Alamo Rent A Car
reviews and complaints

I rented a car (RA# 947642482) for one week (Nov 23-30) from the Hebron, KY location. On the 5th day, a tire became flat. There was no spare and the inflation kit didn't work. When I called Alamo, I was told that they couldn't send anyone to repair the tire, or to bring a new wheel. They suggested that I take the wheel off and find a place that was open on Saturday evening, then call an Uber to take me and the wheel to and from the tire repair facility, then put the tire back on the car. (There was no car jack in the car!) Alamo would not reimburse me for any Uber expenses that I incurred.

My only other option was to have a tow truck come to tow the car back to Kentucky. That is the option that I chose.

This is NOT "roadside service"!

It's been 5 days, and I still don't know how much I've been charged for the partial rental. Did they charge for the filling the fuel tank, since it was not full at the time? Did they charge me for the full week? The people at the Hebron service desk can't tell me anything.

I am trying to settle a claim with Damage Recovery Unit promptly after returning a vehicle with damage from Alamo at SFO. They refuse to answer their phone, 8663003239, I have spent too much time on hold. I am ready to pay but need to talk with someone to remove a charge off the claim. I rent 6-8 times per year and have had good service from Alamo. Too bad Damage Recovery Unit will not return my calls or e-mails. I can be reached at [protected], Karl Lizza, claim #[protected]. Please call.

I reserved a premium SUV rental at fort Lauderdale airport through a third party company on 11/12/2020 Reservation number 162075978count. which i also pre-paid prior to arriving at the airport with my credit card. When i arrived I was advised that because i live locally i can not have a premium vehicle. The associate that claims she was the manager then proceeded to ask if i had insurance, what's the policy number and where am i going. Another associate advised the lady that was "assisting" me to just give it to me and she refused. After going back and forth the lady then said now I can't have anything. I have no rental and they have my money. I have never had an issue getting a rental and being asked where am I going. This is totally unacceptable and I will be escalating this matter as far as possible. All i want is the rental class i paid for.

The lady at the counter took my drivers license and said she didn't. That left me without a way to rent the car. Why? Please call me at [protected]. I rented the car though Allegiant air. This left me stranded at the Sanford Florida airport at 9:30 pm. I just can't understand why she would do such a thing. My confirmation number is 9SGYNZ. Thank you. Vincent Riggio

Was pressured to take out extra insurance cdw at denver airport upon arrival in february 2020. Even though I had these insurance elements already sorted via other much cheaper policies. I wish hire car companies would really stop doing this to people, it is well known how expensive cdw waiver insurance is if purchased at hire care desk. Quite pushy & aggressive staff

I was told that when I returned the car at the Sarasota airport. I can pay it with my debit instead of the credit card they needed on record for the rental. When I returned the car t to the guy in the parking lot. I told him that wanted to pay my bill on my debit card instead of my credit card. He said I would have to go inside to counter and that he would let them know. I waited for about 30 minutes to find out the guy outside closed the account outside. Meaning he charged it to my credit card already. Which cancels all records of it on the computer. I never use my credit card cause went I do my credit drops and I'm looking to refinance my home. Otherwise the guy outside was had a attitude, the car pulled to the right when taking off and on the dash it said it was do for and oil change. I will never rent from them again.

Received a letter from Alamo Damage Recovery unit saying I owe for damages done to a rental car. First, I never rented from Alamo. The date they stated is the date I picked up the car in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. But did not rent it from Alamo. I have tried contacting this department a number of times and was on hold the entire time till it finally disconnects you. I called customer service for Alamo and they tried transferring me to that department but the same thing happened, on hold till I was disconnected. I tried emailing them with no response back. Their claim number: [protected]. Date of loss: 06/11/2020. Vehicle: 2019-ROGU-NISN. Rental agreement: [protected].

This is all bogus. Never rented from Alamo nor returned a car, ever, with any damage to any place I have rented. Is there anyone that can help resolve this. Alamo Damage Recovery Unit will not except calls.

The resolution I want is a genuine "Loss Damage Report" with photos and employee/body shop witness statements, not a generic unattributed damage claim of "Passenger Front Door: Dent-dent right front door" with "Incident Details: advised to create claim to pass door". I need to be able to submit a proper claim to my insurance companies. Proper resolution would also involve letting my body guy examine the car to document the purported "damage" (I contend there was not any damage, and certainly not any damage that occurred while the vehicle was in my possession), then getting car repaired and back on the road ASAP to limit the continuing and additionally bogus "loss of use" claim that will allegedly be accruing.

