Other Car Rental Programs/Partners (ie. Alamo, Enterprise, Sixt) - Service Going Downhill, or is it me?

I'm getting extremely frustrated with Alamo, is anyone else experiencing problems? I rent frequently (almost weekly, sometimes more often) from Hertz, Budget, and Alamo, mostly at SeaTac, but many other places around the country, too. I have Hertz #1 Gold, Budget Fastbreak, and Alamo Quicksliver cards. Hertz and Budget always have the paperwork filled out and my key and car waiting. With Alamo it's like I'm a brand new customer and they have to fill out all the paperwork from scratch each time. (I book all of my car reservations online, they have all my information and my Quicksilver number.) It's especially irritating to be asked all the coverage and gas option questions since these are already in my profile. Alamo is also the only one who *always* asks me where I'm staying. In addition, the Alamo computers are almost always "running slow today." The bottom line is that I typically spend 2 - 3 minutes getting a car from Hertz and Budget, 10- 15 minutes from Alamo. I'm about ready to give up except they often have the cheapest rates. I guess I'm getting what I pay for!

(Just went through it again today at SeaTac and needed to vent.)

For a couple of years I picked Alamo as almost as dependable as Hertz, but usually at a much better price. This year I've also been frustrated and have gone back to playing the field. I avoid Alamo now in Houston and Minneapolis for CS reasons. Still use them in Kansas City.

Rental cars are a quandry to me I don't know how to resolve. My experience is Hertz is far and away more dependable, but usually much more expensive. If I wasn't picking up my own expenses I think I'd be a 100% Hertz customer, but even my last rental from them had a significant vehicle prep issue. Then again, it was in San Juan where there were all kinds of issues.

For a couple of years I picked Alamo as almost as dependable as Hertz, but usually at a much better price. This year I've also been frustrated and have gone back to playing the field. I avoid Alamo now in Houston and Minneapolis for CS reasons. Still use them in Kansas City.

Rental cars are a quandry to me I don't know how to resolve. My experience is Hertz is far and away more dependable, but usually much more expensive. If I wasn't picking up my own expenses I think I'd be a 100% Hertz customer, but even my last rental from them had a significant vehicle prep issue. Then again, it was in San Juan where there were all kinds of issues. From reading this board, dissatisfaction is rapant with several vendors.

I agree about the Hertz vs. Alamo dilemma. My last three Hertz rentals were all booked as compacts, I got upgraded to a Mazda Miata, a Mustang, and a brand new Ford Escape 4X4 with a sunroof and leather interior My last three Alamo rentals were all plain vanilla Chevy Cavaliers, no upgrades at all, and minimally equipped cars. Of course, Hertz was at least 50 percent more expensive. Even at that, all of the Hertz rentals were in the airport, two out of three of the Alamo rentals required a shuttle bus ride, adding extra time and in one case preventing me from making an earlier flight I might have been able to catch if I had returned the car on-site.

I used to be a heavy Alamo customer for about 5 years. When they merged with National at RSW it went downhill quickly. They removed the quicksilver machines making a 60 second process into a 20+ min process. Plus they messed up several contracts (charging me 20 cents per mile!)and gave me very rude responses when I challenged them on it.

Now they have just completely changed my Corporate contract with a 20% increase in base prices and they removed my free gas and second driver.

I just shredded my QS card last week.

onelove

I also often end up with a Hertz vs. Alamo decision: prefer the former but cost sends me to the latter. But I did have a good experience with Alamo in LAS 2 weeks ago. I had a fullsize for $18/day (Wed-Sat) compared to $40+ at Hertz. The rental process was amazingly fast - only 2-3 minutes at the counter and no high-pressure sales (although I had already agreed to liability insurance when I made the reservation since I live in NYC and have no car). The return was equally fast.