Thrifty Rent A Car review: overcharged 4

This is the letter I have sent to Thrifty Car Rental Customer Service:

Thrifty Car Rental Customer Service:
I am writing about a completely unsatisfactory rental experience. My family and I arrived at the Denver international airport on Saturday February 14 at 5:45 pm. I left my wife and two children at the airport to gather luggage and took a bus to your rental location and arrived at approximately 6:45 pm. When I arrived and got in line, there were approximately 15 people ahead of me. At the time there were only three agents working the counter. They were taking at least 10 to 15 minutes per person. There appeared to be a problem with each person because they did not have the cars they were supposed to have. Meanwhile, as the many of us in line waited, one of the three of your agents decides to take a break and go smoke a cigarette. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There were many of us who were furious. After waiting for at least 55 minutes (which is entirely unacceptable), I arrived at the counter. I had a reservation booked through expedia with a confirmation number of dwpxs3. The vehicle I was to get was a standard sport utility vehicle at 96.72 per day with unlimited mileage. The agent informed me that they did not have any of the vehicles that I had requested (which took at least 15-20 minutes to determine—even more unacceptable). He offered a smaller vehicle that could still accomodate my luggage. At this point I was highly irritated. I had already spent an hour and a half trying to get a car that should have taken 20 minutes. I called and had my wife and children with luggage come to the rental location because it was taking so long. The agent offered to take off one day of the rental fee for the inconvenience of not only the extended wait, but for not having the vehicle we had requested and confirmed. I responded with “that is fine, now please get us into a vehicle”. I asked my wife to sign the papers so that I could go to the restroom. She got the paperwork and signed for the vehicle. When I saw the paperwork, I was appalled that not only did he not take off the day he offered to remove, but the charges were significantly higher than what my Expedia itinerary showed. My wife did prepay for the gas, but that was only 30 dollars. My original cost summary was for a total of $496.57. The amount that was charged was $631.88. If my children were not completely exhausted and we did not have a two hour drive ahead of us, I would have gone right back in the office and taken care of this issue right then. But Thrifty Car rental had already caused enough problems. We needed to leave to get to our destination.

The vehicle we received worked, however, it was not up to the standard of vehicle we requested and being a smaller vehicle, the charges should have been less. However, you charged us far more than what was originally indicated by my rental summary from Expedia. Lastly, your own agent offered some form of compensation (removal of one day's rental) for the misery of your rental experience and then failed to remove the daily charge.

This was and might forever be the most unacceptable car rental experience in existence. I would like a supervisor/manager to contact me at this number: [protected].

I fully expect a refund to my wife's credit card for the day that the agent offered in compensation, as well as any additional fees that they tacked on to our rental.

the base fee according to my original reservation was 386.88. the estimated fees were 109.69. Removing the 96.72 would bring the total to $399.85. This would be the minimum acceptable charge for this absolutely ridiculous experience.

Please contact me at your earliest convenience to resolve this issue.

Nick Parrous

Hi Norine,

My name is Sabrina, and I am part of the Orbitz Customer Relations Team. We want to learn more about your experience so that we can address the issue. Please email us at socialnetwork@orbitz.com and enter my name in the subject line, so that I can investigate further.

Thank you for your patience, and I look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,

Sabrina Dew
Orbitz Customer Relations

Was the rate quoted to you on Orbitz just for the rental charge or was it for the complete charge for the whole rental time?

Did you double check the rate before signing off on the car?

ALL car rental places have "extra fees".

If the Orbiitz rate was the FULL charge rate, including all taxes and fees, and you have proof you filled the gas tank up before returning, then you can sue them for unethical business practices.

There are consumer protection agencies out there that you can file a grievance with on this also...as well as file a grievance with the Better Business Bureau.

Ive always done my car rental usage through Enterprise. They have never lied to me, and tell me the entire rate up front, including all taxes and fees. PLUS, they DONT charge for mileage.

Did anyone from Thrifty ever contact you to resolve? Don't hold your breath.