Thrifty Rent A Car
Reviews and Complaints

Charged for replacement of defective tire. During the rental of the Ford Explorer, the vehicle had a flat tire while sitting in a parking lot. Thrifty was contacted but they took no responsibility in the issue nor did they show any interest or display any apology what so ever. We changed the tire ourselves and put on the spare donut tire since we were returning the vehicle the next day. When settling the bill, they informed us since we did not take out the insurance policy, we would be charged the replacement of the tire. Keep in mind, we only drove this vehicle only a 100 miles during the rental period and at no time did we cause any damage to the tire. We my wife turned in the keys, we were charged $129 plus taxes to replace the entire tire. They told us it may be reduced after they check the tire out but of course, they charged the full tire price. We got ripped off! After long arguments and making contact with customer service reps, there was no help or support at all. It seems to be their normal practise to rip off the customers. Please do not use Thrifty Car Rental from Hilton Head Airport.
Signed R. and P. Ahlers Rental agreement # HHH38814 Agent in duty: James W. 2/10/2011 return

I booked a car rental for a Honda Accord or similar for collection on 2 April at the Durban Airport branch. I made the booking via the company's website well in advance on the 26 March and was given a booking reference number. A day before flying to Durban, I contacted the call centre to confirm my booking and everything was in order for my arrival. On arrival at the Durban branch I was informed that they did not have my Honda available or anything similar. They offered me a Nissan Livina for the Friday and promised that they will deliver my Honda or a similar vechile the following morning. I accepted these terms, gave them my address where I was staying and left with the Nissan Livina. The following morning I contacted the Durban office and they said that they were still waiting for my vechile and that they will contact me as soon as possible. I advised them that I needed my car because I had an appointment at a function later that day. To cut a long story short, they never came back to me and I never received my car. I demanded a full refund as I did not receive the Honda or similar. Instead they made me pay for the Nissan Livina which is not similar to a Honda Accord.

I was not sure if my car insurance from the states would work and I was not aware that my credit card would cover the car, so if you have a Mastercard please call them first and check your coverage, if you take out the insurance from the rental company the credit card will not cover the deductible, which Thrifty is saying they will, and they are wrong. I rented a car from then in St. Maarten and it was a new Hyundai, he had checked the car before I took it but not like they do when you return it, it showed nothing on the sheet for marks or anything but when I returned the car there were scraps on the bottom of the bumper probably from hitting pot holes near my Resort, so basically normal wear and tear, nothing that I could have stopped from happening from driving on that island unless the roads were paved! They are now saying I owe money for the damages, which are 4 scrapes on the bumper and they are trying to charge me the deductible which is $850, to which I was not aware of when I rented the car, I know I should have read the fine print, but who would have thought they would be charging me for something that was unavoidable! This is the second bad experience with this company and now for sure I have learned my lesson, also these are franchises so who knows who is watching the owners. I am feeling extremely ripped off and pissed. I will be filing disputing this with the credit card company for the charge, I can only hope for the best.

My family visited Atlanta on Oct. 10, 2010. Before the trip, I reserved my hotel and rental car through Sam club travel, and prepaid the cost, $184.01 (Itin# [protected]), for one night hotel and rental car. I picked up the car ~1:00 pm on Oct. 9 and returned the car ~4:00 pm on Oct 10. When reviewing my credit card activities, I noticed Thrifty charged my rental car again. When I called customer service of Thrifty, I was told that the reason I was charged twice is that, in prepaid package, there is no loss & damage coverage, which was declined when I picked up the car, because I can transfer this coverage from my personal car to rental car. When I declined the loss & damage coverage in the counter, the representative of Thrifty did not say anything about the double charge. I would expect Thrifty refund my money immediately. Instead, the customer service representative created a case for me and said someone would contact me in 7 days. The whole process may take forever.

After booking the package, I searched internet about Thrifty rental Car Company and found so many complaints about Thrifty. Now I understand why. I will never ever rent a car from Thrifty.

