Dollar — Local services in San Bruno

TL;DR This place lies to you, charges you extra, then tries to blame you. Look at the reviews on Yelp, they are scamming lots of people. Reporting them to the FTC.

Last year, over an hour wait to get a car. This year's wait (12/23) was short, but they don't have the car type we reserved, which I know happens and that was ok. But the service desk then lies and says they'll give us a different car type for no additional charge or we could sit and wait for the original car type we booked. The service agent then starts talking quiet and says she could even save us money by us taking this other car type. I thought, its Christmas they want to get rid of specific car types that people aren't renting and I was fine taking anything as there were just two of us. We verified with the employee by showing her our original charge via email $530 and she said "yep, you will save around $200". She pointed out a total cc authorization on our new receipt of $360 and said that would be our end price paid and we would get a refund because we had prepaid more than that.

When we returned the car, they wanted to charge us $167 beyond our original charge for the "upgrade" we took. We went back to the service desk and was told to see the manager, Rosaria (or a name similar to this) at the office in the garage. Went to the garage and asked for Rosaria the manger and a male employee said "You can deal with me." Asked again for a manager and he repeated "You can deal with me." Never gave us his name or said he was a manager. When we discussed our issue with this male employee he very rudely said it was our fault and we "should of checked our bill" or " should of verified this rate with multiple employees". When I told him that was BS he said "lots of customers do this." I told him I was following up with this and asked for his name and he refused to give us his name or a business card. He said he could "knock the extra charge in half" then at the end of the conversation said he was only authorized to take off $75 of the $167.

I guess we fell for a typical 'bait and switch'. Shady employees at a shady company. Don't give them your business. If you have no choice, make sure to verify everything on your receipt with multiple employees as the "manager" suggested /s I'll update this if I get a response. If this isn't resolved, reporting them to the FTC and disputing the charges on my credit card as this is a total scam being ran at this location. Look at the reviews on Yelp, they are scamming people left and right by lying to them or adding charges to their receipt without telling them.

UPDATE: Their customer service said because I signed a contract they will do nothing. They lied, mislead me, and misrepresented the contract to steal money. Submitting a report to the FTC and I suggest you do the same if...

I’m writing to formally report an ongoing issue involving a representative named Yibin at the Thrifty rental counter at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

I have been a loyal customer, renting vehicles from this location every two weeks since January without any issues. I typically deal with Doug during the night shift, who is always professional, respectful, and courteous.

However, on May 14, 2025, I experienced an alarming and unprofessional interaction with Yibin. Despite having a confirmed reservation, Yibin refused to release my rental car, citing an alleged issue with my insurance. I calmly explained that I’ve never had an issue before and asked to speak with a supervisor.

Navin, the supervisor, reviewed my documents and confirmed that everything was in order — there was no issue with my insurance. Despite this, Yibin continued to deny me the rental. I reentered the line and was then assisted by Navin, who completed the rental without any problem. I thanked him and proceeded to the garage to pick up my vehicle.

At that point, Yibin became visibly agitated. He falsely accused me of using profanity — which I did not — and then raised his voice, threatened to cancel my contract, and followed me down to the garage. As I approached the exit, he intervened with the gate guard, preventing me from leaving, despite my valid, paid contract in hand.

To avoid further escalation, I returned to the counter where I was assisted by Bobby, who handled the situation with professionalism and empathy. He listened to my side, apologized, and honored the same rental rate through Hertz, which I accepted.

As a travel ICU nurse working at Kaiser, I fully understand that high-stress moments happen. But I was shocked that the situation escalated so unnecessarily — especially to the point of being followed to my vehicle. I informed Yibin that I’m a regular renter at this location, yet he dismissed that entirely.

Today, May 29, 2025, I returned to the SFO Thrifty counter to rent another vehicle. Unfortunately, upon approaching the desk, Yibin made comments referencing our previous encounter, which I found completely unprofessional and inappropriate.

I respectfully ask that management review the surveillance footage from both May 14 and May 29, paying particular attention to Yibin’s conduct, tone, and body language. If audio is available, I encourage its review as well.

This behavior does not reflect the level of professionalism expected from a brand like Thrifty, Dollar, or Hertz. As the first point of contact at the rental desk, Yibin represents your company to every customer walking through the door — and unfortunately, my recent experiences have left me feeling disrespected, targeted, and extremely disappointed.

Thank you for your time and attention to...

Terrible experience. Every single moment using Dollar at SFO was horrible. To start, there was an hour wait which is normal if you're the cheapest car rental company but that is a huge misconception - this company tries to rip you off at every turn. Once I finally got to the counter, the rep told me the car I had reserved was not available ("so you can take the reservation but you can't keep the reservation?") so he said he had a much better car available anyway. I reserved an SUV and he said a sedan was much better - I was traveling with another adult and a toddler with carseat so I assure you, I needed the SUV. I didn't want to wait so I said that was fine and then he proceeded to ask what "package" I wanted to choose - I could barely understand what he was saying but I think that's part of the con is that you can't really understand what the rep is saying so you just agree to move it along. I wasn't told I had an option on whether this "package" was mandatory or not - just that I had to choose one. Well this extra package turned out to be an extra $600 on top of what I had already prepaid. So, we finally get to this "better" car and throw all our luggage and install the carseat to find the "car needs maintenance" light come on the second I turn the car on. Lovely - so I go the nearest customer service booth at the end of the aisle to tell them and the woman there turns her lights off and tells me there's another booth in the next aisle that can help me. Very nice. So, I drive to the next aisle that didn't have any booth or employee walking around so I continue going down other aisles with no one - mind you, I'm driving around with a crying toddler at this point. I finally come across the "Luxury Hertz Rental" office so I stop there since there's nothing else around. I told him what happened and they said there isn't another aisle with a booth so that Dollar employee just lied to get rid of me. Anyway, since they're the same company, the Hertz rep said he could help which he did but that also meant tracking down the new car, switching luggage and carseat into new car and returning old keys. All in all, the whole experience took about 2 hours after having flown 6 hours to get there. Fast forward to today where I just received another bill for taking a Toll road - the Dollar rep told me to pay any tolls I used within 48 hours to avoid being charged which I did (I have proof of payment) and I still received the toll charge from Dollar with an extra $9.99 "convenience fee." In summary, use another rental...