randix

I've been renting cars pretty much full time since 2001, as I'm sure many of you have. I've gone through periods when I've done the cheapest available, no matter who offered the rental; I've gone through periods when I stuck with one rental company, Budget, for a protracted time, showing my loyalty, regardless; I've gone through periods, like the last several years, when it was almost a random choice. The passing of some of the great and easy mileage opportunities when it comes to renting cars, has made me lazy, I'm probably not as aggressive as in the past, in trying to find the "best" deal (mileage, price, convenience, confidence).

I can find fault with every car rental company. Perhaps its my age, but my tolerance when I do find significant faults, just really pisses me off anymore. I find I'm more vocal, to the rental companies, to my friends, to my business associates, on behavior that is not only inconsistent with good customer service, but just plain wrong. And when it appears that the companies don't listen or care cause they have sufficient demand, it really boils my cake.

Perhaps its the marketing, I do not claim to be immune, but Hertz, Avis and Budget still bring me peace. It's not that they never screw up, or that they don't [upset me], but more likely than not, my expectations are met, they make it easy, I'm relaxed. When I deal with Payless, Fox, Advantage, etc., it's like I'm always looking out for the "gotcha". When companies like Alamo drop the deposit requirement and stand out from the rest of the industry, I'm appreciative of that and will go out of my way to use them, provided their rates are inline.

For you long timers, are you as cynical as I, and how has that dictated your rental patterns?

tatterdema

I only rent about 10-15 times a year, and really never have an issue. I would say 80% of my rentals are with Alamo, 10% Dollar, and 10% Avis. I avoid Fox, Payless, etc, even if the price is significantly lower.

The only issues I really remember off the top of my head, are once at Dollar I had about an hour wait in the garage at LAS, because they were out of cars. Another time, I tried to check in at Alamo 1/2 hr early, and it would not let me. The CSR was incompetent and ended up printing my entire rental in German. Then there is always the fight to receive the points. My rental last week with Alamo had my FF number on my reservation, but after I checked in, it dropped off. It actually benefitted me, as I did not have to pay the FF surcharge, and still quickly received the points after emailing them.

flyerfmaz

Been renting cars for decades, and in recent times almost every week of the year. Honestly, I don't think it's fair to call yourself "cynical" -- maybe just more experienced. As we become more experienced in dealing with the car rental companies (or any group of businesses, for that matter), it's perfectly normal to become more discerning -- not "fussy", but discerning. On top of that, however, is something maybe best described as having a much larger "attack surface". By "attack surface" I mean that the more you rent cars the greater your exposure to the shenanigans and the inner workings of a car rental company, because you're more likely to need to deal with their customer service for one reason or another. In other words, the more you rent cars the greater the likelihood that you'll eventually get mowed down by substandard customer service.

Like you, I will never rent from the little companies. All my rentals are with the "big three", or their subsidiaries -- although lately I'm avoiding Hertz because of serious customer service issues that forced my company to decree that rentals from Hertz are forbidden. Most of my rentals come from Alamo (no complaints, other than the upsell nonsense at the counter), and Enterprise. Also, I rent from whomever will give me the most Southwest airline points for the lowest price -- IMO the car rental loyalty programs are mostly worthless.

hughc99

I've found an odd quirk between Alamo and National. At some locations (including the one I use most often) they are basically one company - same fleet, same employees, same check out booth. Sometimes Alamo's rates are half of Nationals and I can still earn Southwest RR points on them. Why pay twice as much for literally the same selection of cars?

Anyway, whenever I show up with a National reservation everything seems to go fine. Alamo is a different story. The last four, yes four, times I've shown up with an Alamo reservation and used the "skip the counter" option I got charged more than my reservation and had to spend time after the return getting it fixed (kind of defeats the purpose of "skip the counter" I'm going to the counter afterward anyway).

I asked the counter agent why this keeps happening and he said the problem is that if my reservation is for noon and if I pull through the booth at 11:59 or 12:01 or any other time it resets to whatever the current rate is. Since it's almost impossible to time it just right, he to me to ask the booth agent to confirm the amount before I leave.

Next time I went to do this the booth agent got really annoyed that I asked him to do this. It looked like he had to manually re-do the reservation in the system with the amount on my reservation. It probably took 2 or 3 minutes but felt like an eternity. Meanwhile the people behind me in line for the booth were annoyed, honking, etc. In the process he left off my Southwest RR number from the reservation so I lost out on a good number of points. It was a generally bad situation.

randix

Most companies, if I show up early or late, the rate does not change, worst case an extra hour is charged if I show up early, and I can simply return the car an hour earlier and it's a wash; however, gawd forbid I show up at the Alamo kiosk early, as it invariably WILL recalculate my rental quote--so I either can stand in line to get it adjusted and beg the Alamo gawd to revise my reservation without changing the quote, or I submit to the Will of the great and almighty kiosk, and I don't show up early until the clock strikes on my time. As a practical matter, when booking w Alamo, I now purposely set my pickup time earlier than I intend, so I've an open window to pick it up when I want to pick it up, without being slapped by the Alamo gawd.

tatterdema

This is what I do, after the fiasco I described above with my RA being printed in German. I always give myself at least 1/2 an hour, usually an hour before I know I will be there. You would think that if you pick it up a little early, worst case scenario is that the return time would be adjusted.

Have you ever had an issue returning early? I don't mean a full day, but a few hours early? Next month I have a rental that was $200 cheaper for a week rental, instead of 4 days. By putting the return time later in the day, I was able to get the week rate. Hoping it will not go back to the individual daily billing when I return it 5 hours early.

randix

Personally, I've never had a problem w Alamo returning early, only picking up early thru the kiosk which invariably recalculates the rate per my earlier post. Your mileage may vary.

tatterdema

Thanks. That has been my experience as well, but I have never done a weekly rate, then returned before the time required to be considered weekly. In the past I have returned earlier than using a coupon would normally allow, and not had any problem. I think that at return, they just print the original contract again. Taking a chance on it anyway. If I have any issues, I will report back. Lol, part of my concern is also the location. It is a rental at a small (tiny) regional airport, as opposed to my normal at larger locations.