Sunday
11:00: I leave Hilo, heading north towards Honoka’a.
11:30: I hit a rock on the highway just before a bridge that’s being repaired. There is a detour route just beyond where I hit the rock and traffic is stopped. Handy. I get out of the car and take a walk around it. The car looks fine, I’m relieved.
11:45: Traffic starts moving. I drive the car on the detour route for less than a mile but it’s making a funny noise. Nope, I think, the tire is NOT okay. I pull into the lot at Botanical World in Hakalau. The tire is completely flat. I have no cell service, so I’m grateful when Audra, who works the check in booth at Botanical World says, “Of course you can use the phone.” I call Alamo’s roadside assistance number and tell them that there is no spare in the car. They take my details and say, “Yeah, it’s going to be about two hours. We’ll send someone out with a replacement vehicle.”
12:00: Audra sends me to walk around the gardens and suggests I lather up with bug juice. I get back to the visitor’s office about an hour later. She tells me Alamo has called, confirmed my location, and they’re on it. “This is going to suck,” I think, but I have insurance on my credit card. “Meh, that’s what it’s for. I’ll deal with the expense later.”
1:30: Alamo calls from Kona to say they’re not coming. They would have to charge me to come and get the car and tow it back to Kona. I should inflate the tire and drive it to Hilo to get a replacement. When I tell them I am not driving on this thing until someone has evaluated it’s safe to do so they say “Call AAA. Have them take care of it.” When I ask the guy why I’m dealing with Kona in the first place, he says, “Yeah, they don’t know our island.” “Not my problem,” I say. “Call AAA,” he says.
1:45: Alamo calls from their central headquarters to tell me that the service call has been cancelled. Audra takes the call and gives the rep an earful. “We are 15 miles from Hilo and she has been here for two hours,” she says, “Why didn’t you send someone from Hilo?”
At the same time, Alamo makes a separate customer service call to me to confirm that I wanted to cancel the service call. There is much conversation with Alamo on the two available lines at the office; one is Audra giving Alamo some advice on how to treat visitors to the islands (“Not. Like. This.”) and the other is me listening to a service rep awkwardly attempt to placate me. “We are very sorry we hope you understand.” I do not understand and I ask Alamo to call the Hilo office and get everything sorted so once I have figured out how to get to Hilo, they are ready for me. Alamo leaves me on the line and then tells me they are not able to reach the Hilo office. “I can put a note in your record,” the rep says.
3:00: I call AAA, they tell me they will arrive in about 45 minutes. The tow truck driver calls back almost immediately to say he’s about seven miles out and to confirm the location.
3:30: AAA arrives. The driver inflates the tire and says, “Nope, you’re going nowhere.” He tows the car — and me — back to the Hilo lot. There is no one in the lot to receive the vehicle, to write a damage report, nothing. I take my belongings from the car, sign the AAA tow paperwork, snap pictures of the car, and then, the driver drops me at the Alamo counter.
4:00: I apologize to the smiling rep for what is about to be the worst part of his day. “This is not personally your fault,” I say, “but your people really hung me out to dry.” The rep — his name is Jason — asks “They told you to do WHAT now?” several times. “They left you out there and told you to just deal with it? What?” He is apologetic and delightful, but tells me he has no authority to waive fees. He promises me he will follow up with his manager. He takes all my information and puts me in a new car. He also gives me his direct line and says to have the Kona office contact him if there are any issues when I return to the airport with the replacement car.
5:00: I head north out of Hilo to Honoka’a. I arrive without incident shortly before sunset.
Tuesday
8:00: I receive an automated email asking me to fill out a customer satisfaction survey related to my experience with Alamo’s roadside assistance.
5:00: I stop laughing.
Wednesday
1:00: I receive an apology that includes the following:
We know that our apologies can not make up for the condition of the vehicle or not receiving a replacement vehicle from your rental location. It is a hope that you won’t judge us too harshly due to this isolated incident. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue has caused you.
I respond saying that an apology for the inconvenience is insufficient and I look forward to them waiving all related fees as well as their reimbursement for my towing expenses.
A note: The parent company for Alamo also runs Enterprise and National rental car companies. I do not know if they share resources and policies; I’ll update when I find out.
We had a bad experience with Enterprise in Santa Fe this past June involving a car that we had to wait 2 hours for (had to be driven up from Albuquerque) and a tardy refund on miscalculated gas fee. Their customer service was deplorable.
Their boldness fills me with great awe, honestly. Unbelievable.
Any update from Alamo regarding your reimbursement?
Sort of. The manager of the Hilo office called to talk to me and apologized profusely, and said if there was more than a flat, he’d get back to me, but if I didn’t hear from him, it was All Taken Care Of.
We had an almost identical “flat tire” experience with Alamo two weeks ago!! Imagine our surprise in the hotel parking lot in Augusta, GA., when we noticed a flat tire on our Alamo rental (from the Savannah airport). Imagine our surprise a second time when we looked in the trunk to find – NOTHING. No spare and NO FANCY Blow-Up spare tire kit. Or whatever it is that’s supposed to work in lieu of a real tire. So . . . the circus phone calls begin. Alamo – sorry, but we can’t do anything, and if we come and get the car, we’ll charge you for the tow. We call our car insurance company because we’ve got Roadside Assistance, so USAA sends a tow truck to tow the car to the nearest dealer to assess the flat. Oh – when we first rented the car, we noticed that all four hubcaps were badly damaged, so we took photos, and the attendant noted the damage which we got in writing. The Alamo folks who answered the general number told us to call the Savannah Airport Alamo employees to work out what to do next. Still waiting for that phone call after leaving numerous messages. I then call Costco because I went through their portal to rent the car. Nice person answered the phone and said a manager would call me back. Still waiting on that call too. We got the hotel shuttle to take us to the Alamo desk at the Augusta airport, and the nice attendant took our story and entered it all into her computer. She also gave us a new vehicle, and she advised us to call Savannah. We went on our merry way. The car dealership called us and said the tire had a piece of wood in it, and needed to be replaced, but they didn’t have that exact tire available. We called Savannah again – left a message again – still waiting. A week later after we returned home, we’ve received a letter from Alamo’s Damage Recovery Unit wanting – well, we’re not sure. It just says we owe them an undisclosed amount of money, and we can have our insurance or credit card company pay it, or we can pay it directly. I guess that the new method of generating money for Alamo is to not include spare tires or spare tire kits in cars, then leave the renters abandoned. Alamo should just include their Roadside Service Plus in the price of the rental if they don’t intend to have spare tires in the trunk.
I hope this resolves in your favor. For the record, I was never charged a dime for repairs, though I ALSO did not get my vacation day back.
Same story with Payless Rental but they charged me two extra days plus gas charges which I had taken care of. They could not locate the car I returned early. Still trying to get this straightened out. What to do.
Check to see if spare tire is available. You can be stuck for hours on a dangerous
highway.