Alamo Rent A Car — Local services in Elizabeth

I rented a car in June so my wife and I could attend her mom's funeral in Clinton, NJ (on the west half of the state). The car rental was great and there were no issues with the vehicle or the service for the vehicle itself.

The one star rating is for the toll pass system they use, which there's a dept in Alamo that handles this, and the toll pass system itelf. As a result of my experience outlined here I will never use Alamo's toll pass addon again (or any other rental car company's toll pass system).

I was billed twice to use the Turnpike for one day, to go about 5 miles. One bill was for over $100 that had days and times for routes in and out of the city that I was not anywhere in the area, which was obviously the wrong bill. The 2nd bill was for $15 which was for the actual use of the TP.

I spent hours on the phone and typing out emails to get this resolved. They insisted I needed proof by handing them receipts that I do not keep - how was I supposed to know their system was so messed up that it would charge me over $100 for tolls that I never used? Therefore, I insisted they give me photographic proof of the vehicle in question. They never produced such evidence and instead insisted the transponder provided all the evidence they needed unless I had receipts. This is a horrible system especially for as much money as they take in each and every day.

After all that time and the toll pass dept could not produce photographic proof that it was my vehicle that allegedly used the Turnpike, bridges and tunnels into and out of the city (because it was NOT my vehicle), they finally relented and said they'd credit the invoice. Great.

Except they credited the wrong bill. Instead of the one for over $100, they credited the $15 invoice. So now I can't even dispute the invoice with AmEx because they already credited me.

As stated above I already spent hours on this. I get paid $100/hr to work so I refuse to spend any more time on this. What I will NOT do going forward is to use the toll pass system through Alamo's rental car system again.

I am super disappointed by this result and the idiocy of the systems involved. I would strongly recommend anyone that uses rental cars to use your own toll pass account or pay cash to go through the myriad of tolls in NJ.

@Christina - thank you for your canned response. However as outlined above, I have already spent entirely too much time on this issue including contacting your toll pass dept, the main toll pass dept, and I have received no joy from anyone. They insist I went through tunnels and over bridges that I never went through - I was in CLINTON during those days and times, and a few of those alleged times were during my mother-in-law's funeral that I attended!!

At this time my money is on fighting this...

I had never felt this way about any other car rental company. The outcome turned out to be awesome. It's truly a customer service experience that drives people to buy a companies' services.

I will come again to use Alamo in the future in the Newark Airport area.

I had a great experience with Charmaine in Alamo, Newark Airport. She said my spouse doesn't need to be added to the account and EZ Pass is inside the car. When my spouse drove off with the vehicle we rented, in the exit, there was no proof to show the exit attendant that he is my spouse because in the paperwork, his name was not there. The attendant had to call Charmaine to agree that the spouse is taking the vehicle out. I took my car out to park somewhere else. On our trip, we didn't know how to open the EZ Pass box since it was stuck shut, we called the customer service and all three of them were absolutely no help. Spouse opened it at last.

On our 12-13 hours trip, we found out that there was an issue with the maintenance of the vehicle so we switched it in our destination address which had an Alamo about 40 miles away. In the Alamo in the other state, the representative there was in training so he was helped by someone else with more experience. We ended up having a billing issue afterwards and we were confused, the representative said everything is fine. So, everything is fine. I got my free water bottle and on our way to vacation.

On the way, we couldn't find the EZ Pass in the new vehicle, we didn't ask for an EZ Pass and Alamo didn't suggest it. I thought it would be already added. I was wrong. Spouse called the customer service again and complained. Customer service said to go back to Alamo which was 20 miles away and get an EZ Pass or go back to our car which was 600 miles away to get the EZ Pass. Customer service representative had no idea our car was 600 miles away, not her fault. No solution for us. We ended up using cash and not EZ Pass. We also received the replacement vehicle with half or 60% tank gas. We called customer service and let them know that.

We had a great time with the vehicle, it ran smooth, it only had about 3000 miles when we had received it. Loved every moment of it. I'm planning to purchase one just like it. That's how much I had enjoyed the ride.

Returned the vehicle, Alamo attendant reviewed the vehicle and asked us if we had filled the gas and they are aware that the gas was half when they had provided the vehicle to us. Spouse said that he had put the gas and it's full tank. Attendant provided us a generous discount. God bless her and that's where the ride ended. She had put the last cherry on the cake.

I had some billing issues but it was my misunderstanding about the temporary hold amount. Overall, I enjoyed my first time...

If I could give “0” stars I would. This has been and still dealing with, the worst experience I have ever had with a rental car company. I rented a car Feb 15, returned it feb 18th, before leaving Newark Liberty EWR I asked the woman if I could return the car at any location with no additional cost she said (YES) no hesitation. During those three days the car had this very annoying oil change sound go off what seemed like every 5 minutes. 2nd the car would SHUT OFF in the middle of me driving on the highway, on the corner, at stop lights, even within minutes of turning the car on! The last day I was scared to drive the car knowing it was going to run completely off at any moment! I would have to put the car in park then try to turn it back on. Several times the car took 2-3x if pressing the on and off button to come completely on. Upon returning the crappy vehicle since I live in Brooklyn as stated to the woman at the Newark front desk I returned the car to LaGuardia. They charged me an additional $350 for dropping the car off at a different location that’s double the amount I signed off on!! I told them no I will drive it back to Newark right now this is ridiculous $701.81 for three days!? They said it was some kind of mistake I sat there for 1 1/2 showing paper work and explaining, it took 4 people to not help me. They had lost my toll pass and already charged my card and closed out the account so I couldn’t take it back to Newark without paying for a new car. They told me to call this number and the could refund me. Well I called 4 times each time the person says I cannot refund that amount of money someone will reach out in 7-10 business days. 1 week and a half goes by no call. I call them tell them the whole experience again they say oh sorry they left your case closed that’s why no one contact you’ll have to wait another 7-10days. This time they tell me to call Newark directly by pressing specific number/options that don’t exist and just take me right back to the call center who was extremely rude and interruptive! Then! After my account is so called in limbo waiting for these imaginary people to call me I get a random charge on my account for $30 Feb 28th ! HOW!?! Still have not been called back and it’s into March. Ridiculous. NEVER EVER GO TO ALAMO, they will falsely inform you, give you an unreliable car and hope that you forget about the charges in 7-10 days and never call back. Oh and charge your card unauthorized amounts weeks later. Worst custom service I’ve ever seen. I never write reviews good or bad but this has my...