I rented a car online from Thrifty. When I arrived at the counter, I was told that they had a pickup truck for us. Surprised, I pointed out that we rented a compact car. However, the desk clerk said that it was at the managers discretion what car to provide since the order said "compact or larger". She then told us that she could give us a compact car at a higher price. Shocked, I asked if the person at the counter could use their discretion as we were not willing to accept a pickup truck and felt it was dishonest to charge more for a car that they had and we ordered. Be very careful if you choose to rent from this company. read more

We rent here anytime we go on weekend trips or if we are getting work done to our cars. The staff is courteous, and they do their job as quickly as they can. I recommend becoming a Blue Chip Member if you plan to use Thrifty a lot. BCMs can skip the line-- which has happened to us, and ultimately made us late to where we needed to go. Only on our last visit were we told that becoming a Blue Chip Member was free and you earn free rental days. Kind of sad since we rent every month and a half and literally can't back track all of those points. Overall, we've only had one issue with a car not being 100% clean. There was potting soil in the trunk, but the rest of the car was spotless. :-) Not a big deal, took a minute to vacuum out the trunk and we were on our way :-) read more

Really horrible customer service ! ! I originally wanted to use the car for 9 days, but had to change my flight to return after 7 days. When I told the people at the counter, they changed my contract to return before opening hours on the 7th day, which I did. I was charged for the entire 9 days. Apparently they billed me for the RESERVATION, and not the actual rental period on the contract. I had some verbal talks with their customer service people who promised me verbally that the extra two days would be refunded. So far, no refund has been processed. Unfortunately, every time I book Southwest Airlines into Charlotte, they expect me to add on a car from this company. so I will from now on avoid doing business with them again by booking the car separately. read more

Horrible. After flying all day, I arrive to find that not only is the rental place NOT at the airport (Charlotte, a major hub), but they closed at 6pm! What kind of rental place isn't open 24 hours? Travelers arrive at all hours. read more

My experience with Thrifty Car rental service near Charlotte, NC airport was horrific. When I arrived on 8/21/2014, the line was extremely long and there was one man working at the counter in slow motion. I waited approximately 40 min to be helped by the agent. All while enduring above 80 degree temperatures in the location and running after my 2 year old son after a 2 hour flight that landed at 230pm. Once I was helped, I checked to make sure that the agent was aware that I had reserved a car seat for my toddler. The agent said that they don't have many car seats and proceeded to take me to a back room to show me 2 booster seats and a way substandard toddler seat that I wouldn't dare use for my son. This angered me and I requested to speak with a manager who never showed up during the entire ordeal. The agent said he would call Dollar rental car so they can bring another car seat. While waiting for a manager and a suitable car seat, I decided to call Enterprise rental car to reserve what I needed and I demanded that someone take my son and I to Enterprise. I was told that they could take me back to the airport, which was unacceptable. At this point it was 415pm and I had a 90 minute drive ahead of me. Another agent, Chantel clearly saw my frustration and agreed to take me were I needed to go. While in the car, she apologized profusely and asked if I would mind if she took me to Dollar rental car instead of Enterprise. I agreed and she took me there and helped me perfectly. She was professional and courteous. I would just like to say that because of this experience, I will never use Thrifty again. When I returned the car to Dollar, the gas was a slither away from full and they charged me $9 for a gallon of gas! I'm done with Dollar too... read more

I usually don't leave feedback, but this was a terrible experience. Rental place is 20 mins from airport. Was signed up for extras I didn't ask for. Spent 1.5 hours standing in line. Finally walked to back and vacuumed and cleaned the car myself. Aweful customer service. Won't be back. read more

If I could leave negative stars I would. This has got to be the most disorganized incompetent rental agency I've ever been to. We get there & there's a line going out the door. The lady @ the counter apologies that they're short Fri morning @ 9AM. Hey things happen I understand. Another lady who normally handles returns (by her account) at least tries to assist so I'll give her that. Now they tell you there is a penalty for smoking in the vehicles but how is it 4 renters ahead of me all came back in for smoked vehicles and/or ashes in it? Then they give me the keys for my white Cruze. Ok. Hopefully it doesn't smell like cigarettes I say so I'm walking around their lot hitting the panic button & I hear the horn but I see the lights on a grey Cruze flashing. This can't be right. The tag says white. But the doors lock/unlock, trunk opens & engine starts so this must be it! There is no one to take me to my vehicle & look it over for damages. Might I mention they are quick to tell you if you're involved in an accident YOU the renter are responsible to pay for whatever days is lost to repair it. Also it looks like it hasn't been washed in a while. Dusty dashboard, wrappers in the side door, dirty windows but it looked like someone used a dirty/muddy rag to wipe down the sides. Out of the entire experience returns was efficient & fast. Two thumbs up for that! Pull up scan Barcode, check mileage, look for damage, print receipt & done in less than 10 min. read more

