Your experience is similar to mine, but with Alamo eighteen months ago and with National (part of Alamo) two weeks ago.

We had a car hire wth Alamo eighteen months ago for six weeks and rented locally from their Santiago office. It was Renault Clio. It went ok and was in good condition. On the final run back into Santiago we had a puncture on the Autopista del Sol and pulled up quite ok and changed the wheel. On returning the car we were charged for a damaged wheel trim (we had to buy a set of four), a new tyre (supposed to be covered by the insurance), and a complete new wheel which we were told was damaged when we had the puncture. The damage was in fact the reinforcing web inside the wheel with no damage on the outside. As we had the puncture on a motorway standard road there was no possibility of the damage they alleged. I refused to pay but my card was charged $250 for a new wheel, $75 for a new tyre and $30 for the wheel trims. Letters were ignored and the international Alamo group didn't want to know as they said it was a local arrangement.

Three weeks ago I hired via the international website from National Cars rental, which is apparently part of Alamo, but I didn't know that. I was picking it up in Antogagasta airport. The car was a Toyota Yaris with poor and dented bodywork, and one wheel trim missing. I suppose some previous hirer had been charged for the repair to that. The central door locking didn't work and the central car alarm system had been bypassed and when it went off had to be cancelled by pushing a button in the footwell. I was told that the alarm wasn't a requirement in Antofagasta. I didn't want it but there was nothing else. We tried to change it later but couldn't get hold of the agent. Don't bother going to the city offices, its in a back street.

The car eventually broke down on us 140knms south of Iquiquie in the Atacama desert and it took 3 1/2 hrs of arguements and threats before somebody came to rescue us. The car we were given as a replacement had a worn spindle on the drivers side windowscreen wiper so that at 80kph it floated across the screen right into my line of sight. We had to find some scrap wire at the roadside to wire it to the other arm.

Nobody was at the airport when we returned the car so I just left the keys there.

Waiting for the result on this one, but our experience of Alamo of eighteen months ago was 'its ok, don't pay, we have your credit card details'. Very easy when we are 7000 miles away at home and just have no form of appeal.

If you order via the international company apparently they have some say in how you may have been dealt with, if you rent locally they don't want to know.

wbph, would it not be possible to dispute any uncalled for charges with your credit card company?

The one of eighteen months ago was poo-hooed by my credit card company because 'I had voluntarily given Alamo my credit card details' and thay have the right apparently to add any charges up to 90 days after the termination of the hire. The fact that you can't get your hands on a car until you have given your card details to the hirer doesn't seem to come into it.

With the current one I have already advised my card company and am starting to get the same problem from them, but because I ordered the car internationally through the company headquarters I am expecting some form of better result.

The credit card companies seem keen to advertize this 60 day protection but don't seem to actually help out.

Wait and see on this one.

Hi there...

It's funny,

I had a similar experience in Germany in 2002.

As a Chilean, even as a German speaking person, I do not usually rent cars in foreign countries, but this was a business trip and I had to pick up my daughter from Strasbourg in France and on the next day travel to Brussels in Belgium and Utrecht in the Netherlands.

So, having this as a reason, I rented a car from Mannheim, a city near Frankfurt and I asked about the drop-off for a week later as my flight left from Frankfurt and there is a train that goes directly from there to the airport.

I got a big surprise when the offices were closed on saturday at 5 PM, the same time I had booked the car a week before. But nobody was there to receive the keys, even having asked about their closing schedule...

So, they charged 2 more days until monday, !!

Back in Chile, Amex informed, they said I had to go back to Germany to explain (!!)

I decided never again to rent a car in a foreign country: it's never worth it, and there are so many other ways to get to where you want to go.

This is extremely valid for people coming to Chile that don't even speak Spanish, in my opinion...

Sharing experiences like this is always a catharsis, isn't it ?

regards from Valparaíso,

Jdelapaz

Interesting point, but what it seems to indicate is that if you are from another country then the hirers can give you a rough car and indifferent service knowing they can charge you what they like because you are now thousands of kilometres away and can't do anything about it.

What a difference to the USA. On the way back this last Saturday we were in Atlanta for ten hours so Enterprize hired us a car for six hours which worked out cheaper than the taxis we were going to have to use for where we wanted to go. Ten minutes from ordering in the airport, getting on the courtesy bus to a person waiting with a name board at their base to show us an immpecible almost brand new car which was exactly what we wanted.

Well done them, and we shall have no hesitation in using them again. So much difference where customer satisfaction seems to mateer.

The vast majority of people who hire cars are from somewhere else. Certainly the customer service seems to be faulty at the two companies mentioned as the terms were not clear in one case and the car was sub-standard in the other.

I am not sure about the issue of credit card insurance being valid or not. I know there is endless discussion of this on the Ireland forum as most credit cards have an exception for certain countries, Ireland being one of them. However, this should be made perfectly clear to the customer before the actual paperwork.

I hope that this doesn't happen to me with Advantage (Rosselot)

Just a small detail. Cruise control it is not standard in Chile.

I rented a car from Alamo in their Santiago office. Our car was a Nissan Sentra and was in good shape and we had not complaints until the misfortune of the tie rod breaking while driving on an improved road. No accident, no hole, no rock. A pure mechanical breakdown.

We were near Osorno when this happened and we contacted Alamo in Santiago and they connected us with their local office in Puerto Montt and this is when our trouble began. The Alamo office in Puerto Montt required us to pay for a tow truck from the breakdown site to Osorno and then call them the next day during business hours. When we called, they required us to pay a replacement car fee as well as the towing charges to take the car to Puerto Montt. I called Santiago in protest and they said they would settle the balance when we turned the car back in to them.

Upon returning the car to Santiago, I was told I would not have to pay the out of pocket tow truck and replacement car fees but the manager had gone home ill so they would have to resolve it on Monday (after I flew home to the USA). He took copies of all my receipts and said he would not charge me anything for the rental and if there was a balance owing, they would notify me via email I never heard from them and 4 weeks later a charge for $810 appeared on my credit card. I was shocked and contacted Alamo international who eventually were able to get a description of the charges and I was charged for the rental, repairs to the car, and gasoline (we returned the tank full). I tried to dispute through Alamo International but since it was not in the USA, they could not help me (I'm not sure why they call themselves Alamo International!).

I then disputed the charges through Bank of America (within their time frame) and have recieved the worst customer service I have ever experienced in my life and now, 7 months later, they refuse to protect my unauthorized charges. As in a previous message on this site, they claim that since I gave Alamo my credit card number, they have the right to charge any amount they want. I don't believe this is true and I will continue to dispute this.

I calculated the balance and I should owe Alamo $35 and I will continue to try to get them or Bank of America to do the right thing and protect me from this unauthorized charge of $810.

I will never do business with Alamo again. Their Chilean office was extremely dishonest and Alamo International is pathetic.

Does any large company care about their customers anymore?

since budget never responded, amex did right by me and denied the entire charge. Although my rental was FREE,i would have much preferred that budget had treated me fairly: the hassle put a damper on the trip.

i've since heard of other budget horror stories. not only in chile, but in california as well.