I rent from Alamo probably 15 to 20 times a year, and have never had any issues with them, but we picked up a car yesterday at the CCC and I am still seething. When we arrived there were 2 clerks working, as we waited in line I hear one of them asking a man returning a car for the gas receipt showing where he filled up the car....he hands over a receipt and she informs him that the gas station he used is too far away and the car cannot be considered full and she will have to charge him $4.29 to fill up the car. He laughs and tells her he filled up at the Hess station by DTD and she told him if it was more than 1/2 mile away the car was not considered full and she had to add the charge.
Then we get up to the counter and our clerk informed me that the code I had used to book the rental was no longer valid (your basic wal-mart code that is perfectly valid). I showed him the email Alamo had sent me less than 2 days before pickup confirming the rate, etc. He hems and haws for about 10 minutes punching in things on his computer and informs me that "well the rate was OK but the online coupon I had used could not be used in conjunction with the rate code I had"...well funny, why did the on line system accept it then and why did I get a confirmation. DH is getting kind of ticked by now and walks over to the kiosk and does the rental pickup thing there and sure enough....it accepted the rental rate and coupon just like the confirmation said it would, but you have to go to the counter to pick up the keys...so when he brings the paper work over to the guy at the counter the guy gets nasty and says, well there has been an obvious miscalculation but I guess I will have to let it go....then he spends another 5 minutes messing around on his computer and hands us paperwork to sign....but the bottom line is $12 more than the confirmation we had....he claims there is a fee that was left off the original agreement. By this time I am ready to walk out, but DH signs the contract for the extra $12 and he hands us keys. We had reserved a mid-sized car....when we get to the space he has given us a Mazda-3 with no cruise control and crank windows and no electric door locks (have to be manually locked and unlocked at every door....who even knew they made cars like that anymore??), it has >40,000 miles on it and it stinks!
And did I mention that while we were standing there arguing with the clerk from h*** 2 more people returned cars via the other clerk who insisted on adding the fuel charge to both of their cars as well and refused to even go out and look at the fuel gauges to see if they were full or not. One lady had filled up at the Hess Station adjoining the CCC but since she did not have a receipt to show the Alamo Witch she got stuck with the charge as well!
Needless to say it will be a cold day somewhere before I ever rent from the CCC again!! There are plenty of rental sites at DTD hotels to put up with that nonsense if we cannot pick up at the airport.
Then we get up to the counter and our clerk informed me that the code I had used to book the rental was no longer valid (your basic wal-mart code that is perfectly valid). I showed him the email Alamo had sent me less than 2 days before pickup confirming the rate, etc. He hems and haws for about 10 minutes punching in things on his computer and informs me that "well the rate was OK but the online coupon I had used could not be used in conjunction with the rate code I had"...well funny, why did the on line system accept it then and why did I get a confirmation. DH is getting kind of ticked by now and walks over to the kiosk and does the rental pickup thing there and sure enough....it accepted the rental rate and coupon just like the confirmation said it would, but you have to go to the counter to pick up the keys...so when he brings the paper work over to the guy at the counter the guy gets nasty and says, well there has been an obvious miscalculation but I guess I will have to let it go....then he spends another 5 minutes messing around on his computer and hands us paperwork to sign....but the bottom line is $12 more than the confirmation we had....he claims there is a fee that was left off the original agreement. By this time I am ready to walk out, but DH signs the contract for the extra $12 and he hands us keys. We had reserved a mid-sized car....when we get to the space he has given us a Mazda-3 with no cruise control and crank windows and no electric door locks (have to be manually locked and unlocked at every door....who even knew they made cars like that anymore??), it has >40,000 miles on it and it stinks!
And did I mention that while we were standing there arguing with the clerk from h*** 2 more people returned cars via the other clerk who insisted on adding the fuel charge to both of their cars as well and refused to even go out and look at the fuel gauges to see if they were full or not. One lady had filled up at the Hess Station adjoining the CCC but since she did not have a receipt to show the Alamo Witch she got stuck with the charge as well!
Needless to say it will be a cold day somewhere before I ever rent from the CCC again!! There are plenty of rental sites at DTD hotels to put up with that nonsense if we cannot pick up at the airport.