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Alamo Complaint - Credit Card FRAUD
Complaint
COZUMEL, MEXICO -- I am wanting to warn all consumers about Alamo car rental in Cozumel Mexico as we had several issues, which the last one happened today. My family and I had a great cruise vacation which one of our ports was Cozumel Mexico. When we got off the boat and headed down the pier we were approached by an employee at Alamo, letting us know that they had great rates on Jeeps, and that we could rent it until 6pm that day for only a grand total of $40. We decided to take the deal so we could see the whole area. The maager of the location filled out the contract and the total was $125 not the $40 as promised. He then stated that the guy who approached us on the pier did not include tax and insurance and other customary charges. I then told him never mind but of course had a upset wife and kids who were looking forward to going out and exploring the area. We finally came to an agreement of $85 including tax and full coverage insurance. This was in my opinion a sucker them in move with a lowball offer and we will negotiate from there. After signing all the paperwork, contracts, and credit card receipts we were then told the vehicle was on the way and would be there in 10 minutes. This became another huge debacle we waited and waited and waited and were continuing to be told it was only 5 to10 minutes away. Now mind you we have limited time before the boat boards and we leave at 5pm. A total of 1 hour has passed and no vehicle of course my wife and I are very upset. The manager then cones and says that he was mistaken and that they have no Jeeps available. He then says they can have a higher class vehicle there in of course 10 minutes. The problem for us is we waited all this time and have no other plans and it's too late to book anything else, so he has us. Of course 10 minutes cone and go and after 20 minutes the vehicle shows up. To my surprise it's a decent vehicle with lower miles. The manager apologizes for wasting one and half hours of our vacation time but to my surprise never offers to discount the vehicle and when I suggest it even gets defensive about giving us a higher class and more expensive rental. Either way I was not going to waste anymore time. From there on everything goes as planned no issues until we get home. I get my American Express bill and was charged as promised. On the whole vacation and in fact over the past 9 months this is the ONLY place my wife has used her American Express card. Now fast forward a couple months and today I get a call from American Express security wanting to know if my wife, myself or someone we knew were in Cozumel Mexico and used my wife's card to charge $540 worth of electronics. The security agent said that the charge was done in person and since my wife's card is still in her wallet that they must have made a duplicate copy of it from the Alamo receipt or it was scanned by one of those scanners to make a copy at a later date. When she charged the Jeep at Alamo the guy swiped it several times before running it through one of those older types of machines with paper where you put the card on top of paper and run the device over top of it to make an imprint. Sorry so long but I just wanted to warn anyone going to Cozumel to please be careful with your credit card and NEVER USE A DEBIT CARD TIED TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT. Alamo in Cozumel either has someone copying the cards to commit credit card fraud, or at the least is careless with the paperwork that has the credit card information on it. Either way that is very poor business and will have this loyal Alamo customer looking at other car rental companies. Thanks foe your time to read this.
Comments:
Posted by trmn8r on 2011-10-21:
Good warning. There are several red flags here, from being solicited to being asked to pay 3X the quoted amount.
If I were headed to Cozumel, which I am not, I would steer clear of Alamo.
If I were headed to Cozumel, which I am not, I would steer clear of Alamo.
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