Carol my wait was minimal and they shuttled me right over to a car. There was only one car there but I only needed one so no biggy with no choice.
I walked around the car and looked for obvious dents. I noted a mark on the front right bumper. The tires appeared inflated just fine. I turned on the headlights and checked the windshield washers. I adjusted the seats for me and fixed the mirrors so I could see.
As I went through the booth I had the lady there notate the marks on the front bumper. Thank God I did this!
I was there for my DD's surgery so I did not drive much once I arrived at her home. I drove her to the hospital a few days later and the car stayed in the hospital parking lot for two days.
I had noticed a strange ticking when I used the turn signals but did not figure out that it meant that the one signal was not working. As we left the hospital and went to a drug store to get her pain reliever filled I figured out the right rear signal and brake light were not working. I called
Alamo from a pay phone as directed in my paperwork and waited forever to get through with poor DD sitting in a wheel chair trying not to throw up!
The directed me to get the bulb checked. I went directly to a car shop and the man there looked and found NO bulb in the socket! I was shocked. I figured that it must be burned out but NO BULB was just crazy. I paid for the new bulb and as the man was putting it in he noticed a chunk out of the front tires sidewall. He informed me that it was very dangerous to drive a car with a tire, especially a front tire like that!
I drove back to DD house and got her settled in bed. I then used DD's cell phone to call Alamo. Here started a long series of phone calls that spread out over two days. I ended up doing everything Alamo asked me to do including calling a local tire store to ty ask me to bring the car back to Atlanta or take it to Macon to get another car.
With DD just out of surgery and needing an electrical machine attached to her, there was just no way I was driving hours to replace the car. I was there to attend to DD needs and not be trying to fix a problem that the car had when I left Atlanta with it. Here the marks on the front bumper wrapped around to the tire. I had no idea that side wall integrity was so important or I would have checked for that. I told ALamo that I expected them to give me a safe car. No light bulb combined with a bad tire was just not acceptable.
I must have made 20 calls to try to resolve this. One man form Atlanta finally agreed they would send me another car and not charge me the $200.00 towing fee. A few minutes later another woman from Atlanta called me back and took back everything that this man and I had agreed to. She was not nice in any way to me and ended up refusing to talk to me any further. I asked for her to have the original man call me back and no one ever did return my call!
After DD's medical appointment I ended up taking the car to another tire dealer that works with Alamo but who did not have the needed tire in stock. They looked at the car and decided that it would be safer for me to drive with the donut spare than with the gashed tire. They changed the tire free of charge for me with poor DD in the front seat throwing up again! What a mess!
When they finished they warned me that they had never seen such a small donut and that I should not go over 40 MPH with it nor drive any further than I had to. They also felt that Alamo was at fault and should bring me antoher car ASAP. Driving at 40 MPH was interesting with the way people drive in Georgia. I had to drive with my flashers going all the time in order to not be rear ended! This dealership and the one who replaced the bulb both gave me letters stating that the car was dangerous to drive.
That evening a towing company called me asking for directions. He was suprirised that we had not heard back from Alamo. He arrive about 3 hours later with another car. I felt so bad for this man in that he had to drive all the way back to Atlanta with that donut on. I pray that he finally made it. Better him than me.
When I returned the car the following week the lady at the counter gave me a hard time about getting back the few dollars for the light bulb. I mentioned that I had had other problems and they would be hearing back from me but that I was not going to stand there right before my flight and argue about the $200 towing fee.
When I got home I called Alamo customer service and expained all of this and the rest of the details to them... the offered me about $15 back! I was ticked as that would not even pay for DD's cell phone bill as her phone charges her $.45 a minute and there were no other phones around to use other than the first pay phone that I did use. I was given a supervisor who then said she would not even give me the $15. I was enraged at this point and asked for her supervisor and she flippantly said the President of the company was the only one above her. I said fine give that person then.
I called that number and finally spoke to the first rational person in days! She offered me an apology and said that I had done everything that Alamo had asked me to do and that this was in no way my fault. Who ever had the car before me had hit something with it and then who ever was suppose to check it out before it left the lot did a very poor job of it! Again thank goodness I had notated the marks on the bumper or I would have had no way to prove that I did not do the damage.
This lady credited me the money to pay the phone bill and a bit more for my trouble. I accepted her offer and her apology.
We had rented from Alamo in Orlando in May and had a delightful experiece. I think this was just poor service on the part of the people in Altlanta and the national customer server person.
I hope to rent a car again and I am willing to price out Alamo and if the price is right I would try them again but I will certainly check out the car better before I leave the lot. I learned a great deal about cars and tires with this adventure!