I made five phone calls to the Thrifty international phone line reservation from home in the US beforehand to make a rental car reservation and when I made my reservation I stated that my credit
card would serve for insurance and I would decline the rental insurance, and none of the agents
mentioned any problem with this. In addition I arranged to get a 10% discount using my American Express card.
Arriving at the Thrifty counter in Munich airport Terminal 2, I was told that because the Munich airport location had had numerous problems with credit card companies refusing to pay insurance
claims, that the Munich airport location's policy was to require written proof from the credit card company that that rental car would be covered. In addition I was told that under no circumstances
could American Express be used for this, only MasterCard or Visa. As the Munich airport has no free Internet, I had to sign up for a one-hour paid service for $11.15 (€8) and downloaded both the
MasterCard and Visa documents online, to show that both of my credit cards covered rental cars.

When I showed this to agent, she said I had misunderstood, and that I would require written proof SPECIFICALLY for THIS rental reservation. As an alternative, the Thrifty insurance was €250,
doubling the price of my rental. When I asked for a cheaper rate, I was told I could pay €150, but I would be charged a €1200 deductible against my credit card in case of an accident.

At this point I gave up and went to one of the other rental car companies in the terminal and quickly obtained a rental car for with none of the runaround about insurance.

If the Thrifty international reservation line had let me know during my 5 calls before the reservation while in the US that I would have to have written proof specifically covering this reservation, I have
no doubt that I could have obtained this ahead of time.

Also, if Thrifty has a special arrangement favoring American Express cards, why did the Munich site say that even with written proof of a specific coverage that American Express cards could not be used
for insurance?

Narrow Minded Robots,
I had my rental car window broken out and some change stolen. The Hotel (Homewood Suites) was going to have the window replaced in the parking lot right away and pay for the window themselves, great. There was so much glass in the car that I wanted to get it detailed by Thrifty, or get another car. I was told that I could not have the window replaced and had to turn the car into them to get it fixed. Due to the glass and already giving myself up I was stuck. Now I'm on the hook with the Jerks at Thrifty for the window when the hotel was going to step up and pay for it.
Some robot that cant think out of th box just cost me a couple hundred buck, NEVER AGAIN will I rent from these jerks. I will be sure and tell everyone I know and my office and my friends and family to avoid these jerks.
Eat it Thrifty.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Jason Muscat from Malta and I am writing this letter of complaint with regards to my car rental from your company.

On the 20 th of August 2010, I hired a Volkswagen Touran from your company for 4 days, where I have paid extra charges to remove the excess of GBP500 in case of damage.

Please note that on the third day of my rental period around 05:00pm, while driving back to the guest house we were staying in Windermere, the car suddenly stopped from working properly. I noticed that I couldn’t insert the gears. At the same time smoke was coming out of the bonnet. After several attempts, to insert the gears the clucth collapsed under my feet, as a result the car couldn’t move. I managed to put the car aside and started thinking of what to do. The location was a remote area in the mountains at the Lake District. No radio reception was available. Kindly note that this was a very terrible moment for my family, especially for my 17 month daughter and for my brother, suffering from reduced mobiltiy, since it was getting dark and cold and supplies were ending. We were really afraid in not going to make it through since we had never been through such a terrible experience.

Luckily enough, I spotted an emergency phonebox, and a cottage in the nearabouts where I have called the emergency service. From the nearby cottage, I have called the road assistance too claiming that a tow truck should arrive in 90 minutes. When the police arrived, they told me that from experience it was going to be more than 90 minutes, so they decided to take us to a safer place, which was situated about half an hour drive from the car location. They called the road assistance informing them of the place we were at.

At around 09:00pm I phoned back to the road assistance since the pickup truck hadn’t yet arrived. I told them that the place was going to close and to send the assistance as soon as possible. They told me that help would arrive soon. At 09:30pm – almost six hours after the car broke down, the tow truck from T.J’s came and picked us up. Together we proceeded in collecting the car and then headed back to Windermere. We arrived there at midnight, where we managed to get the car in a safe parking.

