Thrifty Rent A Car
Reviews and Complaints

On july 22nd i made reservation on line for a thrifty economy car for july 29th to aug 2nd, including insurance coverages. On same day i was charged $154 for prepayment of reservation.

On day of pickup i showed thrifty rental the reservation and prepayment documents, they said full balance of car will be paid on return of car.

On aug 2nd, the return of car i was charged the full value of car of $200.28 including all insurance coverage, but no consideration of the prepayment.

I have sent thrifty rent a car the billing dispute but they have not refunded me the prepayment of $154

I was shopping on-line for a car rental for our trip to Florida. I registered for the blue chip membership. While waiting for the blue chip number the prices of the car almost doubled. The prices went down alittle and I went ahead and booked the car. It was suppose to be $193. When my husband went to pick up the car they tried to give us a Hyundai Accent which was too small. I talked with the clerk to see what we could do. He said nothing but pay $25 more a day, which he said was an incredible deal. I said that is ridiculous and he handed the phone back to my husband and refused to help us. When we got home from vacation I tried to call the 1800 number and the girl also hung up on me when I asked for a manager. While talking with the phone rep I told her that I could have simply cancelled our first reservation and booked the car on our phone we would have paid way less. She agreed and said it was dishonest but that is how they do business. DONT'T RENT FROM THRIFTY!

On Saturday june 6 2015 I walk into their office rent a compact car for 200 dollars weekly will bring this back june 20 2015, on the second week I have to left the car in a parking lot the car was scratched on driver side doors and cover for mirror cracked could not get people to accept responsibility for damages so when I bring car to rental place I agree to paid for damages for a car with 140, 000 kilometers that been wrecked before I was charged 1, 600 quetzals about 225 dollars is ok but then he charge for the rental 3, 200 quetzals about 430 dollars, when I complaint about this overcharge of 30 dollars his answer was my company exchange rate is 8 to 1 I said you cannot do that the official exchange rate by the Guatemalan bank is 7.52 to1, he said I don't care this guy name is LUIS MORAN MANAGER SUPERVISOR WHO KNOWS WHAT HE IS, but he surely is a hungry money s.o. b .honestly is my second time in 4 years that I rent from this people but I swear to myself we will never ever again will get a penny of my bussines, I already call prensa libre maybe theypublish my story so this thief will run out of bussines thanks sincerely angel echeverria n.c. d.l. 8114321 the #of the receipt is0014992 and the rental agreement #is25525..

I a an attorney, licensed in the state of Michigan. This morning I called the Thrifty Car Rental 800 number to reserve a midsize car for a one week rental period (May 31, 2015 through June 7, 2015). I was quoted a total price of $183.86. The car was scheduled to be picked up at the Tallahassee airport at 2 pm. My husband and I took a $60 cab ride to the airport and when we arrived at the counter we were told that they did not have a confirmation number for our reservation in their system. And that they were out of midsized cars, and would not honor the price, but that they had a more expensive larger car for us to rent. We protested saying that was bait and switch. And, that we had a confirmation number. The clerk was very rude and said a confirmation number is not a guarantee of a car, and that they don't have to honor the price. She said that the 800 number does not know what type of inventory the lot has and that they don't have to honor any quotes given by the 800 number. My husband told the clerk this was not acceptable, and was Fraud/Bait and Switch. He walked away from the counter as i called the 800 number from the counter. I was told by the 800 number clerk that I had a confirmed reservation and that it was a guaranteed car at a guaranteed price - and that she could see our confirmation in the computer. The counter clerk called her manager to come to the site and refused to look for our confirmation in her computer. I waited about 15 minutes till the manager arrived, in the meantime, I had the 800 clerk on the phone who confirmed with the site clerk that we had a reservation for a midsize car at $183.86. The clerk refused to look it up and said that her manager would handle things from here on. When the manager arrived, he said he refused to rent us a car because my husband had raised his voice to the clerk when she was trying to bait and switch him to a more expensive car. BAIT AND SWITCH IS FRAUD - ANYONE WOULD BE UPSET. Rather than apologizing for their fraudulent behavior of the clerk and honoring a quote for a guaranteed car they refused to give us a car. I had the 800 clerk on the phone the entire time, and she heard everything -- she apologized to me. We had to spend another $60 to take a cab home. This is unacceptable! We have used Thrifty in the past (Detroit Airport) and were quite satisfied. When they were out of a midsize car, they upgraded us -- they honored their guarantee and commitment. The manager here seemed to be very happy at his power and ability to send us away if we were not willing to pay the higher price. I am an attorney, and a very professional woman. My husband is also a professional. We treated the clerk and manager with respect, an do not appreciated being treated this way and told to have a nice day and go away. This is not how to run a business.

