My son learned so much and passed his test! Staff was friendly and informative! The instructor was amazing!

Was late to the driving lesson by 2 minutes, They gave me a very hard time for being late. In the car they cramp 4 kids into including the instructor. I had got left at a gas station halfway into my driving lesson because I had an emergency health issue and my parent was on their way to pick me up. THE INSTRUCTOR LEFT ME (A MINOR) at a gas station on the outskirts of helotes TX Then it took the 30 minutes till my parents were notified. read more

I would not recommend to take your test there. The man who gave my son's test did not even try to make conversation and ignored him. He was very rude to me and make the driving experience very uncomfortable for me son. My son ended up failing and now he is stuck taking his test there again with that rude man. I plan on taking him to the DPS because it has to be better than this. read more

1) The driving lessons are once a week for 1 hr on average, so don't expect to finish it soon. They say, "You still need to complete your 30 hrs of driving with a parent, so there is no rush". 2) They only drive around the same areas like Bandera Rd (in my case), and around neighborhoods. They don't teach how to handle busy intersections, or how to get on and off highways, or how to get off the connecting bridge and merge the highway. Out of 7 hours of driving, my teen only got on and off highways a couple of times. So, since in San Antonio it is mostly driving on highways, and the traffic is horrible, the school was no help at all. Before starting this school, I drove 15 hours around neighborhoods with my child, and I mentioned that he needed to get experience with a professional driver sitting next to him on the busy streets and highways. However, no practice for that was provided. It seems that the instructors don't want to take a risk of teaching more than a minimum for the driving test. So, actual teaching is still going to be on you, the parent. I don't believe there is a driving school here that teaches you how to drive everywhere, this is why there are so many accidents on the roads. The only plus is that the insurance might give you a discount if you went through the driving school. There is no actual teaching there except for parallel parking, reverse and driving on slow streets that you need for the test. read more

If I could, I'd leave 0 stars. On multiple occasions, I've called the different locations in the city and no one answers their phone. Today, I called each location more than once at different times- as usual, no one answered. I left a voicemail at the Rhodes Driving School in Helotes. Within this voicemail, I explained how it was ridiculous that none of the locations can answer their phone and that I had questions about the courses offered. Within an hour, I see the number from the Helotes School was calling. I answered and immediately was greeted with a passive aggressive tone from a nasally sounding, presumably white old woman. She tells me that I left a rude message whilst exuding an obvious annoyance from her tone. She proceeded to question me if I knew that driving schools are so busy during the summer time. Then, she explained that they're not going to answer their phone when they're speaking to customers in-person. I told this woman that I wasn't even upset at her, however, any successful business isn't going to not have someone tending to their phones at their multiple locations. Still, this woman was obviously annoyed as if I've personally offended her. When she attempted to ask me about the questions I had, I quickly cut her off and said that I was not interested and that she was super unprofessional. I don't care if the pricing on the courses offered is more affordable than other schools. This company clearly has terrible, terrible customer service. Incompetence and the pre-existing bad reviews merely adds to the fuel. I'm glad this ordeal happened since you don't deserve my business. Finally, to that senile woman, you clearly lack any sound judgment when it comes to working for a business. Any position that greets potential customers should not be hostile and aggressive. I hope you resolve this weakness soundly. read more

Kathy Garza & the entire staff took very patient care of my nephew from start to finish. The constructive criticism & genuine praise of his driving skills really helped this extremely unmotivated new driver and I'm absolutely amazed at his progress. Parent advice I would give is to keep in touch often through the app to notify of when your child is available to practice or observe, know your final deadline and PLAN AHEAD; this all has to happen simultaneously with your own parent driving hours and it's a big responsibility to keep up with it, a little more than I expected going in. But most of all, assess the limited staff available to coordinate so many lessons, kids & parents - demonstrate KINDNESS in your requests, take care of your responsibilities as a client, and they will take care of you I promise. Thanks again to all, we are so grateful! read more

They take your money and don't do what they are paid to do, lie and don't return phone calls and can't schedule drives ahead of time and are rude. Avoid them like the plague. This occurred at the culebra location. read more

if your looking for a reliable,trustworthy company to teach your teenagers to drive look no further. not only do they generally care that your kid feels confident behind the wheel they care they pass. KATHY at the front id the GREATEST she is so knowledgeable she knows everything your child needs to be able to get their permit and their drivers license she has a great attitude and I always willing to help even when she's bombarded with phone calls. Roland the driving instructor has all the patience in the world when it comes to first time drivers nothing scares him not even kids that use two feet to drive he also teaches the lessons in the back and my kids feel so comfortable here. thank you Rhodes read more

