Dollar Rent A Car - NYC Metro Area - price quotes don't apply to residents of Brooklyn, Bronx or Queens - policy of charing higher rates for these boroughs

Complaints.com received the following on March 25, 2003:

From: Email User

RE: Dollar Rent A Car - NYC Metro Area - price quotes don't apply to residents of Brooklyn, Bronx or Queens - policy of charing higher rates for these boroughs Beware if you make a reservation on dollar rent a car's website for the NYC metro area because they fail to inform you that the low price they quote you, does not apply to you if you are a resident of Brooklyn, Bronx or Queens. Turns out that this rental car company has a policy of charging higher rates to residents of these boroughs as follows:

- For Brooklyn residents $76 higher per day

- For Bronx residents $66 higher per day

- For Queens residents $10 higher per day

Of course, this information is not part of their advertisement or quoted price since you only find out this information if you read the small print on the confirmation they send you after you have completed the reservation process.

The way it works as I later found out when I called them to get more information on this policy item, is that if you're picking up the car in Manhattan (as I was because is more convenient from my office) you're quoted the price for Manhattan residents but based on the zip code that appears on your driver's license different rates apply for residents of the three boroughs listed above.

When I attempted to get Dollar's justification for what I personally consider unfair business practice of singling out residents of particular areas, they gave me a line that included their use of statistical information collected by them over the years that included the number of people in these boroughs is higher (don't really understand what does the number of residents have to do with renting a car), they have higher liability when they rent to residents of these boroughs (would love to know how they figure this one out for the rest of the country or other countries for that matter) and other statistical information that I didn't understand the relevance with renting a car.

To show this in the perspective of liability: if you're a Brooklyn resident you pay a higher rate ($76 higher) than if you're 18-20 years old ($72.99 higher) or 21-24 years old ($42.99 higher) which insurance companies and other car rentals consider higher liability.

This is the first time I have come across this practice when renting a car and have never experienced this with other car rental companies. Needless to say, I cancelled my reservation with Dollar and will take my business to a company that does not discriminate customers based on their place of residence.