Dollar are they really that bad

[shellbell]

I have seen the car hire firm Dollar mentioned on a few trheads but alot of what i have read isn't very good.

We have got two cars booked with Dollar through Virgin. I read on one of the threads that it went bust???? is this true.

Has anyone else booked the same car hire?

Thanks

 

[Muppet]

No Dollar are not that bad.

No they haven't gone bust either. I think you'll find it was one of the smaller companies who book hire cars and use dollar etc.

We always use dollar and find them very good.

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

Dollar arent that bad.
They tend to nag you to upgrade when you arrive but we've had no run in's with them.
I doubt they will go or have gone Bust.

I wouldnt worry

 

[keswick1uk]

Had a Dollar car in Orlando from MCO for two weeks from 8-22 March. We were booked with Virgin with a premium package insurance and had no problems or any hassle to upgrade. Well, he did say we had to bring the car back full of petrol, but agreed he was wrong as soon as I mentioned we didn't have too with our package.

 

[JohnnySharp]

Have always rented with Dollar and have never had any real problems.

 

[WDWFOREVER]

Have used Dollar (through Virgin) for our last 6-7 trips. No problem at all apart from (as Beth mentioned) their sales pitch to upgrade. Very hard to make them understand no means no! And after a long flight you are very tired and just want to get the car keys and go. Would be very easy to be pressured into something you don't want but I think I remember you can cancel an option within 24 hours if you decide you don't want it after all.

 

[Miffy2003]

They've been fine for me too....

 

[keswick1uk]

I wonder if we should lobby Virgin Holidays on this point. They must do a lot of business with Dollar and, whilst I see no problem with the mention 'Would you like to upgrade today Sir' they shouldn't, as you say, be stretching the point.

The thing is this is something that many probably agree to because, as you say, they are tired. We ought to let Virgin know this and ask them to take action.

 

[kevin harrison]

I've never had any problem with Dollar, sure, they ask you if you want to upgrade, it's simple really, just say no

 

[shellbell]

Thanks everyone

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
One thing worth remembering what ever company you use is to check your car for damage before you leave the airport.If you find any get the attendant to sign your hire document detailing the damge.We did this on our last trip and sure enough the guy who booked the car in on return pointed to the damage I showed him the comment on the hire document and he smiled and winked.Another earner for Dollar foiled.Sounds obvious but it is easily forgotten after a long flight.

Mick

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

We've never had any problems with Dollar, either - again, booked as part of Virgin Holidays package.

Since we upgrade as part of our booking from Compact to an I4, we don't get too much of a hard sales pitch, but some of Dollar's people can be a bit pushy. I've always just stepped in front of DH, smiled very sweetly and said we've already upgraded to exactly the car we want . . . thank you very much

 

[shellbell]

Thanks

I feel alot more happier now

 

[TraceyL]

Have used Dollar on most trips and have never had any problems

 

[Found Nemo]

Maybe you're thinking of Alamo?

They filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection a couple of years back, but they're still trading, so I assume they're on the right road now.

Dollar haven't had any problems that I've heard of, and they've always been fine when I've used them in the past.

 

[snookhams]

I have used Dollar on our last 4 trips to Orlando and have never had any problems, or been asked if i want to upgrade, maybe because there is only 4 of us and we always have a 7 seater minivan, more for leg and luggage room ( I am 6', DH 6'5", DS-12 5'10", DS8?) and we don't want to feel to crambed in, we drive a people carrier at home so it's just what we are used to. Did get upgraded once, and they never said a word, this holiday there were 10 or us and we had hired 2 x 8 seaters, and got upgraded to 2 x 15 seaters, it did us a favour when we all went to the same place together as it saved on the parking, but the funniest thing was the day my Father drove to Kennedy space centre all on his own, we said he should have picked up paying passengers!

 

[juliebro]

Just used Dollar for the first (and last) time!

We had to wait TWO HOURS to get the paperwork processed at the desk before collecting the car. It was 11:00 pm US time (5:00 am UK time) and we had been up almost 24 hours. The queue was not long - they just didn't have enough staff to handle everyone - and each customer was taking them on average 15 minutes to process! Everyone in the queue was really unhappy and all swore never to use them again. Kids were having to sleepon the airport floor while their parents were in the queue. All the other desks seemed to be able to deal with their customers quicker.



Not impressed. I've just emailed Airline Network to tell them how bad Dollar were.

 

[UKDEB]

We always use Dollar and book with them directly. We also always book a 'Luxury' car which is one way of avoiding the 'upgrade' conversation! The only problem we've experienced is that the car is often not immediately available - they have to 'call it over from the other garage', which we've come to interpret as meaning it's recently been returned and hasn't been valeted. Invariably it's wet (just been washed) and has sticky finger marks all over the inside! I've taken to carrying wet wipes in my hand luggage .

 

[Red-Snapper]

One thing I am not sure people have mentioned is that if you book with Virgin they have got their own Dollar check-in desk on the left which means you avoid the sometimes long queue at the normal Dollar desk on the right as you come out.

Also if you are "frequent virgins" there is the facility to queue jump even the normal Virgin line although never really needed as the normal queue isnt very long when we get there (but we do run off the plane )

 

[daipp]

What I found a few weeks ago was that it was cheaper for me to go on the internet in the Hotel, find a British Car Rental web site and rent a car for the following day. It worked out a lot cheaper and I got a free upgrade from Dollar at Holiday Inn I'Drive where I collected the car!