And this is why you don't smack-talk your MIL

[bunnymendelbaum]

Remember how I was all annoyed at MIL for bothering us with her worrying while we were on our very wet Charleston beach vacation last week?

Well, it was all fine until we tried to head home. We've been doing this trip for 11 years and this was the first year we didn't fly out of Charleston, we were out of Myrtle Beach. Bad news was, while we are fine at Isle of Palms, the storm moved north to Myrtle and made it impossible for us to get to the airport. We tried from 10:30am to 5:00pm driving every possible route and kept getting close, and then the streets would be flooded and impassable. IT WAS SO SCARY. Finally, we decide to give up and we go to a Wendy's. I swear, it was like a command station in there. Everyone sharing where they came from, what roads are out, what's flooded, etc. so someone comes in and tells us all we better go NOW because not only is the road flooded in front of us, but it has started to flood behind us. Police are starting to make people leave their cars and go to a high school gym.
So, we decided to just go and start driving north home to Detroit. Our flight from myrtle took off just fine, so they were giving us grief about not being able to get there. Our rental car place would not answer the phone to confirm we could take the car. We tried and tried. We were on hold for over 3 hours total with them.
The girls were so good in the car. It sucked and was so stressful. We stopped overnight in Ohio, but finally made it home Monday. Our airline admitted we could not have made it there and gave us a full refund. The rental car place flipped and wanted to charge us 1,400. Thrifty SUCKS. Finally, we got tired of fighting them and they said we could drop it in Knoxville for free. So my DH had to drive it there Tuesday and fly home. Ridiculous. They wee such assholes, it was unreal. Now that it's all done, we are planning on filing a complaint asking for a refund and if they won't do it, social media shaming.

[treedimensional]

HOLYCRAP. That's quite a story, Bunny. I'm glad you are all okay!
I'll remember what you said about Thrifty. You should definitely share this experience on social.

[bunnymendelbaum]

Oct 9, 2015 6:46:42 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

HOLYCRAP. That's quite a story, Bunny. I'm glad you are all okay!
I'll remember what you said about Thrifty. You should definitely share this experience on social.

They are really awful. I've always had good experiences with rental car companies and thought they were all the same.

Well, the rental place we rented from uses the Thrifty name, but they are independently owned. Not even a franchise. So you can book online/phone through thrifty, but beyond that you have to go through this independent owner. You'd never even know this unless you have an issue and you have to call them. The normal thrifty customer service will not help you and are jerks about it. So you end up calling somewhere probably staffed by one person for ~12+ locations.

Idk if all thrifty is like this, or just this one area of the country. I'll NEVER use them again.

[mrsemilys]

Oh my gosh! That is so scary! I'm glad you're all ok and that the girls were good in the car. In stressful situations when the kids are bad I can't deal and turn into a bitch and it makes everything worse.

Glad you're home safe!

[boiler717]

Oct 9, 2015 7:01:24 GMT -5 bunnymendelbaum said:

Oct 9, 2015 6:46:42 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

HOLYCRAP. That's quite a story, Bunny. I'm glad you are all okay!
I'll remember what you said about Thrifty. You should definitely share this experience on social.

They are really awful. I've always had good experiences with rental car companies and thought they were all the same.

Well, the rental place we rented from uses the Thrifty name, but they are independently owned. Not even a franchise. So you can book online/phone through thrifty, but beyond that you have to go through this independent owner. You'd never even know this unless you have an issue and you have to call them. The normal thrifty customer service will not help you and are jerks about it. So you end up calling somewhere probably staffed by one person for ~12+ locations.

Idk if all thrifty is like this, or just this one area of the country. I'll NEVER use them again.

This is fairly common with all companies in smaller markets. I ran into a problem with A locally owned hertz once. There is a place on the reservation that notes of its local or national with hertz. I'm so sorry you had to deal with this!!

[mrs.jacinthe]

I've had better luck with Thrifty than most of the others (waited in line at an Enterprise once for TWO HOURS), but this does make me question using them again. I mean, obviously this is a sort of different situation than most rentals, but still.

Hmmm.

[adhdfashion]

Wow, crazy. I would also hit up social media with this rental car bs. That is insanely terrible customer service.

[bunnymendelbaum]

Oct 9, 2015 12:26:59 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

. is a place on the reservation that notes of its local or national with hertz. I'm so sorry you had to deal with this!!

I'm going to look/ after about this from now on! Thanks!

[beanieweanie]

I f-ing hate Thrifty! They once charged me $3000 for a scratch that was like 2 inches long and barely noticeable. My Mum had rented a van and I was driving/hauling stuff to help her move, and she wouldn't fork out for the full insurance, so they took the ENTIRE deductible. Took me literally 5 months of fighting to get two thirds of it back, but they were such a$$holes about it.

So yes, I have strong feelings about Thrifty. Bunch of b@stards.