Comments on: After car rental disaster, angry customer mails “gesture of goodwill” back to Thrifty

By: Larry

Larry — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:23:17 +0000

Having recently rented from Thrifty in Raleigh, I can guarantee you that it will be a very cold day before I EVER rent from them again. Their tactics are pathetic and their efforts to delay the customer as long as possible seem to be well-tuned. I just had the opportunity to rent from them in Honolulu. Did not even think twice about using them, went with a better company instead. Hats off to Ms. W. She gave them more opportunity then they deserve.

By: ajaynejr

ajaynejr — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:00:41 +0000

What, pray, happens if you accept the car and it is running kinda’ rough and later on in your rental it shows signs of needing attention and you keep on driving it anyway. Then when you return the car, it needs, say, new brake rotors/drums as opposed to just new brake pads/shoes. In other words a repair that is now major?

By: Stephen - NYC

Stephen - NYC — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:43:15 +0000

@Ames: Don’t get me started on my doctor’s new rule about having to cancel with a 24-hour notice or else get hit with a $25 fee. Gee, then how about having an answering service instead of a system that doesn’t allow for messages? I make an appt for, let’s say, 9am. Gee, would it be so bad if you saw me at 9? My time is worth something too. I do what the airlines are allowed: give ‘em 15 minutes and then start walking (pacing is more like it) around the office and eventually ask when am I going to be seen?
I agree with the rest of your comment too.

As for Thrifty here, 2 years old in and of itself is not a problem. But don’t they check their cars for problems? What about the previous renter of the car? Didn’t that person note the problem when they returned it (or maybe they gave it back right away)? I can’t imagine the problem just started when the OP drove the car.
And if you’re going to give somebody $20, then refund them the money, don’t give a voucher. A voucher just says that you don’t care about this problem enough to even discount it.

By: DN

DN — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:18:55 +0000

Rental cars in Denver are absolutely filthy, especially in the winter and spring during ski season. Cars aren’t washed in cold areas (Manchester, NH, Boston, MA, etc) during the winter but most car agencies leave a note explaining why (ice buildup on doors and windows). I’ve had cars with garbage in the glove compartment or gum in the cigarette ashtray. While car companies shouldn’t rent cars that are filthy, sometimes it can’t be helped or it’s missed..

However, if there’s a mechanical issue, that’s when I demand a replacement. I rented a car in Providence from National and heard wind noises and metallic rattling in MA. I pulled over and found that a body panel near the windshield was loose and only shook above 50mph. Relatively new Ford Flex, with under 4000 miles. Returned it because I didn’t want to get charged $$$ if it flew off the car.

Chevy Malibu rented in Salt Lake City; as it got darker, I realized that the third brake light stayed on continuously – whether I was hitting the brakes or not. Returned it.

Depending on the location, since a rental car can go for $40-$80 a day, $20 in vouchers could be pretty insulting.

By: Chicky

Chicky — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:24:10 +0000

@Chris: I am not cracking on Thrifty as a company here, and I certainly agree there are generally at least two sides to every story.
However, car prices in my area, at least, have leveled off, especially for Kia and Hyundai. You can get a brand new Kia Rio for $11K. My sister paid $23K for a Sportage. I was with her when she bought it. And I’m sure car rental companies get a discount.
There is no excuse for not maintaining vehicles. Period. None. This is non-negotiable. I don’t care what agency is doing the renting. I don’t know how severe the noise was that Bette heard. And while I’m sure she’s thankful it got her to her destination and back, if you’re petrified the whole way that the motor is going to fall out, it doesn’t make for a pleasant trip. Not good for business, either. And if she wasn’t exaggerating and the noise was bad, it was a maintenance issue, and there’s no way around it.
My main point all along has been that Bette should have (if she didn’t) very strongly pointed out the noise when she returned the car, if that was possible. She might have had to do the key drop thing, or whatever, which prevented her from doing so.
I work for a newspaper. I know first hand how annoyed people can exaggerate and turn a small issue into something that will, no doubt, affect Western Civilization as we know it.
But assuming her story is even 75 percent correct, Thrifty owes her more than $20.

By: Jack Greene

Jack Greene — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:57:06 +0000

I had a similar experience in Chicago many summers ago during the United Airlines problems. Twice Avis dropped me at a dirty and unprepped car. I too was in a hurry (needed to get to Cleveland and my flight had been cancelled), but went back into the office and into the preferred customer line (which I was not). To their credit they immediately upgraded me, put me in a car just outside the door and I was on my way. Their agent’s willingness to make a decision and solve the problem earned my business for many years afterwards even if the cost was a little higher.

