Worst Customer Service Experience in Ireland

The Dan Dooley/Fox Customer Service Experience: The most unsympathetic, unfriendly and downright hostile group of people I have ever experienced on my many trips home to Ireland.

When faced with a very unexpected trip home in March due to a family tragedy, our travel agent made last minute reservations for flights. car rental and hotel. Upon arrival to Dublin we proceeded to the car rental counter of Dan Dooley/Fox where we encountered a very harried and upset eastern European agent. From the onset she was curt and very unwelcoming. We presented our voucher with a confirmation number which quoted a price of $92.43 for the few days we were to be there. She told us that the price was going to be 359.28 Euros which is slightly more expensive. I asked for the breakdown, and fully understood the fuel charge 65.04 Euros that would be returned on returning the vehicle full, a 25 euro fee for waiving their insurance (dubious) and then the rental fee 171.17 euros, a Deliv/Coll/Misc fee of 46.70 euros and finally VAT at 44.37 euros. We were to say the least, bemused. When we questioned the charges we were informed that it was the busiest time of the year (March 11) due to St. Patrick's day and if we felt we could do better at one of other other car rental companies we should just go and do that.

By this time we are exhausted, facing a 6 hour drive and in a state of shock due to the family tragedy, we just wanted to get on the road and agreed so we could get out of there. We were then advised that there would be a 3,000 (Three thousand) Euro hold put on our credit card. This turned out to be another mitigating disaster as they did not put a hold, they actually charged the card. This took 6 weeks post return to get amended and corrected. The follow up that both our travel agent and we encountered post return is best described by the adjectives used on our opening paragraph.

I found myself having to return to Ireland this past week for another family tragedy and both my Travel agent and I made it a point that we would not dare utilize this agency again, and ultimately had a wonderful customer service experience with one of this company's competitors.