Thrifty Rent A Car
reviews and complaints

Collected car at Cape Town international Airport on 21 December 2016
Returned car at George Airport on 24 December 2016 as per contract.
Representative advised a 2 - 3 working day waiting period for the deposit to be returned.
Have tried to contact Thrifty by mail, and all I get is a copy of a forwarded mail requiring someone to resolve the issue.
24 January 2017 STILL NO WORD OR REFUND

I was quoted for $495.66 but billed $731.01 for "agreeing to the daily toll charge when I signed at pickup". I called thrifty for billing concerns and was told that I agree to a $21 daily charge of the ez pass plate when I signed and they would not refund even though I did not use this plate pass daily. I told the gentleman at the counter that I did not want to use the pass for a daily rate and I was uniformed of this charge when I signed for the car. No one at thrifty customer service will reimburse me for the charges and I need help as I feel scammed.

On January 1, 2016, my daughter experienced discrimination based on Race when Thrifty Rental Car at Las Vegas (McCarran Intl), failed to honor a prepaid reservation.

The reservation (US733643330) was purchased and confirmed electronically prior the actual rental date, January 1, 2017. At pick-up, my daughter (African American) was serviced by a customer service representative (White) who confirmed the reservation and proceeded to request a credit card and identification. A visa credit card was provided--and the agent did never informed my daughter that she was attempting to secure a $350 hold on the credit card. The bottom line is that my daughter did not have the $350 available on the credit card, so they refused to honor the prepaid reservation, and they refuse to refund my dollars used to prepay the rental.

The e-mail routed to my daughter to confirm the reservation states, "Credit card in the name of the lead driver with a large enough limit to cover the excess". Thrifty terms and conditions stipulate a 15% or $350 hold. How do you discern who pays 15% and who pays $350? Thrifty could not explain====it was racial profiling. The rental car was prepaid, there was no real reason to hold $350. This is a racially motivated situation, where they pick and choose who they charge 15% versus $350. I am filing an Equal Opportunity complaint regarding this matter, because today's experience was completely race motivated. She was spoken to in an unprofessional manner and treated unfairly in the presence of other non-African American customers. The only resolution is to apologize to my daughter for insulting her integrity, and perpetuating racism, and refund the dollars spent to prepay the vehicle.

I payed the car inthe summer, we arrived 24 of november and order jeep cherioki but got dogde journey which we did not complain about, when we took the cr i sked if they would charge us anything extra, because i understood we had payed everything, the lady promised me everything was payd for when i took it, except if we wanted ypaz for the too.i said ok i will buy that she said it was 115 plus tax, and i said ok..idid not know she was going to charce us for returning the car empty.but she did 47 dollars...when we returned it some guys came they where in such a rush, which i did not understand we came 10 minits earlyer than we had to ..they almost through us out of the car, , very rude..and gave my husband a paper..which i did not see untill we where in the airport, You had bill me for 326.846 dollars for what? i am very upset that youwould do this and i am no paying you this amount, i will pay you 115+47 for gasoline though i am not happy about it .beacause the lady said it was payed already for..i hope you will repay me and be honest about this...i have often rented a car in the usa and never have i experiened such rudeness and dishonesty...hope you fix.took the car in Orlando airport nr to RR is [protected]. ´regards Ásthildur Óskarsdóttir

Stranded trying to catch plane from Atlanta to Dallas. Plane grounded due to weather. Flew to Houston to rent car to drive to Dallas from the Houston Hobby Airport in Houston. The people at the desk said if we did not book online they would not see us at the desk. I booked but my sister paid at the desk. I told the attendant to to not charge my card but my sisters because she decided to pay. They said they would. When I got home we were both charged. Not only that, they charged her extra and said she brought the car back to Houston. We drove one way. They also charged her for extra days. We have both gotten the run around. They told us Car Hire handles their disputes. We had the same run-around with them. This is a total scam. They also told her to return the car at a certain time in Dallas but when she went to drop it off they were closed. A total rip-off.

Prepaid 17days car hire prior to arriving at Chicago O`Hare airport. Collected car – the receptionist gave us paperwork and quickly used a highlighter to indicate what I thought we`d already paid for – nice to confirm the details of our car hire I thought.
Returned home after uneventful car hire and subsequently had nearly £400 debited from credit card by Thrifty for `extras`. Extras that we didn`t need; that hadn’t been explained to us at the desk and for which we had not asked nor had explicitly agreed to. Closer examination of the paperwork detailed the extras we had unknowingly and inadvertently purchased.

Moral of the story is watch out for the receptionist with the highlighter; asked for and scrutinize any paperwork given at the reception desk (even if there is a long line behind you- no pressure) BEFORE giving your credit card details. At least this way you will have choice and will not be presented with a large debit when you next get your credit card statement.