Watch out when using this car hire company...we have used Thrifty several times with no problem but on this last occasion ending 24/12/14 we were disappointed to find an extra fuel top-up charge on my CC when we had actually re-fuelled the car some 10 minutes & 10km prior to the drop-off. Despite their staff not following the car return process by failing to fill in the fuel tank gauge position as provided for and us as a courtesy, providing the last fuel slip for the top-up, Thrifty insisted that we had not re-fuelled and would not reverse the charge. Shows how careful you have to be. I am disappointed that having been a regular customer 2/3 times p.a. they treated me this way and refused to acknowledge their own shortcomings. after a very frustrating process and a dogmatic approach to trying to resolve the problem I eventually had to concede defeat!. Needless to say, on principle, I cannot choose Thrifty again and would advise renters to choose another car rental company,

I arranged for a rental car, over the internet, for 1 day whilst I was in Sydney. I collected the car at Sydney Airport at approximately 4.00pm on Tuesday 10-02-2015. I returned the car to Sydney Airport at approximately 4.00pm on Wednesday 11-02-2015 as I had a return flight to Townsville leaving at 5.30pm. I was quoted $121.36 and my credit card was charged that amount on 10-02-2015. On the final invoice which was emailed to me it stated that the car was returned to Canberra Airport on 12-02-2015. As a result of this mistake my credit card was charged a further $252.69 on 12-02-2015. I rang their customer service number [protected] and was told that it would be better if I spoke directly to the office I collected the car from or their Sydney CBD office and the operator gave me those numbers. I rang the airport office on [protected] and was placed directly on hold for more than 10 minutes. I hung up and rang the Sydney CBD number [protected] ending with the same result so I hung up again. A bit later, approx. 30 minutes, I rang the numbers again with the same result but finally was able to leave a message for them to ring me back. I still hadn't heard from them a day later so I left a message through their "contact us" tab on their internet site. I received a return email to say they would contact me within 24 hours. They didn't. I left similar messages on their web site the following 3 days in a row. I was also able to leave another message on one of the Sydney numbers I had. I still haven't heard from them and they still have my money. Please help.

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.

I went through expedia .com and got a car rental but when i got their christmas morning they said the insurance i bought threw expedia for the car is invalid so i had to buy the insurance threw Thrifty then she said i had to buy $20.00 toll tag to get out of the airport and nex had to pay a $450.00 deposit for the car to so suddenly my 87.00 dollar car rental suddenly turned into a 557.00 car rental for only two days .so i refused be held hostage and scammed by thrifty so I left with a car on Christmas morning which ruined our Christmas holiday . i did call expedia back the next business day and they said they would refund me my car rental but it might a few weeks just to get it back as well so i thank expedia for lovely adventure to nowhere .i had better stop before say some bad words about these ;low life greedy thieving jerks .

It was real scam. I paid money for the car rental and also they took for some additional fees and charges. I wasn’t sure what these charges included, but I paid, ‘coz I needed car. When I arrived at the airport, I couldn’t find car. The phone was switched off and it was impossible to reach these scammers. They are liars and scammers, so be careful and better avoid them. As well as post comments about your experience with them.

I reserved a car from thrifty car rental online.
When I arrived at the desk, they informed me that I needed to put a 1, 000 dollar deposit on a vehicle with a master card gold card. Something most people do not have.
They then proceeded to say I had to buy insurance, of which 1, 100 euro was charged to my credit card! It supposed to cover the cost of the deductible, to be reimbursed upon return of an undamaged car.
I returned my car to the airport where the intake inspector walked the car over and declared it "good".
1 week later the 1100 euro has not been returned. I received an email saying that the car was damaged!
I saw no damage. The intake inspector saw no damage! I am home now and cannot verify that there is damage.
These people are taking it upon themselves to utilize my 1100 euro as they see fit!
I want my money back. And I want an apology and this corrected! I rented from the desk at munich airport in germany.