All these 1 star reviews are 100% accurate. I was charged for insurance I didn't ask for. Also its not at the airport it is in a shady part of town. The woman behind the counter is very hard to talk to. Save yourself and rent from any of the other agencies which are across the road from the terminal read more

Will never use this car rental agency again! I should have known we were in trouble when we couldn't find the place to wait for the shuttle. It was far from the other rental shuttle in an unlit area. The agency was quite a way from the airport. It looked like a bad used car lot. Most of the cars were older and dirty looking. We were the only customers and it took forever to get out of there. When we finally got our car it was covered in scratches and dents and was dirty inside and out. I pointed out the damage and was told "oh don't worry about that. We don't have anyone to check you back in" The employees were disorganized and unprofessional. I was surprised that we didn't have any mechanical problems! Upon return it took 10 minutes to return the car. Then we waited about 10 more minutes before they realized that they hadn't called the shuttle to pick us up. Don't use this company! read more

When we went to turn the car back in, the agent tried to say the car smelled like marijuana and charge us a smoking fee. We do not smoke cigarettes or any drugs. Had us waiting in there for over an hour for a manager who never showed. Finally the agent had another agent smell the car who agreed with us that there was no smell. Why couldn't that have been done in the first place?? Sent the company a letter and got a generic response back. Very embarrassing and insulting! read more

I agree with the below, this is by far the slowest most inconvenient car rental companies I have ever been to. For your sanity, do not use this place. We almost missed our flight dropping off the car. Waited for about an hour at the counter again to drop off a car! There is one person working the counter for a larger international airport location! What a joke! read more

In case you use a prepaid voucher, never ever use this location. They charged me an additional 100$ for unspecified fees which were never mentioned on the internet confirmation. They wanted to downgrade the car I ordered. After my trip I tried to reach thrifty 5 times by email. No response. I'll never rent by thrifty again. The cheap advertized price is too expensive at the end read more

I wish I could give this location ZERO stars!!! DO NOT rent from them if you want to have honest service. Issues I had: 1. Location is NOT at the airport, despite being advertised that it is 2. Agent at the location asked me if I needed any coverage and I said no. He listed a whole bunch of options and I said no all of them. He then prompted me to sign the screen (even though I couldn't see what I was signing until after it printed out) When it did he assured me that the extra charges were just holds on my credit card. Making the mistake of giving this company charitable assumption and trusting his word, I took the receipt and left with the car. 3. They told us that in order to avoid fuel charges we had to fill the tank before returning the car and produce the receipt to them at the time of return. It also had to be from a gas station within 10 miles of the location. We stopped at the closest station, filled the tank to full and then brought the receipt with us to drop off the car. We showed the agent and she gave us the all clear to go! 4. However, my final bill was 4 times what it was supposed to be so I called customer service. I found out that I was in fact charged for damage liability AND charged for returning the car less than full. Quoted price: $60.54 Paid price: $201.73 DO NOT USE THIS LOCATION TO RENT A VEHICLE. WHAT A SCAM. Thrifty should be ashamed of this location and that their customer service headquarters were zero help. read more

We too flew into Charlotte not knowing the Thrifty Car Rental was off site. After finding the shuttle and getting to the rental location we had a nice clerk who said she was upgrading our car at no extra charge, her idea, not a request from us. We had prepaid the rental. Watching our credit card I noticed we were charged a second time for the rental. When I finally reached someone in customer service they said the second charge was for the upgrade and gas! I feel like we had a clerk who was dishonest and did not think we would notice the double charge. I too emailed Thrifty and have not received a response. the only good thing was that you can return the car at the airport. read more

