Thrifty Rent A Car

We waited 20 minutes or so with only one couple in front of us because the woman at the counter was discussing black friday and different Walmart locations in the area. Once at the counter the woman was very short and rude and unwilling to explain anything. Insurance was pushed on us even though we stated we had our own insurance. We would have canceled our reservation at that point and rented elsewhere but it was thanksgiving day and we did not know if anything would be available. Our total was over $ 100 more than the online estimate. We are travel nurses and we travel often for work. We will never voluntarily use thrifty in the future and will share our negative experience with as many of our coworkers in the large travel nursing community as possible. Worst experience renting a car we have ever had. The only pleasant part was the woman at the gate when leaving and dropping off the car. Both people we dealt with were fast and polite.

Lady was very friendly and I received an upgrade because they were out of my car type.

I am having a horrific experience with this company. We have been saving money for years for this vacation to see our family on the east coast. My veteran husband, children, and I rented a car for 3 days. We had to do this last minute at 8:00am when our flight arrived in Baltimore from Nevada, as another company failed to keep our reservation. A nice lady named Karen helped us at Thrifty (so we thought) and it has been nothing it anxiety attacks for my family ever since. This is a list (so far) of the troubles we’ve encountered:
1. My husbands debit card «didn’t work» so we used mine (same account…). I was the only driver anyway, so no big deal. My husband is an Army Ranger vet who does not drive. (These details matter later on in the story) We were not explained anything and I signed the agreement on the computer that had a million paragraphs. We were told we would be able to drop the car off in a specific town 3 hours away (where we are visiting family), and to have a wonderful trip. Forward 2 days. It was the night before the car return, and I was Googling the directions to the Thrifty in the next town. There wasn’t one. I called customer service right away and was told that I needed to drop the car off at the airport… 3 hours away. I explained that Karen told us we could drop the car off in that town, and was rudly told by the customer service rep that there were no other Thrifty locations and it had to be that location at the airport. She even gave me attitude when I asked why. She replied with «If you rent from an airport, you return it at an airport.» like I was supposed to know this. I don’t work for this company, how on earth would I know this? We ended up having to borrow a car from a family member and drove back to Baltimore to have it back by 8:55am. Our children were luckily able to stay home asleep with a family member caring for them, but were scared when they woke up to no parents.
2. We arrived at the airport Thrifty well ahead of time. The night before, I was looking over the receipt and saw that my husband was added as a second driver. I made it clear he did not drive due to PTSD. I guess Karen wanted to take advantage of a veteran’s family and charge us an extra $ 50 for something we never agreed to. When we arrived, we walked inside to find Karen to sort it out. Of course she wasn’t at work that day. We dealt with another lady (whose name I don’t remember) and explained about the charges, and having to take the car back to the airport. She called the manager, and told us to meet him outside where the drop off was. We met with an older gentleman who said he was the manager. We explained my husband’s situation, and he agreed to take the «extra driver» charges off. He inspected the car (damage fee, with a full tank) and told us to go check out with another man at the register. We had to then explain the extra driver chargers to another guy, got a weird look, and he went to talk to the manager. He came back and said it would be okay. He then made another weird face, walked back over to the manager for 10 minutes, and came back to tell is he couldn’t provide us a receipt due to a computer issue. He could, however, print us the new «contract» with the new lowered «estimated costs». I asked him to circle it and write his initials, because I felt something shady was going on. We left, and 6 days later STILL have the original amount on hold with my bank waiting for their final call.
3. Tonight. We have 2 days left of our vacation and I received a message on my phone during our family dinner saying we never returned the car and it was going to be reported as stolen. I called them back right away, and waited for a rep for 30 minutes. Again, this vacation has been planned for a long time, and tonight was our last big dinner. I had to miss most of it being on the phone with these people. They verified my information, and said that they will forward it onto their security department. I asked the man if I was going to receive a call back, and he said if they needed anything they would.
I am writing this on here because I know going to corporate will do nothing, from reading other reviews. This company has not only ruined a lot of our vacation, but has also caused my husband and I a huge amount of anxiety.
I just want this corrected, and know it never will because this company obviously doesn’t care about it’s customers. I hope this reaches people so they can see what they might deal with when renting a car from Thrifty. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

DO NOT RENT WITH THRIFTY!
The worst service I have ever received!
I needed to rent a car for a day to attend a medical appointment and found a good deal online. However when I arrived the person at the counter wanted to charge me about $ 269 for on day rental! I almost fainted! I told him I would rather pay a taxi than to pay that outrageous amount of money for a compact car! He revised the quote and went down to $ 110
I returned the vehicle about about 1.5 hours late. Total charges went up to $ 192!
The lady who checked in the car told me to talk to the manager to prorate the additional day charges.
As I approached the manager he was very rude and told me to call customer service, which I did. After numerous attempts, the customer service representative bluntly and rudely told me there was nothing she could do!!!
It was then I realized why the manager told me to call: he was sure nothing will happen!
So I came to the conclusion that it’s a bad customer service culture, not an isolated case!

