Alamo Rent A Car

I rented a vehicle in Detroit and returned it in traverse city. This was preplanned and I paid a higher rate because it was a one way rental. After my 4 day trip, I returned my vehicle in traverse city and they said I owed ANOTHER 370.00 dollars. I told them that was an error as I prepaid for the rental. They said DTW was charging the fee for one way rental. Long story short, Brian at the desk for National, Enterprise and Alamo in traverse city looked at my paper work and realized I had done everything correctly and I should not have been charged. Instead of just saying, «not my problem», he made it his problem and resolved the confusion quickly, professionally and most important with compassion. He understood my view and handled it. People like Brian are what make a customer experience a great one. He could have said no and helped the next customer, but instead he cared and helped. Thank you Brian, I will remember this experience for a long time.

Imagine being all alone, getting off a plane in a small city on a dark night in the middle of the week and heading to the rental car counter to find that all of the lights are off, it’s locked up tight and there is no one there. This is a very small regional airport; there isn’t a line of taxi cabs waiting out front to help you. There isn’t a bus to hop on. Your family won’t arrive for several days, so there isn’t anyone for you to call. You’ve paid hundreds of dollars, in advance, for your rental, but there is no one there to help you. Well folks, that’s what happened to me with Alamo Car Rental. Let me also mention that there is no courtesy phone (I did say that this is a small airport) so all I could do was call the 888 number on my reservation confirmation, spend 15 minutes on hold before finally speaking to someone (obviously overseas) who put me on hold for another 20 minutes and then informed me they could do nothing for me at that time and I would have to come to the airport the following morning at 8:00am. I asked him how I was supposed to do that without a car… taxi…bus…etc. He said he could not help me. Luckily, two other car rental places were open and one of them had a car available for me (as well as another person on my flight who also had a reservation with Alamo) to rent for the night until I could sort out the mess with Alamo. I was also informed by the other rental agencies that this happens quite often with Alamo.
I returned the following morning and the woman I spoke to at the Alamo desk apologized for the inconvenience, offered me an upgrade (which I did not want) and offered to reimburse me for the Avis rental I’d gotten the night before (which I did accept). Unfortunately, the car Alamo gave me, though brand new, didn’t even begin to compare with the great little vehicle Avis had rented me the night before. It was too big, had NO amenities whatsoever except air conditioning and a radio and the windows were so filmed over on the inside that I had trouble seeing through the windshield in the early morning sunshine.
I fly into Traverse City a few times a year and have never had this happen with any other rental agency. Needless to say, I will not be using Alamo again.