Thrifty Rent A Car

Too bad I had to rate with one star before I could write a review of the service, if I were the manager I would be embarrassed to be affilated with this business… although when speaking with him he belongs right with this company… You THRIFTY you are a joke!!! Customer service you have NONE! NEW YORK LOCATION at JFK… and toll free number shame on you…

Upon arriving after a flight from South Africa, I was told by the lady at the desk that they DO NOT accept insurance provided by my Capitol One credit card. As I just flew in and had no cell phone, I couldn’t verify this until the next day. I called, on February 2^nd, CO, and right afterwards Thrifty Customer Care, who advised me that they actually would accept it, and I just have to cancel the policy at my earliest convenience at Thrifty office. Feb 15, in FL, I attempted the cancellation at Ft Myers Airport. Once their, the lady advised me that she cannot cancel unless she close out the rental, which would result in a one way drop fee. I was advised to contact customer care again, who in turn told me to that they’ll make a note and I just have to ask the manager on duty to take it off on my return on Feb 23. Upon returning the car, the manager on duty refused to cancel the policy, despite all my explanations, as I didn’t cancel within the first 30 minutes. Fact is — I COULDN’T CANCEL as I had no way to verify their outright lie that they didn’t accept credit card insurance coverage! I’m disgusted that they took advantage of me not having a phone and told me a lie like that!
DO NOT RENT FROM THEM!!!

I had booked an online reservation at this location and had called their customer service line to confirm whether or not this location took debit cards in absence of a credit card. I was told «Yes, they indeed take debit card» and that I would need two forms of Identification to pickup the vehicle I reserved. However, after traveling a great deal of time to this location, I found out this was NOT the case, and instead of helping me solve this problem the woman at the front desk just kept saying «No,» and to go elsewhere. She was amazingly unhelpful. Heed this warning, I would not rent from here. Yes it is cheap, but the time wasted and headaches produced weren’t (and are not) worth anyones time.

Worst experience ever. We made a trip to NYC few weeks ago and booked thrifty through Expedia. When we arrived we were told to wait 30 minutes because there was only one person working at the register. After 35 minutes of waiting, we were told we had to pay the rental fee plus insurance to them. I showed them my final copy from Expedia that I paid for insurance online, they said they do not see that in their system. I didn’t wanna argue back so I decided to pay. They do not except debit cards so my dad decided to use his credit card and he was charged as an additional driver just because they do not accept debit cards or cash, what a bummer!
On top of all these other charges. They had the worst customer service. I would pay little bit more extra to Hertz which is right downstairs.
Learn some manners before you go out of business.

Extremely slow! It took us a half an hour to rent a car with only one person ahead of us on line.
No one comes to your car when you drop it off, you need to go back to the counter. This is our second bad experience. Use another company. They also rip you off on the Easy Pass.
Stay away. The cheap price is not worth it.

Check-​in was incredibly slow on the morning of October 14^th. It was over a half hour wait to reach the front of the line where a single employee was slowly checking customers in. We had a reservation, but we still had to wait an additional hour for a car to become available. We had planned an early start to Boston, but it didn’t happen. Also, the car’s GPS system was so slow and outdated, that we reverted to our phone’s GPS. We will never use Thrifty again.

This place is NOT at South Conduit Avenue. It is in Federal Circle on the second floor of the Hertz building. YOU’RE WELCOME.
I rented a car from here some time ago, being back in NYC is good for me. However, I waited two hours for a rental car. There was ONE attendant working. Honestly, you get what you pay for (my rate was 25 $/​day INCLUDING taxes/​fees), which is an amazing rental rate. Thanks Hotwire!
The people were nice, and didn’t try to upsell me, but the wait was WAY too long and one person behind would NOT stop complaining. At one point she said, «I want to kill myself», then continued whining.
So if you have time but not a lot of money, go with Thrifty.

