Thrifty Car Rental Reviews

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Latest Reviews

“Thrifty car hire Derby very poor service”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Gulrez on 24/10/2022

This review is in regards to Thrifty Car Hire Derby. I booked a rental on the 11th of October 2022 for today the 24th of October 2022. I prepared to collect the vehicle this morning only to be called by the manager of Thrifty Derby telling me that there were absolutely no cars at the depot and my rental that I booked in advance was not available. As you would expect I was absolutely shocked as I booked this vehicle for a family wedding only to be let down right at the last moment. As I was desperate I stated that I was willing to travel to any depot within the Midlands only to be informed by the extremely unhelpful manager (He would not even give me his full name) that no cars were available in any of their depots as they were extremely short on cars. At this point I believed that I haven't been told the truth, so I made my way to the depot and lo and behold there were cars at the depot. I asked for one of the vehicles at the back only to be told they were for other customers and he was not obliged to help me. I stated that I booked in advance to avoid this sort of situation and he stated he could maybe provide one between 12.30 and 1pm but could not guarantee. I booked this specifically for a wedding in Birmingham so it was ridiculous to miss the function that i booked the car for to wait for a car that may or may not arrive. He threatened me that he did not have to help me and can cancel my booking without having to offer any form of help. I was absolutely appalled and cancelled my booking. As a service provider if you know the demand in advance you make the necessary arrangements to meet those demands which was not done. I personally beleive that because I booked in advance at a low rate the Derby depot were offering them to customers willing to pay the higher rate. I beleive that because I was from an ethnic minority I was not offered the same level of service as the majority customers. I hope this review reaches as many potential customers as possible to avoid the stress and heartache that I had to go through especially on such an important event.

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“Strictly for Thrifty Hungary Budapest, not the...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by DaEuro on 30/05/2020

This company is NOT part of the real American Thrifty COmpany, but a Hungarian knock-off who uses their name without permission and trademark. The car was rented through Cartrawler, which is a rental car platform used by airline companies, in this case, Austrian Airlines. The process was seamless, the agreement clear. First of all, we were greeted by a shuttle at the airport, which was nice and taken to their location near the airport. Make sure you mark in your GPS their location as it is not found on the GPS, or type the address of the agreement, or the AGIP gas station nearby, otherwise you won't find them to drop off your car. Make sure someone will be there when you drop off the car if your flight is early, before opening hours. They're not a non-stop location, even though they advertise as an airport location. When I got to Hungary, they made me sign their own contract. They are not even Thrifty, they're an agent for Thrifty, a private Hungarian company. Their agreement is the most horrendous, not used by any car rental company anywhere in the world. Some key points: you have to bring the car back CLEAN!!! Are you kidding me? I have to spend time and money during my vacation or your business trip to clear THEIR car? What are they charging me money for? Second, they tell you that your credit card could be charged after the fact for parking tickets, speeding tickets, speeding cam tickets. Nowhere in the world, can you be charged after the fact for anything other than parking tickets. That I understand. All companies, otherwise, just provide the government with a mailing address for the rentee so that they can mail them the ticket. Not so in Hungary. Also, I've gotten, so far, two charges on my credit card, after the fact, even though I've signed off on the car and everything was fine. Who gives them the right? One thing I know, until Hungary becomes in tune with the rest of the world and civilized, I won't be renting any more cars there.

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“Additional Charges”

★☆☆☆☆

written by skianfar on 12/04/2020

On February 14, 2020, I rented a car from Thrifty Rent a car. I returned the car early and salesman at return counter refused to issue the final bill. After I reviwed my crdit card statement I noticed Thrifty has charged my credit card an additional $120.0 car rental insurance which I did not requested nor was listed on my contract. I emailed Thrifty in regard to this issue, did not get any response! I disputed additional charge with my credit card company and charges was reversed. I never had a good experiences with any of rental companies, but I wish I could give Thrifty zero star in term of customer service and outrages charges.

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“Nifty Thrifty .......”

★★★★★

written by taurustime on 19/03/2020

I've been a customer of Thrifty for a few years now after several disastrous dalliances with the Enterprise Car Rental Group. AVOID! After being bumped off two BA flights from Heathrow to Glasgow tomorrow and being rescheduled to a 'possible' flight from London City Airport, I decided to cancel my trip and my bookings with BA, my hotel in Glasgow and Thrifty. Whilst my cancellation was considerably under the minimum 48-hour advance notice to trigger a refund, they came back within a couple of hours, reassuring me that I would be fully refunded due to the circumstances. 10/10 for customer service! Other car rental companies could learn from this .... but probably won't! I will rebook later this year with both BA and Thrifty when this menace has passed.

