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November 2023 by Skin B.
Awful, Awful service!! I would never do service with Thrifty car rental again. I had a confirmed reservation at noon, and when I went to checkout for my car, they said they do not a car until another 5 hours. They then said they have another dealer that they can refer me to for 5x times the cost. I tried to call customer service at 1-800-344-1705 but it would loop back to the same person who did not have any answers. I would stay away for Thrifty Car Rental in Santa Ana, California unless you want to be duped.
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November 2023 by Alyssa Millett
I had a reservation, had called a few days before to confirm. My flight arrived in the evening, I was traveling with a baby. Went to pick up my rental and they gave all their cars away and told me I could come back 9am the next day and they SHOULD have cars. I had to get an uber. I came back the next morning and another lady was there whose car was also given away the night before. No discounts were made or any accommodations. The car had mold in it, and after returning the car I got over charged.
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November 2023 by Alana Beecroft
Showed up after a long day travel to get our rental car only to be disappointed. We had pre booked and paid for online in Canada, 7 seat vehicle. Only to be told on arrival that they had no vehicle for us and could not help. My husband is now set out on foot to find something elsewhere hopefully. Extremely Disappointed!!
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November 2023 by Zachary Smart
When you make a reservation for a Thrifty rental car, you know you are signing up for painful start to your trip, but you accept that because it's Thrifty and you save $10 on your car....But this location is soooo much worse. Good luck to anyone foolish enough to make a reservation with these circus clowns
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October 2023 by Jeff Page
Went to the Budget counter by mistake and when they realized I booked at Thrifty, they said 'good luck, they will tell you it is a 2 hour wait'. When I went to the Thrifty counter, you guessed it, they told me it would be a 2 hour wait (even though my reservation was for an hour earlier). Another customer was there and very upset because he had already been waiting 2 1/2 hours for his car. Told them no thanks and went back to Budget and they had a car for me in five minutes.
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August 2023 by Nessa Lettuce
I booked a car rental for four days. Flew in just for them to tell me I'm "out of luck", they have no cars available for another 3 hours but they conveniently work with another car rental with good prices that can get me a car. I went paid twice as much than my original reservation. Stay clear of this business they scam you. First of all wouldn't you think as a business to call the customer prior to inform them of the inconvenience, never doing business with Thrifty again.
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August 2023 by Kenjus W.
Hey everyone, I've maybe done 3 reviews in 15 years of using Yelp. I work several jobs and have several toddlers. I'm sharing information because I want to drive home the point that generally speaking, I DO NOT HAVE TIME to write reviews on Yelp. BUT I am taking time to write this one. Thrifty Car Rentals at John Wayne Airport is the absolute worst place to ever rent a car from. Avoid at all costs! If you somehow find your way to them, I'm willing to bet that they will not have inventory. They will not share that they don't have inventory until you arrive at the counter. They will put your name on a list and ask you to wait in the area for 2 hours. They will even promise you that your car will be ready within that window. They likely will not have a car ready for you within that window. They will waste at least a day of your time and delay your plans. And if you try to talk to Thrifty (the company) on the phone to check in on the status of your car rental, or EVEN WORSE, receive a refund (because it's been nearly three hours and you don't have a rental car yet), you will be shepherded to mind numbing, soul crushing, bureaucratic hell loop wherein you desperately try to contextualize your dilemma to workers in an outsourced call center who CANNOT help you and will keep telling you to call the very number you called in order to receive help. "Hate" is not strong enough of a word to describe my feelings about this location, this company, their practices, and the disdain/indifference/malintent they clearly hold for their customers Avoid at all cost!
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August 2023 by Terry G.
Wish I could give zero stars. I could not find where to write a review for Expedia so I will include it here. Seems they have their hand in everything; even for real estate now.. For the car rental with Thrifty ; the third party (Expedia) charged my card a ridiculous amount with no explanation, and would not give me an itemized receipt for the charges. I paid Thrifty an expected amount (although I had to call and ask for a emailed receipt for their full charge, including all taxes and fees.) Expedia gave me the run around. I called and had to wait 3 days (this happed 3 times) for a response from a supervisor only to tell me they would not be able to provide me with a breakdown of charges. Go direct to get a rental. The third party is just another hand grab for them and saves you no money at all. I will never use Expedia for anything going forward. unethical business and terrible customer service...
