WARNING : Budget

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by thatdavieguy

I think avis are getting some hard press , would say that lots of new folk are hiring from them after being advised to go with them as an Alamo alternative due to preferred scheme (lots of posts on here about it) and it's causing queues at the garage as first time renters have to be validated.

There could have been a number of flights arrived at once which exasperated the situation and left them on the back foot, the same thing could have happened at any garage, we've seen folk on here say Alamo had no cars or very little before.

No one posts the "well done Alamo/avis/budget etc" stories so the bad ones always make things look worse.

Obviously the way the rep spoke to someone isn't nice but we only get one side of the story on here and don't get to see the bigger picture of the interaction.

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Wise words, I agree with you. A lot of us are guilty of not praising enough I know and I include myself in this.

It is interesting to see the ebb and flow in operation regarding rental companies and how as renters we shift our business around. Not always based on price either.

[itsmeGAV]

I have no idea why people don't pick Alamo purely for skip the counter, that literally trumps pretty much everything including price for me.

It just saves all of the hassles after a 9 hour flight feeling like absolute poop.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by itsmeGAV

I have no idea why people don't pick Alamo purely for skip the counter, that literally trumps pretty much everything including price for me.

It just saves all of the hassles after a 9 hour flight feeling like absolute poop.

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Up until 18 months/2 years ago I would agree with you. But Alamo for my last 4 or 5 rentals in that period have been pretty poor.

The speed of collection cannot be beaten as you say. But the choice has been dire and I am spending longer waiting for a car than I would at a rental desk.

Will see what happens on Saturday.

[toonarmani]

This is why we always skip the counter. Our first trip to Orlando had a 1.5hr queue at the Alamo desk with a very long queue of people (we didn't know about skip the counter at the time and weren't on The Dibb), have gone straight to the garage ever since.

Agree with Tom on the choice / availability of vehicle at the moment with Alamo. Our latest trip (just back) had literally 1 option in our SUV row, so we took that, another came whilst loading up.

[greekgranny]

Originally Posted by itsmeGAV

I have no idea why people don't pick Alamo purely for skip the counter, that literally trumps pretty much everything including price for me.

It just saves all of the hassles after a 9 hour flight feeling like absolute poop.

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Because Alamo led us a fine dance when our car was totalled through no fault of our own. They were dire and if it hadn't been for the Chief of Police getting involved we would have been carless for our 6 week stay.

[archibald]

Originally Posted by itsmeGAV

I have no idea why people don't pick Alamo purely for skip the counter, that literally trumps pretty much everything including price for me.

It just saves all of the hassles after a 9 hour flight feeling like absolute poop.

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My worst car hire experience was with Alamo skip the counter. Took a long time to organise from here (computer 'glitch' that wasn't fixed or weeks) and then back and forth from kiosk to car and back to the airport desk. Poor service.

[Pagan8c]

What other company can I trust to get a decent car at a reasonable price . I looked at Hertz ,but the toll payments are bad so unless the tourist toll pass continues over August next year I don't know who to trust.

[thatdavieguy]

Alamo skip the counter has it's good & bad points, it's good if you're arriving into an empty garage..it's bad if you're arriving into a busy garage as the cars can't be replaced quickly enough and everyone is sitting waiting hoping something suitable may come round.

People taking cars from outside their class or greasing the palm of the staff in the garage also causes issues.

[Lindaelaine]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Wise words, I agree with you. A lot of us are guilty of not praising enough I know and I include myself in this.

It is interesting to see the ebb and flow in operation regarding rental companies and how as renters we shift our business around. Not always based on price either.

See more...

You cannot predict queues , it’s the same with immigration it’s all part and parcel of travelling to America , you might hit lucky and sail through, on the other hand you might not ,we have encountered all sorts of situations . I don’t think we have waited so long to pick up a car as we did in Miami with Budget but there was a line of people waiting to be seen and you just have to deal with it , seeing as we had come from a hotel stay and not off a flight I wasn’t expecting a queue , I have no idea why I was thinking that way as flights are landing constantly 🙄 unless there is some sort of priority queue that you pay for you just have to suck it up . My worry about a car rental company would be how they deal with any problems once you have the car not the queue to get the car .
We were stuck a few times in long traffic queues during our stay , cannot remember it being as busy as that ten years ago , we waited nearly an hour for breakfast in IHOP one morning , we actually asked for the bill when the waitress brought our food so we could exit the establishment quicker 😂 queuing / waiting just seems part and parcel of holidaying in Florida , we don’t do the parks now so I have no idea what queuing is like in the Disney stores but we did venture into Goofy’s Candy Store in DS and you guessed it ... it was a long wait to be served , I think people were in there using up all their dining credits 😊

[JoJo88]

Originally Posted by Lindaelaine

You cannot predict queues , it’s the same with immigration it’s all part and parcel of travelling to America , you might hit lucky and sail through, on the other hand you might not ,we have encountered all sorts of situations . I don’t think we have waited so long to pick up a car as we did in Miami with Budget but there was a line of people waiting to be seen and you just have to deal with it , seeing as we had come from a hotel stay and not off a flight I wasn’t expecting a queue , I have no idea why I was thinking that way as flights are landing constantly 🙄 unless there is some sort of priority queue that you pay for you just have to suck it up . My worry about a car rental company would be how they deal with any problems once you have the car not the queue to get the car .
We were stuck a few times in long traffic queues during our stay , cannot remember it being as busy as that ten years ago , we waited nearly an hour for breakfast in IHOP one morning , we actually asked for the bill when the waitress brought our food so we could exit the establishment quicker 😂 queuing / waiting just seems part and parcel of holidaying in Florida , we don’t do the parks now so I have no idea what queuing is like in the Disney stores but we did venture into Goofy’s Candy Store in DS and you guessed it ... it was a long wait to be served , I think people were in there using up all their dining credits 😊

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Expectations have a lot to do with it too. If you’re expecting a ride line to be 90 minutes and you’re on after 60, you’re happy. Expect your wait for a car to be 30 and it takes an hour, you’re raging. Same wait! I used to stress about these sort of things, immigration, delays etc, but ultimately, we always get there and a bit of hassle along the way is to be expected. Keep your expectations low and it’ll keep your stress levels low too