Removed post

[mondovimom]

Removed post because I got a nasty message from Alamo! Confirms my thoughts about them in the first place.

 

[HelenParr]

Bummer you had a bad experience -- but they always ask about the insurance, and they always ask about the size upgrade -- even on the kiosk screens. They have for years.

The fact that she didn't/couldn't/wouldn't make the coupon work is a drag, mostly because she got your hopes up.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

We booked online, we were sent a birthday coupon worth one day of free car rental. The coupon was only good for a midsize vehicle or smaller, we rented a 7 passenger van to accomadate all of us. We brought our coupon with hoping we could get them to maybe give us an additional discount even though we had rented a larger vehicle. The lady at the front desk said, "let me try to make some magic and we'll see if we can push this coupon through and save you some money." Great! She got it to accept in the computer! Then she tried to get us to upgade to an even larger vehicle, we said no. She tried to sell us additional insurance, we said no. Then she says...."Let me go check with my manager and make sure I can accept this coupon." I knew right away what was going to happen. We shot down two of her sales pitches now she was going to get even and not honor our coupon. Wow. We were right....."I'm sorry, I can't offer your coupon, if we did it for you, we would have to do this for all our customers" We will never rent from Alamo again. The company that my husband works for (a very large communication firm) has also removed Alamo from their list of vendors.

I think it's unfortunate that she got your hopes up on the coupon, but it really was nothing guaranteed to begin with. I actually would never even have considered presenting it to a representative considering it was clearly stated what classes were eligible, it's kind of putting the representative in a bad place.

As for the insurance/upgrade, welcome to the world of car rentals, they all do this.

Make sure you add National and Enterprise to your Do No Rent from list as they are all the same company.

 

[mondovimom]

I think it's unfortunate that she got your hopes up on the coupon, but it really was nothing guaranteed to begin with. I actually would never even have considered presenting it to a representative considering it was clearly stated what classes were eligible, it's kind of putting the representative in a bad place.

As for the insurance/upgrade, welcome to the world of car rentals, they all do this.

Make sure you add National and Enterprise to your Do No Rent from list as they are all the same company.

Done! When we told my husbands company about Alamo, they discontinued the other two firms too. I didn't know they were related. Looks like Budget is the way to go!!!!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I don't know why you are complaining. You got a discount. I have a feeling the additional non-valid coupon was not denied because this woman was trying to "get back at you" for not agreeing to the upgrades which all car rental companies try to get customers to accept.

Not renting from Alamo personally is not going to hurt their bottom line. I can't believe a business would remove Alamo from their list of approved vendors if they were getting a good deal just because an employee couldn't get them to accept an invalid coupon. All car rental agencies are similar; I'm sure the same thing would have happened at Budget if you tried to use your coupon.

 

[dudspizza]

It is for this reason that I am a Emerald Club member at National. No stopping at the counter at all. No sales pitch, ever.

I have used Alamo a few times and have never had a problem with them. You simply turn down their insurance sales pitch and off you go. The kiosk is an even better way to avoid the pitch. Even better than that is using online check in.......

Honestly, the coupon wasn't for your car class. Sure, she got your hopes up, but who knows, maybe she would have got you to upgrade and still had to ask the manager for an ok........

 

[Disneychix]

We used priceline and got Avis this trip. They tried all the sales pitches on DH and he agreed to none of them. She saw we had a baby with us and a stroller and carseat and was really pushing the SUV (for only $30 more per day!). I wasn't hoping for an upgrade but we rented a full-size and I was hoping for a bigger car like we had last year (Charger). Well we walked and walked past all the cars-she sent us to the last car in the whole garage! We passed many malibus-nope not ours! We got a really dirty, slightly damaged Hyndai with the smallest backseat ever. I was certain we got this car due to our priceline rate and lack of interest in upgrades.

 

[SaraJayne]

Your coupon wasn't valid for what you rented. So why were you still expecting to get the discount?

 

[mondovimom]

I don't know why you are complaining. You got a discount. I have a feeling the additional non-valid coupon was not denied because this woman was trying to "get back at you" for not agreeing to the upgrades which all car rental companies try to get customers to accept.

Not renting from Alamo personally is not going to hurt their bottom line. I can't believe a business would remove Alamo from their list of approved vendors if they were getting a good deal just because an employee couldn't get them to accept an invalid coupon. All car rental agencies are similar; I'm sure the same thing would have happened at Budget if you tried to use your coupon.

