NOVEMBER 2018 businesstraveller.comStar letter
INBOX YOUR LETTERS
NOT SO THRIFTY
I would like to share with Business Traveller readers a
disappointing post-rental experience I recently had with
Thrifty Car Rental in the USA.
In July 2018 I took my two boys on a US road trip
f lying out of Sydney into and out of Dallas Fort Worth
(DFW). I booked a Thrifty SUV vehicle for 15 days
that I picked up at DFW airport.
Whilst going through the rental agreement
paperwork with the Thrifty guest services agent I asked
her specifically if there were any toll roads around the
Dallas region. She replied yes there were, but don’t
worry about obtaining a Toll Pass as Thrifty can bill you
at the actual toll rate for these. I would normally pay
these tolls separately and at the time, however with the
“confidence” of the Thrifty agent’s comments I didn’t
give them a second thought.
One month after my rental and back in Australia, I
received a “hrifty Notice of Toll and Administrative
Fee for Rental Car Toll Charge” stating that my credit
card on file will be debited for these tolls, which in
total amounted to US$6.77 (which I am fine with).
However, on top of the toll amount I was charged
an Administrative Fee of US$90.00, so in total I was
charged – without my authorisation or an
opportunity to review – an amount of US$96.77.
Each toll charge, some as low as US$0.53, was
accompanied by a US$15 admin fee.
This seems excessive to me and certainly not
so thrifty! I did try to call the Thrifty Processing
Services centre without luck; also, the actual
notice arrived by mail after the charges were
already billed to my credit card. I just wanted
to make Business Traveller readers aware of this
excessive incidental Thrifty revenue ploy.
Andrew Gee, AustraliaTHRIFTY CAR RENTAL RESPONDS...
Thank you for your email and the opportunity
to investigate Mr Gee’s rental on behalf of
Thrifty. The tolls on Mr Gee’s route are cashless,
meaning that the toll authority does not provide a way
for drivers to pay with cash. The toll authority takes a
picture of the licence plate while the vehicle is being
driven on the toll road and sends the toll cost to the
owner of the vehicle (in this case Thrifty). It may take a
month or more for the toll authority to send the toll cost
to the vehicle’s owner.
The rental agent who processed Mr Gee’s rental is
a tenured employee who knows the toll process and
the Thrifty toll pass package very well. After the agent
reviewed this rental with Mr Gee, she did not think
it was in his best interest to add the Thrifty toll passSTAR LETTER
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number. We
reserve the right
to edit letters.package to his rental due to the small
amount of tolls on his route, the cost per
day for the toll pass and the length of the
rental. If the Thrifty toll pass package is
not used then the Thrifty administration
fee of US$15 per toll up to a maximum of
US$90 per rental applies. Had he used the
Thrifty toll pass package his charges would
have been US$138.47 plus tax instead of
US$96.77.
Our customer service agents are
trained to advise customers of their toll
payment cost options and these are also
highlighted in the rental agreement that
Mr Gee signed. We apologise that
according to Mr Gee’s letter he was not
aware of the administrative fees for the
tolls. As a goodwill gesture, we have issued
a full refund of the toll administrative fee
of US$90.
Once the toll costs are received, Thrifty
Processing Services links each cost
incurred to the correct renter of the rental
vehicle, and then mails a notice letter to the
renter at the home address provided on the
rental contract (hence the administrative
fee). This letter advises the renter of the
tolls incurred and the amount that will
be charged on the credit card that the
renter provided for the rental incidentals.
The letter that was sent to Mr Gee’s
home address was mailed from Thrifty
Processing Services in Arizona to Australia,
so that may have been the reason why he
did not receive it prior to his credit card
being billed.OUT WITH THE OLD
In May I travelled on Singapore Airlines
(SQ) and its sister airline Silk Air, and
I must say that the recent experiences
certainly lowered my opinion of both
carriers. While I understand that Silk Air
will fully merge with SQ, in the meantime
there appears to be quite a number of old
and frankly grotty aircraft in the sky.
For example, travelling from Perth to
Singapore (SQ266) in economy on May
2, the aircraft was old and came complete
with poor in-f light entertainment, old and
unresponsive controls along with the most
uncomfortable and worn-out seat. Looking
around the aircraft at other seats, it seems I
was not the only one suffering.
To my horror the connecting f light on
Silk Air (MI966) to Shenzhen the next day
was even worse – the seats bore clear signs of18