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“Go elsewhere”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Jaeden384 on 12/10/2019

Don't except to get your deposit back if you hire a car from this Company. All will seem well until you return the car and that is when they will come up with a list of reasons why they have deducted your deposit. Don't waste your time complaining to the company because they do not have complaint department and only customer service email. You will not get any reply from them.

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“Absolutely Disgusting Service”

★☆☆☆☆

written by MarkusRichards on 06/11/2018

See below email to their head office. Dear Sir/Madam, I wish to make a formal complaint with regards to my treatment as a customer from the Manager and staff at your Northampton branch. My booking reference is I had made the booking as I needed a transit van to go to Birmingham to collect a vintage fireplace that I had brought the week before. I arrived at 0930 as I had pre book for that time. I entered the customer entrance which has a electronic bell to notify staff when customers enter. I then stood for approximately 5 minutes whilst I could hear in the connecting staff office talking about their private lives. Eventually a man I know now to be the manager entered the front desk and asked how could he help me. I replied that I had rented a van to which his reply was to correct my English stating "booked a van," not exactly the best way to treat a customer by correcting their English. It was clearly obviously from the way he looked me up and down that I didn't meet his approval. This is something I found quite amazing as who goes to rent a van (normally used for Loading and unloading objects) in smart attire. I presented my driving licence which I thought was enough, but he stated I needed my bank statement and utility bill. As my wife had made the booking I was unaware of the need for other documentation. This was clearly an annoyance to me, but I returned to my home address and collected the other documents as required. When I returned again I had to stand around in the customer office for several minutes listening to the staff talking. Only after opening and closing the door several times activating the electronic bell did a member of staff came to the front desk. He took my documents without any introduction or civilities. In fact his first words were "debit card." What is that meant to mean? There was no "May I have your debit card please Sir?" Nothing in the way of how a customer should be treated. He then went into the rear office where I heard him mumble something and the staff commenced laughing and giggling. Clearly I must be funny to the staff so when he returned I said "Am I funny?" to which he stated they were laughing about something else. This was not the case and again I said "Is there something funny about me?" I then noticed the Manager had also entered the front office and was staring at me. Your member of staff replied "No it is your awkwardness," To which I replied " No not awkwardness it my annoyance," The Manager then interrupted stating "Right I don't like the way you are speaking to my member of staff I'm not renting you a van." Well I was astounded by this. To be treated so disgracefully as a customer I stated to them both "This is disgusting," and left the office. At no point did I use any abusive language, words or behaviour to warrant such treatment. I believe it was more the fact that the Manager was embarrassed by the fact that I had pulled them up on the way they had been laughing in the back office. The result of this has meant that I have been unable to collect the vintage fireplace. This means that I have been unable to fit the fireplace which has now meant I have had to stop restoration works incurring me more costs. Furthermore I have rented vehicles all over the World and this is not the service I would of expected from Thrifty as a international company. Yours Faithfully,

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Sashatamber's Comment

Written on: 21/03/2019

Hi there, would you mind clarifying which branch this was? I was going to consider Thrifty for rental car hire for my company?

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“Avoid if at all possible!!”

★☆☆☆☆

written by daveballentine on 23/10/2018

At first all appeared great, arrived in Malaga airport, car was ready, the desk asked if I would like an upgrade to a Volvo XC90 which we declined, when we finally arrived at the car after a 10min walk we realised it wasn’t a Mercedes B Class as we booked bbut a BMW X1, not wanting to walk back to the Thrifty desk again at 10.30pm we just took the car as we had a long drive to do that night. On arriving home realised we’d been charged €51 upgrade (which we didn’t ask for) and also $68 for fuel,even though the car was brought back 99.9% full, reason it dropped was due to the 20mins driving around the car park trying to find a space!!! Since then I’ve been trying to contact, call, email but keep getting passed around or emails returned with address unknown. Absolutely awful company and I urge anyone to NEVER book with them.

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“Terrible attitude of Front Desk Staff”

★☆☆☆☆

written by katie21-4 on 05/08/2018

We have just rented a car from Montpellier Airport, the car itself was as ordered, a few dents, but acceptable. What was not acceptable was the attitude of the woman on the desk when we hired the car. It was a joint desk Hertz and Thrifty, so I am not sure which company the woman worked for. I had booked the car on my credit card with my partner driving we have done this for a number of years without an issue, I had double checked before we left this would be acceptable. What was so shocking was her aggressive unhelpful attitude, she had processed all the paper work then virtually took the car keys out of our hand, and was extremely unpleasant. When we tried to explain that we had checked that this was ok as long as the card holder was present she was just rude. It was only when I suggested that we use a different card that she relented. The whole episode was completely unnecessary, and tainted the start to our holiday and made us wonder why we had come to this City if this was the attitude of the locals. Fortunately the rest of the people we met were extremely pleasant and helpful, but I will never rent a car from Hertz or Thrifty again if this is the calibre of the staff they hire

