Disgrantled customer

Good day On Saturday, 16 September 2017 I went to Dollar Thrifty car rental for a quote to rent a car because I was going to travel to Swaziland on the morning of 30/09/2017, I asked a quote from ***. The quote was given to me with the cross boarder letter fee included. I arrived at the Cape Town Airport branch and gave them a copy of my quotation, they processed everything only to be told at the end that they cant give me a car because all the cars that they have are not authorized to cross the boarder. When I asked them why did they take money from bank account if they knew they don't have any car that is authorize to cross the boarder? I also asked them for my full refund so that I can go to another car rental company that will be able to cater for my needs only to be told they cant do that I have to wait till Monday if I want a refund. They also then told me they'll try and organize a car that is authorized to cross the boarder on Saturday around 09:00 in the morning. That was such an inconvenience to me because I was planning to travel as early as 03:00 in the morning of the 30/09/2017 so waiting for them to "TRY" and find me a car that is authorized to cross the boarder is such an inconvenience to me, felt as though they are now telling me how to plan my travelling. I even came up with a plan that they can give me the car then following morning they do their paperwork and mail me the cross boarder letter but was told they cannot do that because apparently I must sign the cross boarder letter. I said no problem they can mail to me then I'll print, sign and mail it back to them but still they refused and said the letter must be signed @ their branch. We spent a whole 4 hours begging them to come up with a solution because all the option we are giving them are not working out, only to be told after 3 hours by their supervisor that we must either wait for them to try and organize a car the following morning or wait till Monday for my refund or else they will escort me out of their premises. they even called the police to come and escort us out of their premises. When the police got there we explained everything and they asked "why did they take money from my account if they knew that none of their cars are authorized to cross the boarder?" seemingly they did not have an answer to that question. They then told me that they'll give me a car that is not roadworthy then they'll process everything the following morning and meet with me before 09:00 to exchange and give me a car that is roadworthy. Because I did not have any other option I agreed to those terms and took the car because now they were delaying my trip that I took a whole year to plan, I took the car. Following day they just kept calling to check how far we were as though they were checking if we are still travelling safe with their un-roadworthy car. The car that they promise us never arrived instead we were stuck with a car that was not roadworthy and had no papers to cross the boarder. I called my brother who was still in Cape Town and asked him to go to the Cape Town Airport branch and ask them what is the delay now regarding the car exchange and they told my brother he has no right to enquire on my behalf. As frustrated as I was because we were now fast approaching the boarder I had to write an e-mail granting my brother the right to enquire with Dollar Thrifty on my behalf and only then they processed the cross boarder letter and mailed it to me @ 21:58 and when I told them that the boarder is already closed at that time because it closes at 22:00 and bear in mind I must still go look for somewhere to print out the papers. Their branch manager Liesel Pope told me that as far as she knows Mahamba boarder post closes at 06:00. My question is she knew the boarder closes @ 18:00 but still processed the cross boarder papers @ 21:58 and still has the guts to tell me who is a frequent traveler to Swaziland that the boarder closes @ 18:00. To prove that the car was really not roadworthy while still in Swaziland one of the tyres bursts and we had to buy and replace the tyre. As if that was not the end on our way back in-between Piet Retief and Ermelo the front windscreen of the car blew open. We called Dollar Thrifty and advise them of the incident, they promised to get back to us but we waited for about 3 hours and the phone call never came and then we decided to fix the windscreen ourselves and continue with our journey because they were now delaying us once again. All in all the service I experienced with Dollar Thrifty was so bas and traumatic right throughout my entire trip to such extent that my mother who was travelling with us had a panic attack and we now had to concentrate in looking for medical assistance for her. My question is I am supposed to get that kind of service after paying my hard earned cash to them?? To me it felt as though they are giving me the car free of charge. As I write this e-mail I am completely disgruntled with Dollar Thrifty car rental as they made my entire trip very traumatic.

The rental agreement number is ********** .