Thrifty Car Rental Anmeldelser 116

Hidden deposit, poor transparency.

App doesn’t clearly state the deposit amount — we were surprised with AED 2,000. Refund takes 30–40 days even for a short rental.

If this was disclosed upfront, we would have booked elsewhere.

Do NOT use this company. I rented a car from them in Dubai for a month. Had an accident and due to nerve damage I was unable to use my right foot and was unable to drive. I sent them the proof from hospital and they collected the car over a month ago, I have since then been chasing back my deposit. Every time I speak with them they drag it on. Give vague answers. No transparency. On WhatsApp they take forever to reply. I have spoken to numerous departments even went in there in person. It’s just lies and lies. They are so bad. Just look at reviews before using a rental company. Really really really bad.

Booked a car through Doyouspain to pick up at Barcelona airport T2 today.
Got to the desk on time and was told they had cancelled the booking the day before as the deal wasn't available. Oddly, they could offer me the same car now, but it was x4 times the price. So, I went back online there and the deal I booked was still there for various vehicles at Thrifty at even less than what I'd paid. The agent refused to accept it even though he was shown the website deals. If I took a car from them I would be forced to take the insurance and the heavily inflated price. I have a yearly insurance which covers all my car hire around the world. He refused to budge and therefore left me car less and unable to make my appointment for my residency card an hours drive away.
A complete scam. Worst rental unprofessional car rental experience I've ever had and I rent cars all over the world many times a year. Shameful for such an internationally known brand to be so underhand and deceitful. There are plenty of other options at BCN - avoid Goldcar ( experienced similar tactics ) and Thrifty.

Worst experience ever. They are scammers.

I rented a car for48 hours, it broke down after 24 hours, causing me a lot of issues and I had to bear extra costs for taxi to be able to reach home.

They don’t want to provide a refund, nor they’re answering my calls.

Very dishonest overall service and customer service in Dubai. I had planned my car to be collected early morning at my address. The drop-off guy told me that it would not be possible to collect very early and recommended to change my collection time to one day earlier. I called and changed to the evening time. Nobody showed at the collection time. I talked around 40 minutes over the phone to understand the situation. The guy in the phone told me someone is coming. Then, some other person sends me a message that they will not be able to come and ask me to leave the car in the street. Then, both try to persuade me return the car at the airport. Waited for hours and nobody shows. What a shame for such a company.

For six months they have been automatically debiting my bank card, and every month I complained that I wasn't receiving any email invoices. Last month I discovered they over charged me, possibly every month. Nobody seems interested in explaining why this has happened or how they intend to fix it.

Thrifty Rental car has to be one of the worse companies I have had the mispleasure of dealing with registered for skip the counter. Line of 20 people at fort lauderdale airport and one person working. Skip the counter apparently doesn't work unless someone from thrifty actually assigns a vehicle. needless to say didnt happen. The person working the counter had the customer service skills of a zoo anilmal. In addition was noot provided vehicle reserved or a similar vehicle. customer phone service outsourced to Central american company and still awaiting for call back from oscar .

We paid, arrived in the morning didn’t get the car, awful experience, specially with the rude worker Nijaz

Thrifty should be renamed in Thiefty, if you decide to go with their service located in the Mall Of Emirates (UAE,Dubai) do NOT deal with Ms. Leila Rea, she is absolutely not client oriented and will make all her possible to destroy your experience as a client.

Plus, be aware that when you sign a contract with them, you accept;
- 10% management fees on ALL fines you may have
- 3,000 to 4,000 AED frozen amount for unknown reasons
- 2,000 AED for deposit

This is the worst ever experience I got, ending with more thant 6,000 AED frozen for a car I rented 3 days for 390 AED ... lol, I will never ever go there again, there are plently of other options more flexible and good client support.

The employee Leila Rea should find another job that fits her personality because here it's a disaster and a LOSS for everyone getting in touch with her. All clients were arguing on the counter with her.. That's relevant enough.

Terrible customer service after the vehicle I had rented from Thrifty was hit by another vehicle that did not stop. I was charged for the repairs and any attempt to submit police documentation was ignored.

I have rented from Thrifty UAE on and off for a couple of years. I never had any issues and I always got my full deposit back. I do carefully take a video of the inside and outside of the car at check-out and check-in to protect myself from false claims. One time one of the cars I was renting had the battery go out and someone came to my location and replaced the battery, the whole process took less than an hour and a half and I thought this was reasonable.

