On March 11, 2015 I rented a Thrifty Rental Car to drive one-way from San Diego to Los Angeles.  I picked up the car at the Lindbergh Airport facility, drove it to my home, loaded my luggage and drove the car to the LAX Westin on Century Blvd.  The car was parked in the hotel garage for approximately 20 minutes then I drove it virtually next door to the Thrifty Car Rental Return Lot located adjacent to the Westin.  The car was checked in by a Thrifty employee, certified to be damage free, and I left.

Two weeks later I received a phone call from a company called TheClaimsCenter.Com saying that I needed to contact them regarding damage discovered on my Thrifty Rental Car.  I called my Attorney and told him that the car had been returned undamaged and to write them a letter to that effect.  He ended up sending them two letters which they ignored.  When I got back on April 21, 2015 I had a letter from Thrifty saying I owed them $259.00 for damage to the car and they wanted my Auto Insurance information since I had declined any coverage by them.

If you Google this kind of behavior you will find a suspicious number of Thrifty Car Rental customers that have experienced the same kind of rubbish.  People being charged relatively small amounts (in the hundreds of dollars) for minor damage to the car that they are adamant they did not do.  In my case I demanded proof with time and date stamped photos, I wanted to know who had driven the car from where I parked it to where they supposedly discovered the damage (it had been moved to the car wash area) and made it clear to them that under no circumstances would I pay for damages to their car that I had not been responsible for but that as soon as their employee drove the car the problem became theirs not mine.  They dropped their claim against me but not everyone is either as aggressive or as lucky.  

I would think twice before I rent a car from Thrifty Car Rental every again.  If I were forced into choosing them I would take extensive photos of the car when I picked it up and when I dropped it off.  Be sure and shoot up under the bumpers and anywhere they could claim they did not see the damage when you dropped off the car.  I would also make their employee certify, in writing, that the car had been thoroughly inspected and was damage free.  Oh, one other trick they apparently use is to accuse you of smoking in the car and they charge you to “clean” out that smell.  Oddly enough the car I rented DID smell like smoke but I was only driving just over 100 miles so I didn’t care.  As a non-smoker it might have been humorous if they had accused me of that as well.

I tend to be a conspiracy theorist so this fits right into how corrupt I see some big business.  Thrifty had immediately turned this over to a 3rd party company that specializes in harassing people to get them to pay up.  When I tried to call and talk to anyone at Thrifty Car Rental I was transferred literally in circles from the people that answered the phone to Customer Service to supposedly the  Claims Department and then back to Customer Service.  

This is bad people.  I would expect behavior like this in Russia or Venezuela or some Country where the rule of law was broken down and corruption was rampant but here in the USA?  We are allowing this to happen?  You see, for the amounts they are charging, had I turned it over to my insurance company I’m sure they would have just paid it.  Actually it would have been insured through my Credit Card Company and they aren’t going to mess with a $259.00 claim.  This has that rotten smell of something that somebody has dreamed up that flies just under the radar of catching anybody’s attention.

Even if this was a one-time event, the fact that it took them 2 weeks to contact me, they had already handed it off to basically a “Collection Agency”, they did not supply me with any proof and, in fact, most of the communication was done via telephone so if it ever went anywhere it would be a “He said – She said” situation makes this all very suspect and, at a minimum, extremely unprofessional.  

Take this information as you will.  I’m just passing along what happened to me.  Google Thrifty Car Company complaints and see what comes up.  Then be very careful next time you rent a car.  

Pass this along.

April 22, 2015

Joe Jeter