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:16:21 +0000

I agree the aging of the rental car fleet is becoming a major problem. I’m “President’s Circle” with HERTZ and have been for a number of years. I used to get the newer cars — those with less than 5,000 miles or so on them. Some almost brand new. More recently, my Hertz cars have had 25k or 30k or even 40k+ miles on them.. were dinged/banged up; often dirty, and usually the “service engine soon or oil change needed” light comes on all the time. This on top of the fact that many of my rental costs have nearly doubled in some places… I often pay much more in renting a car than in the airfare to/from the location. I am also seeing that they are cutting the number of cars available significantly, so much so that several times I’ve gotten the last car or so in the early afternoon with lots of folks still to come in later that day. And forget the nice “free” upgrades I used to get… they are harder and harder to get as the rental car companies want the $$$ instead.

By: mark

mark — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:46:40 +0000

I used Ace in LA once and had 2 issues 1 the tag was expired so we got a ticket for that. 2nd the breaks were grinding the entire trip. That car should not have been on the road. My complaint fell on deaf ears with Ace and i will not use them again

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:02:16 +0000

@Gerry:

“Indeed, if Bette reads the fine print on her discount certificates, I’ll bet she discovers they actually are worthless because they have so many conditions and requirements attached to their use.”

Incorrect. Vouchers issued by Thrifty Customer Care are valid for all U.S./Canada locations and are valid toward payment of all charges with no restrictions, including payment of taxes and optional extras. (The only caveat is that if the full value of the voucher is not used, the balance is forfeited–but they’re usually issued in $10 or $20 increments, so that’s rarely an issue.)

“CEOs earn too much money and they skip from company to company, rather than coming up the ranks. They don’t know anything about their actual business, and consequently they run it into the ground. (Robert Nardelli, anyone?) Every one of the corporate suits who has paraded his myriad failings across the pages of my newspaper lately has been staggeringly entitled and arrogant. That is the attitude that underlies Bette’s experience…If Thrifty’s CEO runs the business into the ground, one thing is for sure: he won’t suffer.”

Response from everyone I’ve talked to, inside and out, is that DTAG’s new CEO (appointed Oct. 2008) is a VERY positive move for the company and customers. The previous CEO, Gary Paxton, was not well liked by the people I talked to, and I felt the attitude you speak of. Not true of the new one. See this interview for more on him: http://www.businessfleet.com/Blog/Auto-Focus/Story/2009/08/Dollar-Thrifty-s-Scott-Thompson-Talks-Refranchising-Remarketing-and-Recovery.aspx

@Chicky:

“Yes, the car was only 2 years old. A two-year-old rental is nearing the end of its rental life….Thrifty shouldn’t have allowed that car out of the garage. It should have been on their sale lot to start with. If it had broken down, they’d have been responsible for picking it up, providing Bette with another car and getting the car repaired. It shouldn’t have been rented. Period.
You trust that a rental company does at least minimum maintenance on their fleet and that these cars are safe to drive. Getting one with that kind of noise makes you wonder about the safety issue.”

Welcome to the new rental industry. Even your favorite, top-tier agencies (Hertz, National, Avis) with whom you pay a huge premium will be running cars for three years and to 60,000 miles. With financing hard to come by and vehicle prices shooting through the roof as American manufacturers retool their production processes and stop practically giving their cars to rental companies, expect cars to be held for a LOT longer. See this editorial for details: http://www.autorentalnews.com/t_inside.cfm?action=article_pick&storyID=1684

In my experience, customers tend to vastly exaggerate issues. A tiny brake squeal becomes a horrendous screaming noise that you can’t hear the radio over. A little water from the car wash steaming off the radiator in the 0-degree weather becomes the radiator exploding. I have to take her description of the sound with a HUGE grain of salt as well as her description of an “absolutely filthy” car. It was probably perfectly clean but with a little dust from having sat out on the lot for a day. Or it could have been a rainy, muddy day. Or any other number of reasons.

Regardless, though, it got her to and from her destination perfectly safely without breaking down. If it had broken down, I’d be singing a different tune. But it was probably such a tiny issue that the previous customer and the Thrifty detailers didn’t even notice it (and remember, the only way for a rental company to know about problems is if they’re reported).

As to maintaining vehicles, you can read DTAG CEO’s comments on that subject in the first link I posted.

By: Jeanne (in NE)

Jeanne (in NE) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:55:04 +0000

I can think of many reasons why Ms. Waterstreet was in a time crunch when picking up the vehicle – delayed flight, long line to pick up vehicle, business scheduling. Those posting saying she should have been there “early” have no idea what Ms. Waterstreet’s schedule was. In fact, her arrival time is immaterial. Thrifty was the one that fell down on its end of the business arrangement. The car was “filthy” and it ran poorly.

The article doesn’t say what happened when she returned the car to Thrifty. She may have mentioned things at that point. She may have had “self check”, where she merely put the keys in a drop box. I wasn’t there, I wasn’t privy to the transaction, so I would be quite hesitant to pass judgment on this woman.