When Mary Dampier returns her rental car to Alamo, she believes it is undamaged. But the company begs to differ, and now it is threatening to refer the case to a collection agency. Is there any hope?
ALAMO
Richard Hartman rented a car from Alamo in Montreal this summer. It’s a decision he regrets.
Stephen Farr returns his rental car with a full tank of gas. Or so he thinks. Now Alamo has charged his credit card for two more gallons at its inflated rate, and it won’t tell him why. Is there any hope for a refund?
Mary Dampier’s rental from Alamo was problem-free until she returned the vehicle to San Francisco International Airport. That’s when she was drawn into what she says is a frivolous claim that has ended with Enterprise (which owns Alamo) threatening her with a collection agency, legal action and being blacklisted from renting with the company again.
Roger Van Horn is the vice president for corporate loss control at Enterprise Holdings, which owns Enterprise, National and Alamo. Since I’ve received a lot of recent questions about car rental damage claims — many from Enterprise customers — I wanted to ask him a few questions about what happens when a car is dinged or scratched.
Bogus car rental damages seem to be a recurring theme on this site. This week’s edition of “can this trip be saved” takes one of those cases in its crosshairs.
Alexandra Seldin prepays for a rental car through Alamo’s Web site. But when her flight is canceled, and she arrives a day late, the company charges her three times more than it originally said it would. Is it allowed to do that? And is there any hope for a refund?
A thousand frequent flier miles may seem like nothing, which is probably what the folks at Alamo were thinking when David Goeman repeatedly asked the car rental company for his missing award points.
“I’m a long-time agent with Alamo,” the email began. “I’d rather remain anonymous, if you don’t mind.” He had seen a recent complaint on this site about a company location changing its car classifications to save money, and had some disturbing news: Alamo was overhauling its categories company-wide. Apparently, less is more.
P.J. Zornosa is a longtime Alamo Rent a Car customer. He knows what to ask for when he’s renting a car, and knows what to expect. Or at least, he thought he did.
When it comes to fees, are travel companies taking a page from the Transportation Security Administration’s playbook? You might be forgiven for thinking so after hearing Eric Hendrix’ story of being added to the equivalent of the “no-fly” list when he tried to rent a car from Alamo.
Ah, the lengths to which a car rental company will go to squeeze a few bucks out of a customer. Consider what happened to John Conkel of Las Vegas, Nev., when he rented a vehicle from Alamo in Denver recently. Kinda makes you wonder why they don’t just look up the IRS rebate calculator, like everyone else. But I digress.
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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