Thrifty Rent A Car review: Thrifty car rental service - lax

Dear Federal Trade Commission,

We had reserved a car rental with Thrifty car rental at LAX, to be picked September 1. After a 12+ hour flight we were exhausted and took a shuttle bus to the Thrifty LAX site; upon arrival there were hundreds of people outside the location, lined up down the side of the building and hundreds more inside the building. People were being held back from the building by security and they were angry, frustrated and confused. We were told that we would have to wait five hours to receive our car rental. My husband and I were exhausted - we did not want to wait five hours – that is absolutely ridiculous. We inquired about cancelling the reservation, and we were told we could not cancel without penalty and would be charged the full rental for the vehicle. We were told to go outside in the line with the other people - and was enforced by several security guards. It was a nightmar! Because we could not cancel, we were forced to stand in line for 3 hours to get to the counter, where we were met by an employee who was absolutely frustrated, rude and rushed us through the check-in process to sign a 7 page rental agreement under duress and out of pure exhaustion and there were hundreds of frustrated customers behind us. Unbeknownst to us we were signed up for unnecessary insurance packages for an extra 370.48 USD, and when we asked why our credit card was charged extra, we were told it was the deposit on the vehicle (the person was distracted by the chaos) We were immediately sent away from the counter to join several hundred other people waiting on their car rental which was another two hours. There were elderly people, disabled people and families with children all sitting on the dirty floor – angry, tired and frustrated. The experience was inhumane and we were treated like criminals in a detention center. When people asked for updates, we were ignored or security sent us away. My husband and I sat on their dirty floor for hours. When we finally received a vehicle, it was not the vehicle we reserved, and it had not been cleaned on the inside or outside and was dirty.

We have since filed a formal complaint with Thrift, and after about four email exchanges they refuse to address or even take serious our complaint. They only respond with patronizing and pre-scripted replies and refuse to come to any mutually agreeable conclusion. They refuse to take any responsibility for the horrific experience or our dispute about the additional charges.

The customer service with Thrifty Car Rental has been very frustrating and upsetting as we are simply disregarded.

We seek your assistance in the current matter where we feel we are being ignored, patronized and manipulated.

We await your kind reply and your help.

Sincerely,

Michel and Amanda Arnold

Lelystad, The Netherlands

[protected]@akbklussenbedrijf. nl / +31 (0) 6 [protected]

amanda. [protected]@gmail.com / +31 (0) 6 [protected]