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July 2023 by Francisco P.
Horrible experience. We booked through a third party and had reservations for 7-18-23 @ 1pm. We arrive at 12:45 and were advised there weren't any vehicles available and that we would be on a waitlist. The employee at the desk confirmed within 2 hours. 2 hours pass, I go to check and the employee says " Your #7 on the list, honestly I'd start looking elsewhere". What kind of customer service is that? Since I didn't want to risk being stranded at the airport , I took the advice and Avis came to the rescue, less than 30 mins later I was driving out with an Avis rental and thrifty never called. I'm glad I didn't wait on them. This experience was the worst I've had and will go out of my way to make sure people don't fall in the same trap.
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July 2023 by Abu Mathew
One of the worst experiences I had with car rental in last 15 years. The kiosk at airport was closed at 9:30 AM and there was an instruction to go to the Dollar counter. Dollar counter was also closed and instructed to go to the basement car pick up area. There were two employees inside who were spending 20 minutes per customer even with an extremely long line- most likely upselling addons. I finally get the details of my car by 10:15 and then I am asked to wait 25 minutes for someone to pull up the car. I knew these guys were cheap, but this is downright incompetent. I would never recommend these guys to anyone and even if you pay few extra dollars for a better rental company like National, it’s worth it as you get that much more time to enjoy your vacation.
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June 2023 by N Y
SCAM ALERT!!! Rented a car from them by booking online beforehand and picking up at the airport. The front desk guy added additional insurance without asking me or letting me know. Just sneaked in the additional charge among other many charges. I didn’t need additional insurance as I already purchased collision damage waiver insurance for this rental when I booked it, and didn’t need duplicate insurance. Just an FYI, they charged me $42 PER DAY for a policy that actually costs $50 TOTAL for a 4 day rental if you buy it outside, not at the rental counter. I only got a copy of my contract once I drove off. Saw the extra charges once I got my copy of the contract, went back to the office immediately (in approximately 15 minutes after driving off, once I received my contract via email and looked at it). They acknowledged that it was a mistake, but told me that they couldn’t do anything and I have to call their customer service. Called their customer service that same day (Friday), they said their billing department was closed and to call back Monday. Called on Monday, was told to let the office where I rented from know when dropping off the car. Told the office when dropping off the car, was told to call the customer service again. Called customer service again, was told to call the office I rented from. They fraudulently charged me and now they are giving me a runaround. I am disputing with my credit card and looking into all possible options of filing a complaint with the state of CA for fraudulent business practices. Stay far far away!!!
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June 2023 by jo maz
*BEWARE*Rent from any other car rental than this one. We had a reservation and when we went to pick up our car they said it won't be available for 4 HOURS! They expected us to wait at the airport for 4 hours for a car. They were rude and didn't care that we had to be at a wedding in 3 hours. Poor management. Will never rent from Thrifty again!
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June 2023 by Marc Malsam
I rented a car ? in the Santa Ana airport and I waited for over 2 hrs to receive the car. Employees are not good trained for it.
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May 2023 by Keith Nelson
Booked through Expedia. Expedia said I would owe $77 at time of pick-up. I ended up paying an additional $438 at time of pick up. The guy at the desk said most of this was a deposit I would get back. $10/day insurance turned out to be $35/day. $35 for fuel turned out to be $70 for fuel. Numerous other hidden charges added up. Long story short, I should have read the fine print. This is not a trustworthy company.
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May 2023 by christine mann
This is the worst car rental company. There is a 2 hour lineup just to get a car. Then they didn't have A van which we had prepaid on Expedia. We waited in some smelly car garage smelling exhaust fumes while waiting. It was a lovely start to our vacation.