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“wish i had checked the reviews before renting with...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by markaylott on 28/07/2018

I wish I had looked at this review site before booking a car with thrifty at Edinburgh airport .... paid for the super all cover insurance which costs a fortune but still leaves you with £250 excess ?? Luckily we didn't have any damage so it didn't matter but this goes to show what a company they are. When we arrived to pick the car up , we were attending a funeral in an hour so did not have time to mess about but when we got to the car it was absolutely filthy both inside and out , and I mean filthy . The girl checking car out said that she would go back and change it but we did not have time so I asked her to note it on system . We only had one day hire as it was just the funeral we had to go to and had to return car at 6am the next morning and there were no petrol garages on our route that were open so had to return the car without filling back up . I know this is normally the expensive part , but could do nothing about it but even at their ridiculous prices of £2.17 a litre I was charged £70 for 162 miles of driving , equating to about 21 miles to the gallon when the stats say the particular car is at worse 50 miles to the gallon meaning that somehow they managed to get nearly 32 litres of fuel in a car that had driven just 162 miles from their so called 'full'. After sending two e mails to two different departments of 'customer service', and getting no replies , I am now going to take this up with governing body of BVRLA . I also now have to get my suit dry cleaned as the interior of the car on collection was that bad. I will never ever use thrifty again and can not understand how a company can trade in this manner as if you check the reviews , I am not the only so called customer that has had a bad experience . Anybody reading this review and contemplating using this company , my advice would be simply .... DO NOT

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“Beware hidden charges”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Nrl321 on 26/07/2018

I booked a car from Thrifty for Dublin for 17 days. I am a regular car hirer for holidays and EU short breaks and the cost of CDW and Theft Insurance has always formed part of the basic price. On arrival at the desk to collect the car, I was advised that I had to pay extra for these insurances and a full tank of petrol - this more than doubled the rental cost. I had family waiting outside of the main airport hire area and all I could do was to complain but this was to no avail - indeed I was told that I should have realised from the price that this would be the case (not true as I had obtained similar quotes from others months earlier). I had to pay and was sickened by the experience of not being advised prior to this that it would be added on. Apparently the site I used was a US site, hence the difference (how was I to know that?). I have since price compared via other car hire intermediary sites taking the Thrifty offer as the one and found the CDW/Theft insurance offered to be INCLUSIVE! I consider this practice to be grossly misleading. What you think you are going to pay is NOT what you will pay - beware! I am seeking to take this further.

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“Great customer servive”

★★★★★

written by Jockeysam on 16/04/2018

I rented a car for the weekend Friday to Sunday 13/4/18 to 15/4/18 and can not fault the service I received from your team at Gatwick airport . They we’re nothing but professional in helping and guiding me through the whole process from start to finish . Both ladies are a full credit to your company and I hope this praise is passed on. The car was all ready on my arrival for 10:am as I indicated and the paperwork was all explained to me in a very simple manor and the whole process to me was very professional and also very easy to understand . My personal experience of the thrifty /dollar car hire is a strong 10/10 , customer servive from start to finish was faultless . Price quoted was exceptional value and the car was very clean and very comfortable for our journey with no problems at all .

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“Avoid UK Thrifty . Not trustworthy”

★☆☆☆☆

written by npPrince294 on 04/03/2018

I rent a lot of cars for work , have used thrifty twice , on both occasions I have been accused of causing damage to the car that was patently already there and on the most recent accused of smoking in the car which I absolutely did not do. In all the other companies I've used , all over the world , I have never come across a racket like this. Pay the extra and go with a one of the other big names , it will be far cheaper in the end.

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“do not use this car company”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Fehilly on 30/08/2017

I am reviewing on Thrifty USA, my husband and I travel often to the states and this year used Thrifty. We travelled from Orlando to Miami and incurred toll charges as apparently the road into Miami is a sunshine pass road (no signs - no tolls and the way our sat nav directed us) our charges were the 1.5 dollar toll rate as this is obviously not a fine just a charge (hence no signs) Thrify charged us a 15 dollar charge for each of the 6 feels (3 into miami on the same road and 3 out) This is absolutely scandalous. 90 dollars in so called admin fee's for a 9 dollar toll fee. I will never ever use thrifty again

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“AVOID!”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Lisa1961 on 14/08/2017

We ordered a compact size car online from finn.no (Norway), and already paid online (€197). When we got there, we were offerred an upgrade for a bigger car, with extra full insurance for additional €172, which we then accepted. We used the car for 6 days, and return the car 2 hours before deadline, with full tank (of fuel). I was really surprised when I received the bill from my credit card company, they charged me €279! I tried to contact the company, filling out their form, but nothing happen. So, beware! I would recommend to STAY AWAY from this company (Trifty, Hertz - they are the same! Swindler.