Ms Kathy has always been Great about returning our calls or answering any questions we have . 5 of my kids have gone to this driving school and they love it . Thank you for being so patience with us and Thank You ! read more

BEWARE!! LOOK AT THE REVIEWS! I foolishly signed my kid up for this and didn't listen to the reviews. Started online and the instructor counted them absent, I observed his online instruction, and the guy teaching it was very rude and passively aggressive to the kids. He kept calling my kid by the wrong name after clarifying that it is not the correct name multiple times. The instructor sped through attendance and didn't even allow kids to speak when he mispronounced their names or didn't call on them. My own kid said "present" when they were called and the instructor ignored. When they chimed in to tell the instructor they were present, the instructor scolded my kid by saying, "That's your problem if you get marked absent. You shouldn't go by nicknames, you are supposed to go by what will be on your license". I got on and told him, "SIR, THAT IS HIS NAME!". Wound up switching to in-person and got the permit, but time goes by, and a year passes, and then they tell me that I have to pay again, but they had little behind-the-wheel appointments. Nobody answers the phones there, even when they are in the office. They don't return VMs. They deserve zero stars. DO THE PARENT-TAUGHT PROGRAM! ITS CHEAPER AND LESS OF A HASSLE! read more

With a rough start due to Covid shut down just as my son started the classroom part, Kathy Garza has been very helpful and friendly even when I got a bit frustrated at the beginning. We had to miss a session due to a last minute emergency and she quickly rescheduled my son so he could get his driving hours completed. Things happen, it is how this company has responded that has been very impressive. I'm pretty sure if you are patient and kind, things will get fixed if there is any problem. I would recommend this location. read more

This driving school sucks. They tell you from the start that it'll take 6 months, but what they don't tell you is it'll actually take you 12 months. Complete trash these people are. They're all liars and hate the USA. read more

This place is so frustrating. Kathy is very hard to deal with. She's rude and snarky, not flexible at all. Absolutely will not help with anything. Driving schedules get cancelled or your child ends up going for a drive that should be an hour but they end up giving the driving time to someone else. AND the real kicker. The guy only takes the kids through neighborhoods. No highway driving because "they don't get tested for that." Once mine went on an access road. I don't know how the location in Helotes is still around. We moved to the Eckert location after 5 months of frustration and aggravation. Avoid this location. read more

The secretary that does the scheduling for the school is very inept. My wife and daughter sat face to face with this person and scheduled date and times for my daughter to take driving lessons only to show up for my daughter's second lesson to find out that this secretary had entered wrong dates and times that were not what had been agreed upon in their initial meeting. She refused to correct the problem and refused to accept responsibility for her gross negligence. When we told her we would not be continuing with this school she tried to refund our money less one lesson, which I expected, and a $50 admin fee. I refused to accept less the $50 admin fee and explained it was due to her negligence in messing up the scheduling. She finally relented and included the $50 admin fee in the refund. I do not recommend this school at all. Even the instructor that gave my daughter her only lesson there said this person double books and does stuff like this often and even referred to her as crazy, his words. Stay away from this school, it is nothing but a headache dealing with them. read more

I wish I would have read the reviews first because I'm not the only one who has had a problem with Kathy at the Helotes Location, her office, or Rhodes over all. First of all, if you read the reviews on Google, Yelp, and social media, they ALL say the same thing. Kathy does not schedule the drives in an appropriate timeliness. Kathy is rude when you ask for a schedule, and she always turns the blame around on the parents. It is ALWAYS the same thing. You would think if, for YEARS, people were saying this, she would fix it so she stops getting negative reviews, but instead she is then rude to people. Kathy's main excuse for not scheduling the drives is ALWAYS one of two things, the parents are logging their hours and therefore she won't schedule the students, and the State of Texas requires a person to have their permit for at least 6 months anyway (read the reviews, her response is standard in almost every review.) Also, my daughter went on a drive last night (July 19, 2019). She was in their vehicle, sitting in the middle seat of one of their vehicles and did not have a seatbelt buckle. She made the instructor aware of this and the instructor told the other two passengers in the rear seat to put their arms over my daughter when the driver stopped!!! Kathy, who is supposed to be the owner of the Helotes location, refused to give me the certificate of completion for the Driver's Ed portion by Rhodes, which is actually against the law. If I ask for it, they are required to provide it. She told me she will waive the transfer fee for me to move to another Rhodes location, however, I don't want to work with Rhodes any longer. They said I had 72-hours to request a cancellation to the contract. Don't let them fool you. They require you to pay in full before any drives will be scheduled, the class takes more than 72-hours to complete, so you actually don't realize how awful they are until after the 72-hour window. The only thing I can say Kathy is good at, is ensuring she gets to keep her money (scam people) when she doesn't do her job. read more

