Dollar Car Rental

Stupid me — ok not really, since I am in the military and have to use the places they book for me.
Pretty much all the negative comments are true. The biggest thing to me was that, even after calling to check last night on what time they open, when I arrived (15 minutes after said time) the gates are locked, no lights are on, and no one to be found. Really people!!! One of the shuttle drives is sitting outside the gate and told me — yes they are open but the worker «forgot his keys and went home to get them and would be back in 5 minutes». So how does that make them open??? Funny because I passed the place 15 minutes ago to fill the car up and returned and it’s still closed up. Oh yeah — there would also be an extra $ 9.00 charge added if I did that — WTH???
Sure — you could park across the street and use the shuttle there (as the sign indicates) «after hours car returns» can do BUT this is not after hours and after reading the reviews and seeing this — do you really think I’m gonna trust Dollar…
NOT!
So I have finished typing this review (it is now 25 past their opening time) and you guessed it Unilocalers, still all locked up and the line of people is growing to turn in cars.
It is now 34 mins after they are supposed to be open and someone has finally arrived to open the gates.
Recommend you steer clear of this business…
Note to Unilocal — I could really use a ZERO rating here!

Just because, Dollar is one of the least reputable, credible and honest firms of all time in my opinion. How is it even possible to get a 1.5 star rating with 27 reviews??? Not surprised by any of the other reviews here. Can’t stand Dollar Thrifty with an enmity that is reserved for few others.

I wish I had read these reviews before renting a car here. Long story short — I rented a car and returned it without issue. A week later, I received a letter stating that I had damaged the car. The damage in the pictures was to both door edges (less than ¼ inch each). I know that I did not damage the doors, and the odds of it happening to both doors in a parking lot while I was inside the hotel are very slim. A few more facts:
* The pictures they took were three days after I dropped off the car (and no one noticed it when I dropped it off). The car had also been moved on the lot.
* The small dings were less than ¼ inch — very hard to see, even in the high resolution photos in the bright sunlight. I picked up the car at night.
* The damage claim listed two days out of service, even though the pictures and repair were done on the dame day.
For weeks, I tried working with the VP at the location, and was ready to chalk it up as a bad-​luck event for me. Then I found these Unilocal!reviews. This seems like a regular practice at this location, and I have posted a complaint to the BBB, and am also contacting Dollar corporate. My company is also aware, and has instructed the entire business to never rent from Dollar again.

This place sucks … The customer service, the staff and most of all their sneaky shady practices when picking up. Watch out if your military specially, they get you to sign thinking it’s part of the pickup portion and when turning in they charge you for stuff you never asked for. Most terrible experience ever. Never again will I use this company and neither should you if you’re reading this. Now I will become very outspoken against this company and their practices.

FRAUDULENT PRACTICES!!! I rented a vehicle for a 24 hour period during which the vehicle never left my possession and was parked in a driveway with no other cars in a rural area. I returned the vehicle the following day in the same shape it left their lot in. No one inspected the vehicle at the time of rental nor at the time of return. I left the car in the parking lot and returned the keys to the desk — received my paperwork and left. A week later I received a letter saying there was damage to the vehicle that I would be responsible for and would be sent to a mediator. I sent a letter via my attorney to the mediator disputing the damages as they were NOT caused while I had possession of the vehicle. They replied with photos of a small scratch to the bumper that would not qualify as damage under any other rental company’s policy and the photos were date stamped over 24 hours AFTER I returned the vehicle. I disputed and have now been sent to collections on the damages. They are crooks. DO NOT RENT HERE.

DON’T RENT HERE,
If I could give less then 1 I would! Terrible customer service! Had a reservation for over a month. Flew from Calif. to St Louis and got to Dollar at the airport. The heavy set women tried to up sell us right off the bat. We refused everything. Then after we were almost finished she told us we could only drive within the bordering states of Missouri. Since we were on a quest to see 4 presidential libraries (Missouri, Ohio, New York and Virginia) this was unacceptable! We had unlimited mileage, just could not get to the states we wanted. She was very rude talking down to us like we were children. We finally cancelled the contract and went back to the airport and Hertz. Luckily my husband had made reservations with both companies. Cost an extra 150.00 but we have a car and can drive where ever we want. What a terrible way to run a business!

