Thirfty/Dollar Car Rental

tim862 · Post by **tim862** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:01 pm

Booked a vehicle online through the Thrifty reservations system. First off, when we arrived at the airport, no one would answer the phone at Thrifty to pick us up, as promised. Took a cab there and found other very angry people waiting in the lobby and parking lot empty. No vehicles, no matter that you had a confirmation number. Whoever owns this place should be hung out to dry. They left some girl there about 20 years old that was clueless. So obviously we, nor anyone in that lobby got a vehicle. Spent the money to take a taxi to our destination on the east end. We ended up getting a vehicle the next day from EZ Car Rental near Red HOok. They picked us up and also dropped us off on returning the vehicle. We will never rent a vehicle from Thrifty again, even in the US. Also, this is attached to Dollar Car Rental, one in the same, if one doesn't have cars neither does the other. What a terrible feeling and a terrible business.

Berlingirl · Post by **Berlingirl** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:50 pm

Sorry Tim...we've used them a number of times in the past without problems. I did notice this last time I booked they were the only ones that did not require a credit card number for a 4 wheel drive rental. We don't usually rent a 4 wheel drive, but do this time around. Guess they were oversold.

Other than that, did the rest of your trip turn out well??

cocosmom · Post by **cocosmom** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:27 pm

Wow, so sorry..they were great to us. Sounds like they are going downhill

tim862 · Post by **tim862** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:20 pm

I went the whole route, credit card # etc. and am a very experienced traveler. This was my first time to St. Thomas so I thought I'd better choose a recognized company. The frustrating part for me was having no where to turn. I just want this out there for everyone to know and be aware.

Ended up going to St. John's and staying for a few days. Had a great time there and will return.

Mrs. P. · Post by **Mrs. P.** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:16 pm

Sorry this happened to you, but you are not the first nor will you be the last. It has happened to us, but it only took once, will never rent from them again. There are a long list of complaints on another V.I board.

BillVT · Post by **BillVT** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:29 am

Something like this happen to us a few years ago. Usually we rent our vehicles on St John, but our best friend was laid low with Parkinsons. Rather than put him through the ordeal of taxi and ferry his wife made a reservation through Thrifty/Dollar.

After splitting up and getting our own cab at the airport to their agency off site, we found a line up of irate customers as you did. As vehicles came in, they cleaned them as quick as they could, and turned them back out. We eventually got a vehicle, just not the one that we had reserved. But this is story we got.

Since you cannot reserve directly to their St Thomas site and must book through the corporate system, there is no method in place to alert anyone when St Thomas is over booked. And even if there was such a system in place, corporate would just instruct another near by agency to shift their left over inventory over to the overbooked agency. Which works on the mainland ok. Not so much in the islands. I would send a letter to corporate, like we did, and tell them their system stinks. Also, do business with the locals. Most of them run excellent business and want your return business.

rpplano · Post by **rpplano** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:16 pm

Something has gone wrong at Thrifty. I just fired them this week after many years of good service. They screwed up a rental last month, never hit my card for it and this week sent me a collections letter for it. SURPRISE!
They've ignored my email to corporate for over a week.
Something's up.

Moose · Post by **Moose** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:31 pm

So they knew how to take the reservation, just not Hold the reservation...

Unfortunately I have had this happen in the states with Hertz, Avis and Enterprise as well. I think there is something in the fine print if they don't have a car or what not they don't have to honor your reservation (this is why they don't take credit cards to hold reservations any longer at the large companies). Sucks when I am trying to get to a meeting, must have really sucked when you were starting your vacation!

Gromit · Post by **Gromit** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:10 am

Sorry that you had such an awful experience.

Yet another good reason to try and go local with rentals. They can't hide behind a big corporation.

Diana2 · Post by **Diana2** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:53 am

This another example of how the way of doing business in the states does not translate to the island way of doing business. We have always and will continue to book our Jeeps with an on-island St. John based agency.

philbetm · Post by **philbetm** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:58 pm

This is kinda scaring me. We have never rented
from them before...but...I did reserve a Nitro
with them starting May 1st. this coming trip!!
Should I start looking for a car somewhere
else ???

Sounds like it might
be a wise thing to do.

Mrs. P. · Post by **Mrs. P.** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:17 pm

After our experience with them, I would look at another company.

Rbaron721 · Post by **Rbaron721** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 6:04 pm

Thrifty sucks...horribly. I made a reservation with them about a month before I got to St. Thomas in late December of 2009 and when I got to the airport and called them, they said they had no cars left. This reminded me of the episode of seinfeld where the exact same thing happened to Jerry. I plan to post my own topic about this just to reiterate my disgust for Thrifty. Enjoy the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4jhHoHpFXc[/url]

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