CAR RENTAL REVIEWS ON THRIFTY AT PERTH AIRPORT, PER

Very difficult to communicate

Overcharging. It was supposed to be around 800 RMB but increased to over 1800 RMB. The young driver insurance turned out to be the main reason for overcharging. Honestly, it shouldn't cost that much. They charged an additional 260 AUD on top of the 800 RMB. The car rental manual provided by Zuzuche offered no effective solutions for compensation or prevention of such issues. I wanted a Mitsubishi car due to budget constraints and not wanting to spend too much on the rental, but Thrifty changed it to a Qashqai without notifying me, even though the car I wanted was clearly available in their inventory.

Thrifty is good

Up until now, there's been no resolution to the issue. They previously said something about international customers and that a result would come out in 1-2 days, but it's been half a month with no result.

OK

The pickup location is easy to find, and the car pickup went smoothly. The staff explained the important points.

Like: Great service provided by Steven. Vehicle is clean and comfortable to drive. Efficient in fuel consumption. Truly enjoy the whole 8 days of driving.
Dislike: Nil

It's hard to describe my impression of the rental company. The Australian female employee at pick-up was quite clueless; I forgot her name. Later, a Chinese guy named Steven helped us a lot and was very reliable. I want to give Steven a 5-star rating, but the woman was really frustrating.

It's quite convenient as it's located right in the airport arrival hall. However, the queue was quite long, so I had to wait for a while.

1. Other car rental companies offer free additional drivers if they are family members or spouses, but Thrifty charges extra. We paid over 20 AUD for three days. 2. We booked a sedan Corolla but received a hatchback. 3. Overall, it was acceptable

It was a terrible experience for our pick up at Perth. Despite that we provided our flight details and the fact that we would pick up the car past 1am, the Thrifty counter was closed and nobody was on duty in our terminal. We ended up spending over an hour trying to locate the last person on duty in a different terminal when a number of young kids in our group had to wait around in the cold. When we finally got the car, they were not able to provide the 3 car seats we requested, so we had to return to the pick up point the next morning to get the car seats

The rental process was smooth. The Chinese-speaking staff were very helpful. However, when returning the car at a different terminal, the staff there was overly meticulous. They pointed out a tiny mark on the windshield, claiming it was a chip from a small stone. We hadn't noticed it when picking up the car, leaving us unable to argue. They charged the damage limit of 2,277 AUD, awaiting further assessment (thankfully, we had full insurance with the rental company). After about three weeks, the car rental company responded that it was not considered damage and refunded the full amount. However, the frustrating part was that the deposit of 385 AUD and the damage limit of 2,277 AUD were not held as 'pre-authorization' (frozen amount) but rather charged directly (bank transaction with a due date for repayment). We had to pay the amount upfront (approximately 13,000 RMB), and when the amount was refunded, we incurred a small exchange rate loss (due to different exchange rates at the time of charge and refund, resulting in a loss of over 100 RMB). This is very unreasonable! This was the only instance in over 20 car rentals abroad where the deposit was charged directly rather than temporarily frozen. I hope the car rental company can improve in this aspect.