DanTravel

Went to pick up my car rental in Uruguay today at Thrifty. I was on time, but they said car wasn't available and they had another option, but because it was in another class, I'd have to pay extra (70USD Extra per day). They would not honour my car booking I made from their website along with the email confirmation which showed the details. They would not help me at all, or offer and kind of assistance. Basically it screwed my plans up with no other options for today.

called reservations and got the same guy over and over again ("William") who hung up on me every time I asked to speak to a manager. He said he would not be able to help me.

Finally, after calling 5 times to reservations, I was able to speak with a manager (the first 4 times this William guy answered and hung up immidiately on me when I told him my name). I was able to speak to a manager who said it was the decision of the local rental place and I have to work it out with them. Thrifty would not be able to make sure the Thrifty in Uruguay honoured the reservation. She gave me a customer service line to call but they are only open during the week. ...

ive never had such a terrible experience. Any time there has been a problem, the car companies usually went out of their way to make it right. In this case, my expectation was that they would honour the original reservation at the reserved price and give me a car in another class if it was all that was available. Nope. They decided that screwing over a customer was better than making it right.

Any recommendations if there is anyway I can get thrifty to make this right?

My my lesson is. Don't use thrifty. So, I've definitely learned something.

Low Roller

Anyone else reminded of this Seinfeld episode?

AutoSlash

Unfortunately, this sort of thing is not uncommon outside the U.S. Like most non-US/CA locations, Thrifty in Uruguay is a franchised location owned by a local operator. Hertz (who owns Thrifty) doesn't really have the power to force them to do anything, but I believe there is some sort of chargeback process that can be initiated by Hertz corporate in the case where a customer has been incorrectly charged. Something it can be arduous to get them to admit wrongdoing though.

I would recommend filing a grievance with Thrifty corporate using this web form. Be specific and to the point about what you experienced and be clear and reasonable about what you expect Thrifty to do to resolve the situation (like honor the original rate and credit you for the upgrade charge). You can mention that you want to give them the opportunity to make things right before you are forced to escalate the matter and file a grievance request with your credit card company (which they would typically like to avoid).

If that doesn't work, reply back and we can advise on next steps.

IAHtraveler

Did you actually get the car and pay the UG fee, or walk away? That will dictate next steps.

jackal

It's called "back-billing" and Thrifty (DTAG) corporate definitely used to have this ability with their franchisees. Unfortunately, since things have switched over to the Hertz system and procedures, it seems (from my experiences and understanding) that Hertz corporate is no longer willing to back-bill franchisees and is referring all customer service inquiries about franchised locations directly to the franchisee for final resolution.

Good luck to the OP, though. I agree the best chances of getting this resolved will be if you did go ahead and pick up the rental and pay the higher amount and then file a customer service complaint--and failing any productive fruit from that, escalate to the VP level (contact info here may be helpful).

DanTravel

Thanks for the replies. When I booked I chose the "Pay at the counter" option so nothing was charged to my credit card.

My thoughts are that there may be a systematic disorganization and culture that is not focused on customer service.

i asked at the counter and escalated it there if there was anything they can do to make this right. They said "we gave you the alternative option (an extra 70 bucks a day for a different car)."

so, you are not will to work with me on a better resolution? "We give you the alternative option".

Why can't you give me the rate we agreed on? "Because that car is not available now."

anyway.. I left after about an hour of back and forth trying to figure this out and told them they were not very nice to me.

i called thrifty hotline in the USA expecting some kind of empathy, but they were hardliners against providing any sort of help.

"Are you able to help me?" ... "No"
"Why?" ... "Like I said sir, there is nothing that we can do."
"So you don't want to help me?" ... "You have to work it out with the agency in Uruguay?"
"But I booked through your website".... "I can't help you. If there is nothing else you need I will need to end this call"
"Ok, I would like to speak with a manager"..... at this point he hung up...

I called back.... talked to the same guy.... I told him my name and situation... I'm immidiatelt hung up again....

Called back hoping I would get someone else... twice again got the same guy and he hung up immidiatelt when he heard my name.....

Then finally got a different person who got me in touch with a manager. Who just said she would like to help me but can't.

