National Car Rental - Alamo Car Rental

Car Rental Company-

Before traveling to Ireland back in February through AutoEurope website I

booked and paid (QSP 6141302) for a car rental for 6 days with National Car

Rental. After clearing customs in Shannon Ireland on Sunday morning I went

to the National Car Rental booth only to be told by the person behind the

counter that they have no cars at the moment. Instead I was given a

business card and told to give it to Declan at the Hertz Car Rental booth

and he would give me the same deal. I proceeded to Hertz but they would

not honor the rate confirmed with National Car Rental and on the spot I had

to work out the best deal that I could. I did go back to the person at the

National Car Rental booth but they were not interested in helping at all.

In fact they were obvious that I was annoying them. After negotiating with

Hertz the rental charge was $82 more than what I had already paid when I

booked with AutoEurope. When I returned from my trip I worked with my

credit card company to get a refund from Hertz for the over charge of $82.

This accomplishment took numerous letters over a 4 month period.

In June I wrote to National Car Rental ("Wilson, Tara"

<Email User) because all the problems I had getting back what

was overcharged was caused by National Car Rental. I told them at the very

least they should acknowledge that point and apologize but they replied

that my grievance was with Hertz. Again I wrote and explained that they

can not take a prepayment for a car rental reservation, then not provide a

car, send their customer to a competitor, have their customer negotiate

with a new company, get overcharged, work to get the overcharge refunded

and not be held responsible. They did not reply. In turn, I wrote to the

Better Business Bureau (BBB) because I would not have expected to have been

treated so badly by such a large well known company and I did not want

anyone else to go through the same experience. About a week after writing

to the BBB I received an email from National Car Rental saying that for all

my trouble they are offering me a coupon for 2 days free car rental in the

US or Canada to be used before the end of the year. Again I had to write

to National Car Rental letting them know their offer had no value to me as

the only place that I would be renting a car was Ireland in 2008. They

replied that they would not send a coupon voucher for any country other

than the US or Canada

In closing, I would not have thought in my wildest dreams that working with

a global rental company like National Car Rental would have been such a bad

experience and that not one person at National Car Rental had the

inclination on how to treat a paying customer. Your viewers should be

aware that even though you pay National Car Rental in advance to reserve a

car it does not mean that they will provide you with a car and certainly

they will not treat you well. Service I must report is not at the top of

their list.