Thrifty Car Rental — Local services in Columbus

I am only leaving one star because I cant leave 0 stars. I rented a vehicle for a route 66 road trip for my honeymoon. When we got to California one of the tires went flat. So I unpacked the car to get to the spare and jacked the tire up to remove the flat. Right before I pulled the tire off the jack broke so we were stranded in the California desert just past the Arizona/California border. I called Thrifty's roadside assistance and was told I would only be charged a service fee if they felt I used the jack improperly. (I have pics that show I did not and that the pavement was so hot that it was too soft to support one side of the scissor jack which had caused the collapse.) They told me they would call Nissan and have a new jack brought to us. This was around 4:45 PM Pacific. I recieved a call at 5:06 PM saying we were out of range from Nissan so they would dispatch a tow vehical and it would take about 60 minutes. At 6:10 PM no one showed up and it was starting to get dark so I called back to get an ETA. The rep said it would be 60-90 minutes to get someone there from the time of the dispatch and the dispatch was called in at 5:36 pacific. Well I'm not sure what happened between 5:06 and 5:36 pacific as at 5:06 I was told 60 minutes. I decided to go for a plan B at this point as I felt I was getting the run around. So my wife was calling tow truck services to get someone out here with a jack. As the 90 minutes ETA was breached from the 5:36 point I called back and asked the name of the tow service that was to be dispatched. The company the rep gave me was actually the same company my wife had been on the phone with for the past 10 minutes to get someone out there. So I asked her to get an ETA from them while she was on the phone with them. They stated they had not recieved the dispatch to send someone out. Luckily, less than 2 minutes later a good samaritan stopped and let me use his jack to get out of the desert just before nightfall. I would still be stranded there if it was up to Thrifty. I went to return the vehicle today and they had a $70 towing fee on my final invoice for the dispatch. I got the run around from the rep at the counter (seems like Thrifty loves giving people the runaround) and was told I would have to call corporate. Apparently the rep did not know how to use a phone or he was unwilling to help me. I will never ever use Thrifty again and I will go out of my way to keep others...

It is truly unfortunate that you cannot select zero stars. The level of shadiness exhibited by the staff at this Columbus, OH location is nothing short of miraculous. It is worthy of a short film.

My wife travels for work, and rented a car here. Her online quote was $23.14. She arrived a bit late for her meeting, verbally declined the additional insurance coverage, and agreed to have the car topped off with fuel upon her return. When she returned the car 2 hours and 15 minutes later, she was charged $114 for the rental. She drove 25 miles total, which we have documented, and had the car for a handful of hours. They charged $46.50 for fuel.... for 25 miles! When my wife complained, the clerk said "you are supposed to drive as much as possible when you select the fuel purchase." My wife tried to argue, but had to catch a flight and ended up just paying so she didn't miss her plane.

I have spoken with 3 UTTERLY USELESS Thrifty corporate representatives. We didn't mind paying for the things we used, including fuel for 25 miles. However, we don't feel that this was a fair amount for services rendered.

We tried to have the fuel refunded, and were told that gas was "Not a refundable charge." ARE YOU KIDDING? It isn't like the federal government won't let you give me my money back....You just invented a policy to make yourselves feel better about being a terrible company.

After much arguing, I gave up, and decided to dispute thru AMEX. At the end of the day, it will cost thrifty well more than the $50 we wanted back, and we will never rent from thrifty again. Great PR from a big company. We rent 4 times per week....Thrifty's loss!

Upon reading other reviews, it became apparent that this is their tactic. What a miserable...

Everything went smooth, payments were exactly as stated. I did record a video (which I added here) of the vehicle they gave me before I left because there was a noticeable mark on the rear bumper and when I returned it the attendant at the drop off asked me about the mark so I showed him the video with the time stamp and in it I recorded what parking spot it was in, plus the mileage on the dash so he knew it was there before I acquired the vehicle so he had to accept that I didn't do it but had I not recorded that I'm not sure how things would've went so I'll just suggest that others do this or at least get a sheet with any issues prior to taking a vehicle from any rental company. Otherwise everything went perfectly but I deducted a star not just because the person receiving the vehicle was not aware of the mark on the bumper but that I had to pull out my phone, go through my videos and prove that it was there beforehand. They should've had that documented and he should've been able to access that information without me having to go through that, I still wonder "what if I had not recorded it" but that's just a what if, aside from that the whole experience was better than expected. Even making changes to my reservation was simple, I needed to add a day or two within a day or two prior to pickup and it was very simple. The vehicle was nice, clean and other than that minor black spot on the bumper it was really nice, low miles, it was suitable for...