Ripped off by car hire firm. No help from Expedia

kittykarate

Car hire firms are sharks! You really have to pay attention to them. They try to upsell insurance, get you to upgrade (numerous times I've been told that a Chevy Aveo won't get up mountains in Hawaii/Colorado/Canada) and sneak small dollar per day items onto the rental costs.

So far I've not had too many troubles, but I'm super paranoid and:-
1. check car thoroughly despite my post flight bleary eyes. And then note damage no matter how small and get it marked and signed by the agent.
2. Get a copy of the receipt at car return showing the tank is full and not lose it in my pockets.

photome

The exact same thing happend to me at Dollar LAX booked through Carhire 3000.

I to made sure (so I thought) that there were no extra charges, but on retrun home I was charged an Extra $200 plus. I argued with Carhire 3000, Dollar and my card company to no avail.

It has never happend anywhere else in the US only LAX

As the OP says you are tired and it is all the initials they want everywhere even after them telling you there are no extra charges!!!

Check and double check what you are signing particularly in LAX it seems

Are Dollar and Thrifty part of the same company?

Gloomendoom

I rented a Mustang from Budget USA for 15 days. The quoted price was £372 and I paid £372 plus a tank of fuel (at normal a petrol station price) when I arrived at LAX

Very happy customer here.

neilbond007

I've used netflights.com (dollar) about 50 times. Used about 15 different airports (including LAX).
I've never been charged extra.

As everyone says, they'll try the hard sell. Tell them no, no and finally, no.

photome

neilbond007 wrote: »

I've used netflights.com (dollar) about 50 times. Used about 15 different airports (including LAX).
I've never been charged extra.

As everyone says, they'll try the hard sell. Tell them no, no and finally, no.

They didnt hard sell me, just told me everyting was paid for in my all inc package.

They made no mention of charging me extra,as I said they told me there was nothing else to pay.

Of course i couldnt prove that and I had initialed in the boxes

It is the first and last time it will happen though.

I have used Dollar at other airports and Alamo at LAX and never had the problem

I have booked via Netflights, Carhire 3000 and Yes car hire.

I think it irrelevant who it was booked through though as it was the Dollar desk at LAX that added the charges

Dave_Z

I rented from Thrifty when i went to Denver in January and i honestly couldn't have been happier. Pre-paid for the rental on their UK website and the only extra i paid was the tank of gas (as expected) and i elected to pay $70 for their breakdown recovery add-on (though was not pressurised into it). I especially liked that after filling out the paperwork they gave us a section number for the parking 'lot' and told us that all the cars had the keys in and to take whichever one we fancied from the relevant section. I chose the biggest thing i could, a Ford Expedition :j

Bringing the car back took 5 mins and no nasty charges. Will be using them again in New York this autumn and again in Denver next January.

Dave_Z

photome wrote: »

Are Dollar and Thrifty part of the same company?

I think so. Seem to share premises and shuttle buses. I booked my car on the Thrifty site, but when the paperwork came through it said it would be serviced by Dollar. When we arrived in Denver, Dollar and Thrifty were in the same building anyway so i don't really know what difference was.

eslick

http://www.thriftycarsales.com/thriftcarsales-franchise-subsales.asp?mod=N_T_FS2

Thrifty Car Sales is a division of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: DTG, a $1.5 billion dollar automotive company). Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. also owns Thrifty Car Rental and Dollar Rent A Car.r Sales is a division of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: DTG, a $1.5 billion dollar automotive company). Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. also owns Thrifty Car Rental and Dollar Rent A Car.

vinylmusic

With Thrifty I was told I was booked in for a Toyota Yaris.
I couldn't imagine long drives in USA with such a small car so I agreed to an upgrade at $75 for the 3 weeks
When I brought itr back the $75 had become $100 and that was in addition to the insurance rip off they tried on me
I realized after that I should have stuck to my guns
In over 2000 miles of driving across 4 states I never saw one Yaris so I dont believe they had any. It was a ploy to get me to upgrade

I have to say we were very happy with the Hyundai sonata. It was a great car to drive. But then I wonder if we would't have got that car anyway had I not agreed to the upgrade

neilbond007

vinylmusic wrote: »

With Thrifty I was told I was booked in for a Toyota Yaris.
I couldn't imagine long drives in USA with such a small car so I agreed to an upgrade at $75 for the 3 weeks
When I brought itr back the $75 had become $100 and that was in addition to the insurance rip off they tried on me
I realized after that I should have stuck to my guns
In over 2000 miles of driving across 4 states I never saw one Yaris so I dont believe they had any. It was a ploy to get me to upgrade

I have to say we were very happy with the Hyundai sonata. It was a great car to drive. But then I wonder if we would't have got that car anyway had I not agreed to the upgrade

I always book the "economy" 2 door with netflights. Only once (out of about 50 times) have I actually got a Yaris (a 4 door saloon) and this was on Maui. Was only driving 20 - 30 miles a day so it wasn't an issue.

Saying that, there was a post on here not too long ago about the rental companies buying more small cars.

They even have the Fiesta in these parts now. Deeply shocking for the people who seem to think they need a 5L V8 to drive around at 55mph