You Don't Get What You Pay For
budget-conscious, married to a Gearhead, torso-length challenged, driver of a minivan for 10 years
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| Cons |
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JUN
21
2007
Planning our vacation and looking at rental car options, when the option for a Dodge Charger came up at Dollar Rent A Car, we chose this for a couple of reasons. One was because the price was good for the full size car we were needing as a family of four, and the other was that as a car lover, my husband really wanted the Charger. And it wasn't just him. My son couldn't wait to feast his eyes on it either. Even though we were later told we would have the use of one of my in-laws cars while we were down there, and that we could just rent a car to get from the Orlando airport to Merritt Island, and then pick another up to make our return trip, we chose to keep our reservation for the Charger. It was a Charger after all, and it wouldn't be all that more costly to keep it during the middle of the week, than it would be just for the first and last days of our stay in the area.
Arrival
Our flight departure time changed back and forth and all over the place in the months since we booked our flight and car, and once at O'Hare we were delayed for a few different things, meaning we didn't get in to Orlando until around midnight. No one came blame the Dollar Rent A Car employee for wanting to keep things moving and getting us in and out, but some care could have been given to service us correctly. He said nothing to us as we were getting the car, except asking us to sign here and here and initial here. He then handed us the keys, and we were off.
The Car
We were shocked to find not a Dodge Charger waiting for us in the Dollar Rent A Car lot, but a Mercury Grand Marquis. It's completely understandable that a rental place doesn't have the car you arranged for, but shouldn't they tell you that before asking you to sign and shoving keys at you? Had they asked, there were plenty of other cars in that lot we would have preferred, but at midnight, after a flight that was delayed twice, with two sleepy children, we weren't about to trudge back into the airport to straighten this out.
Usage
Perhaps Dollar Rent A Car considers a Mercury Grand Marquis an upgrade, but we don't. We were looking for something cool and sporty, and aside from that, I am only 5'4" with a very short upper body. I have trouble seeing over the dashboard in larger cars. I could not see over in this one, and it was also very, very wide, and had a long nose and long back end. There is no way I would feel comfortable driving it. The next day we looked for a Dollar Rent A Car to return this to, but the closest one was at the airport, and we didn't want to waste half an afternoon straightening this out. I went without the use of a car throughout our vacation, meaning there were things I didn't get to do that I had wanted to.
Conclusion
Everyone understands overbooking an item for rental, but standard courtesy tells you to at least let the customer know of the oversight and offer them something that suits them in return. It's what I expect spending nearly $400 overall throughout the eight days. We paid that for a Charger that we both could drive, and we got instead a boat of a car that I couldn't drive.
Dollar Rent A Car is not recommended by LauraBelle
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