I had reserved a compact car with Alamo for our one week stay at PBSB. After completing the paperwork we are told that they do not have a compact but they will give us a minivan. However, we will have to swap it the next day for the compact. My husband and I thought this rather strange. Our past experience in renting has been that if the rental company does not have the reserved car on hand another car will be provided for the whole rental period. Another thing that we also thought rather strange: Alamo wanted us to pay for the gas that we would use getting to PBSB! (But after translating our incredulous "YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!" looks into its Spanish equivalent that suggestion was dropped.)
So there we are, driving to PBSB, when the emergency brake engages--repeatedly. David has to disengage it while driving, and the handle comes off in his hand. If we had any ideas about keeping this car, they disappeared right then and there.
Sunday morning we go to brunch, but then, instead of enjoying the amenities at the resort, have to return to our room to wait for Alamo to call and effect the vehicle swap. They were supposed to call at noon. At one PM David phones Alamo, very irate. It seems that Alamo was completley clueless about the situation but a new time, 5 PM, is agreed on. Need I say that Alamo did not phone us at five? (I didn't think so.) At 5:30 another phone call is made to Alamo, much more irate than the previous one. Now the swap is absolutely, definitely going to happen on Monday morning, at 10 AM.
Monday morning: swap finally happens! Not at 10 AM, but it was still in the AM, so what more could we ask for? And what else could possibly go wrong? Nothing, until Thursday morning, when we set out for Todos Santos. We are out of PBSB and rolling down the hill when David makes a very unhappy sound. I ask him what the matter is and he tells me that our Mitsubishi Galant just lost both its power steering and power brakes. Not good. A U-turn back to PBSB and yet another phone call to Alamo, for yet another (hopefully non-defective) vehicle.
Our third vehicle, a VW Jetta, is delivered later that afternoon. It is a new car so hopefully there would be no problems, except for the fact that the alarm would go off when unlocking the car, and the only way to turn it off was to start the engine. (But as the saying goes, third time's the charm ...) However, the day was pretty much shot by then, since by this time it was too late for our Todos Santos excursion.
So there we are, driving to PBSB, when the emergency brake engages--repeatedly. David has to disengage it while driving, and the handle comes off in his hand. If we had any ideas about keeping this car, they disappeared right then and there.
Sunday morning we go to brunch, but then, instead of enjoying the amenities at the resort, have to return to our room to wait for Alamo to call and effect the vehicle swap. They were supposed to call at noon. At one PM David phones Alamo, very irate. It seems that Alamo was completley clueless about the situation but a new time, 5 PM, is agreed on. Need I say that Alamo did not phone us at five? (I didn't think so.) At 5:30 another phone call is made to Alamo, much more irate than the previous one. Now the swap is absolutely, definitely going to happen on Monday morning, at 10 AM.
Monday morning: swap finally happens! Not at 10 AM, but it was still in the AM, so what more could we ask for? And what else could possibly go wrong? Nothing, until Thursday morning, when we set out for Todos Santos. We are out of PBSB and rolling down the hill when David makes a very unhappy sound. I ask him what the matter is and he tells me that our Mitsubishi Galant just lost both its power steering and power brakes. Not good. A U-turn back to PBSB and yet another phone call to Alamo, for yet another (hopefully non-defective) vehicle.
Our third vehicle, a VW Jetta, is delivered later that afternoon. It is a new car so hopefully there would be no problems, except for the fact that the alarm would go off when unlocking the car, and the only way to turn it off was to start the engine. (But as the saying goes, third time's the charm ...) However, the day was pretty much shot by then, since by this time it was too late for our Todos Santos excursion.
