Thrifty Rent A Car
reviews and complaints

Toll Road Scam. Thrifty has a tool road scam going that should be embarrassing for them. They charged me $15.00 service fee for an $18.00 toll which I never had the chance to pay. The tool reader in the window opened the gate without a pause. then I received a bill in the mail a 2 weeks later. Real clever, I hope you enjoy the money I sent you will not see me again. I booked this through price line and they will not see me again either. What small people you are.

Charge the amount even if I did not rent vehicle...

Due to Covid-19 could not travel to Hawaii and they did not make any adjustment...

NOT a customer focused company... more at taking your money...
Think about using one of the OTHER major rental car companies...

I rented a full size car from Thrifty at the Phoenix airport, I reserved this in Expedia and had my confirmation number. I told the man I did not want any added insurance, he had me swipe my credit card and sign in the window of machine I was accepting vehicle, it was a complete scam that it never showed your total on the machine like all do, I got to my hotel an hour later and immediately looked at my receipt and called the number, but could never get through to the Phoenix site, Only the 800 number where they disconnected me 3 times and refused to credit the insurance I told them I did not want.

September 1st thru the 8th of 2019 Thrifty rent a car charged me for extra insurance that I didn't ask for. As a matter of fact they never asked me if I wanted it. Not only that but I had the insurance through travelocity anyway. If I refused the insurance through travelocity then my own car insurance would have covered it so why would I ask for EXTRA coverage for another $450? Seems to me this would have been a misunderstanding and any business with any integrity would have called to confirm the charges before siphoning the money from my account.

We had a confirmed reservation J07114533E4. Upon arrival to Rhodes, Greece on September 2, we found that Thrifty/Hertz counter was empty. We had to wait for another 15 minutes for your employee to show up. She smiled at us and said that she had no cars. I reminded her that reservation is a binding contract, to which she kept smiling and said that she cannot honor the reservation. She made no attempt to reschedule or find another car. Her bottom line was "go away". She also said "you lost nothing, because you didn't pay it" Yeah, right! Our entire vacation plan on Rhodes was hinged on this car because we expected to go to the different parts of the island. Your company simply ruined all our vacation plans, and I don't appreciate it! Why can't you stick to the contract? Why your employees are so uncaring and indifferent? We ended up hiring a cab to take us to our hotel and then I spent hours finding another car with AT in Rhodes. Aside from ruined moods and plans, your breach of contract cost us at least $90 in additional cab fares. You should be ashamed of yourself. I am also filing a complaint with BBB and Thrifty will never be again on my list of car rental companies when I have to rent a car

Rental Agreement No: [protected]

Reservation ID: J0083816329

The Sat Nav that was issued with the vehicle appeared to be working correctly for the first two days that I drove the vehicle. However on the third and fourth days there was an intermittent fault resulting in the machine stopping for a number of minutes. This did not cause too big a problem because at the time we were on the Interstate. However on the last day of our trip when we were returning to JFK to fly back to Dublin the machine did not start at all. There was a period of over an hour where we had no sat nav whatsoever and but for the kindness of strangers I have no idea whatsoever how we would have made our way back to New York. This resulted in our leaving the vehicle back one hour late. I informed the Duty Manager there and then of what had happened and he assured me that there would be no extra charges whatsoever for the car being returned late. I might point out that being from Ireland I had no clue whatsoever of any routes to take and this was why I had requested the Sat Nav in the first instance. The faulty Sat Nav not only resulted in our being late returning the vehicle but also in almost missing our check-in time for our flight. I did not have the time to wait and speak further with the Duty Manager so just accepted that he would in fact ensure there were no extra charges. This however was not the case at all.

On returning home and checking my emails I found that Thrifty had in fact charged me a whole extra days rental charge amounting to $123.38 and a Concession Recovery Fee of $15.36. Both of these charge are wholly acceptable to me. It was not my fault that the car was returned late it was your Company's. Your Company issued me with a faulty Sat Nav and it was for that reason alone that we returned the vehicle late.

Therefore I demand that both of these charges be refunded back to my Credit Card (together with excess tax that I was charged on the total amount).

The vehicle was booked for collection at 2pm on the 15th June however it was almost 3.45 before we actually got the vehicle not 2.35 as stated on your Rental Agreement.

I await hearing from you resolving this situation at your earliest convenience.

