The Ski trip to Copper Mountain was not all good - we actually had literally nightmare situation with Dollar Car Rental/Nissan Versa on our way to the ski resort.
Paying big bucks for the ski-in/ski-out condo, we tried to minimize the cost for the trip through other ways: booked flight for Wednesday departure and Monday return, rent a mid-size sedan from the cheapest rental company - Dollar rental. This by itself should not be a problem - we did this type of travel arrangement many times before.
Our misfortune on the road started with Dollar Car Rental at Denver International Airport (DIA). When we got there, we waited for 10 minutes and were served by a guy who arrived to work just then, He spoke in a mono tone, had a blank face, and mechanically carried out his duty. First sign of trouble - low morale at this place.
He told us that we could pick any car in the mid-size car row. There were only Nissan Versas available with one suspiciously looking VW. All cars have tape marking on the trunk doors and on doors of left rear passenger doors. We picked one Nissan versa - as I drove away, I noticed that seat belt light was on despite that everyone in the car buckled up already - warning light malfunction. I changed to another car, and drove out of the lot, and quickly I noticed that the car was very slow to accelerate to highway speed (~ 60mph). Second sign of trouble - bad maintenance.
After a dinner stop, we drove onto the mountain section of I-70, as I drove up a small slope, I noticed that the maximum speed I got was 40mph despite pedal to the metal - something was wrong. I drove off I-70 and stopped along highway 40 at the front of a store Mountain threads. It was around 8pm. We called Dollar Rental roadside assistance. The agent decided that Nissan Versa had a transmission failure, collected all information, my driver license #, our location, rental car contract #, etc, offered to send a replacement car as soon as possible - but estimated delivery time was about 2.5 hours since he had to communicate with AAA first and would get back to us about the details of the delivery. Forty five minutes passed, he did not call us back to provide promised information. Lily called the helpline and this time it was a lady, she started to collect all basic information again, when challenged, she told us that the first agent told her that his call with us was disconnected and he did not get the information (LIAR!!). The second agent, she set things up with AAA and gave us AAA's contact number. Due to Dollar Rental roadside assistance program's obvious incompetency, we told her specifically that Dollar Rental at Denver Airport needs to have the replacement car ready before the AAA tow truck arrives.
Another hours passed, Lily called AAA, and was told the truck was not dispatched yet because they were told they could wait for 90 minutes. Upon hearing our situation, AAA agent dispatched the truck which would arrive at the Dollar rental at Denver airport in about an hour. We called Dollar roadside assistance again to make sure that Dollar Car rental has the replacement car ready - we were assured that the car was ready already.
In about another hour, we called AAA again, we were told the truck arrived at the DIA Dollar already but no one can sign off for the replacement car. Lily was furious and called Dollar roadside assistance again - was told that they could not locate the branch manager and thus could not have the replacement car signed off!! - and told to be patient and the replacement car would be delivered - but when, for how long?
At around 11:45pm we were told that the replacement car was loaded onto the tow truck and would take another 40 minutes or so for the truck to arrive at our location.
The AAA tow truck arrived around 12:40am, the AAA driver was very proficient and empathetic. He delivered the replacement car, another Nissan/Versa to us. We finally got back onto the road again at 1am !! We got to the ski resort at 2am!!
5 hours in the cold Colorado night waiting for the Dollar rental roadside assistance, with pending winter storm coming, poor customer service and incompetent staff at Dollar Car rental, wimpy Nissan/Versa including the replacement made this literally a nightmare.
Note:
1)The consolations to us were that the pending storm did not materialize, everyone of the family was calm and patient with the situation, no bickering. We actually took time to look at the starry sky.
2) Dollar car rental at DIA earned a 1 star on yelp - so our experience with the office was not a one-off situation.
3) Nissan Versa is a wimpy car. Don't drive it in mountains and in fact not in the city either. Many people had bad experience with the car including Lily's colleagues.
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