Very satisfied. When picking up the car, I upgraded to a premium SUV for an extra 15 CAD per day, which offered better driving comfort and more powerful performance. Locals in Canada tend to drive over the speed limit, but it doesn't feel overly dangerous. Additionally, they are courteous to pedestrians and drive civilly, making driving relatively safe. Hopefully, I won't receive any fines in the next 15 days.
The service was generally fine, but I encountered issues during pickup. It took a long time to resolve. I had originally reserved a 12-seater vehicle, but at the time of pickup, they said it was unavailable and only offered a 7-seater.
I have rented from Thrifty several times at this location, but this was the most disappointing experience. After a late-night flight, the queue was long, and the Indian staff member aggressively upsold extras and insisted we pay for an upgrade. In the end, the car we received had a broken air conditioner.
It was past 3 a.m. when we landed at the airport, but thankfully the rental office operates 24 hours. After completing the paperwork, we took their shuttle van to the parking lot outside the airport. We waited for more than 10 minutes while the driver was just nearby smoking and not moving. When I tried to communicate, the driver didn’t speak English. He used Thai to translate to Chinese, but it still didn’t make sense. Eventually, he started driving. The ride to the parking lot took about 10 minutes in total. It was raining at the parking lot, and there wasn’t a sheltered area for us, so we had to quickly take photos to document the car’s condition. They upgraded the car model for us (which I only realized later since they didn’t inform me).
The strange part was after driving out, I discovered the rear seatbelt didn’t work. The next day, I contacted the rental company’s customer service in a group chat to report the issue. The representative seemed apologetic and informed the branch, but their solution left me very confused. That evening, the branch sent someone to deliver the car model I had originally booked. As I mentioned earlier, I had already been upgraded without knowing, so at this point they were giving me my original booking back. However, I felt that since the upgraded car had issues, they should replace it with one of a similar level or price. The replacement car was worse than the car I was already using, even though its rear seatbelt was broken. I requested to keep the upgraded car, but the branch refused and insisted on taking it back.
Here’s where it got really odd. They took the upgraded car away without informing me, and my child’s stroller was still in the trunk. When I contacted the rental company’s customer service, they reached out to the branch, but the branch told me to go to their location to pick it up myself. Their office was dozens of kilometers away from my hotel. The way they handled the issue was extremely rude and unprofessional.
When I arrived at the counter, they immediately told me the car model I booked was unavailable. The replacement car was a size smaller. They claimed all the remaining cars were reserved, clearly trying to take advantage of me. Additionally, they had no idea how to register two drivers for the same car, meaning I paid extra for a second driver for nothing. The rental and insurance documents didn’t reflect the second driver feature. They also said the car had CarPlay, but it came without a connection cable. When I asked at the counter, they told me I had to provide my own cable. In the U.S., you can't go anywhere without map navigation, so I was very frustrated. Fortunately, I had purchased full coverage insurance, so the staff couldn’t upsell me on additional insurance. After multiple negotiations, they waived a $25 fuel fee for me.
For actual service, just go with Hertz. In Queenstown, renting a car requires queuing for the paperwork, but both pickup and drop-off are relatively convenient when using Hertz directly.
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