I was traveling from ny to myrtle beach so I booked a wild card with a total price of 72.90. They informed me that there would be a 200.00 deposit because I was using my debit card. They then asked me if I would like to use the onsight fueling at 1.93 a gallon. I said sure. Nothing else was said about it. She then asked me if I wanted an f150 or a dodge ram...I just looked at her weird. I said I don't drive pick up trucks. She said that it was what a wild card was and that is all they had. I took the ram and off I went. When I got to the hotel I look at my bank account and they had charged me 371.77. Apparently they estimated my gas to be 67.00. I barely drove it because I am not used to driving something so large in traffic. I didn't even use 1/4 of a tank so when I returned it I asked about being refunded on the gas because they estimated 67 but I barely used any. She said sorry. You paid for a full tank of gas...Nothing I can do...needless to say I will never use thrifty again. They are shady. If the clerk had told me I would have filled it myself...

Hi my name is umit atalay and i made a reservation via rentalcars.com on date 28/08/2016.my ref number is [protected] and you can see the voucher down.Thirfty rental record number [protected]

My selection of car was compact class (ford focus or equal) and i fully paid for it online.But when i arrived on to take car on(02/09/16) thirfty office the guy on the front desk said there is NO compact class car available, and for upgrade to midclass car i must have to pay 150 usd (163.5 usd with taxes).i reluctantly had to pay that price and took a nissan sentra as midclass car.(you can also see the receipt they have given to me down)

How could i cannot take the car i want which i made a reservation 5 days earlier ?And why i have to paid 163.50usd more?i just feel like i have been deceived.

I made a search via web and i realized if you dont have a car as the class that i reserved the company should have upgrade my car FREE to upper class.

So what i want to say is i want you to charge back the fee that have taken from me.(163.5usd)
I know thirfty is a big car rental company and i hope this event just a misunderstanding.i hope we can solve it easily.if we dont i will make bad opinions on rentalcars&websites and i also going to take a legal action.

We arranged for a rental vehicle at the boston airport (Logan) on july 30, 2016 with a return date of august 4, 2016. Our quote for the rental was between &700.00 - $800.00. Upon arrival it was apparent that we had more luggage than anticipated (Our daughter met us in boston with her 15 month old daughter, which necessitated her traveling with the usual abundance of equipment necessary for traveling with a small child). We were forced to upgrade to a larger vehicle and fully expected there would be an additional charge for the upgrade. We were not prepared to be charged $2, 303.56 for the upgrade, which is almost 3 times the rate were planning to pay. We were thoroughly disgusted with this blatant and ridiculous overcharge, but we had zero recourse at the time. Thrifty's rental record # is [protected] - we cannot locate a customer number in the documentation, but the license number of the vehicle was ny heg6008. Following our complaint, they offered us a paltry $100.00 refund, which is clearly almost insulting.

We were traveling on vacation so the trip was not business related, but i should note that i own an event planning company and we travel around the country for our clients who utilize our services to plan and coordinate their events/conventions. I plan to share this experience with all of my companions in the events industry - it is one of the most onerous treatments i have received from a service provider in over 30 years of working in the industry.

I booked a car on Saturday the 11th of June 2016 after 12 noon and was to return it on the 14th of June 2016 at 12:05 noon. The car was returned on the 14th of June 2016 at 5am about 8 hours before the time it was due. The lady from the company had over charged me by R380.99 and wrote refund of the same amount on my Rental Agreement 863150 and the and i have been contacting Dollar Thrifty Car Rental from the 14th for my refund and they keep on telling me they will call me back, it is being processed and no one get backs to me. This is my money, it was not for Deposit and i don't owe the company anything.

We flew into Montreal and had a rental car lined up for a 2 week period.
From May 17 -May 31/ 16. Once we got there the agent told me that he had to add the additional insurance although I told him to waive it as I have my own insurance. He told me this was routine and that it would be adjusted after the car was returned. I also had booked it in my name using my credit card and told them at the desk that my husband would be the sole driver. The told me that it was not possible to have him as the sole driver as this was booked in my name, so we had to add a 2nd driver at a cost of $13.50 a day.
They never even looked at the additional insurance charge upon the return of the car and of course charged it to the tune of $447.86. I am still seething from this overcharge.He told us if I did not pay that additional insurance that he could not release the car, even if I had additional coverage.

I rented a car in Atlanta, GA Airport from Thrifty Car Rental, and I've found that this company is not reliable! They are really commited at pushing any additional insurance they have without any explanation on what they mean. I was offered to include a Liability Insurance Supplement (LIS), which I agreed as usual. However, the attendent included additional things like PAI PEC, PREM RD SVC and UMP. When I asked the meaning of these acronyms, he did not explained but prefered to lie saying “don’t worry, you will not pay all of those when returning the car”. Well, in fact, I had to pay them all, which ended up costing me additional $ 527 for an economy car for 24 days when the total rental price of this car was $ 372 + $ 251 taxes. Later, only after complaining at the rental company (Rentcars), those additional insurances were clarified: Personal Accident Insurance (PAI, PEC), Premium Emergency Roadside Assistance (PREM RD SVC) and Uninsured Motorist Protection (UMP). I would NEVER buy those insurance items if I was aware of their meanings.
I have rented cars many times in U.S. and Europe, but this “pushing” never happened before when renting from other companies.

