Dollar Rent A Car

I am writing to express my disappointment with the service I received from Dollar Car Hire on my recent trip to the USA. I booked a car with Dollar Car Rental on Sunday 16 August, from Las Vegas to San Francisco.

My initial booking was for 2 days which meant the car was supposed to be returned on Tuesday 18 August. I extended my stay in Los Angeles and as a result contacted Dollar Car Rental to extend the hire for an additional 2 days, which now meant that I was to return the vehicle on Thursday 20 August by no later than 11:00 at 364 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco, as explained by the agent that we communicated with.
Whilst driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco, my fiancé contacted the O’Farrell branch on Wednesday afternoon at about 17h00 to confirm that we would be dropping off the vehicle in the early hours of Thursday morning (20 August) owing to the fact that our flight was leaving at 05:55am that same day.

We were shocked when we were informed that the O’Farrell branch closes at 18h00 and that if the vehicle was not dropped off before this closing time, we would need to change our drop-off to the airport at an additional charge. My fiancé explained to the agent that none of the information pertaining to the branch closing was communicated and in all our past experiences with car hire (including Dollar Car Rental locally).

The only information at our disposal was that we were dropping the vehicle off no later than 11h00am on Thursday 20 August and that if this was done later, ONLY then would we incur a penalty/charge.
I view this total lack of communication on the part of Dollar Car Rental in a very serious light. The fact that the O’Farrell branch has a 18h00 closing time should have been communicated as it is this lack of information that resulted in us not being able to drop off the car timeously. Nowhere, in any of the communication we received, is this reflected.

We would have made a plan to arrive on time and to drop off the car before closing time had we been made aware. The reality is that we were not late with dropping off the vehicle, as per our contract with yourselves.
I there request that the amount that was debited be refunded back into my credit card and that you only charge the $10 that you would have charged for returning the car to the O'Farrell branch. I have used Dollar Car Rental locally and do not wish to change to another service provider based on this mishap.

I look forward to your response in this matter.