An Open Letter To Dollar Rent A Car

Dear Dollar Rent A Car,

You lost a customer today.  You most likely also lost a lot of other customers, since we'll be sharing this story.  Your customer service (if you can call it that) leaves a great deal to be desired.

My parents, who are in their mid-sixties, are visiting from out of town.  They rented a car from you at the closest airport (~75 min away) and have been using it while they are here.  Yesterday, they drove it to visit my brother, who lives two hours away.  While they were at a restaurant with him, the car went dead.  The valet parking guys managed to jump it, but it died again at my brother's house.  Since no help whatsoever was available from Dollar that day, my parents called AAA, who jumped the car yet again.  The AAA guy warned that it could stop running at any time, but they did manage to get it back to my house (two hours' drive in pouring rain on the interstate.)

It went dead again in my driveway.

This morning, they called again to request a replacement car.  They were told that someone from Dollar could come out to jump the current car for a third time, but that my dad would have to drive it the 75 min back to the airport to exchange it for a replacement in person (and then drive it back here, of course.)  Never mind that common sense would tell you that the person coming all the way here from the airport to jump it could come out in a replacement car and drive the dysfunctioning one back themselves if they were so cavalier about the safety issues with it, but no.  That would actually be reasonable.

My father then said that they could just come and get the car; he didn't want a replacement car or anything else to do with Dollar and was not about to drive 2.5-3 hours himself round trip to replace their defective car.  Their response?
"You will have to pay the towing fee, then."

Hell will freeze over before I ever rent a car from these people.  My parents will never rent from them again.  I hope that some of you will consider using a different company as well, because this has been a completely unacceptable series of events.  And on the off chance that anyone from Dollar actually reads this and would like to weigh in, feel free to comment below.  I would love to hear how you can possibly rationalize having these as your customer service policies.

Best regards,
Mama D


***UPDATE***

Just for giggles, after I posted this, I put a link to it in a complaint form on Dollar's customer service website.  Figured it couldn't hurt.   Just received an automated e-mail back.  Check this out.

In part, it reads: "Your comments will be reviewed by one of our representatives and you can expect a response within the next 5 to 8 business days." (emphasis mine.)

Well, thank heavens for that tremendously rapid response time.  (Yes, I am being sarcastic.)  Digging yourselves a bigger and bigger hole, Dollar...