My daughter still has a couple days of school left but I just wanted to make sure to leave this place a great review. The people who run this place are amazing especially Kathy always so welcoming and warm when we come in. My daughter learned a lot within a little bit of time and she always tells me not one student failed any of their tests after learning. That's a high success rate for the whole class to pass each part they are tested on the first time! They are definitely doing something right ! Glad to have found this location for my daughter she learned everything she needed to and we aren't even done yet lol ! I def recommend this place read more

Stupidly, I did not think to look for reviews before I signed my son up for lessons with this school. I hope this review helps someone else to avoid this unprofessional and untrustworthy driving school. When registering for this school you are told that they schedule drives based on your child's availability which is turned into their office. My son was available 6 days/week. We didn't get a call for several weeks. I called and asked why and they said it's was due to his availability. I guess being available 6 days per week is too difficult to fit him in? Of course the next week or so they sent a notice for a drive. As bad luck would have it, he had a mandatory practice he had to stay after school for, which I had no advance warning of until I asked him if he could take that drive. I was forced to cancel. I didn't think much of it at the time because I had hopes this meant he was at least now on their radar and he would get called again. Four months after turning in his initial availability and learners permit info he was called only that once. They now claim that because I turned down this one drive, it isn't their fault that he didn't get scheduled. HIS availability was the issue. They are totally unable to concede that for several months they never scheduled a drive and never returned my calls to ask for them to schedule him. We have since pulled him out and enrolled him in another school. Since withdrawing, I have heard numerous reports of the same issue. Save yourself the headache and look elsewhere. They don't deserve the one star I am forced to leave. read more

Stay away from this place! The staff has been extremely rude and unprofessional. Paid for driving lessons in February and still not done in late May. They make the driving schedule, do not return phone calls in a timely manner and are not helpful at all. When I told them that it should not take 3 to 4 months to complete seven driving lessons, they said that it was the parents responsibility to make sure that they are driving at home and they "don't learn to drive over night, SIR". Save yourself and your soon to be driver a lot of headaches and use another school. read more

Great professional, friendly service from staff. Accommodating with payments, scheduling drives and call backs. Instructors have many years of experience, they have patience and above all the right techniques to teach our kids the rules of the roads, to be cautious and defensive drivers. I highly recommend Rhodes Driving School I've had two sons attend my youngest son just completed his driving classes and proud to say my oldest has had a squeaky clean driving record for 2-years. read more

I took Rhodes driving school classes my sophomore year and got my license about a week ago. I wouldn't have wanted to go any place else for it. Mrs.Kathy is so sweet and hard working. She was VERY helpful by scheduling all of my drives this summer so I'd be able to drive myself to school this year. She always ALWAYS made sure that myself and others had a chance to get our license(s) as soon as possible. Not once did she give me any problems and was super respectful in every situation. People tend to forget that you have to be persistent with scheduling drives and getting your parent hours in. It's not easy but it's worth it. Without the help of Mrs.Kathy, Mr.Rico, and Mr.Garza I wouldn't be where I am. They're all awesome instructors but more importantly, they're awesome people. AWESOME PEOPLE. Every day they adjusted their schedules to not just drive with myself but with a lot of other students. They gave up their time so we could learn how to be responsible drivers and they did it with great attitudes. They definitely made my experience memorable more enjoyable. I really did like going here and appreciate them all for everything they did! read more

