Thrifty Car Rental
Thrifty Car Retnal - charged for insurance and gas even when we specifically declined them

My husband traveled to Norfolk, VA via Southwest Airlines. When we made his airline reservations, we also made a car rental reservation with Thrifty since it was at the airport.

When my husband got to the rental store, the rental agent insisted he needed the additional insurance. My husband insisted, SEVERAL times, that he did not want the insurance. The agent finally told him he would take it off, and did make an entry - or appeared to - on his computer screen. My husband also told the agent he did not want to prepay for a full tank of gas, as he knew he was not going to be driving that much. He told the agent several times that he would return the car with a full tank of gas.

When it came time to sign the rental agreement, the agent rushed him, and did not give him a chance to review the agreement. Of course - you guessed it - he was charged for both insurance and a full tank of gas.

When he returned home, I attempted to contact Thrifty. Their customer service office is closed on Sunday (with a 24x7 world-wide operation?), so I filled out a complaint on their web site. The automatic response said I would get a response back within 5-8 business days. It's now been 2 MONTHS with no response. I did email them again about 3 weeks later, and still no response.

I sent in a new complaint a couple of weeks ago - still no response.

I finally found the name and address of the company president and sent them a formal, written (as in US mail) letter. I finally got a response! The person who called me was a customer service manager. She apologized for the lack of response - she said they always respond. I let her know that to date, I have still not gotten a response, other than her call.

We discussed the situation, and she would still not refund the money for the insurance. She did agree to refund the charge for the gas, since the car was returned with a full tank of gas.

So a rental that was supposed to be $67 cost us almost $200. This was a complete ripoff!

Company: Thrifty Car Rental
Country: USA
State: Virginia
City: Norfolk

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