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“Extra fees, lacks information!”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Nickolas246 on 27/07/2017

I'll never rent from Thrifty again! Got what seemed like a great deal from a 3rd party, albeit foreign company. I thought THAT was going to be the shady part. Nope...turns out that when you pick the car up & go through all their talks about extra coverage, be sure to listen & ASK QUESTIONS in regards to "Toll Fees"! Yup...apparently some states have "imaginary tolls" or electronic booths, which means the entire highway can only be accessed with a Toll Pass. So you just can't travel the highway & exit before the booth! Nooo, it means you can't travel it at all. Thrifty offers you their pass for an extra $50 (which for 10 days adds up to more Han wat you'd spend on a toll each day), but never says exactly which highways have these "imaginary, etc Electronic Booths! This would be great info to have, especially if you're NOT FROM THE AREA!! Wen calling, it was explained that it's not up to the counter person to go through that information! So once you illegally travel these highways, you're cared or fined $1.41 or the toll from the state & carged $15.00 from Trifty! Outrageous! The other issue I have about non disclosure is that when we picked up the car it was in my hubbys name, but paid with my credit card. So when picking it up, they "had to add me" because he didn't have the card with him. I told them that I had the card, because TAT was the one used. So I was added, but wat I didn't realize was that after we got back, we were charged an extra $111.00 for the added driver. NOTE: I never drove the car during vacation! This is a lesson of buyer beware. These booths are here to stay, but I'd buy passes through the state, find out where booths are on every highway in & around where you're staying, make sure the name of renter has to have the card that made the purchase in their name, & not shop through thrifty!!

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“They will mug you at the airport.........beware.”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Keithstaffs on 01/05/2017

Dollar and Thrifty have joined up - They do offer cheaper cars, but beware. April 2017 we picked up at Orlando International for a Disney Holiday. £33 dollars for gas for a compact car that took $22 maximum on a fill............I asked about the Sunpass system (If you go with Alamo (who I have used previously) you can bypass the tolls into the city and the $3.50 of tolls will go onto your card. NOT DOLLAR/THRIFTY - they charged me $10 a day for the service......... I will never use these sharks again and would advise caution.

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“Rip of artists”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Kevinfenner on 09/04/2017

We rented in Malaga, nice car, we declined insurance as we have it on our credit card On returning car, inspection was done no damage so we got our deposit back After being home 3 weeks we get a notification that we have done $600 damage that will be charged to our credit card; they send 7 photos that 1 of them shows a scratch of about 12mm on door Now I know that's not getting repaired, as the car already had damage, and it's definitely not worth $600; as I said rip of artists my cred it card has insurance so will be paid but be very wary of these sharks Take lots of photos, mind you this scratch could have come from anywhere my feeling is theyour just getting money falsely will NEVER rent from them again

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“Dishonest rental office - worst ever rental car...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by olCarroll407 on 04/04/2017

I made the mistake of trusting Thrifty's branch and pre-paid for a rental car for a week at Madeira airport in March 2017. On arrival I was given a terrible car called a Lancia Ypsilon having paid for a Peugeot 108. The agent tried to describe it as an upgrade which I declined to pay for. They showed me the Ypsilon saying it was all they had. There was damage to one tyre which they said was all recorded indicating the condition report. The car was terrible - with a shuddering on braking from the front offside wheel and a slpiping clutch which made hill starts unsafe. I stopped using it and used busses and taxis. I didn't want to spend a day of my holiday changing the car so just returned it to the airport on flying out. They then examined the car and claimed the damaged tyre was new and denied it was pre-existing. I disputed this pointing out they had recorded it - they refused to give me the original condition report. The agent smirked and said they had my credit card details and anyway I should claim on my insurance. They have now taken €190 from my account for one small cut in a tyre which was pre-existing. Quite a good money generator and I dare say they have given the car and same tyre to another victim this week. Shocking dishonesty.

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“Cheats & Liars”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Spencerok189 on 29/03/2017

I returned my car at Barcelona airport with a full-tank of fuel. The inspector & desk clerk clearly stated 'no damage, tank full, nothing to pay sir'. Only when I got home did I spot they'd amended the form to show tank as 7/8 full & had stolen 39.57 euros (equating to 316 a tank!) off my credit card. Never use them, they are cheating liars.

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Stephen1955's Comment

Written on: 29/03/2017

We ave been sold a collision damage waiver, even though we had clearly stated that we had bought our own. Using thrifty is an extremely costly mistake. I was charged an extra 350 Euro at the desk when we arrived tired and wanting to get going. Avoid.

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“Terrible customer service”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Kyson126 on 21/03/2017

Treated dreadfully by two members of staff there who almost refused service for not paying by credit card or having a flight off Hawaii, neither of which I was warned about. I've since had terrible interactions with Thrifty regarding refunds. Terrible customer service in the Kona branch and centrally. Would never use again.

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