The following day, in the afternoon, we had to reach Manchester airport in order to fly back home, so in the early morning I phoned Thrifty car rental office in Trafford Park to see what was going to happen. The staff at the phone advised that I could get a replacement car, however it was going to be a standard car. I objected instantly since, I couldn’t fit all the luggage in a standard car, that was the primary reason for which I have rented a bigger car. Your staff insited that this was the only car available and offered no alternitaves. After several attempts in convincing your staff of my situation, she told me that she was going to call me back. After sometime she called back and told me that suddenly a Zafira was available. In the meantime, another tow truck from another different company (RAC), came to tow the faulty car. It took us quite some time to get the car on his equipment since it was parked in a parking lot, and it was raining heavily. I am still recovering from the cold.

The Zafira was delivered at 12:30 pm, just in time to do all the paper work, get all our stuff in the car and leave to the rental depot. We made only one stop during our way to Manchester, just the time to grab something to eat and then headed back to the depot were we handed over the car and keys at 05:30pm. As you can see almost the last 2 days of our holiday were ruined due to a malfunction of the car. My family is stressed out after this terrible experience.

To add insult to injury yesterday I received a call from your representative, intimating that after inspecting the car, the charges totalled to GBP680 had to be down on the driver. I rejected these accusations instantly and advised her that I was not going to pay a penny, since the malfunction was not caused by me. As a matter of fact I have enquired on this fault, where it has resulted that a clutch damage takes a long time to be caused.

In this regard I am asking you to clear all these charges instantly and I am demanding compensation for ruining our last days of our holiday and for delivering a faulty and unsafe car from the beginning, thus putting my whole family at risk. This is unacceptable.

Please note that this is the second negative incident we had with your company. Last year after renting a car from Manchester airport and delivering it back in Etrop Grange, I have handed the car keys to the receptionist in the hotel as agreed, with the difference that we were not provided transportation to the airport as per our previous agreement, leaving my family stranded at the doorstep with all our luggage. We had to call a taxi to get to the airport.

I was under the impression to make business with a serious company, but appareantly I was wrong.

Kindly revert at your earliest.

Brgds

Jason Muscat

We were planning a holiday to Los Angeles for our family of 5 (we are from New Zealand).

I booked a Grand Jeep Cherokee (or similar) via the Thrifty website for about $59 per day, since we had a lot of luggage and this car could fit 4 suitcases according to their website. I did this 2 months in advance.

After 13 hours of flying, we arrived at LAX and caught the thrifty shuttle with all of our luggage.

However, the vehicle we booked was unavailable, and they said we offered us a Ford Escape for the same price. I was not sure how much luggage it could take, I took a look and the trunk was tiny. It could not fit our luggage.

I asked for a vehicle more like the Grand Cherokee which would fit our luggage.

They said I would have to pay an extra $300 to upgrade to their next model since I was rejecting the ford escape.

I had no choice, with 3 children and partner and all our luggage sitting on the sidewalk in the middle of the airport commerical zone we were at thrifty's mercy.

Now I'm back from holiday, I've done a little research. The Ford escape they offered to me is listed as a smaller vehicle on their website, certainly not an equivalent vehicle to the cherokee.

Also, the ford escape is only $45 per day, and they wanted me to pay the same as for the cherokee.

Basically, thrifty were forcing me to accept a free downgrade .

I am outraged by how we were treated. The staff at Thrifty LAX are incompetent money diggers. The worst way to begin a holiday in the US, encountering modern day pirates.

I've lodged a complaint with thrifty, but they say I will get no refund of the extra $300 we paid since I rejected the Ford Escape. Unbelievable.

Using this logic, thrifty can bait with really cheap offers, wait for the customer to arrive, offer a completely unsuitable car unlike the customer had booked, then force the customer to pay for an upgrade .

They would never get away with such behaviour in New Zealand as we have some of the strongst consumer protection laws in the world.

Is there anyway I can take this further?