Computer reservation for August 16-25, 2014 quoted 597.69 Euro for 7 passenger Automatic van. When I arrived to Thrifty airport counter, Darrelle Diarmuid (Thrifty employee) takes my printout, states I need to pay for upgrade to automatic. I ask for my printout back to prove that an automatic van was on the reservation and he refused to give it back to me. I was charged 1085.02 Euro and was given an SUV with a pull-up back seat, not a van. My case# with Thrifty is 2290951. I have called every week since 9/2/14 only to now be referred to Hertz. Today a Hertz employee has confirmed that Hertz will be handling Thrifty cases. I expect to be reimbursed for the difference. I expect immediate action or I will be reporting to the authorities for business relations in both US and Ireland. My name is Karin Jocham, phone [protected].

If I could give a negative score to Thrifty, they would deserve it. Went on vacation 2 weeks ago and pre-booked our car online so it would be ready when we arrived. After arriving, we went over to pick up our car, only to find out that they had not reserved anything for us. After talking tried to blame the whole thing on us, we had to take a taxi to the hotel. (Which Thrifty refused to give us a refund for it.) Come back in the morning to get our vehicle. Vacation was great but upon returning the car, we accidentally forgot to grab a few items in the vehicle. 40 later, we returned to inform the D I C K employees there about this. We told the incompetent people working there exactly where to find the missing items. Also talked to a mechanic who claimed it would take him the rest of his LIFE to find where our car had been parked. A 2000 car garage, and how many "RED" "DODGE" "CARAVANS" could possibly be there that had an Ohio licence plate? (This was in Vegas.) Give me a break! Had to leave on the plane without the items. We still have not got the items back. After 2 weeks of phone calls with a new idiotic ### to talk to each time, we can't get any information on anything. You would have to be MENTALLY ###ED to not find something, when you have been told exactly where it is! Turns out they rented the car out 4 hours later after they gave it a "THOROUGH" cleaning. Thanks alot ### for renting out a car you don't even bother to clean properly. You would be lucky if they spent more than 30 second cleaning up the last person's mess before they sent it out on the road again. Everyone working there claims they are doing their best in order to find our missing items. BULL ###! Your employees are MENTALLY ###ED DICKS Thrifty!

I rented a car in September 27 till October 6 in Orlando Airport.
When I was doing all the process to rent the car, I paid in cash. And the person who I gave the documents and the money asked me for my credit card for "Hold" in case something happend, and he said to me that this credit car won't be charged the amount of $ 762.77 because I was paying in cash.
Just this month that I verified my account and saw that I was charged the same amount that I paid in cash.

Dont Trust Thrifty Car! Your call center just told me that "didn't locate any overpayment". So thats it. I just lost $700. unbelievable.

This is my rental experience with Thrifty Hilton Jumeirah in Dubai. Please read this so you will know how they work.

During our holiday in Dubai we decided to rent a car. Thanks to our hotel (Hotel Grand Excelsior) they could arrange a car rental with one of your branches (Thrifty Hilton hotel Jumeirah)

So we decided to do that and we rent the car from November 12th till 14th. Everything went well, an employee brought the car and we made an agreement that we had to return the car on November 14th at 12 o'clock (in stead of 10 o'clock). We also decided to rent a GPS and that was no problem.

On November 14th we didn't have enough time to refill the fuel so the fuel gage stripe was only 1 stripe below how we got it. But we didn't want to pay for an extra day (if we would refill the fuel we would be back after 12) so we decided not to tank.

At 11.57 o'clock we arrived at the hotel, just like the agreement we made. But the employee wasn't there so the man from the hotel who arranged this all for us (Josh) called to the branch. They said that they would be there soon. After 45 minutes of waiting no one was there so Josh called again. Again they said they would be there soon. Meanwhile it was 13.30 o'clock and we were waiting for 1, 5 hours (!)

We decided to give the money (660 AED) to Josh, so we could enjoy our last day in Dubai.

