Payless or Thrifty

[wishbone]

We are flying into Orlando on a Saturday and staying for a week. We will be renting an economy car (can't mess up on the size).

If you had to use one of these companies....which one would you suggest using?

Less than 2 weeks to go!!!

 

[mcnuss]

Must you use one of these? To my mind, neither of them is stellar. I just did better price-wise using Budget and the Walmart code from Mousesavers, and imho, they have much nicer cars.

 

[wishbone]

I am really having to cut costs on this trip and thought this would be a good place (car rental) to do so since we were just going to be using the car to get back and forth from the park.

I know I'm going to get what I pay for. Just trying to do what I can to make the best of it.

Soooo.......if you had to choose between the two?

 

[seashoreCM]

The problem you need to be concerned with is actually getting a car for the price you were quoted, including no unwanted insurances.

L&M seems to have the most complaints on this board concerning your arriving at the counter and they won't give you the car.

I have used Payless several times and Thrifty once and had no problems.

All of the rental companies have their share of pushy counter agents trying to get you to buy the extra insurance and coverages.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

From the Payless agency to WDW, turn right out of their lot, pass one toll booth you will be skipping, then left at the light and another quick left without going under anythging, you are back on the Bee Line (528) towards WDW and the total toll is 50 cents.

Returning to Payless (or for that matter almost any rental car to any agency), you can use use I-4 to the Bee line, get off at Exit 9 Tradesport, left under the Bee Line, fill up, then back to the rental station (or north airport entrance) via McCoy Rd./Frontage Rd. without going back under nor back onto the Bee Line nor paying any more tolls.

 

[Dopey & Grumpy]

I've never used Thrifty so can't help you there but we did rent from Payless once and we'll never rent from them again. We also rented an economy and it was so small, we had to put most of our suitcases in the back seat (back seat is a nice word for it) and had barely enough room in the front to sit comfortably. Once we got to the hotel and unloaded everything, there was a little more room but not much. Very good on gas, though. We went thru the tollbooth and the person taking the money had to look down in order to see us

The biggest problem was with the people at the counter. They kept insisting that we needed their insurance because what we had wouldn't cover the cost of daily rental we would be charged in the event of an accident, for the number of days the car would be inoperable. When they couldn't bully us into taking their insurance, they tried bullying us into taking a larger car with "It's only $20 more a day" but for 7 days, that's $140 (they probably figured we wouldn't look at it that way!). Needless to say, it was not a good way to start a vacation.

I don't kow what the difference quoted between Thrifty and Payless, but I would definitely go with Thrifty. Of course, this is only one person's opinion.

 

[Lewisc]

I'd try VERY HARD to avoid both companies. I rented from Thrifty in Las Vegas, they went over the cars with a fine tooth comb looking to charge people for very minor dings (not much bigger than a pencil eraser) that I'm sure they won't fix. In fact they had little plastic circles over the dings so they would know which were new and which were old.

Keep in mind some of the economy cars have virtually no trunk, for 2 people you can always use the back seat for your luggage.

 

[wahaha1]

I just back from my trip in WDW 8/30 - 9/3

I used Payless to rent the cheapest car, which costs $20 per day after tax. Still a pretty good deal.

I have read so many postings about this company, and not surprisingly, I found they are doing business in the trickest ways..

1. They will ask you to purchase insurance. I declied all the insurance and told them I would use my own insurance. They said the insurance law in Florida is different from the other states (of course!). If accident does happened, I would end up paying $$$$$ without getting a penny from my insurance company. However, I refused to purchase insurance from them.

2. They said that my rental will be a suzuki swift without power transmission, without power brakes, weak air-con, and told me this car will be unsafe to drive fast on the highway. They offered me to pay $30 to total to upgrade to Nissan Sentra (this will end up more expensive then Alamo / National..., what's the point for going to Payless?). I questioned them why they are renting an unsafe car to customer. I insisted in getting this "unsafe" car.

Eventually, they upgrade me to Nissan Sentra without having me paying 1 more penny. I think the Suzuki Swift is just to help them to trick customer.

I have been using Thrifty during my underage years in College, I never had any problem with Thrity.

 

[Lewisc]

My guess is they didn't have any susuki in stock. You might have been stuck with it (although for your price I might have put up with non-power brakes and weak air-conditiioning).

I am confused, you said without power transmission. Where they going to give you a car with a manual transmisision (shift car)?

Originally posted by wahaha1
I just back from my trip in WDW 8/30 - 9/3

I. They said that my rental will be a suzuki swift without power transmission, without power brakes, weak air-con, and told me this car will be unsafe to drive fast on the highway. They offered me to pay $30 to total to upgrade to Nissan Sentra (this will end up more expensive then Alamo / National..., what's the point for going to Payless?). I questioned them why they are renting an unsafe car to customer. I insisted in getting this "unsafe" car.

