Alamo warning

[Gaz]

Another warning for those who use ALAMO. i have always used them and found them good. the other day they forced me to pay $50 for a tank of fuel (on collecting the car) now considering i had it for 1 day and returning it to main gate east i was a little peeved as there was no way i could use $50 worth of fuel. He got the manager out to prove i had been lied to on my booking and in the T&C (i had several dis agreements with them as no where on my T&Cs did it say this, but i was not given a choice, take the car and pay, or loose my prepaid booking and try else where! GRRR) they should state i must pay for a tank of fuel. then he showed me on his screen, he couldnt proceed if he said no, or other options but to charge me.

Basically i was told, pay it or cancel my booking. Obviously i knew, as did he, i had pre paid so couldnt cancel.

The next day i returned the 7 seater to main gate east and told the guy there how annoyed i was as i had re read the T&C and no where did it say i had to pay the fuel, he told me that its a new thing they are trailing, MCO are forcing it onto UK visitors, but you dont have to pay it, there is a way around it. So within 2 mins i had the next booked car (28 days a full size car) without fuel payment!

So double check with whoever you book your car with, i did check and re-checked, but was lied to by the employee and manager of ALAMO at MCO. I will be sending them a very strongly worded letter when we return home (and will voice this face to face when we fly back) as they are ripping people off. they knew i couldnt phone the company i had booked with as it was Sunday night! I hate it when you have no option other than to pay their rip off prices. so please take this warning and be prepared with your T&Cs to argue with them...

Mind you i the first two days of our trip proved o be costly with car rental, got ripped off at Gatwick as they "claimed" damage on the car was not on their system, yet the lady who gave me the car told me it was on, so it was my word against theirs, guess who lost (cost me £45 extra) but i have a photo of the car, still in their parking zone before we climbed in (i always take photos of our hire cars for the album) which shows this damage! In ya face EUROPECAR, guess who else is getting a STRONGLY WORDED letter with a photo enclosed! )

Wont be using either company again, i always repay poor service by booking with their competition, even if it cost me more, its my principles and scrupples.

Other than these two episodes, everything else is great and we are all really enjoying our trip so far.

Please take these lessons as warnings to others.

[trekkie]

so does this mean even though you have prepaid for a tank of fuel as i have done with usrentacar using alamo for our trip later this year that we will still be expected to pay again for fuel?

[Guest]

Trekkie,

No, if you have booked and prepaid a package that includes fuel and drivers, then you just return the vehicle empty and there will (should!) not be an extra fuel charge. But please make sure to check your return slip.

What happened in the case of the poster is that (s)he booked the basic package and was forced into buying a tank of fuel from Alamo.
This is fairly standard practice, unfortuntely. On the positive side Alamo's actual fuel prices are quite reasonable.

S.

[trekkie]

ok thanks

[lettie]

WE hired a car from Alamo this year in June, upon arrival to pick up our car at airport we were asked if we wanted to pay for a full tank of petrol or return the car with full tank, we payed for fuel as we would have to stop for petrol anyway on our way to villa. we prebooked our car through Florida car hire.com

[Guest]

Originally Posted by lettie

WE hired a car from Alamo this year in June, upon arrival to pick up our car at airport we were asked if we wanted to pay for a full tank of petrol or return the car with full tank, we payed for fuel as we would have to stop for petrol anyway on our way to villa. we prebooked our car through Florida car hire.com

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Lettie,

if you were given an option to prepay fuel or not, then it does not imply that you would be given an empty vehicle if you did not buy fuel upfront. Youw ould in any case receive a full tank; purchae of prepaid fuel would only determine whether or not you should return the vehicle empty or full.

S.

[Guest]

As all the cars have a full tank when you pick them up, in fairness, they should have given you the option of returning the car with a full tank and not charging you for the full tank that you had no chance of using in jusy one day! What they did was a bit naughty to say the least.

Shame you couldn't have bought some cheap containers and a funnel so you could have handed the car back empty. On principle alone, I think I would have been tempted to give the fuel that I'd paid for away to someone else rather than hand it back to Alamo so they could charge someone else for something I'd already paid for!

[paulfoel]

Must admit I've had this before where car rentals have insisted I had to pay for a tank of fuel up front. Not made that much difference but I would rather just bring it back full...

[Big Dog]

It's a strange one this and no offence intended to the OP but are you sure they forced this on you rather than gave it as an option? I've used Alamo like some others have said and was given the option of returning with a full tank or pre paying for a tank and returning empty.

[Gaz Lear]

They tried this with me

I just refused pointblank and they backed down, they tried all thee rubbish that i HAD to do it