Booked a 'Mercedes or similar' car to pick up from Nice airport. "You have a Citroen C4 picasso" said the receptionist when we got there. "I don't think so" I said. After a few phone calls (she was very helpful), I got a Citroen C5 - it was all they had. Not quite delivering the expectation. Utter rubbish. Never use Alamo.

Alamo lied to us and pulled the bait and switch on a recent car rental. Here is the letter that I sent them regarding what happened.

I recently rented a vehicle in Costa Rica from your Liberia location. This was the worst rental experience I have ever had.
I will start off by saying that I made an online reservation for my 4x4 Terios and received a confirmation ( confirmation #738993456). When I arrived at the location, I was told that they did not have the vehicle I requested, nor did they have any similar vehicles, or other 4x4 vehicles. They gave me the smallest car that they had and said that that was all they could do and they originally said that they were going to charge me the same price for the smaller vehicle. I showed them my reservation form (again) and told them that I had to have a 4x4 for where I was driving and that I wasn't paying the higher price for the smallest car. They finally said that they would drop off the correct vehicle at my hotel that evening. The evening came and went and they didn't show or call. I called them the next morning and went through the same conversation. They said that they still had no vehicles and they weren't sure why nobody called. Then, they said that they had several vehicles coming in and that I should call them that afternoon and request one of them. That afernoon I called and they told me that they had no vehicle for me and that I should talk to the Alamo person that would be at my next hotel from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm (Occidental Grand Papagayo resort) because he had a vehicle for me. I went to the Alamo desk at 2:00 pm that day to find that nobody was there and was told by the hotel staff that the Alamo employee had left early. I immediately called the Liberia location and was told that they would have the employee that works at the Occidental Grand Papagayo drive my vehicle to me in the morning and switch vehicles with me. The next morning I went to the desk at 8:45 am and asked to switch vehicles, but he told me that he didn't drive my vehicle in. He called the Liberia location while I was standing there and told me that there were no vehicles there; however, he would definitely have me by the afternoon. That afternoon I went by the desk again and he told me again that he didn't have my vehicle and he tried to convince me that my small car was adequate for 4 people and all of our luggage and that I didn't need a larger 4x4 vehicle. I thought this was absolutely crazy. The next morning I arrived at the desk again and was told again that he didn't have my vehicle. Finally, that afternoon, they brought the correct vehicle. We missed three days of travel because of the fact that we didn't have a vehicle that we could travel in. I notified the staff of this upon check out, but they didn't seem to care.
Your staff lied to us repeatedly and deceived us and they were unwilling to help us resolve the issue. In the end, I paid the bill for a car that we could not use for 3 days.

I rented a van from Alamo at the Boise Airport on September 18 and returned it on September 27. I feel I received extremely poor service from Alamo employees in that office two times.

The first incident was when I picked the car up. I phoned Alamo a few days before my arrival, informed them that we were traveling with two handicapped people who had a wheelchair and a scooter. I asked what type of vehicle would pick us up at the airport - or whether it would be possible to pick up a car right at the airport without taking a shuttle - because it is impossible to get the wheelchair and scooter up the steps of some rental car shuttles. I was told that they did not have any type of accommodations for handicapped travelers and the rentalvan could not be picked up at the airport. She said that one person in our party would have to take the shuttle to pick up the van, and then drive back to the airport to pick up the rest of our party.

At the airport (after 18 hours of travel with no food and no sleep) I waited 45 minutes in 50 degree temperature that I hadn't planned on or dressed for, and pouring rain, before I was picked up. I had to go back into the terminal twice to call and inquire about my pick up, which I was told should be in about 5 minutes. I went back and forth to the phone in the terminal in a wheelchair, whith great difficulty.

When I was finally picked up, it was in a large SUV that would easily have accommodated our entire party, our luggage and mobility equipment but there was no time to go into the terminal and get everyone. When I arrived at the Alamo office, the man there informed me that he had no idea why I wasn't told what type of vehicle we'd be picked up in, or that I could have rented a van from National and picked it up right at the airport. It would have saved me a great deal of time and trouble if I'd been correctly informed when I asked.

The second incident of very poor service was on September 26. My mother was not familiar with automatically locking doors, and she tossed the key to the van onto the car seat and closed the van door. The doors all locked, with the keys, my scooter, my mother's wheelchair, our purses, wallets, cell phone and jackets inside the van.

I have multiple sclerosis and can't walk more than a few steps without assistance. My mother is elderly and has severe arthritis and tremors, and is less mobile than I am. With our limited mobility we could not walk far to look for help. I managed to walk with extreme difficulty to a pay phone, which was out of order. It took about 45 minutes to find a park maintenance worker who let us use his cell phone. At this point my mother and I and two young children had already been outside at the park for about 4 hours.

I informed the man who answered at Alamo that they keys were locked in the van. I told him that we were two handicapped women and two young children; and that my purse and cell phone were in the van so he wouldn't be able to call me back, and that our mobility equipment was also locked in the van. He first told me we would need to come to the airport in a taxi to pick up a spare key. I told him that would be very difficult for us, so he said he would bring a spare key to us. He said he was leaving right away and would be there shortly, we were approximately ten minutes from the airport.

Two hours passed with no one showing up. I tried repeatedly to use a pay phone, which was a very long walking distance for me, considering my limited mobility. We finally found someone who was willing to let us use her cell phone. This time the woman who answered at Alamo informed me that they do not have a spare key to the van at all! She said it was my fault that they keys were locked in the van, that they had called me back and left a message on my cell phone - which I had already informed them was locked in the van - and that was then end of their responsibility as far she she was concerned.

She then asked if I would like to have the number of the locksmith that they use, which I would have to pay for myself. Seeing no other choice, I took the number of the locksmith and called him. He was there in less than ten minutes and had the van open a few minutes later.

I am wondering, first, what would have happened if we had taken a taxi to the Alamo office, as the Alamo employee instructed me to do, only to find out that they do not have a spare key at all? How would we have paid the taxi driver, with my wallet still locked in the van? And second, why didn't the Alamo employee, after promising me that he was on his way to open the van, call the locksmith immediately and send them to help us? He was aware of our situation, which was somewhat desperate and getting worse by the hour, especially as the evening got cooler and we had no jackets. By the time we finally got into the van we had been outside more than 6.5 hours without food or water.

We rented a car in Houston Tx, we went over the car for damages and were documented in their handheld computer, upon returning the car the alamo rep stated there was a dent to the front bumper, my husband stated is was documented in the handheld and rep said oh yea its here. My husband finished and we left for the airport. 1 mo later we received a bill from vangaurd stating there is damage on the car and when my husband called it was the same dent documented then they say it was a windshield crack, which was not there upon return. We will never rent from alamo again and when we do rent we will have a signed release from any rental company. What a scam...

I rented a car from Alamo at the T F Green Airport in Rhode Island. I made an electronic reservation for the car, a GPS device for the week, and on my E-reservation chose NOT to have insurance coverage since I am covered by my own insurance. When I arrived to pick up the car, I was asked three separate times if I wanted coverage, and three times I emphatically refused. Since I was in a line with several other people, the sales person whipped the document across the counted and said, "initial here, here, sign here," and so I did. He then printed out a receipt, stuck it in the rental folder and directed me to the car lot. It was only later that I noted that the document included a charge of $160.00 for insurance. Every call to Alamo has met with the same response: you signed, therefore it's a legal document. However, this is clearly fraud which takes advantage of a rushed situation where people are travel-weary, hurried, and interested in completing the rental transaction. They are running a scam which relies of people's inattention to 'legal' documents.