The Joy of Car Renting in Sardinia

I mentioned we had an experience renting a car in Sardinia last month, and here is the story you have all been waiting on the edge of your seat for:

We had a reservation for an automatic smart car with Thrifty for 200EUR for the week.  After waiting over an hour in their line, we find out their credit card machine isn’t working.  This would be fine, expect we have a fancy Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and the credit card numbers and name aren’t ‘raised’.  And since they were using the old system of copying the cards with carbon paper, they refused to take our credit card.  What about cash?  Nope, that wouldn’t do either.  And we were told there was nothing they could do – even though we had both a valid credit card and plenty of cash, they would not honor our reservation.  Thanks Thrifty!

So what did the guy behind the counter do to help?  He leaned over and said he would write down some other places that we could check for cars.  But the thing is – the rental car building is a small place with 20 counters all around – he only wrote down the names of the companies we could see by turning around.  Man, thanks dude!

This left Noah scrambling around the building looking for a car, because this is peak holiday season, and most cars are already taken.  We finally get ‘lucky’ with a small local business where the owner agrees to rent us the same smart car for only 450EUR.  Oh, and we have to pay 300EUR cash now as a deposit since the machines are down.  He writes down our credit card information, and we agreed to come back the next day to pay the 450EUR assuming the machines are back up. 

The next day we return as agreed, and the machines are up. We pay the 450EUR with our credit card, and ask if we can get the 300EUR cash back now.  He lets us know that this is a deposit, and we will get it back when we return the car at the end.  Ok, except that we have an early flight out – will he be there at 6am when we need to drop the car off?  No problem!  He lets us know that his hours are 6am-10pm, and of course he will be there.  Ok, but really?  6 in the morning??  I ask twice, and Noah asks for the third time.  We just don’t really believe this laid back island-Italian man.  But what are we to do?

Fast forward to the last day of our trip.  We have an 8am flight out, and arrive at the airport at 6am.  Yes, this is very early, but we assume the whole car thing will take at least 30 minutes to deal with.  When we get to the building, do you think the guy is there?  Of course he isn’t.  At 6:30 we decide to go check our bags, and return 15 minutes later to a still empty counter.  Now it is reaching 7am, and still no sign of the guy, and it is starting to look like we will be spending 750EUR for this stupid car that was supposed to cost us 200EUR.

I write out a note explaining that he wasn’t there as agreed, and he owes us a 300EUR credit on our credit card.  I then take about 25 photos of the car, and film myself returning the key.  Yes, this was a bit extreme, but I was determined to get my deposit back. 

At 7:10 we give up and head to the airport to get through security.  Our flight is in less than an hour.   As we are walking in the terminal, I realize I don’t have the rental agreement in my bag.  I ask Noah if he has it, and he can’t find it.  Uh oh – we definitely need this to fight for our money (or at least in my mind, as I am envisioning many emails and international calls to get my 300EUR back).  Noah says he will run back to check that I didn’t leave it with my urgent note on the counter.

When Noah catches back up to me, he lets me know that he has the cash!!!  When he returned to the building, the man was just showing up (7:20 at this point).  He asked Noah if he wanted to rent a car, and Noah says, “No – I am returning it and I need my cash deposit back”.  It must have been the look of irritation on Noah’s face, or maybe he realized that we were the couple that he swore he would be there at 6am for, but he reached into his cash register and handed Noah the cash.

Now this is really the kicker in our minds.  The guy never even checked the car, or checked to see if we actually returned the keys!  So what was the point of the cash deposit?? 

Ok, my rant is over.  Sardinia was an amazing vacation sandwiched between a horrible car rental experience.  And I will be boycotting Thrifty from now on.