My husband and I booked a weekend getaway for Sedona, AZ with Orbitz and our car rental was through Dollar (didn't provide any other options at the time). After we had booked I looked at the reviews and was mortified about what we were getting ourselves into.. Fortunately our experience was not near as bad as the reviews indicated.
Checking in, they did automatically ask for minimum or full coverage on the vehicle as though it was not an option- knowing otherwise we said no thank you- of course he proceeded to try and persuade us otherwise, once again we politely declined.
After this, his chipper mood did disintegrate a little bit. We were using a Discover card with which he claimed we could get a discount on an upgrade- we politely declined- his mood further disintegrated- you could tell he was getting irritable with our declining everything- Working in retail sales myself I understand the pressure corporations put on selling services/extras/warranties/all that fun stuff, but it is a choice not to spend more money I don't want to spend just to help someone else's job security..
We made sure we read everything they wanted us to sign- after reading so many reviews about being tricked into signing 'waiver' thinking that they were singing to waive insurance.. That was not something that was an issue for us fortunately.
One thing I especially did not appreciate was the deposit charged to our credit card that the clerk never informed us of. We have never rented a car before- I was unaware of a deposit although it makes perfect sense, but had we used a card with less available credit that may have been a problem. There is a deposit of $350 they charge the card for upon check-in. It was refunded the very next day after the car was returned- so it was fine- but it would have been nice to be informed of it ahead of time.
The car itself was very nice, they didn't have the actual model that was listed (gallant) but were able to get similar- they gave us a 2015 Buick Lacrosse- it was very clean inside and out and we loved it.
Overall the experience was good and the car was good, the associate at the desk could have been a little more friendly though and not changed his demeanor based on our declining extra expenses- and most of the trip I was worried about returning it and being scammed thanks to the vast amount of negative reviews. We would probably use them again as everything turned out fine and the car was great- my advice to others would just be to be wary.