Last week a colleague and I were sent to Boston on business and my company arranged for us to collect a rental car at the airport. They chose to use Dollar, a company I'd never heard of before. Things started well, the courtesy shuttle bus was easy to find, they helped us on with our luggage, and dropped us at the office. There we received the all American, over the top, polite and friendly greeting, and proceded to state our business. They immediately located the booking, and printed out the rental agreement for me to sign. No problems so far, up to this point I was impressed with the efficiency.
After signing all the necessary, we were told where to find the car, and off we went. This is the first time I have rented a car in the US, but I was a little concerned that they hadn't carried out the pre-drive away check, that other rental firms do, where they make a note of any existing dents and scratches and both parties sign. This caused me to look at the car in horror as we approached it. I don't know who'd had the car in the past, but I think they may have entered a demolition derby! OK so that is an exaggeration, but it would have taken considerable time to mark them all down on a diagram of the vehicle. Then we spotted the tyres, two of which were practically bald! It would have been dangerous to drive and we returned to the office to request another car.
The car was replaced and on initial inspection everything seemed ok. Off we went, still amazed that they would try and rent us such an unroadworthy vehicle, but happy that this car was in better nick - until a light came on in the dashboard later that day. It was not immediately obvious what the light was for, but it was clearly a warning as the word 'check' appeared under it. We popped into a gas station and the chap there thought it was probably low on coolant, but after topping that up (it was very low) the light did not go out, so it was back to Dollar to request yet another car.
They were always very helpful, and even gave a free upgrade to a better class of car, in view of all the problems, but my concern is that they obviously do not check the condition of the vehicles before they rent them out. The car we ended up with was practically brand new, only 300 miles on the clock, so we felt fairly confident that we were safe, but I shudder to think what may have happened, had we accepted the first car. At best, a fine from the traffic cops for an unroadworthy vehicle, at worst, I may not have been writing this op.
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Apr 10th, 2001
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