Thrifty Car Rental

I've reserved the vehicle for Thanksgiving to visit families via Expedia. When I walked into the store, front desk told me that all their cars are out. I proved them my reservation number and all they responded was "that was an internet error". What a way to ruin Thanksgiving
8 years ago (11-10-2017)

My wife & I rented from Thrifty Car rental while visiting Winnipeg last fall. The price we paid was exactly as was quoted. We thought we would rent from the same company while visiting Atlantic Canada. I went online and found their website and reserved a car based on an advertised discounted price if your pre-pay. We deiced to go with that option. I then received an email that provided a detailed description of the terms & conditions. The payment at that time was approximately 70% of the total price with an indicated amount that we would have to pay at the counter. We arrived at the Halifax airport after a long trip and made our way to the rental counter. We were told the car model we had reserved 2 months prior was unavailable and we had to take a different car. The woman quickly described our terms & condition options. Most of which were not followed by a price. She then produced a document and quickly asked me to initial and sign. The bill was then produced and it was about 5X more than the indicated amount on the email we received. The problem is we had pre-paid about 70% of the cost and were now faced with a losing situation. Cancelling the rental would not be practical as we would then have to rent a car on site at a far great price. The hidden costs included: Premium Pick Charge - 16.28% of total bill Energy recovery fee - .88% Vehicle licence fee & air con tax - 1.76% per day Loss Damage waiver - $31.99/day Prepaid fuel charge - $53.00 HST - 15% Again I would like to stress, while some of the additional items were optional, none of these fees were described on the website before the booking took place. The customer is at a distinct disadvantage when arriving as these costs are a surprise and by and large it is too late to rebook at a different car rental company. I would never rent from this organization again as i found their business practices are unethical and underhanded.
8 years ago (30-04-2017)

I would avoid Thrifty at all costs. They quoted us one price and charged us over double without any indication there would be a change in price. Shady business. Stay away.
8 years ago (03-07-2017)

We rented a car from them for 4 days in April 2016. I went with them because they had a great rate at $20/day. Big mistake. When we returned the car, they falsely accused us of causing two chips in the windshield. We were floored. We are 100% certain they did not occur during our rental. In fact, I went out to the car and could not find them. I went back in and the agent came out with me and showed me two teeny tiny pits….the size of the tiny tip of a needle. You could not feel them on the inside. We wondered how she could of possibly seen them in the short time she was doing the inspection and the windshield was dirty from normal driving. It almost seemed as if she knew where to look because she had seen them before. We were livid. When we did the initial inspection when we got the car it was in the dark parking garage and it was pouring rain outside so it was very, very dark. Needless to say we did not see them even with a flashlight. She told us we could pay for the windshield repair (she said we were lucky they wouldn’t have to replace the windshield…so kind of her) plus a day the car would be out of service or we could send it to claims. I asked a few questions and found out they manage their own claims so that wasn’t going to work. Having to catch a flight, we had no choice but to add another $80 on our bill. We were trapped. So much for our great daily rate. Learnings…be very careful if you choose to rent from Thrifty (they also rent dollar cars in the same location). When you have to rent a car, make the rental agency take it outside of the parking garage into the daylight for you to do the inspection. Document every teeny, tiny scratch, pit, mark on the outside and the inside even it takes an hour to do so. Take pictures and videos. Otherwise, you are exposing yourself to more charges for damages you did not do. I would of paid less if I had gone with one of the other car rental agencies. BTW, I gave them one star only because I had too in order to post this warning to others.
9 years ago (08-04-2016)

This Thrifty/Dollar car rental office is a rip off On my resent and first trip to Halifax I had booked a car on line and my original cost for a Toyota camry (or similar) it was: Subtotal of the Rental: CAD $50.00 Taxes and Fees: CAD $22.75 Amount Due at Pick-up: CAD $72.75 When I arrived they convinced me to upgrade to a GMC terrain "The least expensive SUV "(the agent said there was a big snow storm coming over night. Well there was only some rain and wet snow. Good road conditions for any car). When I return the exotic SUV (NOT) I was charged the grant total of $ 239.58 more than 3 times of the original price. Don't get sucked in to their scam!!
10 years ago (04-02-2016)