Alamo Rent A Car

 

13

340

V L.

San Mateo, CA

Wow, the other Yelpers hated Alamo, but we had a great experience. Although checking in took about 15 mins since there were lots of people in line, they now have these 5 kiosks set up so if you have your info ready, you can just punch it all in, not deal with a human, and go out and get your car in a zip. And since it was in the later afternoon and they ran out of compact cars, they gave us a free upgrade to the next level up. We drove around our Chevy Malibu all week long with no issues. Dropping the car off was also a snap, took only 5 minutes and we were on our way.

Word of caution about Oahu radio stations in general, especially if you like hip hop, there are only like 3-4 hip hop stations and they all like to play the same 5 popular songs over and over and then over and over some more again. Bring some CDs. Our car even have an aux plug so if we planned ahead, we could have brought the jack to connect our ipods to the car to get out of radio hell. I can't handle anymore Danity Kane "Damaged" or Usher "Love in this Club" . . . ahhhh!

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29

124

Vik S.

San Jose, CA

Ghetto.
Really Ghetto.

The people who work here have little customer service skills, and barely have life skills.  
Most of the time customer service peeps  say " I can help the next customer in line" when they are free.  Not here!!

My wife got hissed at , then pointed at ....what a great way to start a transaction....er..  then on to the lot. Quite  the selection of Chevy Malibu's!!!
Ours came complete with god-knows-what backseat stains (luckily only the two of us) and a balky transmission.

It was especially fun when we were driving back from the Polynesian Center late at night in the pouring rain- they hadn't bothered to replace the windshield wipers and I nearly got sideswiped by a beat up old pickup truck.    

One star, barely.

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0

5

Elise T.

Round Rock, TX

Our experience at this Alamo had 3 different facets of mediocrity:

1. Selection.  I was very confused as to why a Chrysler Sebring was considered a "luxury" car.  I can sort of see it - it was a convertible.  However, there was almost zero leg room.  The backseat passenger is very tall. Even when the passenger seat was pulled all the way forward, my knees slammed against the glove compartment, and he was still pinned in the back.  Getting into and out of the car was a challenge.

2. Credit card options.  We were travelling with family, and the plan was to have our father pay for both cars with the same credit card.  However, we were informed this was completely impossible, unless we wanted to pay cash.  However, when we initially rented the car, they said it would be fine.  Amazing how the story changes.

3. Their phone customer service.  I called in to complain about option #2, and I initially spoke with a man, who told me that he would look into the policies of this Alamo.  He puts me on hold for 7 minutes, when I'm transferred to a woman (Johnny?  Janey?) - she has no idea what's going on, since obviously the last guy just dumped my call.  She told me it was a "legal" issue, and that if we wanted to, we could add my father as a second driver to our car, and he could pay.  So...in order for the privilege of paying with separate credit cards, we have to add a second driver, which costs $10 per day?  Beautiful, that's intelligent.  Add in very little empathy (what empathy I did hear sounded fake), and an argumentative attitude - talk about sucky customer service!

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Elite '08

79

473

Patricia H.

CA

Thanks Alamo for not letting me know you when I made my reservation that you are not in the airport terminal.

Thanks Alamo for not having any signs inside or outside the airport terminal directing people where to go to catch your shuttle.

Thanks Alamo for giving me a car with an EXPIRED registration so I had to come back and get a car that had a valid registration.  

Thanks Alamo for giving me a replacement car that had oil stains all over the rear seats and carpet.

BITE ME ALAMO.

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Elite '08

374

629

Brenda Kaye W.

San Francisco, CA

The customer service here suffers from poor communication and complete disorganization.

When we went to pick up our car, we were given the wrong stall number, leading to delay.

When we returned the car, the agent told us, "Park da cah ovah deah, leave da trunk open."  Then she walked away without telling us what to do next.  Understandably, we (and others returning their cars at the same time) walked in and stood in a line marked "Car Returns," only to be told to wait at the car and an agent would come out to us.  So, we wasted time again on the return.  There was no agent by our car when we went back to it.  My husband retrieved an agent, who said, "I nevah see you by your cah."

My husband told her, "Well, you never told us to wait by the car."

We used to be locals.  We understand pidgin.

But brah, we not mind readahs.

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24

85

jhon k.

San Jose, CA

Does this place even deserve 1 star???  This place is da pits.   Service sucks eggs here.  But I guess you get what you pay for.  The agents are only interested in trying to sell you additional add ons to your rental agreement like, extra insurance and pre-paid expensive gas.  Due to careless mistakes made by the indifferent rental agents, I actually went through 4 different cars here to get to the right car - each time hauling my luggage from car to car.  When I complained to the manager of the place, he was indifferent to the fact that I'd already wasted over an hour of my precious vacation time there.  I say if you're going to rent a car in Honolulu, pay just a little more and go with another rental car company, like Enterprise, Hertz or Avis.  You'll REGRET ever having arranged a rental car with Alamo.

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Elite '08

375

2643

Anita L.

Irvine, CA

What a totally horrible experience. I had forgotten that we had rented from them before. Their site is completely off the airport grounds and their selection of cars truly sucks. I had booked via www.alamo.com and thought I had gotten a good deal because it was the cheapest quote compared to the other major car rental companies. However, there are many hidden charges such as additional costs for the additional driver -- uh... namely, my husband!! When we rented via Budget or Hertz, they not only didn't require my husband to be present when I rented, but they also didn't charge for the extra driver. It was so annoying. Eventually, I was told that the package I booked included the additional driver so we didn't have to pay the extra fees. Service was so slow! It took us an hour to get our rental car and there weren't even that many people around. On top of it, the full size car was a Malibu. *shock horror* -- isn't the Malibu a smallish car? Anyway, learned from my mistake, will never rent from Alamo again!

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