Thrifty Car Rental, Inc.


Country United States
State Arizona
City Tulsa
Address P.O. Box 33167
Phone 1-800-334-1705
Website www.thrifty.com

Thrifty Car Rental, Inc. Reviews

  • May 12, 2015

I rented a Toyota Yarus in Palm springs Ca. It had a Nevada plate on it. Picked up the car at around 9:30 am. at 3/08/15. I returned the car on 3/15/15 also in Palm Springs, we never left the Palm Springs area. Now I have received a notice that I owe for a toll from Boca Raton, Florida. Plate on said car is from NY FZF3960. There is obviously a mistake here.

On the notice I receieved there is no way I can even complain to a real person to at Thrifty Car Rental. The toll amount is $1.40 total with $30.00 Administration fee. What a ripoff this turned out to be, if I do not remitt payment for this amount they will charge my credit card $31.40. This give me no alternative or real person to talk to, to right his wrong. What do I do?

I feel helpless to stop this utter reguard for my rights.

  • Apr 16, 2015

We recently had one of the worst car rental experiences of our lives renting through Thrifty (and we rent vehicles a lot).

Here is our story: We booked a midsize SUV from Jan 16 to Feb 17, 2015 (33 days) on Hotwire (way back in early October to ensure a vehicle of choice would be available) with an estimated price of $2007.01 (daily rate $26.71) inc taxes (there was no mention of a $250 drop-off fee in the quote).

We arrived on Friday 16th January at Las Vegas International airport to be told there were no midsize SUV’s available at the time and that we could come back on Monday to get one. Problem was we were driving to Utah on Sunday so needed a car there and then. We were also told that the SUV’s didn’t have tires suitable for winter driving nor were we allowed to put chains on the vehicle. So in other words, an SUV would not be suitable to take into the snow (which was the entire reason for our travel). Every other company we have ever rented from in the USA has had winterised cars. We were offered a 4wd (Nissan Armada) as we were told this would be the only suitable car available for snow driving. This was supposedly offered at a discount rate however considering the final bill I doubt we received any sort of discount. Under duress we decided to take the 4wd as we felt we had no other option; plus we had been travelling 36 hours by this stage and couldn't leave our bags anywhere safe to try and discuss options as a couple with Thrifty staff.

We were then told that we would have to renew the contract via telephone on day 30 as Thrifty only offers rentals up to 30 days. This was a surprise since we had reserved it for 33 days on Hotwire without any comment about this. Come day 30 we rang the number provided and we were told that we could not renew this over the telephone and that we had to go into a Thrifty office to do so. We questioned this as we were told otherwise and after being deliberately and rudely hung up on several times we drove (2 hour round trip) to Reno Airport to renew the contract.

When we renewed the contact they said the $250 drop-off fee would only be payable once even though it showed in both contracts. It is hard to decipher the exact charges however it appears that we have paid this fee twice. The manager at the Reno office was very good in trying to manage our angst. She also said that all Thrifty cars have all weather tyres so driving in the snow in an SUV wouldn’t be an issue plus she said you can put chains on a Thrifty car however you are liable for any direct damage chains might incur (which if we had have known way back at the beginning we probably would have delayed our travel by a day to get an SUV instead of this huge 4wd for the 2 of us). This is important information to us as we run a ski travel website that gets 10,000 people a day researching their next ski trip and now we are totally adverse to promote Thrifty as a viable service for people wanting to travel to the snow (unless they rent an extremely expensive 4wd).

This was a horrendous experience from start to finish and the final bill was… US$4,368/AUD$5776 (well over double what we had anticipated and budgeted for). I have since tried to contact Thrifty several times via their "customer service" email but they do not reply. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY; THEY ARE POISONOUS

  • Feb 12, 2015

This was the worst rental car experience I have had in memory and I travel a lot. Starts with the Thrifty agent at Ft Myers airport. I'd made a reservation via RentalCars.com and the Thrifty agent tells us the reserved car isn’t available, puts us in another car which we assumed to be equivalent, and proceeds to tell us that despite the fact that Thrifty accepts reservations from RentalCars “they will tell customers anything they want to hear”. We later find that this results in a daily rental fee that is almost 100% higher than the quoted cost. Next regarding the offered Thrifty insurance, my wife and I declined and responded that our personal car insurance covers rental cars. Nevertheless he proceeds to charge a $28/day Loss Damage Waiver.

Next comes the car. It had +40,000 miles on it, huge by rental car standards. And when we were roughly 40 miles away (toward our destination at a conference in Naples), a terrible smell comes in the car, as if someone had thrown up in it, and there was an empty coke can in the back seat that had evidently exploded, as sticky fizz was on various parts of the front seats and head liner. I called Thrifty about getting an exchange car, and they refused to either do an exchange at the nearby Naples airport (where they also have a counter) or bring a replacement car to us. Attending the conference we had no time to travel back to Ft Myers airport to exchange. Bottom line is a quoted rental reservation of $261 ended in a Thrifty charge of $702 (car was returned with a full tank). Contacting Thrifty in Ft Myers, they were unwilling to make any accommodation.

This was the worst rental car experience I have had in memory and I travel a lot. Starts with the Thrifty agent at Ft Myers airport. I'd made a reservation via RentalCars.com and the Thrifty agent tells us the reserved car isn’t available, puts us in another car which we assumed to be equivalent, and proceeds to tell us that despite the fact that Thrifty accepts reservations from RentalCars “they will tell customers anything they want to hear”. We later find that this results in a daily rental fee that is almost 100% higher than the quoted cost. Next regarding the offered Thrifty insurance, my wife and I declined and responded that our personal car insurance covers rental cars. Nevertheless he proceeds to charge a $28/day Loss Damage Waiver.