When we came back in the evening I saw that I received an email from Thrifty. It was the bill with an amount of 600 AED. Kind of strange the GPS of 60 AED wasn't on the bill, but I knew I needed to pay for it so I didn't give it any attention.

But when we came home I received an email with the following text: your MasterCard has been charged 280 AED for the following: rent and SDW. I was confused, so I immediately sent an email to Thrifty Jumeirah. They respond that they didn't take any money and that they were sorry.

But when I checked my account I saw that they charged 110 AED. So again I mailed them and they said 110 AED was 60 AED GPS and 50 AED salik (toll road) charges. I could understand the 50 AED. But why should I pay for 4 days GPS if I only had it for 2 days?

They also sent me a summary of the costs :

Rental: 245 * 2 = 490aed

Insurance: 35 *2 = 70aed

Collection Charge = 20aed

GPS: 30*2 = 60aed

Salik Charges = 50aed

Fuel Difference = 20aed

Total = 710aed

I was surprised so I decided to call Josh and he would call the company about the 60 AED. Then I received an email from Josh:

“Hi! My apologies for the overcharge.

I have talked to the person in charge, and he will be refunding AED 60 to your account SOONEST POSSIBLE.”

Well, I could live with that but unfortunately this wasn't all because on December 2th I received an email:

Your master credit card xxxx xxxx xxxx xxx5 has been charged AED 280 for the following:

Particulars Amount

-------------------------------------------------------------

Rent 245

SDW 35

-------------------------------------

I couldn't believe it! Again they took money from MasterCard? Just like they did before? And also the reservation of 1000 AED was still on my credit card. I started to become impatient. So AGAIN I wrote an email. On December 3rd Josh talked with the managers and he wrote me an email about that:

“Good morning. I tried to call you but the phone went to answering machine, I went to the car rent and met with the managers, I told them about the disappointment they have caused and they should have by now refunded the money AED 280 back to your account. They have released the blocked amount and please check your credit statement.”

And I also received an email of one of the employees from Thrifty:

“Dear Mr.Lorgan/Ms.Felina,

Good day!

As discussed now, refund is processed and finally you can see the amount reflected in one week to maximum 10 days time.

Thank you for your patience!

Best regards

Faisal

Thrifty Car Rental”

I wrote him back to say that I was happy that I would get my money back but It really bothers me that when I wanted to return the car that I had to wait for 1, 5 hours for someone from the company and because of that I couldn't refill the fuel and now I'm paying the price with 20 AED extra for the fuel difference and waiting for 1, 5 hours.

He answered with that with a maximum of 10 days I would have my 280 AED back and about the fuel difference a policy is.

But in my opinion you shouldn't treat your customers like this. Since when is it ok to let your customer wait for 1, 5 hours.. Not even apologize about that, charge the GPS for too many days, charge an extra day of renting (2 times).

And besides all that till this day (January 3rd) I am still waiting for my 60 AED and my 280 AED refund !

So please look out! I also called the headoffice of Thrifty (located in the USA) 2 times and im still waiting for answer of them.

the manager judged that i smoked in the car and decided to charge $75. i told her u can not decide ur self, this "a conflict of interest". only a judge in a court can decide if we do not agree. but she charged my credit card.
What should I do to stop the charges?

Booked a reservation through orbitz, rate quoted was $371.60. They charged me $583.67 upon return of the car. I even filled up with gas and they charged an additional 35$ for gas. They added a lot of additional charges that I was not told about. Dont go with thrifty?

Thrifty Rental agent is a good scam artist & his performance supported by Thrifty Customer Service. Agent basically lied about the ease to refuel vehicle driving in from highway. Traffic on highway was bad & I was running a little tight to drop off time. There was no gas stations along route to drop off, so I had to return vehicle without refilling. Charge was $112.00 for 12 gallons of gas. A complete joke. The other item that you need to watch for is the LDW, which the agent said quite emphatically that credit card insurance benefits do not cover vans nor SUV's. I thought mine did cover it but was not sure & therefore not willing to risk it. When I got home I checked & my card did cover vans & SUV's used as passenger vehicle. Another $107.00 out of my pocket.
Could I have avoided these charges? To some degree - if I had more time before drop off & if I had my credit card insurance policy with me - I suppose so. But when you are at the counter with the agent, your decisions are based on the information the agent provides you. An this agent was very good at providing mis-information. Never again Thrifty!