Upon arriving to the desk, I had slow service up until I drove out of the lot. They tried to up-​sell me on everything to which I refused then tried to sneak insurance past me when I was signing! Then, being I have a 1 year old, I had reserved a car seat online. They didn’t have it on record and brought me a toddler seat. They don’t offer to help install it either and perhaps I’m a snob but it was the cheapest piece of crap I’ve ever seen and it was nearly impossible to install ourselves. Finally once it was installed we realized the front driver seat couldn’t even sit fully upright! So we drove the next 40 miles to our hotel hunched over. Lord know I wasn’t going to reinstall it on the passenger side… Oh and did I fail to mention it took 25 minutes while our daughter screamed from being over tired. THEN we waited in line to exit for another 5 – 10 minutes. All while it was about 5 degrees outside. Fortunately, we didn’t have to return the car there as we drove it a few states away and returned in Providence. Be warned!!!

This review isn’t focused on the car. Let’s face it, cars are cars and most are going to be fine, as ours was. My review is based on company rules & policies — they’ve changed and not for the consumer.
I’ve rented from this company before and at this location. So imagine my surprise when the agent had me initial no less than 9 times declining add on expenses.
Originally I booked the car for $ 143 after comparing rates. The agent at pickup asked me if I wanted to pre purchase gas in order to avoid add’l charges. At $ 2.97/ gal this about .$ 30/​gal higher on that day. Not to mention I had no ability to gauge how much gas I’d buy while on my trip. So, I declined the $ 47 added gas plan. At that point the agent told me I needed to fill the tank at a station within 10 miles and present the receipt with the address or I would be charged the full add’l $ 47.
Upon leaving the town we were staying in, we filled up. Much cheaper. We figured that since the agreement did not specify a gallon amt, we’d just «top off» nearby. Guess what… there is NO nearby. We spent a fuckin hour driving all over before we found a gas pump. I was so pissed! Good job Thrifty.
My final cost was closer to $ 200 because one of the added charges was a $ 40+ charge to have my wife as an add’l driver. What??? Never heard of that. The only reason they get 2 stars is the car was clean and ran fine. Get back in the people business Thrifty. Right now you’re in the «it’s all about us» business.

First, let me say that we have rented cars from other companies and at other airports. This was our first time renting from Thrifty. As we have done with other rental car companies, we ordered the car on-​line and completed the Thrifty Timesaver form intending to make our rental car pick-​up quicker. However, this is what happened: If you rent a car at BWI be prepared for an 8 minute ride in the shuttle bus. When we arrived at the Thrifty counter there were 2 agents helping customers, who clearly had not done the Timesaver process. I asked if we needed to stand in line and was told «yes». Twelve minutes later we finally got to the counter to check in. Five minutes later we were walking out to get our car. The agent did not say thank you for waiting, etc. Another employee greeted us in the lot and pointed to a row far away where the compact cars are parked and said to select any one we wanted. We walked all the way to the end of a row to select a compact car. Then we drove to the exit check out, where we were the third car in line. We waited and waited for 9 minutes until we were next in line. The employee who checked us out never said thank you for the long wait, explained why we waited, we appreciate your business, etc. Our advice no matter what rental car company you use: After leaving the car rental area the street signage is poor. There are no signs indicating how to get to the highway, etc. To summarize: We landed at BWI at 6 pm (no checked baggage) planning to meet family, who were 30 minutes away. Because of the lengthy time it took us to get out of BWI with our rental car we arrived at 8pm! Obviously the Thrifty Timesaver process was a joke.

Thrifty is in the combined car rental center at BWI, so getting to/​from the airport is just as fast as any of the other major rental agencies. Despite my late arrival well after midnight the staff was on duty and got me into my car very quickly. Return on a weekday afternoon was equally quick. So why only 3 stars? The car was kinda meh. It was an older car with nearly 60,000 miles on the odometer that rode noisily. And it was a base model that lacked features you find in most rental cars nowadays such as USB ports. Thrifty is usually cheaper than the other major agencies; this is one of the places it shows.