I rented a car from Thrifty in Boston. They wrote down the mileage wrong by 300 miles and only gave us a ½ tank of gas. I only discovered what had happened an hour later (OK it was my fault for not checking before we took the car). I photoed the gas gauge and odometer with my iPhone which recorded the place and time so unless we covered 300 miles in one hour they would know I was right. I emailed the address they give you on the website but 11 days have now passed with no response .I knew if I didn’t fill it before Zi took it in they would charge me $ 10 per gallon to top it up .
When I explained my problem at JFK Thrifty, the guy said «not my problem», phone Boston snd maybe they will do something for you next time you rent there. As if !

DO. NOT. RENT. FROM. THRIFTY.
When the price is right, I can understand that you’d be tempted to overlook the bad reviews this company has but there’s a reason they have it. On Sunday, October 11^th I went there to pick up a rental care at 12pm. Upon my arrival, there were about 27 people in line ahead of me. No big deal except 30 minutes later the line hadn’t moved at all. When I called the company number to complain, I was told that customer service is not open on the weekends. I had somewhere I needed to be (which is the point of renting, right?) and couldn’t stand around waiting for a car so I went to another rental counter.
I called again Monday to complain about the lengthy line and ask to be refunded for the rental I COULDN’T get and they declined my request. See their response to my concern below:
Dear Jordyn,
CarTrawler Ref: 1283 – 2 190 925,
Booking Ref: US334795300,
Thank you very much for your correspondence.
I am sorry to learn that you were unable to collect the vehicle you had reserved through CarTrawler.
I regret to inform you that unfortunately you will not be receiving a refund on this occasion.
I understand that this will be upsetting for you, I would like to apologise for the long wait you experienced at the Rental Desk. While we make every effort to ensure that our rental partners are sufficiently prepared to deal with a high volume of bookings, due to the increased number of rentals in peak season there are often long queues at rental locations, which is unfortunately beyond our control, as I am sure you can understand.
However, as the rental agent had a vehicle available for you, we will be billed for the booking.
I do understand your frustration in relation to the long queue and we have taken this information and will use this information to improve the services that our suppliers provide at the rental desk.
If you have any new information which you feel would affect the outcome of your case, please
Click Here
Here, you will be able to update your query, attach documents to support your case and check the status of your case. Please note that the quicker we receive your documentation, the better we will be able to assist you so we would really appreciate it if you could provide it at your earliest convenience.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to assist you.
Kindest Regards,
Tiarnan Gannon,
CarTrawler Customer Care

NO Customer Service from Roadside Dept. We got 40 miles away from NYC, speed up to 50 and the car began shaking considerably. Got to our destination, called and told them we didn’t think the car was safe to drive. Their response «take it to a repair shop.» The correct response would be to bring us another car and tow this one. Unfortunately we’ll have this shaky car for a week and be driving under 50 mph because we don’t want to drive 75 miles back to JFK or 90 miles to the nearest Thrifty office or spend the time and money to take it to a repair shop. We’re here to work, not to repair the rental car.

I rarely take the time to rate rental car locations. But this is an exception.
Long lines for over 1 hour at 10am. Eventually when getting to the register, they said it would be at least another 45−60min wait since they ran out of cars early in the morning. So basically even WITH a reservation, they give cars to whoever shows up first.
3 hours later (literally), we finally got the car.
Stay far away. Better bet is to use one of the off airport locations for any other company.

Waited an hour in line with 8 people ahead of us and now waiting another 45 minutes to actually get the car even with a reservation. Beware!!!

I will NEVER rent another car from this company ever again. We had to wait 1.5 hours to get our car. RIDICULOUS!!!

