- Report: #1361534
Complaint Review: Dollar Rent a Car Cancun Airport - Cancun
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Dollar Rent a Car Cancun Airport
Cancun International Airport Cancun, Mexico
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Dollar Rent a Car Cancun Airport "Optional" Insurance Scam Cancun Quintana Roo
We had a confirmed vehicle (minivan) reservation with Dollar Rental Car at Cancun Intl airport booked through Hotwire.com. The booking was for 2 weeks, from Feb. 25 through March 11, 2017 at a quoted price of $250. Yes, this is a very attractive rate which is the reason we booked it. I confirmed with my credit card company in advance that CDW insurance and Loss coverage was provided by my card issuer. I also am covered by a separate medical/travel insurance policy so I had no need for this coverage as well.
We arrived at the Dollar off-airport counter as a party of 4 adults, an infant and a toddler (6 total) around 10 pm. None of the Dollar counter staff wore nametags. I believe our agent was Jose. I asked the agent immediately if the vehicle was available and he said yes. I then declined all the insurance options that we were offered including a ‘full coverage’ package priced at over $900 + tax + the original reservation quote. Even the lowest coverage option was over $300 + tax + original quote. We agreed to a USD$2500 security hold on our card. The agent accepted our decision (verbally) to decline additional insurance then proceeded to ‘process’ our payment. He was using a standard merchant terminal with chip feature but entered a large number of keystrokes for the transaction. When I asked him later why it took so many keystrokes, he said the HSBC system told him he had to do it ‘manually’. In any case, our Royal Bank Visa Infinite card was declined. Three times. I then tried my Royal Bank Gold US Dollar Visa card. Also declined. We then tried our son-in-law’s CIBC Visa card. Declined. We then tried my daughter’s Visa card. Declined. Four different cards. At this point I was getting desperate as it was almost 11 pm with two small children needing to get to bed. I then called the Royal Bank Visa help line back in Canada and waited 10 minutes on the phone to finally get an agent who confirmed that no authorization request had come from Dollar-Cancun airport for any transactions. The Visa representative stayed on the phone while the Dollar agent ‘processed’ the transaction again – it was declined and the Visa rep also confirmed no authorization request had been received.
I was then approached by a timeshare sales representative sitting at a desk in the Dollar office who said he was employed by the Vidanta Resort (north of Playa del Carmen). He said he could get me (as a special favour) a full insurance package on the vehicle for USD $700 + tax + original quote. I declined. I suggested to the Dollar counter staff that he was intentionally sabotaging our transaction to avoid letting the vehicle go without ‘optional’ insurance. He denied this. We were then driven back to the airport by the Dollar courtesy van and we took a $70 van-taxi to our resort, arriving around midnight. Post-holiday, Hotwire offered a $20 'Hotdollar' credit for our trouble.