This place wasn’t too bad overall. I think we got lucky by catching a shuttle right away when we got to the level of the ramp that the pick-​up area is on. It was a little difficult to find but the person on the phone was helpful when it came to finding it. The person at the counter instantly tried getting us into a more expensive car even though we had already reserved a smaller more affordable car that suited our needs. He was nice, but seemed like he was trying to get us to spend more money, which I think all car rental businesses do to a certain extent. Overall, a pretty fast and good experience.

Booked on Hotwire. Arrived in St. Louis Airport at 9:30 pm and waited outside for shuttle. Other company’s passed numerous times. Driver finally pulled up and although he was very friendly, he basically said if he hadn’t had to drop other passengers off who mistaken boarded his shuttle instead of National/​Alamo, he would not have returned as the location had just closed at 10. They new we were coming on late flight!
Arrived at off sight rental location and was greeted by the rudest rental agent I’ve encountered in years. We rent all the time and realize that selling collision waivers and other coverage or change of equipment (COE) upgrades are a way they increase their income. We just didn’t want any and she was visibly upset. I tried to be nice but she was having none of it.
Then, reviewed the contract emphasized we were excepting «COMPLETE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CAR. .. .EVEN LOSS OF USE!!»
No way I explained. I told her I learned all about that in law school and was willing to take the risk. Then said thanks and good night.
The only redeeming thing about the visit was the brand new Toyota Camry they gave us (literally had only 600 miles on it). Price good too but at some point the abusive rental agent isn’t worth it.
Will NEVER rent from this location again.

Waited in the cold 20 min. All their competitors (even thrifty!) made two rounds. Finally had to call the office and she said she «find my driver.» He showed up and stopped 20 feet away from me although I was standing in the spot and no other shuttles around. Dollar late and a Dollar short… All makes sense now.

SCAM!!! If military or USAA member call for rental car through USAA (enterprise, Avis, etc.) Do not come here!!!

DO NOT RENT: ESPECIALLY IF MILITARY!!!
My husband and I were told to go to this location because of its low cost. We were told that because we are on official government travel that we would not be charged the underage driver fee and would receive the government rate. Upon arrival, we presented the employee [a rude woman who treated us like we were infants] with my husbands orders. She could not make heads or tails of it, then took it to her manager who confirmed that we would not get any fees waived and would pay the full retail price with the added 250 $ underage fee.
When I called corporate, I was put on the phone with someone who didn’t understand my question and kept asking me what my documentation looked like to qualify me for the government rate. I was transferred to a nice lady who confirmed that we were robbed blind essentially.
At that point, husband arranged a different rental company to handle us and we have now wasted 5 hours driving back and forth from the military installation.
Thank you, Dollar Rent A Car, for treating a member of your country’s military like an ATM.
EDIT: Follow up on the situation. Location is a franchise so if they mess up charging you, you have to attempt to fix it with them, if not dispute the charge with your credit card company.

do not rent from dollar! worse customer service especially in st. louis

Yeah listen to all the reviews… horrible management horrible staff… I arrived at probably about 1130 at night to pick up my rental car and was told I would have to do the inspection in the dark and in the rain. Unfortunately there was damage to the car that I could not see obviously. When we discussed insurance they told me they only had a 30 dollar a day insurance which is a lie they have much cheaper packages. When I wanted to remove the insurance I was told I would have to drive from Fort Leonard Wood back to saint Louis to have it removed. Well we returned the car are rented from someone else. The manager completely unprofessional when I asked why I was lied to about the insurance he refused to come out of his rat trap of an office to address the issue and made his employees run back and forth. DO NOT RENT FROM THIS PLACE…

