Hi
Just wanted to let you all know that I'm just back from Orlando and used the Alamo save time feature. I was on the silver option. The kiosk worked fine but I had fuel cost included at $78.38 so I cancelled out of the kiosk and I went to the desk to ask them to remove this option from my rental agreement before I finalised the agreement. They told me that it was mandatory charge on the agreement and had to take it and could then return the car empty. I said I thought I could return it full by filling up myself and they said no. I was too exhausted to dispute it and just wanted to get to our accomodation. Turns out, it only cost us $35 to fill our mid-sized SUV so feel like we were totally ripped-off.
Admittedly, I could have done something wrong during the save time registration, but I was pretty sure that I never selected fuel at any point and when it did appear on the screen I was sure that this fuel charge was an "option" and we could still fill the car up ourselves before returning it.
Just beware people! The same thing happened to my Dad when he arrived to join us 4 days later.
On another note with Alamo - my Dad's car was damaged when he picked it up (he only have 2 to choose from). Fortunately we told the lady at the check-out kiosk and she took a note on the system. When we returned the car, they wanted to charge against my Dad's insurance for the damage. Turns out, the car should never have been let out of the rental garage in the state it was in so they assumed my Dad had damaged it. We had to do a bit of negotiating with the Manager and she saw the note of the system so all was ok in the end.
On a positive note, our car was great - Ford Edge Limited. Highly recommended. I would still use Alamo in the future, I will just be more aware of some of the pitfalls.
Julie
Update - after posting this and reading up on more info, I'm getting the impression that you need to pre-pay the tank of fuel with Alamo on the Silver option!! I've definately been hunting for petrol stations on the way back to the airport on previous rentals to fill the car up so this is what has confused me
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