Dear Thrifty Car Rental,
I want to complain about your deplorable service and customer care, and to explain why I will never rent from you. While I know this is a problem with Thrifty, I’m convinced this problem has infected all Hertz-owned companies. After all, a fish stinks from the head down.
To start, you gave me a car with a bad battery that I had to replace myself. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Last Saturday, I flew into Indianapolis and had reserved a car with Thrifty (which is owned by Hertz). The total cost was less than $400, which is a great price for a week’s rental.
When I got to the desk, a sign said that if I paid with a debit card, you were going to place an additional $500 hold on my card. This was upsetting because it did not say on your website, "When you get here, we’re going to charge you WAY more than we originally told you."
When I expressed my annoyance, your attendant said, "Yeah, they don’t put it online, so a lot of people are surprised." I can imagine all the staff at Thrifty (which is owned by Hertz) hear this complaint many, many, many times a day.
Other readers may be thinking, "That wouldn’t happen if you used a credit card." They would be right: credit card holders are only hit with a $200 surprise charge.
This happens with all your brands. I imagine Thrifty (which is owned by Hertz) has derailed a lot of vacation plans this way.
Imagine people vacationing on a budget. They’ve saved and planned everything down to the penny, only to be hit with a surprise fee that doubles their car rental price.
It would be one thing if you told people in advance, "We’re going to seize hundreds of dollars from your budget." Then, they can plan accordingly. But you blindside them with a poorly designed sign printed on your office printer and marked with a blue highlighter.
This happened to me. I had money budgeted for my one-week vacation, and you took $500 of it, which caused me to change and cancel plans. Yes, the money was refunded when I dropped off the car, but that didn’t do me any good during my actual trip.
This isn’t even the biggest insult.
I discovered this Wednesday morning when I couldn’t start the car. I hadn’t left the headlights on (there’s a loud alert if you do), and all the doors had been closed all night.
We called AAA, and they sent someone to jump it and run a diagnostic. He found that the battery health was Zero Percent.
"How long will the charge last?" I asked the guy.
"I wouldn’t turn it off," he said.
No problem, I thought. I’ll go to my next place, call your emergency roadside assistance, and have them bring a replacement battery.
"We can’t do that," said the woman who worked for Thrifty (which is owned by Hertz).
"Yeah, but the guy who comes to jump the car could just bring a battery, can’t he?"
"No, our service providers only handle jump starts and lockouts." She said I could either exchange the car at the airport or I could take it to get the battery changed.
"We’ll give you a voucher that will pay for the battery."
"Isn’t that your job?" I asked. "This sounds like a problem you guys should have caught during routine maintenance. Why am I changing your battery for you?"
"I’m sorry for the inconvenience," she said, not sounding sorry. "It should only take a few minutes." This was a lie.
When I got to Pep Boys, they said it would take at least an hour.
"Seriously?" I said. "Thrifty (which is owned by Hertz) said it would take a few minutes."
"Yeah, no," said Pep Boys. "We have to get approval from their fleet department."
"What approval?" I said. "There’s a voucher right here."
"I know, but that’s only to pay for it. The fleet department still has to approve it."
I was there for two hours because your fleet department didn’t respond immediately. Pep Boys had to call twice before finally getting approval, and it took 20 minutes before their computer showed the approval.
All told, I spent four hours doing your job. I replaced your dead battery, which should have been caught during one of your regular maintenance checks, and wasted half a day, canceling appointments to get it done.
It would have taken way less time if I had just gone to the airport. I would have only wasted two hours, and could have salvaged a little more of my day.
Thank you for a memorable experience in what is my last-ever rental from your company and its affiliates. It has given me a great story that I’m going to share with as many people as I can.
In fact, my new travel motto is "Avoid being Thrifty, because it Hertz too much."
My new humor novel, Mackinac Island Nation, is finished and available from 4 Horsemen Publications. You can get the ebook and print versions here.