Enterprise uses these complaint forums to pretend they are helping the customer. For instance, at another site my complaint is marked "resolution pending" even though Enterprise is doing nothing at all to resolve my complaint. Alamo (an Enterprise company) has verbally claimed I put a "ripple" in the passenger door of a rental car (for which, if I "did it", I have insurance -- but they refuse to provide the information necessary to pursue a claim). They refuse to allow my body guy access to the vehicle to verify the "damage", refuse to provide any photos or proof of damage, refuse to put me in touch with anyone who can resolve the problem. I have multiple responses from care@ehi.com -- none of which actually respond to anything and some of which ask me for information that is actually in the prior email and email subject line. I have spoken to Tucson Alamo manager Mark Damon (the location where they didn't give me the "Rental Agreement Jacket" with all the contract terms in it -- and Enterprise continues to withold it). He finally contacted me a week after the rental. He says he can't assist and can't put me in touch with anyone who can. Their "Social Media" team has assured me I should follow the "advice" the Tucson manager gave me, based on reviewing his comments in my data file. (But, he did not give me any "advice" nor provide any steps toward resolution at all except for assigning a claim #). I have sent faxes to Tucson Alamo - both managers Pamela Swango and Mark Damon, Clayton J. Thornton, regional manager in Ontario where I returned the vehicle (and the branch making the bogus claim) and to their "Damage Recovery Unit" -- with no response from any of them except for the Tucson manager (who didn't know about my fax, didn't have any useful information for me, didn't explain what prompted his call, and didn't follow through on sending me the information he implied he would be sending). He did tell me the vehicle is on "litigation hold" -- meaning, I assume, that Alamo is building a large "loss of use" claim for what is, at best, extremely minor damage (or, as I contend, no damage at all). Any reasonable business would work with me to file my insurance claim and get the car back on the road ASAP. Enterprise, however, wants to send a "message" that customers need to buy their overpriced damage waiver, which I did not. So, their vehicle return system and their phalanx of customer service representatives are all there expressly to prevent the customer from resolving the damage claim in a reasonable and expeditious fashion. Moreover, it is my opinion that I was switched to the specific vehicle from the one I reserved for the explicit purpose of having a "ripple" in the door with no scratches, dings or other marks, so that receiving it in a dimly lit parking garage, I would have no opportunity to notice the "ripple". Which, BTW, I could not see even when it was purportedly pointed out to me. At worst, there might be a prior poorly done door repair job. My claim # is [protected]. My RA# is [protected]. My RES # is [protected]. My Allianz claim # is [protected]. I don't know if I can include a link, but I have detailed everything at my own blog: http://daltrey.org/b2evo1/blog7.php. There are no photos -- and Tucson Manager Damon assures me that neither Tucson nor Ontario took any photos of the damage (although Ontario told me at return that they would have to "check with Tucson" for photos of the vehicle before making their claim; and an online customer service rep. told me Tucson "has cameras" and will have documented the vehicle condition upon my receipt of it. Via another site, Enterprise "Social Monitoring" person Carol H. has told me to "follow the advice" of Mr. Damon -- but he didn't give me any advice, in fact he said that he could not assist and he could not put me in touch with anyone who can assist. I was told by phone customer service that I would be receiving a call from the "regional team", which has never contacted me; later telling me that the "regional team" takes care of matters "in the order in which they are received", which implies they have far more complaints than they have staff to deal with the complaints. On the other hand, Mr. Damon said the regional team cannot tell me anything different from what he has told me, and that resolution must come from the damage recovery unit -- for which he has no contact information (and the damage recovery unit has not responded to my faxes). Other online complaints suggest that the damage recovery unit routinely waits a month or more and then sends out unexpected and undocumented "damage" claims, thereafter sending the claim out to a collection agency to harass any customer who actually expects some proof that the damage occurred. All presumably based on the terms of a contract they have refused to provide me, with a company that is almost certainly not the same one running the damage recovery unit (as far as I can tell, the Tucson and Ontario branches are not the same legal entity).

But, it's not even possible to track down what legal entity or entities I am dealing with and the employees apparently don't know either -- although "Enterprise Holdings" is allegedly a $25 billion a year company and the largest rental "company", through its Alamo, National and Enterprise subsidiaries. I will walk if I have to rather than do business with this company ever again. This system suggests uploading documents -- I have fax receipts for all of my documents, but as far as I can tell no one at Enterprise ever actually reads them (Damon did not know I had faxed his branch). If Enterprise wants to provide me with some other fax number or secure document drop location, I will gladly provide them with additional copies -- though asking for redundant information appears to be one of their delay/harassment tactics, despite being able to look up my transaction based on my last name.