I made a reservation for a compact car with thrifty in the montreal airport. My total was supposed to be $120 for three days. When I got to the counter, the employee told me they ran out of compact cars. So they said I can upgrade for $10 more per day. It was 1 in the morning from my flight from California. I was tired so i said whatever whats 30 more dollars right. So I received a Rav 4. I was expecting my total to be somewhere around $200 with taxes included. When I received my bill, the amount was $405! For 3 days. Thats crazy. When I called and asked why they gave me the run around about all the city taxes, which apparently came out to be $100. Then they charged me the full tank of gas even though I only used half tank. Oh yea they also charge $30 for the conveniece of picking up from airport. This company is a rip off. I was better of using a taxi to get around town. Never again thrifty, never again. Make sure they explain all charges before you purchase. They will try to quickly get you out of there without an explanation. At the end of the day $405 for 3 days is ###.

So I go to pick up the rental car from Thrifty. Everything sounds great, $62, 2 days, sweet. Do I pick the Corolla or the Focus? I make the right choice. Then she lays it on me, "How will you be covering the car?" Before I can say half of the word, thrifty, she starts explaining their coverage options. How they offer the full protection which is awesome, because it covers everything. Or maybe the middle grade protection? It's ok. Then of course there's always the basic protection, which is only $29.95, per day. I'm thinking, coverage, what? Quickly, she asks me which one of those I would be interested in. I'm like wait, so it's going to be 60 more dollars on top of the original 62? I asked her if I had to choose one, she says, "Well, you have to cover the car." (She really meant, show me proof of insurance.) I was clearly not happy about having to pay an extra 60 bucks on top of the original price, I wasn't angry, I was bummed. Then she says, well I can remove the Road Side Assistance option from the basic protection, that will take off $12. Something like that. Bringing my total to ONLY $115 and some change. I wanted to walk out, but I needed the car to get to work in less than an hour. So I signed all of the agreements, one explaining my coverage option, and one about a $250 smoking fee. Great, here's your key. I'm thinking, what a scam, they say $62 and then slam you with insurance.

Well I get to work and start talking about what a rip off it was. Then people start telling me I can deny the coverage, obviously. So I call some Thrifty number just to be certain. The lady I talk to says that I can deny the coverage, obviously. I ask her about the charge being reversed, since they made it seem like I had no choice, besides coverage options 1, 2, or 3, of course. So she wanted to make sure that it wasn't a requirement in my state. She then called the Thrifty location I went to. I was on hold briefly, and then she came back and said it wasn't a requirement, the charges can be reversed but it has to happen in the store, can't be over the phone. I was pleased.

Finally, after work, I go back to Thrifty. I talk to the manager. I explain that I picked up a car at 10 a.m. and was led to believe I had to choose one of their coverage options. At this point he didn't know I had already called and confirmed I did not have to choose a coverage option. How could he? I had just started talking. But as a salesman, he is a terrible listener. He was jumping in with the same scheme, "How are you going to cover the car?" "With my insurance." I replied. He says, "Yea, you chose the Basic Protection Package." I said, "I do not have to choose one of these options." He again asked, "Well, how are you going to cover the car?" "With my car insurance." I said. That's the very short version on how that talk with the manager went. It was absolutely ridiculous. He didn't even let me mention that I called and talked to someone who said the charges could be reversed. He was asking quick questions in the middle of my sentences. Pointless questions. One question was seriously, "What options are you talking about?" Knowing damn well I was talking about his 3 magical options of being ripped off. I felt like he was trying to short change me. Asking me all of these quick pointless questions, while I was just trying to explain what happened. Then he eventually says well I can take off the coverage for tomorrow, but not for today because it's been out there from 10 am to 8 pm. I told him that the lady I talked to on the phone earlier said the charges could be reversed. Now he's confused, because he made no attempt to listen to what I had to say. He asks, "What lady are you talking about?" I explain. Told him I would of been there earlier if I wasn't at work. I get my illegitimate charges removed and go home, but not without an extra 15 minute argument with a Thrifty con artist.