jfortmiller@inanna.DEC (Joan Fortmiller) (03/17/86)
After reading the experiences of the person using Dollar Rent-a-Car, I can't help remembering the experience my husband and I had this summer in Alaska. We rented a RENT-A-DENT in Anchorage late one evening, and drove to a nearby camping area. We immediately noticed that the smell inside the car was not too pleasant, but being very tired, we ignored it and tried to get some sleep. By morning, the smell was so bad (a strong disinfectant to clean away the smell of fish that someone had put in the car during a fishing trip!) that I was feeling half sick. We returned the car, and they exchanged it for another small car - saying they would be able to get us a station wagon later that day. That evening we returned to pick up the station wagon, and began transferring our belongings to this new car. First, the rear gate wouldn't open, then there were no inside lights working, or backup lights, or rear seat door handles, etc... They agreed to a reduction in the rental rate so we took it since we were in Alaska to see the country and not hassle with car rental agencies. Within a couple of hours we also noticed that the back end leaked - all over our down sleeping bags. We purchased a roll of duct tape and put it over any place we could see where we thought water could enter and it helped but did not totally cure the problem. To make a long story short - the car was mechanically okay- at least it went well over 1000 miles fine - but clearly the basic "checklist" you would think a car undergoes between rentals, didn't seem to get done. I've learned alot about thoroughly checking out a car myself before leaving the parking lot! To be fair to RENT-A-DENT, I have to say that when we confronted them with the list of problems, they reduced the price to a very reasonable rate.(In the end we paid dramatically less dollars than we would have at any of the other rental agencies in Anchorage). The question is- should a person have to go through 2 or more cars, and lots of inconvenience when you are paying to rent a car. I don't think so - but I have heard the saying "You get what you pay for!" and in this case - that's all we got - a steering wheel and a gas pedal! A week later we rented a RENT-A-DENT in Juneau and had no problems. Also we rented a DOLLAR car in Seattle without any problems.