Dollar rental return time question

[Lizzie]

Apologies if I should be posting this question elsewhere. I know that rental is on a 24 hour basis, if for instance we completed the paperwork at 6pm, and the car was ready or brought round at 7pm, what time would we have to return it to the Dollar drop off point to avoid additional charges. We have experience long waits in the past but Im sure the time on the agreement is the time completed, not physically available/collected. Is there a grace period, before additional rental charges kick in
thanks
(we rent cars twice a year but things seem to be different each time, depending on depot, attitude and experience of staff

[roger]

If you book your car from say 18:00 to drop at 18:00, but you actually collect at 19:00 (collect = arrive at desk to sign the paperwork) then you should have until 19:00 to drop the car off again. Sometime the rep on the desk will still put 18:00 as the return time, copied from your voucher, but usually they know to just change the drop time to the same as the collect time.

The safest thing is to mention this before they start processing the paperwork. Just start by saying you are a little late collecting so can they adjust the drop time?

Whatever time is printed on your rental agreement (the paperwork you receive from Dollar when you collect the card) you then get a 59 minute grace period after then to drop the car off again. Note, the 59 minute grace period is very strict so even 1 minute over that and you will be charged by Dollar at their rate for an extra day.

[Cruella DeVilla]

Generally in my experience, they give you a grace period of an hour or so. MCO they check you back in but when I did Sanford you just parked it up and left it which I did not think was such a great way of doing things![msneek]

[LesleyB]

We managed to drop the car back at MCO exactly an hour late (drove back slower than anticipated because of torrential rain during a thunderstorm) at the beginning of September and unfortunately we were hit with the extra day's charge (as Roger says above). It's not the extra day charge that is the problem it's the extra $50+ for a day's insurance that hurts! We have appealed since we have been home, on the off chance that they may relent a little - will let you know what happens.

[ballantrae]

I have been late with my drop- off twice and both times I have been charged. It seems perfectly reasonable to me that an extra charge should be incurred. It is our responsibility to get the car back on time. JOHN

[domster]

I have taken a car back an hour late and been fine. WOuld not like to chance it any longer just incase.

[wrpac00]

I took mine back 22 hrs and 53 mins EARLY and was still charged for late delivery (Budget), its in the process of being sorted out.

[roger]

That's one of the reasons that we dont offer Budget even though we have a VERY good set of rates from them!

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by wrpac00
I took mine back 22 hrs and 53 mins EARLY and was still charged for late delivery (Budget), its in the process of being sorted out.
[/quote]

[dot]

We took ours back to dollar just over an hour late once as we got lost, they were fine they said they normally give you an hour or 2 over.

debbie

[Magical Dreams]

When we have returned ours to Sanford, it as always been a similar procedure to MCO.

Someone normally scanns the barcode on the windscreen and confirms who you are.
You then park up and leave the vehicle!

We normally book the car for an hour after we land to allow to get through customs and immigration.