This is one of the horror stories that should not happen to anyone. I am completely disappointed in the business practices of Thrifty Car rental at the Cancun International airport. I got a great deal on a compact car through Travelocity and booked it for 4/16/16 - 4/21/15. I arrived at the Thrifty Car rental site on 4/16/16, at the airport with reservation in hand, and it took them quite a while to even find the reservation. Immediately they attempted to up-sale me to the next size car because they claimed, I would not be happy with the compact car and my luggage might not fit. That probably should have been my first sign to walk away. I felt pressured to pay for the upgrade at an additional 12 day, beside what I had already committed to. The next the next thing was insurance and they wanted me to take out a premium insurance @ 36.00 per day, more than my actual rental on the car per day. I refused the high premium insurance and asked for a more affordable insurance, so I settled on insurance of about 21.00/day, because they advised me that it was Mexican Law and I could not rely on my own auto insurance even though I have complete coverage with my personal auto insurance.

The bottom line is that I took the car, drove it less than 50 miles and kept the car in an enclosed parking area, with attendant parking. I have verified with my resort, that they were not aware of any incident with the car. There were no incident with the car, at all and the car was returned in the same condition when I first rented it, on 4/21/16. They attendant at the return process inspected the car and wrote that I had damaged one of the mag wheels with scratches. I denied that any thing had happened to the car, as these "scratches" that they claimed that I put on the car were barely visible as I had to get on my knees to really see. I took pictures of the alleged scratches and as can be seen by the attached pictures, they are very minor scratches that a wash and wheel cleaner would take care of.
I have numerous shots of these alleged damage and as you can plainly see, if I had scraped a curb, you should see some scratches on the rubber tire itself, but as the picture shows there are none.

The unfortunate thing that The rental agent tried to get me to a form with a lot of blank spaces and at first I refused, but being in a foreign country I felt pressure to sign the form, but nowhere on the form was any mention of the "alleged damage".

I asked to speak to a supervisor, but according to the rental clerk at Thrifty, his supervisor would have to call me to discuss, as I disputed the charges.

Not only did I not get a phone call, but got an invoice for additional charge for the alleged damage of 1900 pesos or approx. 109.00 USD, from Mr. Edgar Arizpe Supervisor Thrifty Cancun

The sad part of this whole scenario that the couple who had just checked out at the Thrifty counter prior to me warned me that the same thing had happened to them.

These are not business practices, which should be tolerated by anyone, in any situation.

I am definitely disputing these additional charges with my credit card as this situation has left a sour taste in our mouth.

I am going up the ladder at Thrifty corporate offices till I can get some who will speak to me and explain why I should pay these '' charges".

Very, Very ...disappointed customer!

Avoid Thrifty/Dollar at all costs. They often offer lower prices, but they will nickle and dime you to death. They try to overcharge you for fuel, toll passes, and they charge extra if you want to add a different driver. And be careful if you book in advance, as only the person making the reservation will be able to drive, and they are so inflexible that the only way to change it is to cancel the reservation and start over, and if you are at the counter that will really cost you.

Beyond that, their agents are the surliest, haughtiest, and least service-oriented I have ever experienced in any business. We've had really bad service in both St. Louis and Chicago. And don't complain if you are at the counter, as they might just refuse you the car. Zero stars.

Our most recent event was on 3/31, at Chicago Midway airport, the reservation number was G88534756568

I rented a vehicle from Thrifty at DFW and had the same problems listed by others. The lady at the desk asked me if i had an toll pass to pay for tolls. I said no and asked her how people from out of town usually pay. She said I could just have it added to the bill like I did for the gas. Now they have sent a bill of $112.82 for total toll charges of $7.82. How does that even make sense? And I just read on their FAQ sheet that came with the bill that by signing the rental agreement, I accepted responsibility for payment of fines, penalties and administrative fees. I WILL NEVER EVER RENT FROM SUCH A FRAUDULENT COMPANY AGAIN. AND I WILL MAKE SURE NONE OF MY FRIENDS OR FAMILY EVER USE THRIFTY.