Moira Field (Mrs)

I received a bill from Thrifty Car Rental for $74.03 for $4.10 worth of tolls. They charged $9.99 for each toll coded as Administrative Fees, for 7 tolls (some at 46 cents each). I see on this thread where there are many, many people voicing that this is unethical and very poor treatment of customers. Thrifty Car Rental lost me, my husband and anyone we talk to forever due to their embezzlement practices of their customers. This was our honeymoon, and we will pay the charges, but "Happy wedding to us from Thrifty Car Rental" Greedy Greedy Greedy!

I reserved a 12 passenger van 6 months ago and when I got there they did not had it available, we were 9 people with only one us designated to drive in Dominican Republic. They gave us (2) vehicles supposedly at the same price as the 12 passenger but it was a lie since they gave us two separate contracts with two different prices. Thrifty car rent in Dominican Republic run with the same people as Hertz, Dollar, etc. Units reserved for customers do not work, there are no reservations at all in this companies, it is in order of arrival I guess. The vehicle had no water for windshields which was very unpleasant. Costumer service was good but the availability for units reserved and conditions was totally horrible.

Dropped off car at Thrifty/BWI Airpot on Sunday 6:30PM. I waited over 15 minutes to get an Attendant to check the car in and provide me a receipt. The Attendant was a African American man with long braids, and he never came over to the car. I even walked over to him to ask him to check in the car and he said hello but completely ignored my request. I went inside the terminal to get help, but the one Attendant was quite rude and didn't initially address me. I finally got a receipt for my rental. Horrible customer service...even when the Manager was present.

Here do I start. Walked into thrifty/dollar car rental. On my phone it stated compact car 17.00 a day. I was needing it for 2 full days and return the 3rd. The lady at the counter insisted that I use their insurance when I told her I had my own. That lead them to holed 376.00 on my card. Signed because I was from out of town and needed a car to go around houston for 3 days. When I arrived at my hotel which was about a hour away I looked at my receipt. My charge was 25.00 a day car rental and 31.00 a day insurance plus taxes 19.00 for one tax and about 10.00 for the other taxes. I have no clue what they were. Total 146.00. What happened to 17.00 a day that I requested. Dollar was offering 17.00 which is what I asked for but was given thrifty 25.00 a day. Terrance was my driver from the airport to dollar and noticed that when he arrived back at thrifty I was there already 4 hours later. What happened mrs. Davis. I explained to him I was returning the car because the price they charged me was not what I agreed to. So to pick up the the car I was $146.00 to return it 4 hours later was $106.00. Really I was charged 26.00 for 4 hours which was more that they wrote me up for, 25.00 early return fee (since when you are charged a fee when you return something early because you are not satisfied seems backwards) 31.00 for insurance for 4 hours which was forced on me even though I told her I had insurance. I was livid. Not to include I had to pay uber to take me back to my hotel and had to use it to get around the 3 days I was in houston. Through all this I must say terrance helped me out and was so understanding. He said let me see what I can do for you ms. Davis because I know you just picked the car up. He contacted his supervisor and she took my charges down to 81.00. May not seem like a lot but it was the over and beyond that terrance showed to do his best to make it right. These counter ladies at houston hobby need to have a little more curiosity and listen to the customers instead of being mean and trying to write up orders to line there pockets. I later realized that their commission come from selling the insurance that you should use if you want to, not be made to feel that its a must to have. After reading the reviews I recommend nobody to go to houston hobby airport thrifty. I'm not downing all thrifty i'm just saying this one. After my complaint and reading the others it looks like nothing is being down about the bad attitudes. Customer service is a big reflection on a business and it seem as if thrifty is not concerned because people like me never read the comments we just need a car when we need one. Shame on thrifty for not doing something about the people they hire. I again want to thank terrance for being concerned enough to share my issues with his supervisor and thank her for doing something. Not only am I going to put this on this review site i'm also sending this to headquarters. For some reason I think this is being monitored by the same people who are making us customers frustrated not realizing we are the ones who are putting food on their table incident was 04/28/2019

This is a copy of the complaint I sent to thrifty regarding their lack of caring and customer service. I prepaid for a rental 4/17-4/24 I went to pick up said car. My master card would not read on your credit card reader.. The lady says the machine is finicky. I was told unless I had another card I could not have my rental as they do not have chip readers and cannot enter the card number. This is bs I had no other card I prepaid the rental and now being told at the airport I can't have a rental. I went three steps down and got a rental at enterprise no problem. The people at your counter are rude and uneducated in your companies standard operating procedures, no one would help or take that extra step to keep my business no worries I will never rent from thrifty again. Enterprise is more than happy to take my good money. Get with the times and get a freaking machine that reads chips.

