A: Dollar shouldn’t have accepted your reservation if it didn’t have a car for you (although I know why they do that — I’ll explain in a minute). Dollar should have resolved your problem in five minutes, not five hours.

I agree, the rental company should compensate you in some way. But a full refund for your rental? That would be very generous. It looks as if you paid $103 for your one-way rental, and Dollar provided you with a car, even though it also gave you a massive headache.

This car-reservation problem is at least partially Dollar’s fault. One of its franchisees had trouble managing its fleet inventory and appeared to have accepted more reservations than it had cars. I promised to explain what’s happening behind the scenes. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version: Because of the car-rental industry’s liberal cancellation policies, which allow you to make a reservation and cancel at any time without penalty, some rental companies have a difficult time managing their fleets. At the moment you booked your rental car, the Melbourne location may have had a vehicle in inventory, but by the time you arrived at the counter, it did not.

Next time, you might want to reserve a car earlier than a few hours ahead of your arrival. I recommended that you give Dollar another chance to resolve this, and sent you the names, numbers and emails of the Dollar Rent A Car customer service executives listed on my consumer-advocacy site (Hertz owns Dollar): www.elliott.org/company-contacts/hertz.

Clearly, we had a breakdown between the Melbourne franchisee and Dollar corporate. I wanted to be sure Dollar had a chance to resolve it. You contacted the executives in an attempt to fix your problem. A manager from Dollar’s Melbourne location called you and said that although this was the Orlando location’s fault, the company would offer you a full refund. I think that’s beyond generous.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the author of “How to Be the World’s Smartest Traveler.” You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org, or email him at chris@elliott.org.