Complaint Review: Alamo Rental Car

Well for what it is worth I rent from Dakotah at the Jackson hole airport at least once a year and he is by far the best rental car manager I have ever dealt with. Let me start by saying that if Mr. Armand double parked to where he knew it was illegal it would seem ignorant for him to even post this story as it is his fault he recieved the ticket in the first place. To say that it is a scam is somewhat slanderous and seems to be far from the truth. I have been traveling to Jackson Hole for over fifteen years and people you have to understand. This is the only airport in the nation located in a National park and therefore is extremely space restricted. The parking situation has nothing to do with dakotah or Alamo. The problem is directly related to the fact that the park will not give the airport any more space. So the airport is growing but the parking can not. I have been in many situations in life where parking was limited. Airports, sporting events, concerts etc. etc. etc. and the last thing I would do is think that I could just leave my car wherever I want to and expect someone else to pay for my poor decision. I think Mr. Armand should stop trying to pass the buck and pay the bill. Alamo did not write the ticket nor did they park the car so how did it become there problem????? I highly recommend Alamo at the Jackson Hole Airport and if you do not believe me feel free to call dakotah and Judge for yourself. Great Service Great Price and I have no complaints. Jim!!!!!!!

Confusion unwarranted: I have stated from the beginning that the Alamo office was closed. It was an employee of a rental car competitor who suggested I park where I did after telling me that I was not allowed to park in any of their spaces if Alamo spaces were full. I have stated this to any and all Alamo representatives whom I have spoken with.

There is an Alamo rental car parking space availability problem at the Jackson Hole airport period. This has been verified by the employee who first answered my phone call at the Alamo desk in Jackson Hole, airport security, and the Teton County sheriff's deputy. All have said, We deal with this parking situation often. Mine is obviously not a one-time occurrence. As a customer, I returned the car on time, full of fuel and in perfect condition. I fulfilled my responsibilities. Alamo did not fulfill their responsibility by providing adequate return parking. I am trying to make the company aware of the problem so that they may fix it. I am also trying to make future customers aware of an operations problem so that they will not complete their duties as a customer, and then weeks later, get an Alamo credit card charge for $60.

I am focused on my work. I suggest that Alamo focuses on solving this problem and improving their business.

To begin with Diane from Alamo, he was told where to park when he picked up his vehicle - doh!!

I too have seen where there are more vehicles than parking spots a this location, but fortunately for me I've always returned them when the office was open and they just had me park it there.

Bottom line is, Diane, that your deck of cards are missing all the aces. Were I the original OP I would disput the charge with my CC and if the charge stayed, I would look at small claims court.

Alamo has this big handed way of doing things and all they care about is the almighty dollar. Personally, I now use either Thrifty or Budget and I have yet to have had a problem with either.

BTW, because of my experiences with Alamo, my company who regularly charges about $150,000 per year in rental cars also does not use Alamo.

Hmmmmm?

Was the location closed OR did an Alamo employee tell him where to park????

Is it me or is there something wrong with this picture???

First let me state that I have not and and have no intention of lying about the incident in question. I have acted in good faith from the beginning and believe the facts speak for themselves. I have, however, experienced increased frustration from the lack of desire on Alamo's part to acknowledge and remedy, not only my situation, but the parking space problem itself. It has been made crystal clear to me over the past few weeks that the Jackson Hole office runs independently from the corporate office, but I dare say that the Alamo image is what now suffers.

In her rebuttal to my report, Diane, who I assume is an Alamo employee, states, What he failed to mention is that he was aware of being cited on June 15, 2006 Not true. I was not informed of the ticket until I called your Jackson Hole manager in mid-July after I received my credit card statement on which the $60 citation appeared. I was not informed on June 15 as you stated. In fact, on or around June 20, I received a statement from Alamo indicating that my balance was $0 on my rental, with no indication of any citation being charged.

As far as Diane's notion that I was too lazy to park in the airport parking lot, this also is simply not true. I drove around the rental return area for at least 15 minutes at 6:00 a.m. while my wife and two children waited outside the airport. There were simply no available Alamo spaces, and the Alamo office was closed. Had I parked in General Parking, chances are the staff would not have found the car and I would have been charged for an extra day. (A point that an employee in customer service mentioned the first day I called Alamo headquarters.) Would Diane have returned her rental car in the airport General Parking when the instructions clearly state to return ONLY to the Alamo area and would she not have worried about penalty? I returned the rental car to the rental car lot (as instructed by the Alamo agent) and since all spaces were full, I parked as far out of the way as possible next to the other Alamo cars (not in the middle of the street as suggested). Was I instructed by the Alamo agent what to do when if the lot was full when I returned the vehicle? No.

It is obvious that this issue has caused a bit of turmoil within the Alamo organization, and if this leads to a greater focus on available airport parking at the Jackson Hole location and/or instructions for renters if the return lot is full, then future customers will be the beneficiaries of my misfortune. As for me, my days with Alamo/National are over.

Let me begin by informing the readers that Alamo is not the owner of the Jackson Hole, WY Airport, nor is the licensee of this location. Alamo has a concession at the airport, therefore, the parking we have available for our rental cars has been determined by the regulators of the airport and the citations are issued by Airport Security.

Since the vehicles are not regitered to the drivers/renters, the citation is issued to Alamo, who pays the citation and in turn charges the customer who was in possession of the vehicle, during the time period of the citation. Authorization to charge our customer's credit card, for any citations issued, is outlined in their signed rental agreement.

That being said, if citations are issued on a frequent basis, it merely suggests that Mr. Armand was not the only customer too lazy to park in the airport parking lot and instead chose to park in the middle of the road.

In addition, Mr. Armand did indeed call Alamo's citation department, and corporate office claiming he was given the citation in error and he has proof that on June 14, 2006, the date of issuance, he was 75 miles away. What he failed to mention is that he was aware of being cited on June 15, 2006, and that the date was erroneously entered by Officer Crook's partner. Mr. Dayton, Manager of our Jackson Hole location, advised him of this information and also, informed him that he would be obtaining a corrected citation, during their conversations.

Therefore, Mr. Armand's choice to call citations and Ms. Wilson to lie speaks for itself.

An amendment to the citation has since been received. A copy of this amendment has been sent to the Better Business Bureau, another venue chosen by Mr. Armand to avoid accepting responsibility and consequence for his own actions. In addition, he has had a slanderous article published in a local Jackson Hole newspaper. As a result, any actions to be taken are still under consideration.

Blueyes
Summerville, SC

Of course I started the process with customer service. Customer service repeatedly said, that is a franchise, sorry and referred me to "Citations", who said, "that is bad, fight the charges with your cc company." Citations actually referred me back to customer service. After multiple calls asking to speak to a customer service administrator, I received a call from Diane Wilson in the corporate office.

My first question to Ms. Wilson was, are your franchises required to provide adequate car return parking? Her reply, Yes. This is not the case at Alamo Jackson Hole and from every indicator, parking is an operations problem that is simply passed on to the customers. Ms. Wilson called me about a week ago and said, we are still looking into things. My first correspondence with customer service was about three weeks ago. Matt

You had mentioned that you talked to 'headquarters' concerning this matter? Were you able to speak with the customer service department? The number you can reach them at is 800-468-3334, they may answer as National but Alamo and National are owned by the same parent company and the customer service agent will be able to help you with either company.

If this does not satisfy your problem then ask to speak to the presidents desk or request the number for the presidents desk. I hope this helps you out!