So. At this point. I don't want to spend anymore time dealing with this company. I will never deal with them again. I lost 1 day of travel plus and cost for an extra hotel stay. If someone from thrifty would want to make this right, I'd be receptive to it, however, like I said, based on my experience and other reviews I read online there is systemic disorganization and no focus on customer care throughout their company.

Often1

First, just like air carriers & hotels, even a confirmed reservation does not equate to availability. Car rental places sometimes either overbook or people do not return on time or the vehicles are returned damaged or otherwise in poor enough condition that they can't be sent back out. So, consider what you would have done had there been no cars available at any rate.

Second, while people sometimes bash US customer service in general, the typical response here, presuming availability, would have been to upgrade to the first available car class and then invoice at the lower rate. In many parts of the world, this is simply not done. Knowing that the franchisee could turn you away, the decision is not to upgrade as a customer service gesture.

This leaves you with few to no options. Try the short & sweet complaint to corporate. Your posts are 3-4 times longer than they need to be. Stick to the relevant facts which are simply that you had a confirmed reservation for Car X at Rate Y and it was not available. The only resolution offered was a Car Z at Rate Y+70. You want a refund of the 70 x # of days.

Repeating that you kept calling back doesn't do anything. Of course the guy hung up on you, you had his answer !

AutoSlash

In addition to what Often1 said, if it was me, I would have accepted the vehicle offered with the upgrade charge and then fought it out with corporate and/or the credit card company. As it stands, the OP has no options at this point.

DanTravel

It's relevant to establishing how poor their customer service has been up to this point. Thanks for your opinion, but I find the story interesting, and so I felt it was worthy writing about. I really don't feel that customer service hanging up after i ask to escalate it is a suitable response even if you think so. Regardless. I'm not going to pursue his further and I won't use thrifty again. See above for the reasoning if you wish to read. Thanks.

You did provide some sound advice so thanks for that too!

ohmark

Thanks for the thread. Just cancelled my Thrifty reservation in the UK.

Often1

I'm hardly a Thrifty fan. But, the reality is that you won't likely be treated differently at that location by other franchises. Local business practice is local business practice.

The one thing you may find is that if you are a HVC, corporate will make the refund as a customer service gesture and may or may not pursue with the franchisee. But, that tends to happen when you control the spend for a large organization and keeping you happy is more important than which decision unit pays.

jackal

I agree with you on a high level that this was not handled well by Thrifty and that you should not be subject to an experience like this.

However, as someone with experience in the industry and with a lot of experience with Thrifty, I understand the nuances of what's going on here and why it's happening.

For one, you're working with a local franchise. Franchises operate autonomously from the corporate brand, within the limited guidelines of the franchise agreement. Unless otherwise specified by the franchise agreement, the only major threat a franchisee faces is the loss of their franchise license, and it would take a lot more than a few customer complaints about reservations not being honored to cause that.

Two, the rental industry simply isn't set up with a path to resolve issues with uncooperative locations. Thrifty (and, frankly, all rental companies) need to optimize and publish their procedures for oversale situations. There should be some key points:

• Reservations are binding and must be honored unless the terms are violated (renter does not meet qualifications, shows up outside a [needs-to-be-published] availability window, etc.)
• If the reserved vehicle is unavailable, the next larger available vehicle must be offered at no additional charge
• If a rental location is not following these practices, there should be a defined escalation path, and people along that escalation path should be empowered to resolve issues and find/offer alternate solutions

Currently, those don't exist. There is a convention in the rental industry that reservations are to be honored and that an upgrade should be provided for free, but it is only a convention and is not written anywhere. There is also no escalation path beyond asking for a manager at the local counter--universally with all companies, phone reservation agents are unable to handle location-specific issues (they are only able to make/change/cancel reservations), and phone customer service agents are unable to assist with active rentals (only rentals that have been closed out and returned), so calling the corporate phone tree when it comes to dealing with issues at the rental counter is not a productive path (do note this is the case with all rental companies). I believe that needs to change, because when you end up with an uncooperative location (as in this case), you are basically taking it on faith that the corporate office will make things right, which, unfortunately, is not always a safe bet.