SCAM SCAM SCAM. I wish there was a ½ star rating. See the other comments.
First, they try to up-​sell you on everything: insurance, gas, etc. If you let them fill the tank, they charge nearly $ 8 a gallon.
We filled our tank at the closest gas station (less than 5 miles away). We returned the car with a totally full tank. A week later, we had a charge of $ 46. When we called to ask about it, we were told that we had to present a receipt to avoid the charge despite the fact that the tank was COMPLETELY FULL when we returned the car. We discussed this with customer service. No help. When asked to speak to a manager, it went straight to a voicemail. We tried to call customer service again with no help. We were forwarded to a manager’s voicemail again. I’m assuming we will not be getting a call back any time soon.
If you want to rent a car for cheap, choose another rental company. Dollar Rent A Car may have cheap rentals but they’ll get their money one way or the other.

DO NOT RENT FROM HERE!
They are extremely deceptive! They pulled a bait and switch on me.
When I discovered the upcharge that they snuck on my bill I notified them immediately.
5 days of phone calls and waiting on hold only to speak to someone who refused to reverse the charges and offered to meet me half way.
I was tricked and after all of the effort and time I put into getting the bad charges reversed they still refused to reverse the charges. I guess meeting me half way may let them feel like they are half OK.
SHAMEFUL! SHAMEFUL!

DO NOT RENT AT THIS LOCATION. On top of their deceptive rental policies, both the receptionist and manager were altogether unhelpful and rude to myself and my son. So rude in fact, that I chose to leave and return to the airport, and rent elsewhere. I repeat, DO NOT RENT AT THIS LOCATION.

Don’t ever rent a car here! Katie has horrible attitude! Worst experience here Ever!!! Wish I could rate no star!

This location was decent and they appeared to have plenty of cars on the lot which is a good thing because I hate waiting for one especially since I always already have a reservation. There are plenty of employees working at inside the office so there was never a line both when I was picking up and dropping off my rental. When picking up they try to get you to upgrade to a sportier or more expensive car but they aren’t very pushy which is good.
The building/​lot were a little run down and it was kind of odd that there was no security checkpoint or anything on the way out when picking up the car. They just give you the keys and you’re free to take off whenever you’re ready…
I reserved a compact car and got a brand new Toyota Corolla which drove great and I had no issues during my 2 day trip. I would come here again if I need to rent again in the St Louis area.

It’s unfortunate others had bad experiences with this particular Dollar. I was pushing getting in on time due to Southwest pushing my flight from NYC from 6:10 PM to not actually taking off until 10:30 PM. I had called them three times to try to update them so they’d know I was cutting it close to getting there by the closing time of midnight.
When I arrived at 11:45 I immediately called again to tell them I’d landed and the woman was very friendly (as she had been the previous three times I called). She reminded me how to exit the airport to find the shuttle and told me the guy was already there.
The man driving the shuttle was chatting with me as if he had come to the airport to pick up a friend. We had a nice conversation all the way to the car place. Once there, Sheila continued her lovely ways (she was who I talked to on the phone, too) by telling me it was absolutely no problem to wait. She talked to me about where to eat and things to do while I was here (good tip about zoo parking even though the weather didn’t cooperate enough for a zoo trip). There was nothing about her attitude that suggested she was put out by having to work a few minutes past closing time. She had me ready to go in no time, too.
I got a clean, new Corolla that I’ve been driving for five days without having to put any gas in yet so the car itself was just fine for my needs. Coming from Brooklyn, it was nice to return to customer service where people actually interact with you and act as if they have some manners. As a native Texan that’s my chief issue with living in the NYC area as a whole and these two folks from Dollar (working the closing shift on March 31) helped what could have been a frustrating night and start to my trip here due to a major flight delay into a great end to that long evening as well as a superb start to my trip to St. Louis.
I also rented from Dollar in Houston a month prior to this trip and they, too, had excellent customer service. Maybe I’m just getting lucky but I’ve found Dollar to be affordable and friendly my last two times with them.

What a joke… waited 30 mins to be picked up in the cold… the poor ratings are accurate. Try another company… ridiculous…
Then, to make the experience even better, the driver finally showed up at the 40 min and with a horrific attitude.