Thrifty car rental ripoff
After successfully paying for my rental car and completing the agreed terms, I received an outrageous bill in the mail for toll charges while traveling in north carolina to attend my baby grandaughter's first birthday celebration. My tolls totaled $7.48 and I was charged $90 in administrative charges. This is highway robbery and should not be allowed. Furthermore, I was threatened in a letter if I did not pay it they would use my credit card on file and bill me directly. They only gave me one week from the time I received the bill to the date they will charge my card to pay this rip off.

How can this be allowed? I will never use this company or the rental app that I secured this card with again. I will also tell all my friends.

I have no problem paying an administrative fee one time, but to charge me a $15 fee for each toll is not fair and is price gouging. I will report them to my state attorney general and my credit card company to investigate. I am hoping I get a refund of $75. I do not mind being charged $7.48 plus a one time administrative fee of $15, total of $22.48 but not $97.48

Please help I am disabled and on a fixed income.

I am not happy with thrifty car rental. Gary preston [protected]@gmail.com

Notice No.: [protected]

We received a notice for the rental car toll fees and administrative fees from thrifty. At no point in time when we rented the vehicle were we informed that there would be administrative fees for these tolls and actually the gate agent was very persistent to insure that the tolls were included with the rental fees. We asked the gate agent specifically if there were any charges for the tolls or if we should pay the tolls our selves ourselves during this trip. The gate agent was very plain in stating that the tolls were covered as part of the car rental and we did not have to do anything or worry about any tolls for the car while we were in Texas. The agent was very misleading as it turns out when we receive a bill separate for the tolls and a very excessive administrative fee from Thrifty Rental car. How can you in good faith have an agent at the rental misleading your customers into believing that the tolls were included then hit them with a very excessive bill for the tolls. I can accept somewhat you would like the tolls covered but I can not agree to a $15.00 administrative fee for each toll which totals more than a days rental for the vehicle. We would have avoided the toll roads if the agent had been ben slightly honest with us about the fees which he was not.

I am not sure what our recourse is at this time but I would hope that this was an error on the agents part and not normal practice for Thrifty Car Rental. We would expect the administrative fees to be reversed for these tolls as we were is lead by the gate agent for the rental.

We flew from Detroit to Jacksonville on February 14th. We had arranged to rent a car through Rental car. When we got to the front desk, the woman was rude and unhelpful.

AFter we got to the hotel, we realized that we had lost our passports. I called Thrifty since this seemed to be the most likely place as it was the last time that we had the passports. I couldn't reach anyone directly but submitted an online report. We also contacted the airport. When we were flying back on Monday the 18th, we went back to the rental counter twice. Both times, we were told nothing had been found. Although this time, it was a different woman, she was equally unhelpful and I was not convinced she had looked although she said she had checked the back office and there was nothing there and nothing reported.

When I returned to Canada, I reported the passports lost or stolen. It cost over $500 to have the two passports replaced and I had to take a day off work. Yesterday, April 2nd, some six weeks later, I receivedan email from Thrifty saying that the passports were found on FEbruary 18th. There is no explanation as to why Thrifty waited six weeks to advise us of this, notwithstanding the fact that we had filed at least two online reports, and returned to the rental counter three times to inquire about the lost passports.

You are now advising that I will be charged $90 in USD to have the passports shipped back to me.

I am frankly appalled by the conduct of your employees and equally appalled that this is the way Thrifty handles a report of highly important and confidential documents.

I travel many times a year. I have never had an experience of such poor customer service and business attitude.

Michelle Sherwood

[protected]@gmail.com

I was driving a Thrifty Rental Car from BWI Airport to Rockville MD at 9:30pm on 3/6/19. Upon approaching MD 200 from I95 I saw a sign that this was a toll road. Since there was no toll booth to pay or pick up a ticket I drove on and activated the Plate Pass box mounted in the car, assuming that I would be notified of the toll by the Car Rental Co. Sure enough, 2 weeks later I received a bill for $63.96. During the four days I had the car I did not use any other toll roads. The back of the bill gives the correct detail - that I had only been charged for the one toll. The Thrifty Car Rental web-site states the following "you will be liable for and we will charge you: (a) all tolls incurred for such use (at the highest, undiscounted applicable toll rate); (b) a $15.00 administrative fee (FL - $9.99 per occurrence) for each toll incurred (subject to a $90.00 cap for such toll-related administrative fees for the rental period); and (c) all other applicable toll charges or fees, if any." The Toll rate for the trip should have been no more that $4.08 for the off-peak use (see https://mdta.maryland.gov/toll-rate-calculator). I have no idea what the extra $44 charge is for other than a rip-off.