Complaint Review: Thrifty Car Rental - Estero Florida

Credit card charged on 1/1/19. Not authorized.

Contacted Thrifty & Hertz over multiple days. Pushed around from department to department. Multiple dropped calls. No call backs.

Only recent rentals were from 2 international Thrifty locations in November of 2018. Was told that most of Thrifty's international locations, including the pair in question are not actually Thrifty locations, but independently owned franchises over which Hertz/Thrifty has no real oversight. This is deeply problematic and dubiously legal at best. Not only are these franchises falsely presented as actual Thrifty locations (reservations made directly through Hertz/Thrifty phone reservations) the biller on the credit card is "THRIFTY RENT-A-CAR." Yet, there's no ownership on the part of Thrifty/Hertz. Their solution was to contact the locations directly while I waited on hold. When they couldn't reach anyone (despite at least one being an airport location), they told me I couldn't be escalated any further and someone would be contacting me directly.

I received an email on 1/3/19 from Customer Correspondence Administrator Randi S., which stated that if I provided them with the following they would be "glad to assist": "1. Reservation confirmation number, which starts with an "H" or rental agreement/record number, which is 9 numbers. 2. Name of primary renter exactly as it is on contract. 3. Beginning and ending dates of rental. 4. Location of rental." I replied with copies of both reservation agreements which included all of the requested information. I received a reply the following day stating "Since I am required to contact them directly, it may be approximately two weeks before you hear from Thrifty again. Please be assured I will notify you as soon as I receive the requested information. Thank you for your patience in this matter. Your business is appreciated."

Over the ensuing weeks I attempted to contact the franchise locations myself - at the expense of $5 / minute, but never received followups to my calls. After two weeks. I received the following email on 1/15/19: "Regrettably, I have been unable to obtain a copy of the rental invoice requested. In some cases, the country will respond directly to the customer without sending a copy to this office."

I contacted Thrifty/Hertz once more and was told there was nothing they could do to help, since their own franchisees hadn't replied to them. To reiterate, this company represents these franchisees as proper Thrifty/Hertz rental locations, without disclaimer that any ensuing issues are not ultimately their issue to resolve. There's no ownership of fraudulent charges made by those franchisees, despite the biller listed on the charge being Thrifty themselves. I've provided ample corroboration of my claims and the franchisees didn't even bother to respond to the company under whose umbrella they operate. On top of everything I have been a loyal customer of theirs for years. I will never give these grifters my business again. Neither should any other smart consumer.