HereAndThereSC

Saw this occur to me over the week-end at PDX:

I booked a rental for Sat 1/15 4pm to Sun 1/16 9am. So it's a 1-day rental.

I pick up the car at around 4pm, return it at 9am. I am charged TWO days. ...?

I ask for explanation, and I'm told "Oh we process the Blue Chips members in the morning".

In other words, they checked me in at 7am the Sat., and with a 9am return on the Sun, that rolled me into a second day.

I asked for a refund of the 2nd day since I hadn't even had the car for 24 hours, they refunded it without a problem, but the girl there seemed to be a little PO'ed that I was asking for it to be set straight.

Anyways, another Thrifty scam...

HTSC

fairviewroad

This is out-and-out fraud. If you wish to contribute in some small way to preventing this from happening to less-aware customers, file a complaint with the Oregon Attorney General's office.

http://www.doj.state.or.us/finfraud/...lanation.shtml

darthbimmer

This practice is not limited to PHX and it is not necessarily a scam. I have encountered it at Thrifty offices around the US. As the clerk at PDX explained to you, the office is processing Blue Chip rental paperwork in advance to reduce the length of time Blue Chips must wait at the depot. I believe it is genuinely intended as a courtesy. I've never had difficulty with a clerk fixing the overcharge.

mikew99

This makes no sense. Processing the rental in advance of the pickup time so that the car is ready is a courtesy. Charging for the rental in advance of the pickup time is a scam. No way should renters have to waste time getting that fixed when they return the car.

mirobatka

The question is, will there be a need to fix anything when you return. If you pick up at your original time and return on time, you should still only be charged for one day at the end, so you (probably/hopefully being the operative words here) won't have to have anything fixed.

fairviewroad

+1 on all points.


But the OP was charged an extra day. It's not a "question."

jackal

With Thrifty's computer system, there's no difference between "processing" the rental and "charging" (technically, "authorizing the card" on) the rental. A rental agent can't save and print a rental agreement without a verified form of payment attached.

If the contract is processed and set up before the customer arrives but not charged, there's nothing in the computer system to flag that the card should be charged when the customer drives off the lot.

The only way to do this is to run the authorization on the card when the rental is being set up.

Also, Thrifty needs to verify the validity of the card and its ability to hold the necessary deposit before the customer takes possession of the car. Otherwise, the customer could end up not paying for the car if Thrifty tries to later run the card and it declines.

Standard practice at Thrifty is to process a Blue Chip rental at least two hours before the customer's scheduled arrival and run the card at that time. If the card declines, the rental agreement is not saved, and the customer will need to proceed to the counter and provide an alternate form of payment in order to continue renting the car. Some locations choose to consolidate processing their Blue Chip rentals at a single time in order to avoid forgetting to do them later in the day just before the customers arrive. In these cases, the person processing the Blue Chip rentals should be forward-dating the rental agreement's "time out" to the customer's reserved pick-up time, but it's extremely easy to forget to do that.

Either way, though, this is the only way given Thrifty's computer system to guarantee that the Blue Chip rental process is handled smoothly and quickly and the customer can just "sign and go in under 60 seconds" (Thrifty's Blue Chip promise). Not running the card means the rental can't be processed until the customer arrives, which means the customer has to wait while the rental is processed. It's a mutually exclusive procedure.

Agree. It should be fixed when you pick up the car. Depending on the layout of the location you're renting from, you should make sure someone modifies the "time out" of your rental before or as you leave. At locations where you stop at a rental counter to pick up your contract and keys, make sure to remind the agent to modify your time out (and either re-print your contract with the correct time or have them initial by the correct time on your copy). At locations where you go directly to a preassigned car and drive out of a gate, tell the gate attendant to modify your time out to the current time, printing you a receipt or initialing on your paper copy.