Thrifty Rent-A-Car

Using Orbitz, I rented a car from Thrifty out in California, Sacramento to be exact, in mid-August 2022. Orbitz quote was for $646.41, all in, for one week. After I turned the car in at the airport and was on the plane, after not a peep was mentioned while turning the car over to them, I received a text stating the final bill was -- ready? -- $1,180.14.
The largest gouge, not the only one, but the largest was for $400 for the 'clean fee – smoking'. Except. Nearly the entirety of Northern California was smoke laden because of all the fires in the Sierras, etc. You couldn't go anywhere without living and breathing smoke. With the daily temperatures up to 114 degrees the smoke was baked into the car. Which the folks at the Airport were well aware of, believe me.
When I got home I tried to call Thrifty to challenge this charge. No one answered, ever. After a dozen tries. Orbitz tried to call them, multiple times to challenge this. They said they finally got through and were (my phrasing) told to go pound sand. They could do nothing more.
When I received my credit card statement I called the credit card company and spoke with their Dispute Department. They took all the data and then put me on hold. Know what their answer was? Paraphrased: "Sorry, we can't do anything when it is a business practice."
I won't even get into the fact the lady at the counter ignored the Orbitz Confirmation number, and its specifications, and jacked the quoted weekly insurance rate.
Short version: if Thrifty Rent-A-Car rips you off there is absolutely NOTHING you can do about it. Stay as far away from them as possible.

First off they didn't have the car I requested, then when we had to extend the car rental they did not reimburse us for the tank of gas they said they would give us. Then the stupid lady that helped us extend the contract was so busy telling us about her stupid daughter's wedding that she never bothered to ask us if we would be going on any toll roads which I would have said yes. We got charged $15 every time we went through a toll booth on the Sam Houston parkway so basically it cost 99.75 to get out of Houston. They did a very poor job of extending the contract and explaining everything to us. If I had known all of this we would have left the car there and gotten a ride to the Enterprise rental car company instead. I have a feeling that this company has screwed over a lot of people. Their staff is the most incompetent people I have ever seen. Please I implore you to stay away from Thrifty/Dollar car rental.

BUYER BEWARE! Thrifty is a bait and switch company. After picking out everything I wanted online and paying for it, they then charged me for a bunch of upgrades I did not sign up for when I went to pick up the car. After calling customer service and explaining my situation, they simply told me "You are going to collections." For reference, the employee was Michael B identifier A264. Their supervisor Jermaine B, Identifier 2333 was somehow even less helpful. There is a reason this company has "C" on the BBB. DO NOT USE THEM! They will most likely respond to this and say "Well you signed the contract so we don't care what you say" like they have done to every other customer that has levied a complaint. I will gladly pay the collection fee. But I hope that consumers will read this before choosing Thrifty, who I guess is now owned by Hertz. Literally go anywhere else. After spending hours trying to talk to anyone at corporate about the bait and switch problem, it's clear they simply don't care. So to preemptively respond to the response, I don't care that you "checked" with your location of the car rental and "verified" the charges. I am willing to pay for the car I originally rented online and any charges I chose, not what your salesteam manipulated me into signing. Your business practices deserve a class action lawsuit.

Rented car for vacation through Thrifty at Oakland Airport. For starters, when I got there, the car wasn't ready. I was told to wait 30 minutes and come back. I waited and came back and my service rep was no longer there. A new agent was there, didn't know who I was and told me that I had to go to Hertz to get my car. I went to Hertz and was able to get the car through them and left. I returned the car and paid what I owed.

A week or two later, I got a bill in the mail for $49 for 7 tolls, plus an administrative fee of %105 was tacked on, a $15 administrative fee for each time I crossed a bridge in the bay area. I contacted the Thrifty rep and was informed that I signed a rental agreement and that information was on the form that I signed. I explained that I would be willing to pay 1 administrative fee of $15 but that $15 fee for each bridge crossing was extremely outrageous. In addition, as a tourist I was unfamiliar with the bridges in the Bay Area which do not have any lanes that you can pay the toll with cash, which is what I expected to do. Obviously, Thrifty counts on this to gouge their unsuspecting customers and they certainly don't advertise this fact and no agent explained this to me when I rented the car. Kind of shady dealings from this company and they've lost a customer, but judging from the volume of complaints on this site, I assume that poor quality and ripping off their customers are their company mantra.