Where to start. First. Horrible service. Useless managers. Dirty car. Wanted a small car. Got there with my reservation for a small car. Got told they had none and I got an impala. I wanted a small car to save on gas second my insurance doesn't transfer? I called my insurance and they said yes it does and still got charged something like 20.95 a day insurance major rip off, then I got the car. White/ beige interior had stains everywhere. And dog hair and smelled like smoke and the outside was just as bad. Little marks everywhere and dirt covering the car, was rushed outside during the damage check of the car and pointed out some marks that I seen and when I checked the sheet. They werent there ( thought they were trying to get me to pay a deductible for it to get fixed) i went back in before i left and got them to note it . Oh and the girl at the front. Not mentioning names( jen). Seemed like she hated her job. Talked down to me and contradicted herself multiple times. Oh And the manager was at a " different location". Never again will I give this company a penny.

"1)We waited for just over half an hour on a shuttle bus from Thrifty to pick us up; we saw each of the other rental companies come by in excess of 5 times each during that time, and we know that there was another group that waited even longer than we did. The driver had to be waved over when one did finally show up as they were empty, but about to keep on going...the security lady did this for us. I called the number on my sheet, but it was the general number for Thrifty because they don't show the numbers for the individual stations...I tried to explain the situation, but the person couldn't understand and I gave up trying because it was also loud on my end and then the shuttle showed up.

2) We got there and there was a lady and a man at the desk, the lady waited on us... She appeared in a very bad temper, and my husband commeneted on the fact that he understood it wasn't just a long day for us, but for her too...at which point she said she'd just gotten there at 10 am, so it wasn't a long day(would've been about an hour at this point). But she never once cracked a smile... this is minor, but now that we've had the experience we had with her, it seems important.

3) I had made a reservation only under my name, the car had not been paid for at all... we got to the counter and tried to give her my husband's card and i.d. as we wanted HIM to be the driver and she wouldn't let him be the driver. She said that even tho the car wasn't paid for yet, I had to be the driver and we'd have to pay extra. I didn't think this would be that much of a difference, and she didn't volunteer the info.

4) We kept going thru the charges and she told us we had to chose one of the three coverages which confused me as well. In Alabama insurance is mandatory on all vehicles but you can show proof of insurance on your own vehicle and they will accept this instead, if you don' want to ay the extra money. She didn;t offer that option, she said we had to choose one...so I started to say that we'd have to take the cheapest one and she was about to enter that when i said to hold on and actually questioned her about this and stated we had an insurance card we could show her...this is when she amended her 1st statement and said we didn't HAVE to get the coverage (and she seemed to get a bit pissed off at us now with a change in facial expression and her already not "happy" tone went to quite strained)up front & then settle thru our insurance company afterwards. I said that was just fine, because we had full coverage insurance that would cover a rental as well.

5) She handed us the receipt and went over the charges at which time we found out the extra driver cost $63 plus tax for the week. I didn' think it would be more than $25...it made no sense- there was no more risk involved... and she still insisted I had to be the primary driver, even tho at this point we had given her the card that had HIS name on it... so we just took him off as a driver and I drove the car.

6) Shesent us to spot 28, and there was no car there...my husband went back in but because I had to sign the contract I had to go back in and wait for her to redo the contract and resign it. Our DVD player was left either at spot 19, beside the inside bench where we stood waiting initially, or at the counter.I believe it had to be at the desk inside, unless it fell during the time he moved all of the bags from the one spot to the next while I was inside(she had told him which spot)... The last time he remembered having it was inside the rental bldg. I tried to call and report this Saturday the 19th...but was on hold too long...I calledWed am around 11 am and finally got thru, I was transferred to the Ohare lost and found. The mailbox was full- so that told me and my husband that SOMEbody is NOT taking the reports or updating their own files and people are being given a false sense that someone will help them.So I pushed the number for the manager. That person answered without giving a name, and I told them the mailbox was full and I needed to report a DVD player missing and he didn;t bother to take any info from me or give me any names or numbers in case i was cut off and he transferred me to some other guy who also didn;t answer with his name...I told him about the missing DVD player and he said he was going to tranfer me and I told him NOT to do so because LOST and found was full and was in the middle of telling him that I had just been transferred three times(once to lost and found, once to manager and once to him) when he cut me off and transferred me anyway(I never spoke to anyone more than 30 seconds b4 being handed off to someone else)... then I couldn;t tell you if the person answrred with a name or not...as the connection was terrible, and almost sounded as if I was being spoken to by 2 diff ppl...I kept saying 'hello" and twice i heard someone on the other end say "hello, hello" quite clearly. Then after a while of me trying to explain and say hello, etc...they hung up the phone on me.

