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-   -   Thrifty PHL Ripoff? (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thrifty-blue-chip-rewards-closed-posting/1285527-thrifty-phl-ripoff.html)

thebug622 Nov 28, 2011 9:04 pm

Thrifty PHL Ripoff?
 
Rented a car through Costco on the Thrifty web page they asked for pickup time as well as the time I would drop off the vehicle I put down 10 am and10am drop off a week later.My flight got in a half hour early and I showed up at 0930 when I was signing the rental agreement I noticed an extra $10 in the total cost I asked the clerk about it and she said it was for the extra 1/2 hour I would have the car.I told her I would have the car back at 0930 and the $10 extra was dropped.It could have been an accidental mistake but it seemed a bit sleazy and made me wonder how many people pay the extra $10 or so because they did not do the math

darben Nov 30, 2011 6:41 pm

i'll bite
 
So how was this a ripoff? You showed up early they charged you extra. You declined and said you would return early to make it up. They removed charge.
did you expect time for free?
NO RIPOFF here just charging you for what you were to receive.

jackal Dec 1, 2011 3:10 am


Originally Posted by darben (Post 17543786)
So how was this a ripoff? You showed up early they charged you extra. You declined and said you would return early to make it up. They removed charge.
did you expect time for free?
NO RIPOFF here just charging you for what you were to receive.

Indeed. If you showed up at 9:30, your rental agreement would be calculated for the time of 9:30am until 10:00am, thus charging you an extra half an hour, which would be 1/3 of the daily rate (plus any taxes and fees). Nothing sleazy here.

Whenever I book a reservation, I always book it for an increment of 23 hours to prevent this from happening in case I pick the car up early. Since I'll usually be returning well before the exact 24-hour mark anyway, it just prevents those few extra dollars from being held on my credit card until I return.

fairviewroad Dec 1, 2011 10:47 am

I'm inclined to agree with darben and jackal on this one, but I'll say this in the OP's favor: Perhaps the "ripoff" here is the adding of the extra $10 without verbally notifying the customer. The OP to his/her credit read through the fine print before signing, but most people would not.

Many infrequent car renters might think that showing up 30 minutes early would not incur an extra charge especially if they plan to return the car just as early. (Though as we all know, returning a car 30 minutes early earns you diddly-squat.) So the only thing the Thrifty agent could have done better was to notify the OP: "Hey, I noticed you're picking up this car a bit earlier than you reserved it. Do you want me to go ahead and alter your reservation, or do you mind paying a slight additional charge?" That's the kind of customer service that distinguishes a good company from a poor one, then again with a name like Thrifty you probably shouldn't expect anyone to go "above and beyond."

thebug622 Dec 1, 2011 11:33 am


Originally Posted by fairviewroad (Post 17547656)
I'm inclined to agree with darben and jackal on this one, but I'll say this in the OP's favor: Perhaps the "ripoff" here is the adding of the extra $10 without verbally notifying the customer. The OP to his/her credit read through the fine print before signing, but most people would not.

Many infrequent car renters might think that showing up 30 minutes early would not incur an extra charge especially if they plan to return the car just as early. (Though as we all know, returning a car 30 minutes early earns you diddly-squat.) So the only thing the Thrifty agent could have done better was to notify the OP: "Hey, I noticed you're picking up this car a bit earlier than you reserved it. Do you want me to go ahead and alter your reservation, or do you mind paying a slight additional charge?" That's the kind of customer service that distinguishes a good company from a poor one, then again with a name like Thrifty you probably shouldn't expect anyone to go "above and beyond."

You explained it better then I did Thanks.My beef was that I had to catch the change in price and that the agent was not straightforward with me.

darben Dec 1, 2011 6:37 pm


Originally Posted by thebug622 (Post 17547961)
You explained it better then I did Thanks.My beef was that I had to catch the change in price and that the agent was not straightforward with me.

You are an adult human. You were given the contract. You read the contract caught the charge and amended the contract. Good for you. It is not incumbent upon the renter to inform you of changes to a contract. It is your responsibility to check. I will wager that if the contract had been for a lesser amount you would have said nothing to the agent about the mistake so do not be upset when the situation is reversed! In fact if you had been told at return 'We are sorry Mr. thebug622 we made a mistake and charged you to little' there would have been hurricane force winds as you whipped out the contract to show the price agreed to.
Situational ethics are poor ethics.

jackal Dec 1, 2011 8:36 pm


Originally Posted by thebug622 (Post 17547961)
You explained it better then I did Thanks.My beef was that I had to catch the change in price and that the agent was not straightforward with me.

I'll say that the computer system doesn't make it obvious to the agent that this was the case. I can say with 100% certainty that it was not intentional on the agent's part.

fairviewroad Dec 2, 2011 10:17 am


Originally Posted by darben (Post 17550644)
I will wager that if the contract had been for a lesser amount you would have said nothing to the agent about the mistake so do not be upset when the situation is reversed! In fact if you had been told at return 'We are sorry Mr. thebug622 we made a mistake and charged you to little' there would have been hurricane force winds as you whipped out the contract to show the price agreed to.
Situational ethics are poor ethics.

Strawman argument. There is nothing in the OP's remarks that suggest s/he would have behaved this way.


Originally Posted by jackal (Post 17551206)
I'll say that the computer system doesn't make it obvious to the agent that this was the case. I can say with 100% certainty that it was not intentional on the agent's part.

Agreed, not intentional on the agent's part. But I still contend that a customer-service oriented company would have handled this differently.

jackal Dec 2, 2011 10:41 am


Originally Posted by fairviewroad (Post 17554150)
Agreed, not intentional on the agent's part. But I still contend that a customer-service oriented company would have handled this differently.

How so? The rental agent has no way of seeing what the original reservation was, so short of asking the customer for a printed copy of a reservation with which to compare the final rental, it isn't possible to even see that something has changed. Without the proper technological tools to identify the difference, that seems an unfair expectation.

I suppose it could be argued that a truly customer-focused company would have reprogrammed their software to bring this to the agent's attention, but given that I have yet to see any travel provider mold something as huge and complicated as a CRS into anything remotely resembling a 100% perfect solution, I'd say that's an unfair expectation, too.


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