My boyfriend and i dropped off our rental car (which was stained and dirty when we picked it up) on the monday we got back from vacation, by wednesday night we realized we forgot some stuff in the trunk so i called and talked to someone who said the car had already been sent back out but that they would check it when they got it back. so i called everyday since that night and no one would answer my phone calls. i left numerous voicemails with my number and my boyfriends number and the list of items we were missing. it took us a whole week to finally get a hold of someone to find out only some of our things were in the trunk. someone had taken expensive photos and our new sweatshirts we had gotten on our trip. now i know they wanted us to think the person who rented the car after us took the stuff but with the run around we got my belief is that whoever cleaned the car out when we dropped it off had something to do with taking our missing stuff. it has been a very shady situation and i would never deal with them again. i had already been turned off by the stained seats when we picked up the car in the first place!

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 accidently passed through one of the many toll booths while driving around central Florida incurring a 0.25 charge.

Thrifty informed me that they have changed this to my credit card and have added a $25 dollar "admin fee".
the theiving bastards.

My wife and I reserved an auto from Thrifty in Frankfurt Germany but after reading review comments about their Loss Damage Waver (LDW) policy and refusal to honor the insurance provided by using a MasterCard Gold/Platinum credit card in place of the LDW, we requested a policy statement from their home office and a copy of the benefits from MasterCard.

In the MasterCard benefits statement it clearly states the insurance is effective in all countries except Ireland, Israel, or Jamaica. I emailed Thrifty quoting the statement from MasterCard and asked if this was acceptable by Thrifty. Rick Moss of Thrifty responded that Thrifty accepted the Master Gold/Platinum in lieu of LDW. I then requested that Mr. Moss send me a statement that I could take with me to Germany confirming that Thrifty accepted the insurance provided by the Gold/Platinum MasterCard. I did not receive a response to that request or another request a few days later.

We took the MasterCard benefits booklet with us in case we had problems. Upon arrival at the Thrifty counter, we were told the MasterCard was not acceptable in lieu of the LDW without a specific letter from MasterCard stating that we (by name) were covered by their insurance in Germany and we would have to buy their LDW or put up a very large deposit. We immediately cancelled the Thrifty reservation and went to Hertz who had no hesitation in accepting the MasterCard in lieu of the LDW.

It appears Thrifty is playing a con game. Since Thrifty refused to provide a written statement confirming they accept the MasterCard insurance, they are obviously aware of the Thrifty Germany policy. The day may come when they make this a company wide policy, don’t get caught. After making a reservation and arriving at your destination, they feel they have you cornered and can force you to buy their LDW. Don’t accept this blackmail. There are other auto rental companies that will accept the MasterCard in lieu of the LDW.

Warning to all that have the misfortune to have an accident in a rental car owned by Thrifty. In Albuquerque New Mexico in the Summer 2008 I had such a misfortune. Bottom line, in New Mexico and several other states which follow the NAAG (National Association of Attorney Generals) guidelines, a rental company cannot charge Loss of Use that is not proportion to their local fleet usage rates. Thrifty charged 100% (fleet usage around 75%) and did so based on a fictitious body shop labor day of five hours instead of the industry standard of eight.

After several months of obfuscation from Thrifty, I am now forced to file a law suit to have them honor the law. If anyone has a similar situation and would like to participate in a class action suit, please leave a response to this post. Thank You.