Sure wish I had read the reviews before I reserved a car! What a nightmare! We arrived at about 8 am after wandering around the Charlotte airport trying to figure out where the Thrifty bus stop was. Once inside the bus, the driver said,"you should know, there are no cars." I told him we had a confirmed reservation, and he shrugged. When we got to the lot, which is a circuitous drive from the airport, sure enough, NO CARS! And no one could tell us when a car might come in! The staff blamed it on being bought out by Hertz, who comes and takes their cars when Hertz runs low. There actually were two cars on the lot, but they didn't know where the keys were for them! We sat for about 20 minutes, and just when we decided to go elsewhere,(which meant getting in the Thrifty bus and heading back to the airport), a rental return drove in. We were told, you can have that car, but we ain't cleaning it! Say what? We took the car, which fortunately was in very good condition, with an agreement that we'd get a day off for the hassle. When we returned the car, it was rung up full price, without even asking us. When I told the sullen representative there were notes about us getting a discount, she turned on her heel and left. She never came back out. We had to hunt her down. It was SO disorganized! SO unhelpful! Crazy town!!! 0 stars if it will let me! Never, ever again! Dang, need to leave a star to post a rating. Pretend it isn't there! read more

Flew into Charlotte airport not knowing that Thrifty car rental was not onsite. It's advertised in a misleading way. It's now over an hour since leaving baggage claim... Shuttle to the rental office, wait in line 20 minutes, only to learn they have to bring the car from the other location across town...another 10 minutes. Don't waste your time, it's not worth it with so many other rental car companies in the airport. read more

Rented a car at the "Charlotte International Airline" location 7-10 April. Nice people but the location IS NOT AT THE AIRPORT. Okay I can deal with that but when I got ready to return the vehicle all of the documentation says the return location is "CHARLOTTE INTL AIRPORT" with no street address. I called the one of the numbers on the documentation and they give me an address to return it to which was the WRONG LOCATION. I finally used Google Maps to find the airport and then to find the nearest Thrifty location. Took me an extra 45 minutes to find the damn place. When I checked it in I noticed little 12 font signs on windows and counter noting the address BUT NOBODY POINTED IT OUT TO ME BEFORE I LEFT. Two solutions 1) Print the drop off address on the documentation (BEST solution) and/or 2) have the counter people hand out cards with the address. After hours drop off is the Dollar location AT THE AIRPORT that should be used all the time. Recommend everyone by pass Thrifty and rent from one of the 12+ car rental vendors at the airport to avoid the hassle. read more

Called thrifty to see where to return the car when flying from Charlotte, nobody knew. One person said on site one person said off-site. Literally nobody had any clue as to what was going on. Went to the airport to drop the car off where all of the other rental companies were located and no thrifty, went to the off-site address we were given and they didn't open until 6.. Well our flight was leaving at 6 so that clearly wasn't feasible. We ended up returning the car to the dollar rental facility at the airport per the direction of some random guy standing in the parking lot. Worst rental experience ever. read more

Me experience with Thrifty this week (2/16/15) was uneventful. I booked online with the time saving option. Got there was greeted warmly. My car was available and I left all within 15 minutes. Upon returning I pulled up; again warmly greeted got my receipt printed and left. read more

Very poorly managed location. "Blue Chip" is like "The Emperor's New Clothes" - it means nothing. One register. There are 2 lines- but everyone is helped in order of their arrival. I felt sorry for employees dealing with frustrated customers. Will NEVER rent again from Hertz or Thrifty (Hertz owns Thrifty) in Charlotte. I was late to my appointment - solely because of this poorly managed Thrifty location. read more

Originally rented car in Baltimore, experienced good service. Return at Charlotte was difficult. The Charlotte airport is undergoing construction. Airport website indicated one location for Thrifty returns, a call to customer service gave me different location. I asked for the number to call the local office and was told that the number was not available to customers. A second call to customer service provided more information, but upon arriving at the airport rental return garage, there were no signs for Thrifty. Only a lucky guess, after circling the airport property twice, landed me correctly in the Dollar section. read more

My whole experience with Thrifty was horrible but the worst was the drop off at Charlotte airport. It says on airport but there is no sign for Thrifty at the rental return garage. GPS kept bringing me the same location. Called customer service and it took forever to get through to a person who told me it was on site at the Airport. Come to find out Thrifty and Dollar rental are owned by the same group and we were to drop off at Dollar rental. We spent almost an hour driving around stressed out about missing our flight. We picked up the car in DC and the agent was soooo slow. When it was our turn she couldn't find our reservation. Good thing I brought all of my reservation paperwork. Even with that she had trouble and kept saying there was something wrong with my reservation and the system would not let her get a car for us. The only bad part of my vacation was the car rental. Thrifty is terrible. read more