Next comes the car. It had +40,000 miles on it, huge by rental car standards. And when we were roughly 40 miles away (toward our destination at a conference in Naples), a terrible smell comes in the car, as if someone had thrown up in it, and there was an empty coke can in the back seat that had evidently exploded, as sticky fizz was on various parts of the front seats and head liner. I called Thrifty about getting an exchange car, and they refused to either do an exchange at the nearby Naples airport (where they also have a counter) or bring a replacement car to us. Attending the conference we had no time to travel back to Ft Myers airport to exchange. Bottom line is a quoted rental reservation of $261 ended in a Thrifty charge of $702 (car was returned with a full tank). Contacting Thrifty in Ft Myers, they were unwilling to make any accommodation.

  • Feb 5, 2015

I rented a car from Thrifty for 4 days. I needed to extend the rental for a couple more days, so I called to find out how much it would be. I asked the woman for the TOTAL amount I would be charged per day to extend it. She said it was $31.26 per day for each day. I told her I don't want the daily rate, I want the TOTAL charge. She replied $31.26 per day. I asked her is there any other charges and she said no. When I returned to car on the 8th day, they charged me approximately $90 per day. On my first complaint, they refunded the full cost. 2 days later, Thrifty dipped back into my account and withdrew $1008.70. According to what the first woman told me, the total charged should have been $565.00. When I returned the car, they charged me $786.70. But they withdrew $1008.70 from my account. Highly upset, I called customer service back and spoke with Shaun employee# SHAUN4173 and he had an I don't care, you have to pay what we charged you attitude. Also, he refused to allow me to speak with his supervisor Tracy. These people are scam artist. Do not trust them with your account information.

  • Jul 3, 2014

My mom and I did a one-way, week-long rental from Thrifty in mid-April (2014) after flying out to LAX for a fun road trip up to northern California. Upon getting the car, we noticed it obviously isn't cleaned after every single use, as evidenced by residue on the dashboard, and the general unwashed appearance of the exterior. The steering wheel felt gross, and I felt "icky" until I was able to drive somewhere and buy some hand sanitizer to clean it off. (But even then, it was one of those never-quite-feels-clean experiences.) We were willing to overlook all of this, though, because it had been the least expensive rental and we just needed a decent set of wheels that would get us from point A to point B in comfort - which it did. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

If this had been the end of the story, my review may have contained 3 stars - perhaps even 4. However, the real problem started when I received a ticket a couple of weeks ago for violating a toll on the Golden Gate Bridge. I remembered the situation but wasn't aware at the time that we had violated a toll. We had been coming south across the bridge into San Francisco, getting out money as we approached the toll plaza, but all signs at the plaza said "Do NOT Stop." We went through the booth, assuming that perhaps only northbound traffic had to pay a toll. We didn't think anything more of it until I received this ticket.

Upon receiving the ticket, I started researching Golden Gate Bridge tolls online. It was only then that I discovered the tolls are "electronic" meaning you have to have a reader in your car that charges your account when you pass through, or use an invoicing/pre-payment method. No cash is accepted. News to me!

When I called the designated Thrifty number to discuss this as related to the toll violation, the representative (who was very nice) went into his "by the book" description of how when I rented the car, the agent would have advised me of the electronic/non-cash tolls in effect in California as well as the payment method alternatives, and how at that time I would have been offered a plate pass which would be used to pay these tolls and I must have opted to decline it. I told him that the agent discussed no such thing, and I was never given an offer for (and thus never given an opportunity to decline) any such plate pass; there was no discussion whatsoever of electronic tolls. What the agent DID do, was tell me to "Go ahead and click OK, and then click OK again" on two screens that came up. The only things I specifically declined were two types of insurance.

The representative on the phone then went into the fact that even so, at the facility there also should have been conspicuous signs posted at the lot exit about the electronic tolls and implications. I told him that when we were leaving the lot, an agent took my paperwork and looked it over, and made no mention of the electronic tolls. And if there were signs, they certainly were not conspicuous. Eventually it was clear that he wasn't able to do anything, and he advised that I should call the rental location directly to discuss the issue. I couldn't seem to get in touch with the local facility despite dialing a local number, so eventually I spoke with a general Thrifty customer service representative. I described the issue, and she gave me an unconvincing "OK, I've made a note of your issue" reply. I was going to ask her to summarize what she noted, but by that time I figured I had wasted enough of my time and it didn't appear I was going to get anywhere with her anyway.

The toll was $7. The violation notice also included a $15 handling fee by Thrifty (I guess they pay any tickets or toll violations on your behalf and then back-charge you). So I was being charged a total of $22 for a $7 toll violation that I wasn't aware of making - and certainly wouldn't have intentionally made.

I see this is a blatant attempt by Thrifty to make money off unsuspecting customers who aren't familiar with California's toll setup (perhaps other states as well). They make no outright mention of it, instead sticking it into the "fine print" somewhere within the terms and regulations, then wait until you fall into the trap and slap you with a "handling" fee...and fall back on their letter of the law as a justification. A company that operates like this doesn't deserve my business, so it won't get any more of it.

The irony is that while researching car rental companies, I had found a few that were very similar in price. I decided to go with Thrifty because they seemed decent enough. However, going forward, regardless of any competitive cost, I will rule Thrifty out first and foremost and decide between the remaining alternatives, even if the cost is a bit higher. I usually travel for vacation at least a couple of times per year, and most of those times involve a car rental. In my eyes, Thrifty has made a $15 mistake that will cost them thousands of my own dollars in future business - not to mention tens of thousands of dollars belonging to those who read and heed this review. Good job, Thrifty!

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