I HAVE NEVER IN FORTY YEARS OF EXISTENCE had SOOOOO much trouble out of a rental company... AT THE VERY least they would never have cared which one of us was driving the car...maybe only one of us, but which would not have mattered as long as we were over 25 with a valid driver's license. I would have been hit with the sales pitch for insurance better never told i HAD to purchase it thru the rental company unless i could not prove I had insurance of my own. This was a HORRIBLE experience! "

After this email was sent to the Midway manager on 6/26/2010, as that was the only email address I was given, I received an email from him (mr. Bond) on 6/29/2010 stating he had forwarded the info to the person in charge of the Ohare office, but they had not found our DVD player. By 7/7/2010, i had not heard from him again, nor had the Ohare office called or written me me and I sent a reminder email. I was angry and was going to congtact the police over the DVD player, but i could not get help there as it had been too long with no report from me or from them. By 7/26/2010 I STILL had not heard from ANYONE via phone, email, or snail mail so i sent the following email(with no response still!):

"You need to get me the home office numbers for all corporate execs as soon as is humanly possible. Up to and including not just your district manager, but also the President of the company. YOU DO NOT want me to have to determine these things myself, as then I will be forced to say you also brushed me off. The OHare branch has YET to contact me a month later! Even if it was just to say "sorry for the problems but we can't do anything about it." NADA! NOTHING! Not a 10% off coupon, not an apology, not a "screw you"! I will certainly not recommend your business to anyone; and since I travel frequently, my father does, my father-in law and mother-in law and my husband's three sisters... ALL (except my dad) in and out of even the Chicago area FREQUENTLY... and SOOOO many others- it will affect your reputation! It won't be hearsay, it won't be slander (because it's TRUE); it is not maliciously being sent out to harm your company, as it is merely protecting others from dealing with the complete LACK of service we experienced! On facebook alone that would touch about 1000 people! I'm done with the trying to be nice and follow the rules/procedures... it was red tape meant to deter me from pursuing anything further. I am done with empty threats meant to convince somebody to DEAL with me. This is my FINAL request for resolution via your level of management."

As of 7/30/2010, still no word, and I am looking online for corporate emails and complaint phone numbers to no avail so far...just this website! Mr. Bond said I would at least get a call and probably a coupon, not enough...but better than being totally ignored. They are rude, they are evidently thieves (or at least one of them is), they lie to try and get you to pay more for insurance and extra drivers(as Mr. Bond told me in person that since it was just a reservation and nobody's card had been charged we COULD have changed the driver without being charged), and they lied(or Mr. Bond did, anyway) about what service would be done to try and make amends for the poor service that began all of this... I just now saw that they are evidently known for illegal price gauging from this site; so I would STRONGLY advise all to shun this company. You MAY be the lucky ones to come away without being stuck for extra charges, and you MAY come away with a pleasant sales rep and a good experience, but it seems the odds are against it.

Dear sir:
My name is Augusto Freitas de Sousa and I am Portuguese citizen.
I traveled along with my wife on holiday to Australia in late May for about a month.
I have to make a complaint regarding a service provided by Sydney Thrifty.
Have every reason to believe they charged me more money in the rental car I made.
There will be some entity to whom I can complain?
I suppose I can assume that tourists will have the right to complain if they consider wrong.
Thanks for the help

