Fraudulent Charges
Complaint
Erik Meyer
Country: United States
A word of caution to everyone, who intends to rent Dollar/Thrifty cars in Germany. Dollar/Thrifty uses a licensee in Germany with very dubious, misleading, deceptive and fraudulent business practices. When you order the car on the Dollar or Thrifty website, you will receive the usual confirmation, which breaks down the rental cost in its subcomponents such as airport fees, VAT, road tax etc. Nothing was mentioned of a mandatory insurance premium of €20 ($28) per day. For every car I ever rented anywhere in the world, the credit card always covered the insurance premium. The AMEX Gold card specifically mentioned this coverage. It was the counter agent at the airport, who insisted on another €400.- ($560.-) insurance premium. It is highly immoral to spring this surprise on customers who just arrived on a sleepless trans-Atlantic overnight flight. This made the car the most expensive car I ever rented.
In addition, the car had no air conditioning and when I started phoning the agency on the 0700 number supplied on the rental agreement, I was constantly put on hold and transferred to other agents and found out later, why. The 0700 is not toll free number, but costs appr €1.- ($1.35) per minute, an attractive side income for the agency. Should you be in the unfortunate position to have to call the agency for help, use their German direct dial number 0203-348-5422. It will still be a long-distance call, but infinitely cheaper than the 0700 number. I spent an additional $50 in calling the agency for help, which I never got. I drove around in an oven for 3 weeks with temperatures of over 30C (85F). It later turned out that the connecting hoses for the A/C on this brand-new car were missing.
In addition, the car had no air conditioning and when I started phoning the agency on the 0700 number supplied on the rental agreement, I was constantly put on hold and transferred to other agents and found out later, why. The 0700 is not toll free number, but costs appr €1.- ($1.35) per minute, an attractive side income for the agency. Should you be in the unfortunate position to have to call the agency for help, use their German direct dial number 0203-348-5422. It will still be a long-distance call, but infinitely cheaper than the 0700 number. I spent an additional $50 in calling the agency for help, which I never got. I drove around in an oven for 3 weeks with temperatures of over 30C (85F). It later turned out that the connecting hoses for the A/C on this brand-new car were missing.
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