Like many others, I wish there was an option for 0 stars. Aside from the fact that the rental car we received was damaged (the left front/​driver bumper panel was clearly subject to a previous accident), we were greeted with a lovely surprise inside the glove box … broken glass. That’s right, a piece of broken, shattered, sharp glass that (per the front desk) was attached to a disabled vehicle tracking device (see photos below).
Naturally, one might ask … ‘if the device is broken, why is it still in the car’? Anyone with an inkling of intelligence would think the shattered glass alone would be enough for a manager/​company to say … ‘oh, let’s remove this (hazard) so that no one accidentally injures themselves’. Nope, not Thrifty (JFK Airport) … the disabled device was just thrown inside the glove box of an actively-​rentable vehicle, broken glass up.
In requesting to speak with the JFK location manager, Avery, as to why this was, I was told that he was «too busy» to talk about my issue. In lieu, I requested a phone call from him with an explanation. Six-​days later, and still no call from Avery … talk about professional.
Great work, Avery — thanks for your top-​notch attention to customer service!

I wish I could give 0 stars. It would take an hour to detail the myriad ways thrifty failed to provide either acceptable service or a safe undamaged car. This failure was multifaceted across locations and communication channels. It would be better to take the bus or walk than to rent from Thrifty ever again. Just so you know, dollar rent a car is essentially the same company, with both being a division of Hertz.

Poor customer service! Car was old, high mileage, no options, and dented. Did not provide any other selections. When we returned the car the guy checking us in wouldn’t end his personal phone call long enough to greet us. Avoid! Looking at their lot, all their cars looked very poorly maintained.

Customer service sent me to wrong address, which on the map was not near a train so I spent $ 40 on a cab to get there (mid February walk through industrial area by airport wasn’t gonna happen). The parking service that now inhabits their old address told me where Thrifty had moved to, which is outside mass transit that would’ve cost less than $ 10.
A belt in the engine also started rattling as I was getting ready to drop off the car. It was cheap, but a massive waste of time. A woman picking up a car after me also expressed that she’d wasted a lot of time trying to there.

Thrifty at JFK has completely changed. The counter is now inside a building, not in a trailer, and there is no shuttle. Instead, go to Federal Circle and enter the Hertz building. On the far left is an escalator that takes you to the Thrifty counter.
The woman who greeted us there was extremely nice and easy to work with. It took maybe fifteen minutes from start to finish. The car itself was clean on the outside and inside. Two very minor issues were some minor stains on the cloth seats and that the taxes were about $ 5 higher than estimated on the website.
On the return, there were no signs leading us to Thrifty, but we followed the signs to Hertz and once we were in their facility, there were signs leading us to the Thrifty lot. One final issue: although we had filled up the tank about a mile from the lot, we were almost charged a penalty because the fuel needle did not indicate that the tank was full.
Overall, the experience was much much better than other reviews would suggest and I would definitely use them again.

Wow, so many negative reviews! I did not check Unilocal before I made this reservation and I am glad I didn’t because I may have changed my mind.
First, YES, Thrifty is located off of airport property, but the shuttle comes to pick you up at the Federal Circle Airtrain stop. It was super easy to locate as there must have been 20 other shuttles making loops through there just as you find at any other airport.
Second, YES, it is a trailer office and had there been a lot of people waiting for cars, that might have been an issue, but there were just 5 or so other people when we picked up our car on a Saturday night and there was plenty of space. The wait was not long at all and both my boyfriend and I remarked at how nice the service was. Perhaps she was new, or not present when previous reviewers came in, but this employee was very friendly and accommodating.
I will note that we came via public transport from Brooklyn and thus apparently saved the extra airport service fee, but it is a little difficult to find if not arriving via the air train.
The car we received was clean and new. It was waiting for us right outside the door once we finished the reservation (nobody checks you on the way out as mentioned in earlier reviews) and it was easy to return as well.
Overall, I would definitely use Thrifty again and felt the customer service was great!

After exit the Airtrain, still need to take their shuttle to the office. About 5 minutes drive. The shuttle driver drives like maniac! No A/​C inside the shuttle!
The office is like a temporary mobile home. One counter, 2 staffs.
Even with reservation & many cars in the lot… still need to wait for 10 – 15 minutes.
No seating area.
The staffs are friendly and do apologize for the wait.