Upon returning a vehicle rented from Thrifty/Dollar in Reykjavik on January 21, 2016, the employees alleged that I damaged the underside of the bumper of the vehicle. Reykjavik Thrifty/Dollar employees thereafter threatened to bill me for these damages immediately, despite failing to provide any sufficient evidence that I caused the damage or reasonable estimate of their extent, and then threatened me with denial of shuttle service to my hotel if I refused to pay. These allegations are unmerited, the conduct of the Reykjavik Thrifty/Dollar employees were akin to extortion, and they caused me significant emotional distress and jeopardized my ability to make my return flight to the United States, potentially costing me and my partner additional fees to reschedule.

To make matters worse, I write to you after spending 50 minutes of an already busy work day calling various Thrifty/Dollar customer service lines [protected], [protected], [protected]), being shuttled around to eight different "customer service" representatives, and given conflicting information from each. Despite the substandard maze of Thrifty/Dollar customer service and the fact that I have no obligation to provide you with any justification for my denial of these allegations without additional evidence from Thrifty/Dollar, I offer the following information regarding Thrifty/Dollar's spurious demands.

The initial, and notably cursory, inspection of the vehicle was conducted in a pitch black parking lot at 8:00 AM (the sun doesn't rise until nearly 11:00 AM this time of year in Reykjavik) on a black car with its headlights on. There was no inspection of the front bumper during this checkout, as it was impossible to see. Upon returning the vehicle, there was a curiously extensive inspection which included the underside of the front bumper. After the inspection, the employees conversed in Icelandic for 20 minutes without addressing us, then accused us of causing the damage. We were then told that we could not leave unless we paid 1600 Euros immediately.

To date, we have received no evidence documenting the damage beyond an email with an undated photo of an unidentified vehicle that supposedly displayed damage that was not present in the photos we took of the vehicle we rented when we returned it. The photo Reykjavik Thrifty/Dollar claims as proof that I caused the alleged damage to the bumper was clearly taken in the daylight: our return of the vehicle occurred during the pitch-black early morning. That being the case, how were the Reykjavik Thrifty/Dollar employees able to accurately assess the damage and cost of repair immediately? And why was the photo documenting the alleged damage taken at least three hours later, if not at some other time?

To put things plainly, we did no damage to the car during our rental period. If there was any damage to the car prior to its return, the damage occurred prior to our rental and was not correctly noted or accurately documented. Thrifty/Dollar is now trying to hold me responsible for it because of the incompetence or oversight of Reykjavik Thrifty/Dollar employees.

I travel very often for work and have used a number of rental car agencies including Thrifty/Dollar. Generally, I have been left with positive experiences. This was not the case with Reykjavik Thrifty/Dollar. The Reykjavik Thrifty/Dollar employees left me in tears with the way they falsely accused me and left me with the fear that we would not be given a shuttle back to my hotel, jeopardizing my and my partner’s ability to make our return flight home. The financial and emotional burden continues for me as this issue remains unresolved, despite my efforts to deal with Thrifty/Dollar customer service, and Thrifty/Dollar continues to pursue payment from me for damages for which I am not responsible.

On 2/3/16 I arrived at FAY airport to pick up a 12 passenger van. Due to the death of our mother, we needed a van to transport family members together to her burial 2+ hours away and was mortified to be told they gave the van to someone else prior to my arrival. They had nothing to offer me - no help in finding another vehicle and just left me standing there on the verge of tears. How hard would it have been to shoot off an e-mail to notify me of the problem. When I called the 1-800 number to complain - they blew me off with a "too bad, so sad" line. We were already racked with grief and then broadsided with this garbage is reprehensible. I would NEVER do business with Thrifty nor would I recommend anyone rent anything from them. No professionalism whatsoever. Does the corporate office know how customers are treated? Makes me wonder.

I rented the car at the Jacksonville airport. I was not offered the option to buy a sunpass or informed about a sunpass or any toll surcharge or administrative fee. They know I am out of state renter. I paid toll by cash where ever I could. There are some rods where there are no toll booths and they take a picture and send the bill. The bill was 50C each time but the thrifty administrative fee each time was $15 and for a $5 toll I ended up being charged $85. This is robbery by Thrifty of their customers.

We rented a car in TX last month and yesterday I received a bill for tolls that we went through, with $90 in administrative fees from Thrifty! First of all, we had no idea how this toll thing worked. As we were going through the tolls and saw signs of tolls road, my husband and I kept asking each other where are the toll booths and how do you pay the toll. We have never seen tolls where there are no toll booths. Apparently, my husband declined some type of agreement for the tolls that would have cost $87 at the time of the rental and because of that, they are charging us $15 per toll, which adds up to $90 additional dollars. This is the most ridiculous system I have ever heard of and they are taking complete advantage of their customers! I am more than happy to pay the toll fees, but this administrative fee, per toll, is not acceptable. The Notice Number from Thrifty is [protected]. After calling and expressing how upset I was, they did reduce the fee to $48.20, but this is still too high. I could see paying one administrative fee of $15, if they feel they have to charge something.