augusto.[protected]@ionline.pt

In February, I was scheduled to travel to Albuquerque NM for business. I reserved a rental vehicle for 2/7/2010. I live in Virginia and it just so happens that we were scheduled to get a record snowfall the day before my flight. So, after rescheduling my flight for a later date, I tried to do the same with my rental car. I was informed that the price would be $409.00, instead of the $238 I was originally quoted. I tried to explain my situation to the customer service rep, but he didn't really seem that interested. He basically told me if I wanted to change my reservation, I would need to pay the additional $$. I cancelled the reservation, but was unable to find anything cheaper given the late date. So, I went online and reserved the car for the $409 price. When I complained about the price increase and tried to explain that my area had receivd over 36" of snow on 2/6, I was basically told "oh well". I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told that none were available. My repeated calls to the Customer Service Department went unanswered. I also wrote a letter to the corporate headquarters. As of this date, I still haven't heard anything from anyone at Thrifty. Guess they don't really care about customer service. Wish someone would look into these types of practices.

- Lied to me about the exact price, I called in advance to make sure there would be no surprises I told them it was my first time that's why I'm asking if anything could increase the price. The person who answered the phone rudely told me of course it is. The day of its a different story now they mention being 25, and full car insurance. They should have mentioned it to me on the phone, that's the first strike.

-The person who checked out the car never gave a thorough check of all the damages and defects. I said before I left "I should probably take a picture" he reassured me he was "pretty thorough" and the keys were in the car. I drive off and when I stop again try to lock the door with the car remote and discovered it was faulty and I concluded that he was not as thorough as he claimed. I have a witness to verify this.

-When I come back another person checked out the car and claimed there was a new dent. The manager tried to get me to say I caused it or it happened under my care but I didn't. He said "You know you did this" I said no I don't know I did this. I paid the money so I could be early for work.

-When I came back to take pictures of the damage they claimed the car was in the shop. But they have told me things before that were not exactly true so I asked if they could send me the pictures. While I was there the manager tried to get me to lie and twist my words. They did not want to speak with any witnesses there. A worker pointed to my brother and said he could not come back even though he had done nothing wrong. I felt really uncomfortable and could see they did not want to co-operate so I involved the police to make sure nothing escalated even further.

-The police J Bauer met me there and walked me in. The manager did not even say hello, how are you doing. He would not talk and said that me and my brother can never come on the property.

This has been the worse ordeal I have gotten into with a company and I strongly recommend that no one rent cars from them again. They have been extremely difficult to work with and are not very civil. They did not value me as a customer. I do not want anyone else to have to go through this horrible situation again.

Anyone renting from anywhere should thoroughly check out the car and go over it with the worker. Take pictures, make sure price does not increase by thinking ahead of things that could bump up the price because they really wanted my money, they did not care about my service. If I had known how much it was in the first place I might not have gone that day. Through their negligence they have put me in a financial hardship.

I will never use Execu-Ride, Inc TA THRIFTY again. And no one else should either.

Recently we cancelled our trip to Romania due to the volcanic ash. As a consequence, we had to cancel our car rental with Thrifty Car Rental Romania/ Auto Rent SRL, as well. They charged our credit card three times the cancellation fee, and did not respond to our e-mails asking for an explanation.We contacted our bank and now they are disputing the amount. Very very bad company! Don't use!

Reserved a rate on the Internet. Called and informed Thrifty that my ship would be a couple of days late due to bad weather. The agent confirmed that I would still get the same rate.

When I arrived I was told that the rate was more than the email rate I had received. For $10 it was not worth going finding another car rental company.

After returning the car I found out that they had billed $15.70 more than they my written agreement.

Clearly they make their money by [censored]ing the customer with pins and needles for a few extra bucks that they probably won't notice or complaign about!

Called their customer service department who basically laughed at me and was not slightly interested in having a satisfied customer.

Will never rent from them again.

I rented a car @ Vancouver airport and no agent was available to review the car for damages before I left with it. When I returned it on November 23, 2009, 3 agents went over it and one agent found a small acratch UNDER the rear bumper that no one else could even find. Later I received a letter charging me $175.20 for damages. I left 3 phone messages with the office that were not returned. The only communication was threatening collection letters. The charges were excessive and the review of the car very agressive. One had to get on their hands and knees to find the scratch.

