Post #376994 by sushiman on Tue, Apr 29, 2008 2:29 PM

On 2008-04-29 12:10, dangergirl299 wrote:
Beautiful pics.
I love visiting Kona.

Car rentals on the Big Island are always a horrible experience. My mother rented one that was infested with cockroaches, and there were no others available so she had to set off a bug bomb in it.
My parents ended up just buying a car there and storing it when they are not visiting.

Thank you . The camera - a Fujifilm Z10 - was purchased days before the trip and since I couldn't read the manual all pics were taken on AUTO ! Not as sharp as I would like ( just the way the cam is ) , but OK . Here is my ALAMO story :

We got a Chevy / GMC mini-van . Minutes after leaving the airport I opened the glove box to insert some stuff and the latch promptly broke . Since I didn't want to drive around for a week with a glove box door in my lap we took the car back to Alamo for an exchange . Once at Alamo they told us to take another Chevy of our choice . Once out on the road we sadly discovered that this van had a very loud rear end hum which sounded like a UFO was hovering 5 feet over our roof ! Back to Alamo . Once again no apology ; they told us to choose another van . First one we looked at had a broken cup holder . Next one looked good until my wife spotted the word BITCH carved into sliding door ! Finally found one without any obvious defects and once again hit the road . All was OK until the next day . We parked the car in a shopping center to do some shopping and left the engine running as my daughter wanted to stay in the car . We left the AC on . When we came out of the store we saw that the sliding door was open and wondered why . Daughter explained that the AC stopped a few minutes after we entered the store . When my wife started the vehicle , and tried to back out of the parking space , she found there was no power steering , and that a warning light was on saying " reduced engine power " . She turned off the engine and tried again but it was no good . On the third attempt the power steering kicked in but the warning light remained on . Since we had no idea what was wrong with the engine , we drove to our condo which was close by and called Alamo ( What a nightmare it was dealing with these people on the phone ). They told us to bring the car back , but there was no way my wife was going to drive a vehicle which might lose its PS and I told them this . They explained that if they came to get the car we would have to pay a towing charge , since they felt the car could be driven back by us ! After fighting with them for over 20 minutes - a losing battle I might add - we told them we would bring the car back the next day and that we expected a partial refund ( half of rental fee ) for all our aggravation and lost time . They reluctantly agreed to a partial refund and the next day we went to Kona to get the refund and hopefully a trouble free car . The first car we picked didn't make it out of the parking lot before we discovered the front end making clunky clanky noises . We didn't even tell them about it . We chose another vehicle which I am happy to report didn't cause us any trouble for the remainder of our trip . Needless to say I wouldn't use Alamo Rent A Car again if you PAID me ! The staff at Kona were the most uncaring and inept group of individuals I've ever dealt with in my life .

[ Edited by: sushiman 2008-04-29 17:16 ]