Charleston Car Hire

My rental was awful

Pros: Not much

Cons: It took them about 20 minutes to pick me up at the airport. I stood in line an hour at the rental agency. There were maybe four in front of me. Every other rental company, you show up, give them your id and credit card, they give you the key and you are out in about two minutes. Oh no, not Thrifty/Dollar. My wife is not a patient person, and walked in while I was waiting and I told her it was a little slow. Counter lady gets mad at me for accusing her of being slow, said she was training the person. The car was supposed to be a Toyota Corolla and it was a Hyundai Accent, a step or two lower. Counter lady told me the owner was cheap. The low tire light came on and I called their road repair number, and they told me to recalibrate the tires. On a rental car! The person who took the car back told me it was the cold weather that did it. Overall,kind of a pain to rent this lousy car from a lousy company.

Slow service. Car washers don’t care about your time.

Cons: I stood out side waiting for a car for nearly 45 mins with out anyone seeing me and helping me. Guy that was supposed to be filling up car with gas across the street was taking his sweet time. Talking on the phone and walking around the gas station that was in plain view for the rental car place. I was in town for 24 hours to see my grandmother and this event made us miss lunch

There was one very slow person on duty we timed it and each check in t

Cons: It took us over 3 hours to get out of the lot We watched as each customer came back because the car they were assigned was dirty, smelled of cig greeted, had damage the one we initially got smelled of ciggerrrtte smoke the one we finally got had a clicker that didn’t work As we waited we looked at the yelp reviews and the reviews matched our experience Kayak should not include this location as an option All renters should not use it

Pros: Your employees were very friendly.

Cons: Our car was dirty. The last renter's information, including driver's license, was left in the car. The shuttle smelled like someone just went to the bathroom in there. No joke.

Poor customer service

Pros: return was fast and easy.

Cons: Terrible service. Waited 40 mins to be seen and they didn’t have the car I reserved. Every customer there was not happy as cars were cleaned after the customer finished at the check in counter, so everybody had to wait for a car to be available. Staff was not friendly nor interested in customer service. They did say that I could come back tomorrow to swap out for desired car. Who wants to do that on vacation. When I called to try and ensure If I did this that it would be ready to go with no more waiting they couldn’t confirm. They were supposed to call me back and never did. So I dropped the car off and got a rental with a new company for the remainder of my trip. Apparently, this Charleston thrifty is not part of corporate, but instead is an authorized dealer. I’ve had pleasant experiences with thrifty corporate locations in the past but this location is NOT like the rest. It may be cheaper but it’s not worth it.

Charleston Thrifty

Pros: Best car for the money if you’re willing to sacrifice all your patience. Driver who returned us to the airport in the shuttle was safe, efficient and polite.

Cons: Waited too long for the pickup shuttle, waited too long at the pickup counter, waited over 20 minutes for the vehicle to be cleaned even though I had a reservation for when I arrived. Subpar customer service and extremely inefficient process.