That said, this is FlyerTalk, and FlyerTalk is not a place to vent uselessly--it is a place to post questions and learn from experts who have lived through what you are encountering and can offer their advice for how to resolve issues. To that end, we here have posted our suggestions for how to fix what you encountered, in the event you had decided to try to resolve your issue or in the event a future person encountering this thread encounters the same kind of situation. Those points are:

• Arrive with a printed copy of your reservation printed directly off of the rental company's own website
• If the front-line agent is uncooperative, ask to speak to a manager then and there
• If an alternate option at an acceptable rate is not available, you should continue the rental process. If possible, sign the rental contract with a note that you are signing under protest. If the rental office is unwilling to give you a car at all, obtain a written note from the agent that they were unable to provide you a car (not likely they'll agree, but tell them you need it to file a travel insurance claim and they might be less opposed).
• Again, ask to speak with a manager upon return and attempt to resolve the issue then and there.
• After you have returned the vehicle, submit a brief, pithy complaint to the brand's main customer service department (i.e. an email form at Thrifty.com or Thrifty's 800# in the US).
• If the customer service department is unable to resolve the issue, escalate to the executive level (elliott.org publishes a lot of these, as I linked above)
• As a last-ditch effort, dispute the charge on your card. Maintain and submit copies of your original printed reservation confirmation along with (if possible) your signed rental agreement with the "under protest" note, which will assist with your defense.

The chances of getting some form of compensation are reasonably high if you follow this escalation path. If you cancel the transaction and go elsewhere, you are unlikely to receive any form of compensation, since there is no charge on which they can process a refund, and it would simply be your word against the location's. (That's why it's important to try to get a written note from the agent if you are forced to rent elsewhere because they simply have zero cars available.)

Do be aware, however, that with the Thrifty/Dollar/Hertz brand, at least, they are unable to compel non-US/Canada locations to provide an actual refund to your credit card. However, if the location itself does not agree to refund you, corporate customer care will issue you a customer service voucher that can be redeemed for a future rental. (Presumably they then back-bill the franchise for the cost of the voucher, though I am not certain.) It is less convenient than cash, but that's their procedure. (Previously, corporate would actually issue a check for foreign, non-corporate-owned locations, which they would presumably then bill the franchise for, but I have not seen or heard of that happening after the Hertz merger.)

Anyway, that's my advice for dealing with rental companies based on 15 years of experience in the industry on several different sides. It's the same with all of the brands; the customer service quality and response varies by company, but not significantly, and the same processes and limitations are in place with all of them (though some handle it better than others).

FWIW, if you do choose to "never use Thrifty again" (a rash and illogical decision to make based on one rogue franchise's actions when you did not even pursue the matter with Thrifty's corporate offices), be sure to also never use Dollar again and never use Hertz again, since they are all owned by the same organization (Hertz Global Holdings).

For that matter, you should probably also never use any of the brands operated by Avis Budget Group (Avis/Budget/Payless) or Enterprise Holdings, Inc. (Enterprise/National/Alamo), because complaints about those companies are all over FlyerTalk and review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. Probably best to just stick to taxis wherever you travel...

DanTravel

Your response started off right, but turned a bit condescending. Regardless of what you want to believe, it's completely logical that I would never use Thrifty again.

This is the third time I've had a problem with thrifty, but this is by far the most severe. Likewise, I've used Avis and EuropeCar at least 20 times and the experience was pleasant. I ended up booking with Avis today and called ahead in advance. They confirmed that if the car is not available that they will upgrade me for free. They were very cordial as well. Sure enough. When I walked into Avis this evening in Uruguay the car I wanted was not available.

They upgrade me for free. So, please don't lecture me on how all car rental companies are the same. They aren't.

AutoSlash

Based on our experience (with literally hundreds of thousands of rentals), we can honestly say that Avis is one of the best companies out there, and while Europcar isn't the worst, we have far more problems with them than most of the other companies we work with (except for Payless). Our recommendation is to avoid Europcar unless no better options are available or the price difference is significant.

trooper

If a company is going to sell the rights to use their name to a local franchise why on earth do you (apparently) feel it acceptable that they have no obligation to enforce some kind of service standard?