Stranded on border of Canada / Ignored by Customer Service
Complaint
Former Blue Chip Customer
Country: United States
I am a former loyal Blue Chip Member of Thrifty Car Rental. In any given year, I travel as much as two to three weeks out of a month for business.
In February 2013, my travel agent arranged my business travel to Chippewa County Airport in Michigan -- roughly 30 miles from the border of Canada. The airport had two car rental facilities: Avis and Thrifty. The agent's computer said that Thrifty was the only facility that had available cars, so she reserved a car with them. We landed at 9:30pm at night in a tiny airport. The Thrifty counter was closed, and the sign was taken down. Our attempts to call the owner of the facility sent us to a voicemail box that was full.
The nearest town was a half-hour away. It was below zero. The highways were icy. Snow was on the way. We called the owner of Avis, and she told us that the owner/operator of the Thrifty place had been dead for more than a month. She complained to me that she had called Thrifty and told them their owner/operator was dead and asked them to remove Chippewa County from their computers, however she said Thrifty's computers continued to rent vehicles to customers, who then complained to her when their car wasn't ready. She then apologized because she didn't have any vehicles. Our only option was to wake up our client in the town 30 miles away, have him get out of bed and drive a half-hour to pick us up, then drive another half hour to take us into town. That same client had to drive us around for the next day. On the last two days of our trip, Avis finally had a car to rent us, however by that time, we had already inconvenienced our client.
But wait, that's not the worst part. I submitted a complaint to Thrifty and explained the situation. I requested three free days of rental to make up for the three rental days they owed us. They sent me an-auto-reply email saying they'd respond within three business days. Then complete silence. Two weeks later, I called them to complain. The customer service woman looked at my case file and said that I needed to provide them receipts that I had rented from Avis. I asked why they didn't email me with the request after three days, forcing me to have to call, and she said they've been completely swamped. Then I asked why I needed to provide proof since their computer records could clearly show that they rented me a car from a location that had been closed for a month, She restated that I needed to send them receipt from Avis to complete the case. So I did. And I waited another two weeks before I got my first email from them saying that the link I sent with the receipt had expired and I needed to resend again. So I did, and I also sent them links to an obituary showing that their owner/operator had died more than a month before we made our reservation. And I waited in complete silence.
But wait, that's not the worst part. After waiting more than 100 days for a response, and sending additional emails asking for a decision on my case, I finally gave up. I sent them a request to terminate my Blue Chip Loyalty Membership. I explained that while they may have abandoned me at a rural airport in sub-zero weather because they neglected to take out the Chippewa County Airport location from their computers, they made a bigger error by abandoning me after I flied my complaint. I asked that they remove my email from their computers.
So then they sent me an email notifying me that I had gotten a free rental day. And 18 minutes later, they sent me a second email saying I had gotten another free rental day. So that made me think that they were settling my case and giving me free rental days. But wait, there's more. Then an hour later, they sent me an email titled "Ooops! We Made An Error." And this email said their computers accidentally awarded me a free rental day. Then they sent a second one to nix out the second rental day. So this was completely unrelated to my complaint, and just an email blast to thousands of customers further demonstrating how Thrifty is a complete mess. (And further demonstrating how they ignored my request to remove my email address from their computer.
What an unprofessional organization. I can understand getting bad customer service at a particular branch. And I can understand that companies make errors (like keeping a branch open more than a month after the operator dies). Things happen. It sucks when they do, but we're all human and hopefully someone in the customer service department can help smooth things over -- especially to their most loyal customers. However I have gotten 100-plus days of bad customer service. Complete radio-silence. This is unacceptable. Why ignore me? I don't understand why they didn't simply deny my request for free rental days and formally close the case. If they had done that, at least I would have known that Thrifty-Dollar-Hertz has a policy against giving out free days in any situation.
I just sent them another request to terminate my Blue Chip membership and to remove my email from theri systems. And I've moved all my rental business to companies other than Thirfty-Dollar-Hertz. I urge you to do the same.
In February 2013, my travel agent arranged my business travel to Chippewa County Airport in Michigan -- roughly 30 miles from the border of Canada. The airport had two car rental facilities: Avis and Thrifty. The agent's computer said that Thrifty was the only facility that had available cars, so she reserved a car with them. We landed at 9:30pm at night in a tiny airport. The Thrifty counter was closed, and the sign was taken down. Our attempts to call the owner of the facility sent us to a voicemail box that was full.
The nearest town was a half-hour away. It was below zero. The highways were icy. Snow was on the way. We called the owner of Avis, and she told us that the owner/operator of the Thrifty place had been dead for more than a month. She complained to me that she had called Thrifty and told them their owner/operator was dead and asked them to remove Chippewa County from their computers, however she said Thrifty's computers continued to rent vehicles to customers, who then complained to her when their car wasn't ready. She then apologized because she didn't have any vehicles. Our only option was to wake up our client in the town 30 miles away, have him get out of bed and drive a half-hour to pick us up, then drive another half hour to take us into town. That same client had to drive us around for the next day. On the last two days of our trip, Avis finally had a car to rent us, however by that time, we had already inconvenienced our client.
But wait, that's not the worst part. I submitted a complaint to Thrifty and explained the situation. I requested three free days of rental to make up for the three rental days they owed us. They sent me an-auto-reply email saying they'd respond within three business days. Then complete silence. Two weeks later, I called them to complain. The customer service woman looked at my case file and said that I needed to provide them receipts that I had rented from Avis. I asked why they didn't email me with the request after three days, forcing me to have to call, and she said they've been completely swamped. Then I asked why I needed to provide proof since their computer records could clearly show that they rented me a car from a location that had been closed for a month, She restated that I needed to send them receipt from Avis to complete the case. So I did. And I waited another two weeks before I got my first email from them saying that the link I sent with the receipt had expired and I needed to resend again. So I did, and I also sent them links to an obituary showing that their owner/operator had died more than a month before we made our reservation. And I waited in complete silence.
But wait, that's not the worst part. After waiting more than 100 days for a response, and sending additional emails asking for a decision on my case, I finally gave up. I sent them a request to terminate my Blue Chip Loyalty Membership. I explained that while they may have abandoned me at a rural airport in sub-zero weather because they neglected to take out the Chippewa County Airport location from their computers, they made a bigger error by abandoning me after I flied my complaint. I asked that they remove my email from their computers.
So then they sent me an email notifying me that I had gotten a free rental day. And 18 minutes later, they sent me a second email saying I had gotten another free rental day. So that made me think that they were settling my case and giving me free rental days. But wait, there's more. Then an hour later, they sent me an email titled "Ooops! We Made An Error." And this email said their computers accidentally awarded me a free rental day. Then they sent a second one to nix out the second rental day. So this was completely unrelated to my complaint, and just an email blast to thousands of customers further demonstrating how Thrifty is a complete mess. (And further demonstrating how they ignored my request to remove my email address from their computer.
What an unprofessional organization. I can understand getting bad customer service at a particular branch. And I can understand that companies make errors (like keeping a branch open more than a month after the operator dies). Things happen. It sucks when they do, but we're all human and hopefully someone in the customer service department can help smooth things over -- especially to their most loyal customers. However I have gotten 100-plus days of bad customer service. Complete radio-silence. This is unacceptable. Why ignore me? I don't understand why they didn't simply deny my request for free rental days and formally close the case. If they had done that, at least I would have known that Thrifty-Dollar-Hertz has a policy against giving out free days in any situation.
I just sent them another request to terminate my Blue Chip membership and to remove my email from theri systems. And I've moved all my rental business to companies other than Thirfty-Dollar-Hertz. I urge you to do the same.
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