I rented a vehicle from Thrifty when I flew to Houston TX to see my brother. I drove to his house and did not drive the car again until the morning I was to leave for the airport to fly home. At 7:00 a.m., after I packed the car, I went to start it and the battery was dead. I phoned Thrifty and told them the situation. They told me that they would have someone come to pick up the vehicle at my brother's house. I had to make other arrangements to get to the airport to make my flight. At 4:00 p.m. that afternoon my sister-in-law phoned me and said that the car was still in her driveway. I phoned Thrifty again and they said they would have someone come get the car. The car was towed away at 8:00 p.m. that evening. I contacted thrifty to see if I could get a partial refund for the inconvenience. They said they would let me know in 10 business days. They emailed me and told me that they had no record of my issue, so they declined reimbursement. I'm not sure how they did not have a record of two phone calls. And how did the vehicle get towed back to their facility if they have no record of an issue? To make matters worse, they charged me for an extra two days of rental because I did not return it the day I agreed to! I will NEVER use Thrifty again.

PREPAID FOR A RENTAL OVER 2 WEEKS PRIOR. WENT TO PICK IT UP AT THE SCHEDULED TIME ONLY TO BE SWITCHED TO DOLLAR - GET TO THE RUDE PEOPLE AT DOLLAR ONLY TO BE TOLD THAT THEY DONT HAVE ANY CARS AVAILABLE. WAS TOLD I HAD TO CALL THRIFTY FOR A REFUND OVER NEAR 1K. CONTACTED THRIFTY AND WAS TOLD. SORRY - 10 DAYS FOR REFUND! WHAT IF I NEEDED THAT MONEY USED TO RENT ANOTHER CAR? YOU TOOK MY MONEY AT THE TIME OF RESERVATION - KEY WORD "RESERVATION" I WILL NEVER USE THRIFTY AGAIN - ILL GLADLY PAY MORE SOMEWHERE ELSE NEXT TIME. DOLLAR CAN SUCK IT TOO... THEY ARE RUDE AT DFW AIRPORT BUT THEN I CAN IMAGINE WITH EVERYONE BEING FRUSTRATED BECAUSE THEY COULDNT GET THIER CARS! BIG CORPORATIONS CAN JUST SUCK IT!

I reserved a B group vehicle months in advance. Get to the airport and Thirfty has no one working, so I had to go to Hertz. I understand it's the same parent company, but this was the start. So I get told I can go and choose any car in the certain row at the airport and my choices are a Nissan Versa and Ford Fiesta. Clearly, not B group vehicles. Whatever, no big deal at the time. I return the rental and get the receipt via email and notice that while It clearly says I reserved a B group rental and was charged for a B group, it says I received an A group car. So I reached out to customer service and have had 10+ email correspondences with them. Essentially their position is "oops our bad" and there's nothing we can do about you reserving and being charged for a B group and only receiving an A group car. No offer to refund the difference. After sending several more emails stating this was an unacceptable resolution I finally was offered a $50 car rental certificate. It has been over a month and I haven't received anything from them and they just told me that they would send me another one. But, it is only good until Dec. 31,2022. Their response to their garbage service is here is a coupon you might receive before it expires to use our garbage service again? No thanks. Avoid them at all costs.

Paid in advance for car rental ($ 382.82) plus car protection insurance ($88.00) for a week rental in Phoenix, AZ. When I returned the car I went to the rental car desk and requested a receipt showing a zero balance. The clerk at the desk said they would be sending the receipt on my phone once the car has been fully inspected and before my flight departed. THEY NEVER SENT ME THE RECEIPT. I called my credit card company and found that they had charged my account $386.43 on the same day I dropped the car off. I think the reason they did not give me a receipt was they knew I would have disputed the charges... GET A RECEIPT BEFORE YOU LEAVE SHOWING A ZERO BALANCE... DON'T LET THEM PUT ON ADDED CHARGES THAT YOU HAVE NOT REQUESTED OR HAVE PAID FOR IN ADVANCE (LIKE CAR INSURANCE). BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE!

