Alamo, National Car Rental lies to underage adults when stranded out of state Ripoff Champaigne Illinois
When I was going up to Wisconsin from Illinois with my friend, Our car broke down in Champaigne Illinois. We stayed the night calling around to places to see how we were gonna get home.
While calling around, we found out that we had to be 25 to rent a car, and we were only about a mile or so from the Greyhound bus station, so we were going to take that up. Our last attempt was to call Alamo/National Car rental.
We told them our age (at the time one being 20 and the other 19)and they told us we could rent a car, and we had to go to their airport in order to rent it, so we called the airport renting agency and they said we could rent.
When we got to the airport to pick up the car, which was 7 miles out of our way to get there, they told us that we couldn't rent a car, and the person at the desk called the other office to see what she should do about it, and the person on the phone yelled at me calling me a liar that she never told us we could rent. I told her that both of them told both of us we could rent, as both of us called to verify the information. She said that we never called and that she knew the policy better than that to tell us that (but it was the same woman we talked to both times). After the phone hung up, the woman at the desk first ignored me and then yelled at me saying it wasn't her fault and that there was nothing she could do, she didn't even give me a phone number to call the bus station or anything.
My parent called them up and the woman that called me a liar called him a liar and that he was never to call her again. When I wrote them when I got back about the problem, I didn't hear from them for 3-4 months (at least 3 months) and they said that they couldn't do anything about it, which I understand to a certain degree. My father wrote them and called them the second he could get a hold of a higher up, and he never did get a response from them. I wrote them a second time saying if you can't do anything about what happened right now, what did they do, and I have yet to hear back from them about that. My father still hasn't heard back.
Just to warn those out there who are "too young" or are "underage" take the greyhound, never rent a car. To all those who have to rent a car, Hertz is a friendly company who helped us out (although they weren't able to let us rent a car) in any way possible which included giving us phone numbers, and talking to the airport for food and toiletries. Alamo/National is a poorly operated company.
Jamie
somewhere, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Mark
East Troy,Wisconsin,
U.S.A.
Problem Resolved
#3Consumer Suggestion
Wed, February 08, 2006
After a few weeks of debating with Alamo's customer service I did manage to get an acceptable refund. The corporate office was a great deal of help and were much more friendly than the people at the counter. So you don't have to "Forget the Alamo" just remember you need to be 25 to rent a car with a valid Credit Card (not a Debit Card)if you want things to go smoothly.
For help beyond what the people at the desk can do call Alamo Customer Service at 1-800-445-5664.
Mark
East Troy,Wisconsin,
U.S.A.
Forget the Alamo
#3Consumer Comment
Mon, September 05, 2005
Funny that we are both from Wisconsin and underage but I digress. I rented a car from Alamo on a recent trip to Seattle, WA and it was a terrible experience. I had set up the reservation months in advance and was told I would have to pay an additional $25 per day for being under 25 years old (and I'm 24 darnit) which I was fine with. What they didn't tell me was that I would need to have the full amount of the rental and an additional $200 in my debit account to leave with the car. They told me that without the money on my card I could not rent a car. This sounds understandable, but I had the entire amount for the rental and the deposit in CASH in hand! Along with my boarding pass for my return flight that proved I was going to be back at the airport in less than 3 days, my military ID with my social security number, and my health insurance information which had my employer right on it. Needless to say, they had enough information to know I wasn't trying to steal the d**n thing.
So there I was, 1800 miles from home and without a car or anywhere to go so I knew I couldn't just give up. After speaking with a manager indirectly for about 3 hours I ended up getting the car many hours late so I lost all my other reservations for the trip. Then (this is the icing on the cake) the next day, 150 miles from the airport, the transmission on the Jeep they rented me dropped. I was in the middle of the mountains and had no idea where I was. It took them 5 hours to get a replacement car to me even though there was an Alamo branch 1 hour away. I had no food or drink with me so there I sat waiting from 11am till 4pm on one of the two days I was to be in Washington on a several thousand dollar adventure waiting for Alamo to replace the shitbox they gave me. And my refund for this hassle??? $50, that's it. I'm sorry but I have never experienced worse customer service. Alamo may be $15/day cheaper than the rest but that's because thier staff is incompetant and rude and thier cars are pieces of crap.
Take my advise DONT RENT FROM ALAMO