I currently lease from Thrifty on a 10-month teacher lease. It's been a few months and I am having a good experience so far, I will likely lease again next school year. I wish the payment process for the lease was more modern: when signing up I had to send my credit card details through WhatsApp which was strange to me. Also a few times I had a problem with the payment link and you can't try to pay twice, you have to request a new link each time. But other than that I like Thrifty and I hope they keep their present quality of customer service and relatively low prices.

Horrible company, I was forced to pay deposit of 3000 AED and it is 5 months from the day I returned my car, several emails and whatsapp, twice filled out the deposit bank details form and still have not received my money back. Their customer service is just telling me they are forwarding my request to the finance team, which then does not communicate.

Horrible Customer Service
I have a long term lease with them. They have terrible customer service. Filed a very large complaint dealing with overcharges, poor repairs, faulty service, and vague contract terms. Miscommunications between department. Mischarges for Salik, no explanation of repairs.. Worst of all they outsource all their repairs and maintenance and DO NOT CHECK, Just give the car back to the customer. I had a brand new lease vehicle, It went for service, and it took 2 weeks to be returned. EVERY SINGLE FAULT i identified popped back in 3 days. Sent the car back. It took another 2 weeks, and is still not properly repaired. Received a call from the Leasing manager letting me know he will correct this. Now 2 weeks passed and he is not returning my calls.

The people at the airport were decent enough but there was nothing to say that the deposit was 4 times higher if isn’t a debit card or that it takes a month to get the deposit back. This needs to be clearly pointed out before booking.

I most definitely will not be using Thrifty UAE again in future

Paid for the car rental online and my booking was at 4:00. I waited until 3:30 while calling all the company contact numbers with no answer. When someone finally answered, they claimed they didnt receive a booking email to get the car. The representative I spoke with was very rude and kept blaming everything on their website and that its not his fault. Once the car arrived to my house, they demanded a physical credit or debit card for security deposit. I didnt have my physical card as it was never mentioned before, the representative agreed that I use someone elses debit card which will be 3000 deposit, however when i got my fathers credit card he claimed that hes not sure if i could pay as the card was not mine, while the truth is because he wanted me to pay 3000 deposit with debit instead of 1000 with credit card. He kept telling me to talk to his supervisor, meanwhile his supervisor never answered my call or the representatives call. In short, after 2 hours of my booking and paying fully online, I didnt receive the car i had paid for. Very horrible customer service, they don't answer the phone, are rude to customers, not on time with bookings, and are very shady. You can’t even call to make a complaint cause no one will answer. Still waiting to see when they give me a refund. I wouldn’t recommend them to my worst enemy.

Nothing but a SCAM! The original email conformation is not accurate, they deliberately leave out alot of details. I paid 2500 AED deposit , which they said would take 3-4 weeks to unblock. Fine. By that time, any extra charges would be deducted and I would be refunded the rest. That is what any self respecting rental company does. No!! They kept trying to charge my credit cards again and again! I blocked the card and now waiting to see what will happen next with these scammers!!!
BEWARE! Avoid at all costs!!

Do not use this company. Made me pay 2500 AED for deposit when it was never mentioned before I got car. You never get the car you wanted and then they don’t send deposit back and hit you with lying emails about traffic fines. They never reply back to any emails or answer phone. Absolute scam of a company. DO NOT USE THESE IN DUBAI

Absolute joke. They won't provide the car you paid for, they won't reply to messages, their deliveryman is terrible, and in the end they will charge you extra for non sensical reasons.

They're running a SCAM, do NOT deal with them.

The first time I rented with Thrifty Dubai everything went smoothly, but my second rental turned into an absolute scam.
I was accused of a traffic violation that never existed. I checked immediately with Dubai Police and RTA apps – no fines were listed. I even sent screenshots and later CCTV proof showing the car was parked at the time. Despite this, Thrifty forced me to pay AED 440, claiming the fine was “already paid” on the same day, which is why it no longer appeared. This is a well-known trick they use on customers.

At the return, the staff lied repeatedly, and when I insisted on the truth, a female employee threatened me with police and jail – completely unacceptable behavior.

On top of that, they charged me AED 157 for a tiny scratch on the bumper, even though I had full SCDW insurance with 0 AED excess. Their excuse: I should have provided a police report for a scratch – something impossible and absurd.

After I reported them to Dubai Consumer Protection, my Thrifty account was mysteriously deleted and all past rentals disappeared. They claimed this was due to a “system update” – another shameless lie.

The first rental may give you hope, but the second will destroy your trust. Thrifty Dubai is not just unprofessional – they are dishonest and intimidating. Tourists especially, be warned: this company is running scams.

I recently rented a car from thrifty. The transition was very swift and easy. Orwa assisted me and she is the best. She handled with so much professionalism and ease. I would recommend her anytime.