Eventually, they upgrade me to Nissan Sentra without having me paying 1 more penny. I think the Suzuki Swift is just to help them to trick customer.

I have been using Thrifty during my underage years in College, I never had any problem with Thrity.

 

[wahaha1]

Not really. The Suzuki Swift was parking in the lot. They showed me that if I go for Suzuki Swift, I was gonna get that small, light car, which was unsafe to drive fast on the highway.

They turned out not renting that car to me. So I think that Suzuki Swift was just like an exhibit sitting in the parking lot.

 

[inkkognito]

Seems to me they are letting themselves in for a nice potential lawsuit if they ever do rent that piece of junk to someone who subsequently gets into an accident. Admitting that it is unsafe is the same as saying they shouldn't be renting that kind of car. They sound like the "used car lot" of car rental agencies.
Although we usually use a towncar, we rent cars fairly often for quickie weekend trips. We've come close to trying either Thrifty or L & M because of the price, but in the end we were always able to match them via Priceline (or in one case, we bid a couple of $$ more, but it ended up being worth it because we got Avis). I had never considered Payless, and now they are DEFINITELY off the list!!
For Priceline, we're gotten Avis, Alamo, and Hertz. Avis is my favorite because it's onsite you get to leave as soon as you get your car (unlike Alamo, where you have to stop again when you drive out). But even though Hertz is offsite, they won huge brownie points with me by upgrading us from economy to a RAV 4. I don't know why, as they had a lot of cars, but I sure as heck wasn't complaining!!!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Tigger Fans!]

Originally posted by wishbone
We are flying into Orlando on a Saturday and staying for a week. We will be renting an economy car (can't mess up on the size).

If you had to use one of these companies....which one would you suggest using?

My DH has rented through Thrifty many time on business trips with no problems. We just booked a rental through Thrifty for early December - 7 days - Standard Class for $94.88 (economy price was $79.88). I also found a link at www.rentalcars.com that you follow to the Thrifty website which should allow a free upgrade (based on availability).

Have a great vacation!

 

[seashoreCM]

They must give you a car as advertised, which is in most cases automatic with air cond. and carries the number of people the car you reserved is intended to.

Generally rental companies disallow the rental of their manual transmission cars for people doing driver ed. for that purpose. So you can count on their not limiting you to a manual.

Also if they give you an underpowered car that cant go fast, they can expect it to be used on the freeways anyway and whatever wear and tear can be expected to be normal.

Meanwhile the rental web page should tell how many people the car can carry. You may not carry more people than there are seat belts, but it is probably OK for the kids to hold suitcases on their laps for the first leg from airport to resort and the last leg from resort to airport.

 

[wishbone]

One last bump....thanks for all the imput.

Anymore comments would be appreciated. We will be leaving this Saturday!

You guys have been a wealth of information for this trip. Don't know what I would have done otherwise.

 

[BonnieA]

Have you tried L&M? They are right at the airport. They have the best prices. I haven't read any bad reports about them in the last year. I have used them 3 times without problems and will use them again in December. There is a free upgrade coupon for them on go2orlando.com.

 

[seashoreCM]

It's been awhile since I read a bad report about L&M but in the past they have had many, notably their simply not honoring reservations.

L&M's latest policies state that you must buy thier collision coverage if you don't have a car back at home with collision insurnce or don't bring proof of that. Perhaps (not stated in anyone's report) their refusal to honor a reservation was only because of that rule of theirs.

 

[lawgs]

we had a "full size" rented with thrifty end of july for the weekend but when we were assigned the car they "slipped" a mid size to us ( which we did not realize until we saw an ad on tv for said car and it was clearly identified by the manufacturer as "mid size" )

sort like a bait and switch....since they said on the web site the "full size" was "intrepid or similar"

 

[Michael623]

I have used Payless several times and never had a problem in fact last time I got a free upgrade to a Minivan. I will be at Payless on Sturday, maybe we'll bump into each other. 8 day economy rental for $104.37, I think I can deal with a small trunk.

 

[minster22]

My Dh rented an SUV from Thrifty here on Cape Cod a couple of years ago. When he returned the car there were no problems until about a week later when we recieved a bill in the mail from a local auto repair shop for over $200.00!! Thrifty insisted my DH had used the vehicle offroad (he did not) and was responsible for the repairs. After many, many phone calls to Thrifty management, the local dealership and our credit card company we still had to pay the charge. The repair did not even have anything to do with the 4wd system as charged by Thrifty. Needless to say, we will never use them again!! I have always found very decent rates using mousesavers.com codes and picking up at the airport. Good Luck!!

 

[seashoreCM]

An advantage to using a nationally known name brand rental company is that you can use small claims court in any city where the company has an office or rental station, if negotiations with the company or credit card fail.

I would expect the rental company to at least allege damages at the moment the car is returned. After waiting a week and then submitting a bill, the rental company ought to be expected to prove who caused the damage as opposed to just claim who caused the damage.

Write a letter to the president of the corporation.