Thrifty Car Rental Car Rental Company

Price Paid:  $0.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
2006 Pt Cruiser

Strengths:
none

Weaknesses:
lots

Summary:
3/23/2008 I was given a PT Cruiser at the Thrifty Car Rental in the SLC airport instead of the car I requested and paid for. I was hurried out the door because they were understaffed and had a huge line. About 10 minutes after I left I noticed a small crack in the windshield. I immediately called Thrifty and they told me I would be ok, but needed to report it when I returned the car.

When I returned the car I was told it was my fault for not finding it when I left and that I would have to pay for it. I was very upset but since I have MasterCard and used it for my purchase I was relieved that my insurance with MC would pay for the cracked windshield. I faxed over all info and thought I was taken care of. Thrifty actually charged a different credit card than I authorized and was charged $34 in overdraft fees from Washington Mutual. To make things worse, they sent me to collections!

Now I have 2 collection agencies trying to recover more that 4 times the original cost they told me I would have to pay. My credit report shows I have a claim against me and they won't fix the problem.

I recommend using another company. I have spent over 12 hours trying to solve this problem and am very frustrated. Whenever I call Thrifty in Salt Lake airport I am told it is a franchise and the managers I need to speak with (cindy I think) is not available and won't call me back.

You are better off staying away from this company. I travel on a regular basis and refuse to use this company. I pay more if I have to in order to avoid supporting such a business.

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Fort Lauderdale Airp

Year / Model Reviewed:
2009 Jeep Patriot

Strengths:
None

Weaknesses:
Most basic car, mechanical errors

Summary:
I went the mid-size SUV deal as advertized on the website. The website shows a Jeep liberty as being a midsize vehicle and also says somewhere that a mid size SUV is similar to a Ford Escape. The car I received was a basic Jeep Patriot with no central locks or electric windows. I went back to the counter and asked for Jeep Liberty's that were standing on the lot and they simply said that I had to pay extra for those mid-sized SUV's since those were different classes of cars. I never felt so shafted by a car rental company as then. I did not have time to shop around for another car with a different car company so I had to take it. The car was crap and the most basic out there. If I wanted that I would have gone with one of the cheap rental companies off site. I was very disapointed with Thrifty and it is unlikely that I will rent another car at Thrifty again. I should have paid the $30 with another rental company so to get a decent car... Why advertize a decent car and then give a crappy car when people pick it up?? To make matters worse the car's transmission started to break down while driving it back from the Florida Keys. Nice going, that indicates as well how poorly the cars are maintained at the FLL location..

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $0.00 from DFW airport

Year / Model Reviewed:
2009 Chrysler Journey

Strengths:
none

Weaknesses:
service, cars

Summary:
I rented a car at DFW on September 26. I reserved the wild card special which was a mistake. These cars are basic and do not have cruise control. I informed the agent that I would be returning the car back one day earlier, and was informed that would cost me a one time fee of $15.00. I had a copy of my reservation and a copy of where I looked up (the previous night) if I made a new reservation the daily cost would be the same. The agent said it did not matter, I still had to pay the fee.
The agent said I was getting a Chyrsler Journey. She said it was new and did not have a scratch on it. When I went to the car it had 34 major scratches and a chipped windshield. I went back in and had the manager sign off on all those. I headed out on Interstate and the car was fine. When I reached my destination and slowed to exit the interstate the car began shaking. I called road side assistance (since I did purchase the plan) and the agent said they would replace the car. She said that when I reached my destination call back with an address to deliver the replacement. I noticed that the car only shook when driving between 50-60 miles per hour. Upon arriving at my destination, I called road side assistance again. This time the agent said she could not get the replacement approved. That management felt the car was safe. While driving to dinner, I was pulled over by a police office because the car was so hard to control. I again called Thrifty and was told that the police officer was not a mechanic that he should stay out of it. I asked for roadside assistance because I felt the car was unsafe. The car was now beginning to shake at different speeds but all lower than 60 mph. I was told the car was probably not aligned. The agent said that I should take it to the shop and have it checked out. I informed the agent that I flew from Colorado to DFW, then rented the car to attend a family reunion and did not want to take time away from my visit. He said there was nothing he could do, even though there was a Thrifty rental about 50 miles away. I ended driving 35 miles to the closest shop that was opened on a Sunday. The car was in the shop from Sunday 9AM to Monday 9AM, while Firestone waited on approval to check the car. Firestone found that none of the tires were balanced. I had to pay the repair fees and turn them in when returning the car. The manager at DFW Thrifty could not credit the fees at the time and said she would have to send it to corporate the following day. I did receive confirmation that corporate did credit the $73.00 back to my card. I felt like this was the rental car from hell and so was dealing with Thrifty.

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $0.00

Strengths:
Clean, new car.

Weaknesses:
Dishonest, appalling customer service, expensive.

Summary:
Booking confirmation said "Rate in Euro includes unlimited kilometers,insurance with excess. VAT 19% not included." immediately after the details in normal letters, then further below in the middle of the fine print "Rentals shorter than 3 days include free 100 kms/day. Additional kilometers will be charged 0,10 eur/km.". Former was wrong, obviously.

Had to pick up the car from the street (not parking lot) with 3/4 fuel tank. I returned the car with a flat tire because I didn't have the time to fix it and notified them of it.

Two weeks later I notice on my credit card invoice I got charged the whole liability coverage (450 EUR) with no explanation or notification on their part. I go to the website, write a "customer care" message, wait for 2 working days, no answer. I call, explain I want to get a date by which I would get back part of my coverage or I will cancel the credit card transaction, I get threatened with criminal law and hung up on.

The whole thing cost me 600 EUR (140+ EUR rental, 450 EUR coverage), instead of the 76 EUR + VAT I got in the booking confirmation. Now I'm 600 EUR short and waiting for someone who threatened me with legal action to return some of that money.

Similar Products Used:
Enterprise, Budget, Hertz

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $0.00

Strengths:
None

Weaknesses:
Everything

Summary:
Renting from Thrifty at the Frankfurt Germany airport has been the worst car renting experience I have ever had and it is still ongoing. I was instructed by e-mail from Thrifty to go to the Terminal 2 E8 exit and wait to be picked up. After 45 minutes and several phone calls I learned that they had moved their operation inside the airport (it used to be off of the airport). So it was back to their new counter in the airport.



At the counter I was informed that they no longer accepted credit card insurance unless the credit card company sent them a letter stating that they would provide the insurance. Now I have to pay an extra $21.42 dollars a day for insurance and make a deposit of $1,713 to cover the deductible. As it turned out, instead of placing a hold on the money with my credit card company like most other companies do they actually charged the amount and I had to pay an extra $70 for the foreign currency transaction fee.

4 days after turning the car in and still not have the deposit paid back on my credit card I called Thrifty to find out why. I was told by their customer service that they had 2 to 7 working days to refund my money. I called back after 8 days and was told that there was a claim for damages against the car I had rented. They said that there was a scratch on the side. Having rented cars in Germany before, I knew to give the car a thorough inspection prior to accepting it. I noted the scratch along with other problems, but the woman check me out said that she didn’t have any forms to write the problems down on, so I made her write them down on a blank piece of paper. She made a copy and I kept the original. I told the Thrifty representative this and she said that they would file a report, but that they had 21 business days to reply. In the mean time they get to keep my money.

If you want to save yourself some major problems pay a little more and rent from a reputable company. There’s a reason they only have 1.2 stars and in my opinion that’s 1.2 to many.

Similar Products Used:
I have used Thrifty before but will never do so again.