Thrifty Car Rental - Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky International Airport — Local services in Burlington

If I could give 0 stars, I would. I have easily rented a vehicle 100 times for work and personal use, and I have never had an experience like this. Pick-up was terrible. They tried to put me in a very large truck and told me that was all they had for the manger special, which is fine, but the price for a different vehicle was more than what I had paid for the initial car rental for 4 days. If I hadn’t taken a red eye and been up all night, I would have went to another car rental company.

I didn’t know if my kid needed a booster seat, given her height and age, and the response I got from the customer service woman at the counter, who I assume is the same woman other reviewers described as the insufferable, old blonde lady, was that I had to have one or she would call the police on me and I would be arrested. I asked if she knew the height and weight requirements for children in Kentucky, she didn’t. She later said she googled them after she had already said this to me. She couldn’t even see my child so clearly didn’t know her height and weight. Notably, if my child needed one and I didn’t have it, it’s a $30 civil infraction in Kentucky, not a criminal offense that I would be arrested for. She also said this in front of my kid, who was standing close enough to be able to hear her, and scared her. She tried to sell me insurance coverage and was visibly annoyed when I told her I was using my own. Trying to get quotes on a different vehicle since they only had a Ram 2500 truck was time consuming. She blamed it on the system and was annoyed that I was asking for another vehicle. She told me. I had to print out my gas receipt as well when I returned it since I declined their prepaid gas. I was given an estimate for about $145 for additional charges for the other vehicle and the booster seat.

Fast forward to returning the vehicle. Vehicle was due for return at 7:00 a.m. I had the vehicle there at 6:46. I checked in with an attendant who said to leave the keys in the vehicle and I would be emailed a receipt. I asked him if he needed the gas receipt the lady told me I had to have and he said I didn’t need it. In an abundance of caution, I took pictures of the vehicle with the receipts and the paperwork before I left. Those pictures are time stamped at 6:46 a.m.

As I am boarding my plane, I get an email with a receipt that says I turned in my vehicle late at 8:35 a.m., when I was literally already on my plane. I was fraudulently charged an additional almost $50 in late fees and other charges.

I tried to call the Thrifty phone number, not able to get through to someone to speak about this. I filled out both of their surveys about my experience that said I would be contacted within 2-3 days, and no one has contacted me. If I don’t hear anything within the next day, I will dispute the charges as fraudulent. I am now reading the reviews and seeing that I am not the only one this has happened to. I hope that Thrifty responds...

Beware of additional charges that they may add to your reservation and poor customer service when trying to get them refunded.

I normally rent with Alamo but decided to go with Thrifty because it was a little cheaper. I made an online reservation for $98.30. When I arrived at the counter, the lady (who was very nice and welcoming) informed me that the credit card I gave her did not match the one on my Thrifty rewards account. So I could not get my car unless I personally called customer service and asked them to switch my saved card to the one that I wanted to use. Mind you that I didn't even make the reservation with this card; it was simply the saved one on my account from a reservation years ago.

I called customer service, switched the card on my account to my new one, and returned to the counter. The lady said that the switch was not made and that she therefore could not honour my reservation and would have to make a walk-up reservation for me. However, she could not match the online price that I was given, so she charged me $104.96. She told me to contact customer support to have the difference refunded so that it would match my original reservation.

When I returned the car a couple days later, the man who helped me with the return said that I would receive my receipt by email, but he never asked me to confirm the total. I assumed that I was charged the amount that I was quoted when I received the vehicle. Instead, I checked my email to see a charge of $132.12!

Please see the included screenshots to verify the following information shared here. I was charged $10.06 for "Concession Fee Recovery" instead of $8.25 on my rental agreement, $6.75 for "Vehicle License Fee" instead of $4.50 on my rental agreement, and $22.50 for "Facility Charge" instead of $15.00 on my rental agreement. I was also charged an additional $13.98 for an extra hour even though I returned the car only 7 minutes late (their website states that you have a 30-minute grace period).

After contacting customer service and exchanging many emails with them, I was given a partial refund of $23.20, but that does not even cover the difference between the final charge and my rental agreement, not to mention my original reservation.

I contacted them again and am waiting for a response and expect to receive the remainder of the difference refunded. If I do, I will update this review and my rating.

UPDATE After several email responses, Thrifty finally refunded the remaining amount to bring my total cost down to the quote on my original reservation. I am changing my rating from 1-star to 2-stars to reflect this effort on their part, but I cannot give higher than two stars based on everything that happened to get...

I called today, 10/9/18 after seeing a charge on my bank account approximately $140.00 larger than what was quoted to me at the counter. I am leaving this negative and lengthy review because this experience has left such a poor taste in my mouth that I and my family will never do business with Thrifty Rental again.

Here is why: I feel misled on the cost and that the wrong expectation was set from when I ordered the car (Toyota Yaris) to conclusion of my rental and payment. When I ordered the car online, I paid $102.00 to reserve the car and would pay an extra $45 in taxes and fees at the counter. To be safe, I got the extra insurance coverage in case anything happened to the car. No prices were listed anywhere on the insurance sheet, probably because no customer in their right mind would buy it. I was quoted an extra $194.85 on top of the $102.00 charge. A little pricey but fine, I chose the insurance.

When I'm coming back to return the car, I was 38 minutes late and got charged and extra day's worth of taxes plus an airport fee of $38.40. I was late because there was an accident on I-75 and that caused a 20 minute delay in getting to Thrifty Rental. There was nothing I could do as the highway narrowed from 3 lanes to 1. It is not fair for me to be charged an extra day in taxes as a result of highway construction.

I left the car at 3/8 full, so I recognize the charges of $9.99 in filling up the gas as excessive but valid. That accounted for about $70.00 or the $140.00 charge.

Furthermore, neither of the customer service representatives I talked to could explain what the airport fee was for. Nor could they give me a reasonable explanation of why 38 minutes would result in an extra day of taxes in charges. When I asked for a manager the person at your call center said he couldn't escalate the call further because there was no one else he above him. I highly doubt that.

DO NOT ORDER A CAR FROM HERE. YOUR RENTAL WILL BE QUOTED AS BEING AFFORDABLE BUT WILL ACTUALLY TURN OUT TO BE HUNDREDS OF...