This was a nightmare start to finish. I have never been more poorly treated by any company in my life. Here are the highlights, or shall I say the low lights.
-- 2 hour wait in line to talk to agent to pick up car
-- the agent forgot to explain how the tollway worked, so basically I was overcharged about 45 bucks
-- another 40 min to get car and out of parking lot
-- car broke down on day 3, thru no fault of mine. Then they charged me $89.90 for that! WTF. I miss a day of my vacation trying to get help and get a new car, and it was terrible service that whole time too, then they charge ME for THEIR car breaking down.
-- then there were additional charges on checkout. These were never mentioned by Priceline. Priceline and Thrifty played me for a fool.
-- then after this terrible consumer experience both of these companies gave me the run around, then they finally gave me a, sorry, nothing for you.
-- on a side note, the people at Priceline were nice on the phone, the people at Thrifty were just mean nasty people, and imagine I had to wait 30 minutes on the phone to talk to those mean nasty people from Thrifty.

Reserved 2 vehicles for my wedding, when I showed up they did not have either. Spent 2 hrs trying to find a vehicle. Ended up being charged 1,700 dollars after the 1,100 I already spent. Would not credit my account for the money already spent even tho they did not have the 2 vehicles I reserved months in advance. Bottom line there shady and dishonest. Spend more money and go anywhere but here before your trip is ruined!

Beware Renting a Car with Trifty. I rented a car via SOUTHWEST. When I booked it clearly states including taxes and everything for $628.19 which seems like is cheaper. However when I returned the car and printed the receipt trifty charged me $681.19 there's an extra charged. I asked the counter and she keep saying it the taxes. I showed her the reservations. She was rude and won't listened. NEVER EVER RENT A CAR WITH TRIFTY. Additional hidden charges are added and get away with it. I should have read reviews before renting a car with them that I'm not the only one got charged extra. READ REVIEWS FROM OTHER SITE ABOUT TRIFTY.

I rented a car in South Africa for 10 days and it was a terrible experience. I had trouble picking up the car and delivering it, they robbed me R8000 and do not answer any email.

Thrifty is the worst service I ever paid for in my life. Do not fall for the same trap.

I waited in an hour and a half line to get my rental car. When I got the counter I told the Thrifty front desk person that I already had insurance and had my declarations page with me. He told me that I still needed to buy liability insurance through the rental car agency for 20 dollars a day. I told him that was not right. I already had that insurance and comprehensive and collision. He proceeded to charge me for the insurance. I was fed up and left. When I tried to dispute the charge the next day I was told I only had a 15 minute window to dispute the charge. I never got my money back. My car also broke down that I got. They made me wait for triple A to come fix the car and even after it was fixed they made me drive the car back to the airport to exchange. I was not able to make an important meeting and was not reimbursed for any of the trouble. I will never book through Thrifty again and would highly NOT recommend Thrifty to anyone.

Car rental was not available with reservation. No notification from Expedia or Thirfty. After being stranded in Alanta by Southwest Airlines on a flight home car was booked to drive home. Spent $60 from airport to car rental location in uber charges to have agent tell us no cars were available. Ended up having to get another night hotel at $250 in charges before we were able to fly home the next day at $500 in airfare. Two of us lost 2 additional days of vacation time and lost wages. This failed reservation cost me close to $2000 in new expenses. Thanks, but no thanks for the great client services or lack of.

My wife and I rented paid for a mid-size suv to use in Las Vegas from February 3rd to 6th. We waited 45 minutes to get the car on ly to be downgraded to sedan which cost less than what we paid for. We did not get a refund for the excess amount we paid for the suv. The agent on duty was very rude.

Have you ever worried that when you got to your destination that the car rental company won't have your car? Just like the Seinfeld episode, they know how to take the reservations they just don't know how to hold the reservation. In DFW. Thrifty completely ran out of cars. This is absolutely unacceptable! People were having to wait 3 hours for people to turn cars back in. I had 5 hours to drive so waiting 3 hours put us in a real bind. We had to make other will arrangements. I will never rent Thrifty/Dollar again. They are unreliable.

A $500 fee will be put on you even if you don't smoke in the car---- don't put clothes that smell like smoke, don't get in the car after you smoke, ----- if you smoke DO NOT RENT THESE CARS

Worst service ever try any other rental not these guy poor poor customer service, still awaiting refund