our money, the struggle was tedious and we are not always so lucky. Make sure you always read the "fine print" of the contracts, the opinion of other online users before agreeing to any service and lastly, AVOID USING "DOLLAR CAR RENTAL" as there will always be better options.
Where can I send my complaint?
Here are the e-mail addresses which I sent my complaints and claims to. In case you need to reach them out.
