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Car Hire & Transportation Discuss the best way of getting around Florida.

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Old 21 Jun 18, 08:45 PM  
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Alamo all the way. Dollar horrible ... it will cost you more in additional charges you didn't request ... or time to get it resolved.
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Old 22 Jun 18, 12:22 PM  
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coventry_family
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Originally Posted by Magnificent View Post
Alamo all the way. Dollar horrible ... it will cost you more in additional charges you didn't request ... or time to get it resolved.
Interesting. Last time I went in 2014, I hired with Alamo, my Dad hired with Dollar. We both had pretty similar experiences. Skipped the counter, no additional charges and no issues.
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Old 22 Jun 18, 01:42 PM  
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Steve at MCO Dollar/Thrifty basically told me the insurance I had meant I couldn't legally drive the car out of the airport. We contested and complained, but they would not let us have the car.

I found out later that what was added, LIS, is not compulsory. Best part of $400 added.

This was a very different hard-sell tactic than what I've been used to. I expect a bit of 'you really need cover A, B and C because it offers X, Y and Z', to that I can just say 'no I don't, I'll pay it out of pocket, if necessary'. But I had no answer to 'you need this as it is a legal requirement and we will not let you leave with out it', when in fact it is not true.

I complained and complained and complained to get the $400 back. Emails and international calls (I have a call plan for this as owning villas I call the US all the time, but if not that would have been expensive). It took months. Eventually I did get it back, but very few other people would have stuck it out as long as I did to get the refund. They know exactly what they are doing!

Mind you, he also told me:
- there is no way out of the airport without using tolls
- the petrol is no more expensive than offsite if I return the car full
both things I know to be false.

His attempt to fake an English accent still cuts through me now.

Never again.

Following year, I used Alamo skip-the-counter too. The base price I'm sure is more expensive, but probably not when you factor in the time I lost getting my money back with Dollar.

As an aside ...

For a cheaper option, off-airport, the year before that we used Green Motion. Off-airport is on one hand a hassle as they bus you in and out of the airport and onto their site, which takes time. But on the other hand, in some ways I preferred it, as you've cleared the airport so you start on normal roads.

Edited at 01:56 PM.
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Old 22 Jun 18, 02:21 PM  
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Originally Posted by coventry_family View Post
When was the last time you hired from Dollar out of interest?
Fortunately enough, I never made that mistake.

But I'm a top contributor, helper and planner on a foreign disney forum similar to the DIBB. I help members plan their "once in a lifetime" trip(s)

Quite a few first timers fall for the lower prices of dollar ... and of those who did, I have yet to hear one positive feedback (I mean, one that does not start with "dreadful experience with dollar") ... and I've been "in the business" since 2011
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Old 22 Jun 18, 03:26 PM  
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Originally Posted by chmurf View Post
Fortunately enough, I never made that mistake.

But I'm a top contributor, helper and planner on a foreign disney forum similar to the DIBB. I help members plan their "once in a lifetime" trip(s)

Quite a few first timers fall for the lower prices of dollar ... and of those who did, I have yet to hear one positive feedback (I mean, one that does not start with "dreadful experience with dollar") ... and I've been "in the business" since 2011
I hired with Dollar our first trip in 2009 - can’t complain (Sanford). Int. SUV

2nd trip in 2010 - again, no issues whatsoever (MCO). Int. SUV

3rd trip in 2012 - two hires on this trip. First one (MCO) returned the car next morning as brakes felt wrong and the interior was shoddy (centre console loose). This was a MiniVan - returned car with no issues and presented with same, but less shoddy car.

2nd hire was a Convertible for a week during the holiday - pick up from on the 192. No issues whatsoever - got the Mustang we wanted.

Our 4th trip in 2013 we hired Int SUV with Alamo from MCO. Although car was OK and pretty new, choice was not and ended up with a mid spec RAV4 (was that it a rubbish Jeep). No Alamo ‘Wow’ factor I’m afraid (and I only got the RAV4 because I was pointed towards it in a different area after refusing a Jeep - no class upgrade).

5th Trip in 2015 we hired from Budget via Andy (DFCH) from Tampa - booked Standard SUV. Got a pretty much new Ford Edge Titanium and was very impressed with it. I did ask them if they had a Ford Explorer but they classes that as an upgrade so tried to get me to pay more. Still, was best hire yet.

The moral of my post here is that I hired the first 4 hire cars in Florida with Dollar on 3 trips from 3 different locations and didn’t have a nightmare at all. Only real issue I had was resolved with as little fuss as could be expected. I will say clearly their cars are less likely to be brand new and they probably don’t maintain them as well as Alamo - but certainly no nightmares for us (just a mild inconvenience once). If the price difference was significant I’d use them again.

In contrast on our 2015 trip my sister also went to Florida. They picked up their first hire from Hertz at MCO and I’ve never seen a more shoddy hire car - and I’ve hired in resort in Majorca and Menorca! It was a Toyota Corolla and looked like a 10 year old taxi - was just rough. They weren’t that bothered as was just to get them from MCO to Clearwater Hotel then across to Universal where they’d drop it off. Their 2nd hire (for when they joined us in the Villa) again with Hertz I can’t remember the model of car, but it was bigger than the last but looked in worse shape. Few days in when leaving Epcot I got a call to rescue them from the car park as they’d broken down! We took nephew home while they waited for recovery who attended and got car running but they had to drive back to MCO to swap car - they did then get a new Nissan Maxima and a free tank of fuel.

Not sure i’d use Hertz!

I think as long as you’re prepared when you pick up the car, you’ll be ok. I wouldn’t take a clear Lemon if presented with one from any car hire company.

Dave
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Old 22 Jun 18, 04:52 PM  
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I've had cars from Dollar and Alamo but for me Dollar lost it when they stopped letting Dollar Express members use that to skip the desk, restricting it to only reservations made via them directly (which are much more expensive).

I found that they always treated their DE members differently and a lot less aggressively but my last hire from them was still a pile of crap (the best of a bad bunch)
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