The last time I refueled, the nozzle shut off prematurely, so I thought the tank was full. It turned out to be about 10 AUD short. By the time we got to the airport it was already dark, and since we spent a long time looking for the drop-off point, we didn't dare to drive back out to fill up. As a result, we were charged 50 AUD. When picking up the car, the staff did not mention that the car had to be particularly clean. In New Zealand, we only did the necessary cleaning when returning the car and weren't charged for it, so we assumed Australia would be the same. As we didn't have vacuuming equipment, the kids ate snacks in the car and left crumbs behind, making it hard to clean thoroughly. Plus, we didn't see any car wash places along the way. Consequently, we were charged 90 AUD on our credit card. I'd like to remind fellow travelers of these two charges.

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.

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.

Very difficult to communicate

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