They say that they will schedule the drives but my son got only 2 drives in the first six months! Now that we are approaching the year deadline they say we must pay another $180 if he wants to complete his drives- I put that he was available ANYTIME during the summer and anytime after school during the school year. They say it's because he is not driving enough on his own and recording the times. I would feel more comfortable if he gets time with driving instructors before he drives everywhere because their job is to help them learn to drive correctly. The drivers ed class was good- my son enjoyed that but I would not recommend them because scheduling drives is a nightmare. read more

Mr.Rico is a great teacher!! Love the class and the way he teaches. The school is an amazing place to go to on how to drive

Both my kids went to Rhodes and we got them done in 4 months....if you follow instructions....I will bet these stupid people who write these negative reviews sat on their butt for 8 months after class and then wanted their kids to be pushed ahead of our kids on the driving schedule to finish their driving. read more

It's a good class, and the instructors were nice. But drive availability is scarce, if you don't schedule right away.

Enrolled my son in Dec. and completed end of June. For 7 driving sessions(2 hours each session 1 hr behind wheel and 1 hr observing). Said delay was due to son canceling appts. But i got same emails and texts and only 2 were canceled but ok. Not the main issue. Last two sessions he called me within the hour as stated. He said they were done. I was like ok cool he must be doing good. I find out the minimum time is 50 minutes but these sessions were 30-35 minutes tops. Still not the main issue. We finish what we think are the eequirements and i think my son is ready to take the driving test for his license. We go to dps and while speaking with the dos worker state parallel parking is on the test. My son looks dumbfounded and i ask what. He asked what that was. Im like what! He proceeds to say he never was told, seen, or was taught about this at the school. I was not aware as we were originally from California. We leave dps not taking the test and i call rhodes. Receptionist states two of the instructors are in the building and both state they went over and taught him the excercise in the parking lot. Complete deial. Now they ellude that my son is lying which doesnt make sense to purposly lie when the kid actually wants his license would never go into the test knowing he would fail not knowing the skill. Top it of they provide tou a list of required documents that was outsated and uneccasry. I would up taking things that were not needed. I paid for the service in full believing they would properly prepare my kid for the test. Never recommend this place to any drivers and im filling a complaint with the state. Less then a 1 star if possible. read more

I love Mr.Ricardo's class! It's very fun yet knowledgeable at the same time, his teaching environment very easy going. Don't get me wrong he's very serious about what he's teaching is and will get on you if you disrespect what he's teaching you in anyway. Driving is a privilege not a right and it was a privilege to learn from him. read more

I really enjoyed taking drivers ed with my instructor. He was laid back, yet I learned a lot from him. I feel prepared now to become a driver. read more

Class availability is good. But don't drive with them. Save the money. The problem is that they are very poor communicators. Horrible when you are expected to schedule drive time for your kid. Hey but prior to payment they sure can communicate. Once money is in hand it's another story. read more

Had a great time learned a lot and mr.rico is a really good teacher (I was told I'd get pizza) but that has in now way affected my review rating and it's is genuinely a great school and better then learning from my parents it's a great experience and the people are friendly read more

They are the worst at returning phone calls. It's also doesn't matter what it says online they are almost never open Scheduling driving time is next to impossible. My daughter did her coursework in the summer and I still can't get her driving hours. read more

The instructor made the class easy, informational, and fun. Rhodes Driving School is a great school to learn driving from and fully prepares students to be safe drivers on the road. read more

DO NOT GO HERE!!!! At least not until they are staffed appropriately. We bought lessons and you cannot get time. It is like a race every Monday to try to book ANYTHING. They have ONE instructor! You can't even call them. They only answer phone between 12 and 2. You can't book online, so you have to plan your day around 2 hrs to try to reach them. read more

Very educational and helpful reguarding safety in driving as well as defensive driving. Scheduling drives isn't a problem if you go in and ask for an available date to drive. It's better to go in so they know your face and become familiar with you instead of just calling and demanding a drive. They're very welcoming people and they can work with your schedule. Ms. Esther is a very good instructor and teaches you how to drive defensively and how to make safe and quick decisions. read more

The class was very educational, however the drives with the instructors are hard to schedule for the required 7 hours. Also, Mr. Rico was a great teacher and made the class fun as well. read more

Where can I start with Mr. Ricardo, first of all he is one of the coolest and best teacher I have known. He has a way of teaching that helps me understand more and evaluate my driving skills more! He has helped me look at driving way differently and has made me realize that driving is a privilege you shouldn't take for ease. I love Mr. Rico and I couldn't ask for another better teacher! read more