Nope, we didn't get a discount. They jacked the price at the counter even though we had a discounted rate online, they said they couldn't honor our rate because we didn't prepay!!! Horrible service. The rep looked like she just got out of bed and she had VERY poor customer service. I hear Sprint has had trouble with them for years! Not to mention many other firms. So much for their "insiders card" I'm embarrassed to own one!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Nope, we didn't get a discount.

The coupon was only good for a midsize vehicle or smaller, we rented a 7 passenger van to accomadate [sic] all of us. We brought our coupon with [us] hoping we could get them to maybe give us an additional discount

 

[LisaS]

It sounds like she tried to save you some money by accepting a coupon that was not valid for your rental and hoped you would share the good fortune by kicking some of it back by upgrading or buying the insurance, which probably benefits her in some way. When you didn't, suddenly the discount wasn't an option after all. It isn't good customer service to say you can have something and then take it away, but you ended up no worse off than what you expected to pay.

I've rented from Alamo several times and been happy with their price and their service. They have one of the better toll programs as well. I wouldn't refuse to deal with them ever again over something like this. I've had many problems with Budget however and prefer not to rent from them so I hope you have better luck with them than I had.

 

[MHSweb79]

Looks like Budget is the way to go!!!!

I've always had great luck with Alamo and this story doesn't change my mind. I have, however, had a horrible experience with Budget and won't use them again. I better not tell the OP's husband's company, because pretty soon they won't be able to rent any cars at all!

 

[msjprincess]

Your husband's company coincidentally stopped using them or are you saying they stopped using them because of your experience.

I can't imagine a "very large company" cutting off ties with someone because of one employee's complaint.


ETA
I love Alamo. I always check in online or use the kiosk and I get to pick my own car. Last time we used them they had minivans in the compact aisle

 

[laughinplace199]

So you're never going to use Alamo again because they wouldn't apply a coupon that you weren't eligible for? We always rent 7 passenger vans and I would never even think to attempt to try to use a coupon for a different class vehicle.

 

[sam_gordon]

My National 'horror' story... I joined the Emerald Club. I reserved a full size car. According to all the instructions, I skip the kiosk & counter, go to the Emerald line up of cars and pick the one I want (also stated by the lot attendant). We find a Ford Flex and pile into it. We go through checkout and the lady says "this isn't the size you reserved."

I tell her we were told to pick anything in the Emerald spaces and we did. She processes the paperwork and hands it back to me, we drive off. Once we get to our destination I look at the papers. They had charged me for the upgrade! I called customer service, politely explained the situation and they credited me back the cost difference so it was what I had booked at.

[sarcasm]I'll never rent from National again! How dare they make a mistake and correct it![/sarcasm]

 

[Ed J]

never mind

 

[LisaS]

They jacked the price at the counter even though we had a discounted rate online, they said they couldn't honor our rate because we didn't prepay!!!

What sort of discount did you use when booking? If it was something other than the 10% pre-pay discount, then I would have asked for a supervisor and insist that they honor the rate. Did you have a printed copy of your reservation confirmation with you?

 

[Lilo&Stitch]

No sympathy from me either ! I have had THE best rates and service from Alamo and the fact that you're bashing them because they wouldn't take your invalid coupon etc ... isn't gonna fly here !

 

[schoen]

Obviously the OP is free to choose whatever car rental company she wants, for whatever reason she wants. I am a little confused about being upset that they wouldn't honor an invalid coupon, but she can do whatever she wants. That is the beauty of the free market!

 

[bumbershoot]

I can't believe a business would remove Alamo from their list of approved vendors if they were getting a good deal just because an employee couldn't get them to accept an invalid coupon.

I agree.

Nope, we didn't get a discount. They jacked the price at the counter even though we had a discounted rate online, they said they couldn't honor our rate because we didn't prepay!!! Horrible service. The rep looked like she just got out of bed and she had VERY poor customer service.

Things that should have been included in the first post....

Though knowledge of what discount you thought you had, if you had your printed out form, and if the pre-payment statement was valid and relevant would also be good....

My National 'horror' story... I joined the Emerald Club. I reserved a full size car. According to all the instructions, I skip the kiosk & counter, go to the Emerald line up of cars and pick the one I want (also stated by the lot attendant). We find a Ford Flex and pile into it. We go through checkout and the lady says "this isn't the size you reserved."

I tell her we were told to pick anything in the Emerald spaces and we did. ...

You went to Emerald *Reserve*, right? Not Emerald Aisle?