Expedia / Alamo car hire nightmare

[roger]

I have to say, of all the suppliers Alamo (and National) are by far the best (although I guess they can all have the odd 'rogue agent' that will try to sell you something). None of the the car rental companies are obliged to compensate for mechanical failures of vehicles, as they are kept to a good standard and in general this cannot be helped. I think the $70 compensation was a gesture of good-will, and their obligation is that you should not be stranded if the car breaksdown as they provide breakdown cover as standard.

Unfortunately the selling of insurances like CDW is more common for rentals that are not all-inclusive, as there is scope for the rental company to sell you this. With our packages this is already included so the rental companies know not to bother trying to sell you anything. Also, if you use the Alamo kiosks then you do not have any human interaction at that point so no one to try to sell you anything [msnsmile]

Alamo have a great policy that their staff are well aware of. If a staff member has 3 complaints lodged against them, then they can be fired. If you feel the person on the desk is trying too hard to sell you something, just ask for their name then ask to speak to a manager.

[ellie]

We picked up cars from Orlando International and Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airports very recently, the first on June 17th. We chose Alamo and had absolutely no problems with a hard sell. On collecting our SUV at Fort Lauderdale they did ask us if we wanted to upgrade but when we said no there was no pressure to do so.

[eagleydo]

In defence of Alamo staff let me tell you of how they helped us on Christmas ,last year. The immigration staff were in an unusually unpleasant mood and made our party of 13 split up between 4 lines well and truly seperate from each other. We were all made to feel unwelcome and it was the worst experience I have ever had at the airport. We were then given wrong details of where to collect our bags. When we arrived downstairs two of our party were missing and we could not find them. We spent two hours trying to locate them. The virgin staff that we could find provided no help, no airport staff provided any help except by eventually sending us to a phone where a message would go over the tannoy. This they said would be heard all over the airport and in both terminals. We did this three times. Eventually the children were getting very tired, it was late, we went to collect 1 vehicle and two of us were going to wait until we could locate the missing pair. At the Alamo desk we finally got some real help, the rep there gave me his card with number and offered any assistance he could and also informed us the tannoy could not be heard in the other terminal. As the party moved to collect the van we finally met up with the missing pair who had been sent to the wrong terminal and to the wrong conveyor belt(They also had used the tannoy which again could only be heard in their terminal). So when slating Alamo reps as if all are as bad as one other, remember sometimes these are the only helpful people you will meet on arrival.

[luckylady]

I am very sorry to hear about your experience, Sheila. The thought of driving anywhere without knowing I was fully insure would be a no go area for me. The consequences of what could have happened would have prevented me from switching on the engine. The experience you encountered must have ruined your holiday. You were so lucky please don’t take that risk again.

I am another great fan of uscarhire.co.uk I have used their services for more years than I care to remember. I would not use any other car hire company whilst travelling in The States. Their prices are very competitive and the service is second to none. When anyone drives vehicle peace of mind has to be priority.

[jcargill]

I have to say, of all the suppliers Alamo (and National) are by far the best (although I guess they can all have the odd 'rogue agent' that will try to sell you something). None of the the car rental companies are obliged to compensate for mechanical failures of vehicles, as they are kept to a good standard and in general this cannot be helped. I think the $70 compensation was a gesture of good-will, and their obligation is that you should not be stranded if the car breaksdown as they provide breakdown cover as standard.

Unfortunately the selling of insurances like CDW is more common for rentals that are not all-inclusive, as there is scope for the rental company to sell you this. With our packages this is already included so the rental companies know not to bother trying to sell you anything. Also, if you use the Alamo kiosks then you do not have any human interaction at that point so no one to try to sell you anything [msnsmile]

Alamo have a great policy that their staff are well aware of. If a staff member has 3 complaints lodged against them, then they can be fired. If you feel the person on the desk is trying too hard to sell you something, just ask for their name then ask to speak to a manager.

Roger,

Thanks for your input. The local area manager has come back and pretty much intimated that staff would have been in 'education' mode and would not hard sell. That was far from the case as our Amex card cover was being dismissed as inadequate. I even had the Amex booklet with me and still seeds of doubt were being sown. I was so concerned that I found myself e-mailing Amex to get confirmation of the situation and we spent a couple of days with an underlying concern that we had misinterpreted Amex's cover.

With regard to the mechanical issue we were in heavy traffic when the transmission went with a bang. We sat for some hours awaiting a replacement - this was our last afternoon in town and we had a lot of things to do as we were fitting out our second vacation home.

When the tow truck arrived he told us that he knew immediately what he was going out to when the model was mentioned as he had towed 20 such vehicles himself with the very same problem.

I'm not suggesting that Alamo were putting out unsafe vehicles but there does seem some evidence that this particular model had a history.

What compounded things was that the telephone helpdesk apologised and said that Alamo would provide compensation. This was re-iterated by the manager at MCO when we handed the replacement vehicle back. Names, addreses, etc were taken but weeks later nothing turned up. I had to go back and file a claim with Alamo and complain about how we were exposed to a potential accident.

Just don't need this kind of hassle.

/ Jim