Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Thrifty car rental= shifty car rental? Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea
gaijinalways 01:24 UTC 10 Apr 2012 | I recently used Thrifty rental car for the first (and last time). A nightmare would be the best way to describe it: 1) Reservation was not on record and company seemed to have outsourced the rental. 2) Car finally brought to the hotel, but contract not really fully explained (major problem later). 3) Car turned out to be pretty beat up (inside looked dated and the mirror adjustment handle on the driver's side didn't work), hardly newer model shown on their website. 4) After an accident occurred, they never spoke with me initially at the accident site on March 30th. 5) Told me that since I had signed the contract, I was liable for the excess even though I had questions about the other driver's liability (she made little or no effort to avoid hitting me as she actually forced her car to pass on the right after I had pretty much completed turning. Also strangely enough, the police were never called. 6) Thrifty staff brought an interpreter to the meeting (where was she when the initial reservation was made?), but she only created more problems, with her and the staff member insisting I had signed a contract with them. They stated the police didn't need to be called, even thought the Thrifty website recommends calling them. The woman told me that no rental car company offered a reduction on the liability access, which turned out to be a lie since Avis offered to reduce it to about 1/3 of the amount of the collision bond. 7) Complained to company by email, but their website indicates a complaint will take up to 21 days to be responded to (nice, since the credit card will be debited by then). 8) Received damage report from the rental car company by email and asked for a translation and also asked if it is usual to only get one mechanic's estimate (in the US you normally need at least 3). Bill rendered in French/ scan copy only. 9) Tried calling their customer service, the company has no international access number, only a 1-800 number for customer service (I live in Japan), Called the reservations number and was transferred to customer service's automated call waiting message and got tired of waiting after 20 minutes. Strongly recommend to never use this rental car company, I don't know how they claim they are an "international" company. |
libbyh 06:57 UTC 10 Apr 2012 | 1) So? 2) Did you ask? 3) It's a Pacific island, not a major US city, or Japan. 4) Why should they? 5) Sounds normal - who did you expect to call the police, why not you? 6) You had signed the contract, hadn't you? 7) 3 weeks to handle a complaint sounds quite reasonable 8) Should a French-speaking country be expected to provide documents in every customer's language? 9) Why not wait for a response to your email? | 1
ozziegiraffe 12:52 UTC 10 Apr 2012 | At no point does the OP tell us what country this happened in. The French part sounds like New Caledonia or French Polynesia, but the 1-800 number sounds more like Australia. | 2
watsoff 16:36 UTC 10 Apr 2012 | Had similar problems with a car rental in Fiji, but not Thrifty. Guess one needs to do a lot of research beforehand or just bite the bullet. Ended up costing me a bundle. | 3
libbyh 21:04 UTC 10 Apr 2012 | According to a post on another branch, it was New Caledonia. | 4