When you hear of customer's complaints about scams of false damage claims by rental car companies, you must admit you can be skeptical, but when it happens to you in a text book fashion your first thought is WOW! I cant believe this is happening and how horrible and helpless you can feel.
I reserved a car from Alamo for a family vacation. The car was parked in one of their spaces facing in. I had the presences of mind to do a walk around and take pictures and found several small cosmetic dents and scratches that I felt were due to normal wear and tear and didn't think anything of it. What I couldn't see is the front under carriage of the car that was blocked by the space because it was facing into the parking space. I rented the car from 12/29/19 to 1/4/20 and dropped it off at Alamo drop-off in the Salt Lake City Airport with a full tank of gas and no new damage. We stayed downtown so the car basically stay parked in a parking garage the whole time. When I returned the car the attendant redirected me from where others were dropping the cars off and told me to use a different car lane that is three rows over and goes all the way up to what I later found out was their booth where they file claims. No other cars were in that lane or were directed there. As soon as I park the attendant walked up to the car looked "under" the car and said, "What happened here?" as he pointed to a small pressed in spot in the plastic bumper no bigger then a baseball on under carriage part to the front right bumper. I told him everything on the car was preexisting and I had pictures but he still said they still needed my insurance to file a claim.
Despite my insistence that nothing happened and that it was preexisting, like all the other things on the car that I took pictures of, the attendant rudely pressed forward with the claim info and was argumentative, that is until a fellow employee came in the both then he flipped on a dime and tried to appear to be just "doing his job". I didn't take the bait to be rude back at him and told them this was wrong and I would need to speak with someone "after I raced to catch my flight". It's very convenient for them when they know you only have minutes for this step in your travel plans, so I complied and gave him the insurance info.
This is still a work in progress in that I just got back to work today, but here is my advice. First, realize you have to inspect the car with the attendant before you drive off. Their advertisement of "pick up the car in the isle yourself" only benefits them in these instances. Second, I have hired a former Alamo/Enterprise employee that worked at a airport location and he basically said that while this is not standard practice, it can be a modus operandi from time to time at certain locations and went on to say how aggressive they can be depending on where you rent. Finally, there are other steps I am taking that could help you:
Contact the credit card company that you used to pay for the rental. They may have secondary insurance coverage for you even if you declined coverage at the time of check-in. Contact the Better Business Bureau to report a claim, contact the Chamber of Commerce Chapter for both business and tourism, contact the State Representative's office. Contact the company and agent who booked the trip, in my case Delta Travel vacations via AAA. This is an important step to discourage or stop bookings at Enterprise and its affiliates in the future. And finally, make a copy of your complaint and post it to every known site of grievance. I am waiting to do this to see if it gets resolved because once it's on social media sites, they are impossible to take down from some sites. i.e., Yelp, Goggle, FB, etc. Also just to let you know who you are dealing with, Alamo Car Rental is owned and operated by Enterprise who also operates National Car rentals. In the future, I will never again rent from Alamo, National nor it's parent company Enterprise, despite being an almost exclusive National Customer for 28 years. This whole situation is incredibly shady and disappointing. I own a business and would never dream of treating a customer like this. The dent was pre-existing, but its not about that. Its about the principle of the thing and trying to keep their cars maintained by this practice is wrong and frankly stealing. Renter Beware!

From: Kenneth McKinnon
Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2019 at 4:57 AM
To: "customerservice@alamo.com"
Subject: Italy Car Rental

I filled out my concern on your portal some weeks back with no response. I have emailed different contacts I was provided by car trawler - none of which have responded.

I understand how difficult it is to adjudicate damage claims - very much a "he said she said" but I was aghast when this occurred when we returned the car. We had tried to identify scrtactches and were promptly rebuffed by the attendant who said this damage (as noted) was the only one that matter. This may be on us for not trying harder but we trusted this. As you will see from my emails we never did anything but angle park so there was no curbside possibilities. While a matter of trust - I have a 2008 650i BMW that the rims are perfect.

I would ask that you reverse this charge - one I didn't cause it and secondly it is not reasonable to charge for a new rim on a scratch to a rim.

Thank you for your help.

Kenneth R. McKinnon, QC
Managing Partner
Citrus Capital Partners Ltd.
[protected]

www.citruscapital.ca

rent period: 12/Sep/2019(Thu) 11;30am- 17/Sep/2019(Tue) 11;30am
car type: Hyundai Accent 4DR, license plate PDW2332
reservation confirmation no.[protected] (via Orbitz)

I am a Korean, being at work in Mexico Branch, Headquartered in South Korea. In that time, Since I did not have a Credit Card, it had paid a deposit using Debit Card(Santander Bank).
But until today 23/Dec/2019(Mon), I have not received YET my deposit
(us$1, 200.oo = MXN.23, 574.64) until the last three passed.
It can be serious damage to the customer care of the Alamo.
I am looking forward to a quick and nimble action on this issue.
(*The overall content and documents is added, Please see Annex.)

Thanks / JC SHIN - [protected]@gmail.com

I rented a car at the Detroit airport yesterday, Nov. 7 to drop off at the Flint, MI airport a few hours later where I would be picked up by a relative and driven to their home an hour away. After driving about a half hour the car started to race and stalled. I pulled over in heavy traffic and was able to restart and proceed but after another 15 minutes the same thing happened plus the engine light appeared and fortunately I was able to exit the Interstate and pulled over to the shoulder. I called Alamo roadside service and was assisted by an agent who said a tow truck would arrive and we would be dropped off at a Enterprise rental about 10 minutes away where we would be provided with a replacement vehicle. After over an hour a towing service called and said they would come and take us back to Detroit and would not take us to the nearby Enterprise location and we were on our own to find a ride. We were in an unfamiliar location with no nearby services and I called Alamo again but they could not get us to Enterprise and we should contact the highway patrol. Eventually another tow service arrived after 3 hours and took us to the nearby Enterprise where we got another vehicle. It was a terrible experience, I am 80 years old and feel Alamo should have a better system of providing a replacement vehicle in this situation.