I used RENTALCARS.COM to rent a vehicle. The vehicle was at a daily rate of $48.50. The website requires that you enter the pickup and drop off location. There is no message or indication that there is a drop off charge if the two locations are different. I made a reservation for a pickup at the Orlando Airport and a drop off at the Miami Airport for the same day a few hours later. I have learned that the drop off charge is buried in the line item “taxes and fees”. The “Taxes and Fees” area is highlighted as in a hyperlink. When you click on the item there is a listing of different types of charges and it says that some may be applicable at confirmation.
I proceeded to the Thrifty Car Rental counter at MCO (Orlando Airport). The Thrifty representative made me aware of gas, tolls, and insurance items but at no time mentioned that there was a $150 drop off charge for returning the car to the Miami airport. The representative was well aware that I was going to return the car within the next 4 hours. I rented a Ford Escape at a daily rate of $48.50 plus applicable taxes. He asked me to review information on a screen regarding some items that I agreed to. None of these items included the drop off charge. Thrifty took information from my reservation (buried drop off charge) and the additional items that I agreed to on the touch pad. The representative did not review the list of charges on the rental agreement with me. Had he done that, I would have been aware of the $150 charge and not rented the vehicle with them.
Most of the major car rentals are located side by side at the airport and they had signs with cars available. The Thrifty representative folded the rental agreement (with my electronic signature) obtained from the touch pad items, without showing it to me, placed it in a Thrifty Car Rental Sleeve and gave it to me along with instructions on the location of the vehicle.
I learned of the charge a few hours later when I returned the car at the Miami location and my credit card charge was $244. I asked the representative in Miami why it was so high and we at that point pulled out the rental agreement and he and I reviewed it and noted the drop off fee for $150. The representative in Miami apologized that I was not advised of this when I rented the vehicle and said that he could not do anything but to contact Customer Service, he said he saw the very same issue days earlier also coming out of Orlando.
I contacted Customer Service for Thrifty and was told that they could not do anything about the $150 drop off charge because the charge was on my contract and I had agreed to it.
There are three issues of concern for consumers (1) the online company buried the fee in a line item with taxes and provides you with no specific information about these charges (other sites make you aware that there is a fee); (2) the Thrifty employee does not review the charges with the customer, and (3) Thrifty combines the information from the contract on line and the signature from the items that you “agree” to on the touch screen and use that as the electronic signature on the overall rental agreement. I am aware of the practices in the past with gasoline charges and insurance coverage charges. Changes were made that helped protect the consumer. I believe that addressing the practices raised in this complaint will benefit consumers as well as businesses that are competing fairly.

I booked a Thrifty car (midsize) online for LAX. The quoted price was an "estimated base rate of US$111.20 per week plus 2 extra days @ $17.59 with unlimited miles. " This is a total of US$146.38. I took this to mean all inclusive, excluding local taxes. They 'mention' that there are three types of insurance but fail to say that this will be ADDED on arrival. Most car rental companies offer you "all inclusive rates" meaning car and insurance, and then if you want to increase the insurance it's so much extra per day. Imagine my sheer horror on arriving at night in Los Angeles when the actual rate including insurance came to US$612.47!
These people should be called Shifty.com! They are a conniving, duplicitous, shady company and a disgrace to rental car dealerships. They should be forced to disclose the extra charges at the time of reservation for what they really are, 5 times as much as the "base rate"! How do I complain and who to? Is there a regulatory body in the US who deals with such charlatans? I will NEVER USE THRIFTY AGAIN and never miss an opportunity to bad mouth them wherever and whenever possible.

Long story short- credit cards, electronics, and other items stolen from back of rental car in thrifty secure lot. Theif tried getting cash at two casinos. Police determined that security cameras in thrifty garage were not working...surprise! Almost a week later and no property or help in any way from thrifty. One fellow renter was even refused service by one agent for not allowing her to explain the insurance coverages. Thrifty has rude agents, hires theives and cares nothing about protecting anything except their own ###. If you rent here dont let anything out of your site!