alamo car hire USA

gericom10

went to the US after booking the car hire and paying £300 upfront online. when I got to the rental office was told that the model I booked wasn't available but they has a suitable replacement
was happy with this and signed on the dotted line ( I know, I know, but had just got off a 12 hour flight )
got home to find they have charged my card another £300 on top of what I originally paid.
just to rub it in, I could have rented the one they gave me for less in the first place.
just keep being fobbed off with, you signed the contract, blah,blah, blah!

am at a loss as to what to do next

any ideas?

Blacksheep1979

not really alot you can do now if you signed for it. No. 1 rule - always check what you're signing.

gerryfitz

Check the small print on your original booking, most car rental firms in USA have a clause along the lines of - If the model you have booked is not available we will offer you a replacement of similar or better standard. This has happened to me twice in Florida and I got the upgrade with no extra fees.

Maybe the $300 could just be a human error and they should not have charged you extra?

RibAd

That happened to myself and my folks last year. Got the suitcases which were delayed off the plane.....and down to pick up the rental to find what was booked and part paid for was gone. and they had no availability. we argued it and refused to leave until they provided with something similar for no extra charge, which they had to get and arrange from another car rental company. ended up with something similar but slightly smaller than would have liked.

the reason that what we had booked was gone was simply because the majority of the people on the internal flight in the US were from other states and were GIVEN whatever was available and that prebooked and prearranged bookings are less priority.

steveo3002

thats bad , if they didnt have the model you paid for you should have been given the next one up for the same price

ive stopped using alamo as theyre that good imo

Biggles

A couple of years ago, Alamo made a couple of half-hearted attempts to sell me an upgrade instead of my 'intermediate sedan' when I went to the desk at the airport.

I said No Thanks and went on my merry way.

When I got to the car park, I found they didn't have an intermediate sedan. I had a convertible instead for the same price! Wooo!

gericom10

good news!

after going to the OFT site and got some good advice how to proceed, have just recieved a full refund.

all it took in the end was a recorded delivery letter with the statement ' breach of contract ' in it

motto from now on 'don.t give up'