This may better belong in the Travel Tips section, but I believe it is deserving of a much wider distribution.
In June this year, I took half a dozen mates on a tour of the Somme, and booked a van way back in August 17 thru an aggregator called Vehicle Rent. During the booking process I had a number of email transactions with the VR people to finalise the deal, who were on the ball no matter which operator I emailed at various times. I had booked a VW Kombi (or similar) and when we picked up the vehicle in BRU from Alamo, they offered us a brand new Merc 9 seater van, auto for free, which turned out to be a great vehicle for our needs. No issues after the vehicle was returned.
On Sunday I went thru VR again to book a small car from Dijon Gare Alamo agency for 10 days. I had some concerns before completing the deal as their booking site stated they would only accept Visa and MC, and Amex is my only CC. I emailed VR and enquired, as my Amex card ha been accepted in June. They immediately replied to that they would check for me, did so, and responded within an hour to say that the Alamo dealer would accept my card.
On arrival, we were met by the agency manager, who was positive without being pushy in his cross-selling, and when we told him we were headed for Beaune, he told us of some places worth seeing in the surrounding area. As he was explaining the full to full fuel requirement, he stated that a fill-up in Beaune would be acceptable to get us back to Dijon, being only 40km away. When we went to check over the vehicle, he had a small piece of cardboard about 6” long and 2” wide, which had a round plastic circle in the middle of it. We came to the passengers door which had two standout chips in the middle of it. He popped his card over the chips, which fitted inside the circle, and said that these would not be considered as ‘damage’ given their size, and that this would apply to our rental if we had a similar scratch. He gave us a proper handover internally, pointing out handbrake (sometimes hard to find), the fuel cap release, clicked the reset button to zero, and handed over the keys. He also gave us his personal business card and said he would be happy to help out with any issues we might have during the rental.
As we drove out from the station into the sunlight the windscreen was a bit streaky, and I applied the windscreeen washers to find that they were empty. About an hour later, once we had reached our pub, we received an email from him stating that his mechanic had advised that he had forgotten to fill the washer fluid bottle, and that I could take the car to the Beaune Alamo office for that to be corrected.
Given that most of the stories in the Travel Tips forum, which range from awful to more awful, I think their story needs to be told. Of course, the proof will be in the pudding on returning the vehicle, but my dealings thru Vehicle Rent and their agencies has been excellent on two occasions.
In June this year, I took half a dozen mates on a tour of the Somme, and booked a van way back in August 17 thru an aggregator called Vehicle Rent. During the booking process I had a number of email transactions with the VR people to finalise the deal, who were on the ball no matter which operator I emailed at various times. I had booked a VW Kombi (or similar) and when we picked up the vehicle in BRU from Alamo, they offered us a brand new Merc 9 seater van, auto for free, which turned out to be a great vehicle for our needs. No issues after the vehicle was returned.
On Sunday I went thru VR again to book a small car from Dijon Gare Alamo agency for 10 days. I had some concerns before completing the deal as their booking site stated they would only accept Visa and MC, and Amex is my only CC. I emailed VR and enquired, as my Amex card ha been accepted in June. They immediately replied to that they would check for me, did so, and responded within an hour to say that the Alamo dealer would accept my card.
On arrival, we were met by the agency manager, who was positive without being pushy in his cross-selling, and when we told him we were headed for Beaune, he told us of some places worth seeing in the surrounding area. As he was explaining the full to full fuel requirement, he stated that a fill-up in Beaune would be acceptable to get us back to Dijon, being only 40km away. When we went to check over the vehicle, he had a small piece of cardboard about 6” long and 2” wide, which had a round plastic circle in the middle of it. We came to the passengers door which had two standout chips in the middle of it. He popped his card over the chips, which fitted inside the circle, and said that these would not be considered as ‘damage’ given their size, and that this would apply to our rental if we had a similar scratch. He gave us a proper handover internally, pointing out handbrake (sometimes hard to find), the fuel cap release, clicked the reset button to zero, and handed over the keys. He also gave us his personal business card and said he would be happy to help out with any issues we might have during the rental.
As we drove out from the station into the sunlight the windscreen was a bit streaky, and I applied the windscreeen washers to find that they were empty. About an hour later, once we had reached our pub, we received an email from him stating that his mechanic had advised that he had forgotten to fill the washer fluid bottle, and that I could take the car to the Beaune Alamo office for that to be corrected.
Given that most of the stories in the Travel Tips forum, which range from awful to more awful, I think their story needs to be told. Of course, the proof will be in the pudding on returning the vehicle, but my dealings thru Vehicle Rent and their agencies has been excellent on two occasions.
), and parked closest the exit from the rental office. If I wanted to complain about something, the car was configured to be in German, but I don't think it's expected of a rental company to change the language to the default of the country from where the renter is coming - so I don't think it's a valid complaint (and it was easy to change).
