Thrifty Blue Chip ATL - BEWARE of clocking out early!!
 

I just had a one day rental in ATL. I reserved the car for 4PM as my flight was scheduled to arrive around 3:15 PM and I wasn't checking any luggage. I was rerouted due to flight irregularites, and my flight didn't arrive til 4:30, so I didn't get to Thrifty til 5:XX - I don't remember exactly. The counter agent handed me the contract and I didn't think about it til the next day. I was clocked out at 3:53 PM as they must've pre-printed my contract. I figured that they probably updated the contract when I checked the car out at the gate as I left - but NO!!!!!! When I got back the next day, I was charged 2 hours overtime as the contract still had me clocked out at 3:53 PM!! I went in and they fixed it, but, I missed a shuttle to the airport and just barely made my flight - I got to my gate at 6:08 PM for a 6:18 flight and I was the last one on as she was calling my name!
Just a note that the 2 hours overtime was something like $7.00, but as soon as you go over by even an hour, all of the DAILY taxes and fees kick in which jacked the $7.00 up to $18.00!!!
Anyway, ultimately, it was fixed, just beware of this practice at ATL - and possibly others!!

It shouldn't happen, but it does (it's one of those little changes that's easy to miss). The easiest solution is to remind the CSR to change the time out while you're signing the contract.

I wouldn't use Thrifty again.

Recently I shopped around for a last minute full size rental (Dodge Charger) and Thrifty's 'all inclusive' rate for Monday afternoon to Friday morning came to something like $320 supposedly including insurance. Avis was around $450 I think so Thrifty seemed like a no-brainer. Usually I would go through a consolidater and get a much cheaper rate but this was a last minute booking.

After arriving from PDX and taking a 10 minute shuttle ride the final price became $460 because I am an international driver. I was really pissed because I could have used the much more convenient Avis for $10 less.

Oh well, I was too tired to bus it back to the airport or get snotty with the otherwise pleasant agent and I didn't want to spoil my wife's holiday over a few bucks so I ate the charges. If my wife understood English she would be really mad at me for not causing a scene.

The car was in good condition but we also ordered GPS for another $11 or so per day and it stopped working right in the middle of nowhere. My wife enjoyed PDX so much (the city, not the airport) that we extended another two days and the phone agent said if I couldn't reset the GPS that I may get a refund for all or part of the GPS charge on checkout. Gee, thanks.

On checkout Thrifty charged full rate for the extra two days (no web special) plus a $35 late return fee plus another $16 or so for returning the car at an earlier time than the original contract (both early AND late fees on the same bill - nice!) PS - total charge for changing two international JAL tickets: zero.

Anyway, the checkout agent was much less pleasant than the checkin guy and we argued for 10 minutes about the GPS fee even though it was totally locked up and just kept going 'bong - bong' every 2 seconds. We were going to miss our flight so I said 'look, the GPS is broken, I don't want to give you a hard time but we have a flight to catch and I do not want to see the GPS charge on my credit card statement'.

To their credit the GPS charge was completely waived but get ready for the total cost on a 6 1/2 day rental of a $25k car.. $671. Wow, I am an idiot. I just bought two I tickets from TPE to DPS for that.

That's terrible, but you could just as easily have had such an experience with Hertz or Avis in the States. All the car rental companies play gotcha with their customers, trying to sneak in extra charges, trick you into accepting options and fees and insurance cover you don't realize you're buying, etc. They're all treacherous these days.

Not sure what this has to do with this thread. I would have suggested posting this in a new thread.

What caused this difference? To my knowledge, there is no "international driver fee."

If you didn't have proof of insurance coverage that covers you in the U.S. (since rental cars in most states don't include coverage), it's possible they required you to purchase coverage, but that could have happened at any agency (including Avis).

Total cost for a 6.5-day rental with Thrifty in ANC in the summer (without insurance): $749.38
Total cost for a 6.5-day rental with Budget in ANC in the summer: $932.21
My 5.5-day rental in SLC last year: $750
Total cost for a 6.5-day rental of a $1500 riding lawnmower on co4rent.com: $350

Not sure what your complaint is... ;)