Car Rental Agency Places Consumers lives at risk

On 28 December 2020, I arrived at the CPT Greenpoint branch to pick up my class H vehicle which was pre-booked and paid for online.

The fact that this booking was double deducted from my credit card and refunded short is an unrelated issue, but nevertheless worth a mention.

Unfortunately, the branch didn’t have the vehicle pre-booked but were still kind enough to provide an upgrade. Upon receiving this upgrade and roughly 30 minutes into my journey to Keurboomstrand, I noticed the service light was on. I found it strange that a car was provided to me in this manner, but never paid too much attention to it. I still thought it wise to report this to the head office at this point on my journey, while also querying the double deduction on my card (mentioned earlier). Roughly 2 hours on the road, I made a pitstop and attempted to fill up diesel, only to find a very small amount being able to be filled (<R100). Finding this strange, as the fuel gauge had moved, I carried on my journey not putting too much thought into this. After another two hours I took another break and again filled the tank which was only able to fill roughly R170, despite the fuel gauge being between half and full. I was concerned, but took comfort that there was sufficient fuel, due to the automatic stop from the diesel pump. The fuel gauge was roughly over half by the time, I arrived at my destination. I only drove again the next evening (to Plettenberg bay – 15 minutes away). When getting in the car and about to return to my accommodation, I noticed the fuel tank showed FULL, despite me not putting in any additional gas. At this stage I was deeply concerned. Without going into too much detail of the following days stress (30 December 2020) in reporting this issue to Thrifty and insisting on a new vehicle to be delivered, which involved roughly 30 phone calls and insisting on a safe vehicle being provided as I had to return to CPT the following day (31 December), it would be an understatement to say I was met with resistance. I would however, like to point out that the George branch manager (branch providing replacement vehicle) insisted on me driving to a location to put in petrol as they were concerned their driver would be stranded, despite me insisting on the same fear in doing this based on how ************* and unsafe I felt in the car based on my experiences. Eventually a new car was provided, and I made it safely back to CPT in time for a wonderful new year’s lockdown. Now on 22 January 2021 I noted that roughly R680 was deducted from my credit card. Fully appreciating fuel costs incurred, I see this as a slap in the face for Thrifty to charge a completely thumbed sucked number, without fully knowing the true fuel state based on the service required in order to form this opinion. My gut would have me believe I am now also being charged the fuel cost of the replacement car drivers journey back to George. To me this is shameful in that not only has Thifty caused immense stress in a time where I should be relaxing, based on their negligence – they too deem it appropriate to on charge the costs of repairing this negligence to the consumer without evidence. Never experiencing fantastic customer service across multiple rental agencies in several international locations, I find the principal of these actions ********** and believe it should be known how selfish a company like Thirfty truly is by: • putting their consumers lives at risk by providing faulty vehicles, • insisting their consumers place additional risks as opposed to providing additional support to protect their own staff AND the consumer, • while at the same time feeling it is appropriate to make the consumer pay for their mistakes.

I repeat my previous statement:

SHAME ON YOU THRIFTY