MAN Ripoff

[Onan]

Am I being ripped off or what?
On a recent trip to the UK I had occasion to book a vehicle with Eurocars (Kennings) at the Moat House Hotel near Manchester Airport. Upon arrival at the airport I proceeded to the hotel via taxi cab took a shower had breakfast then picked up the vehicle. The hotel and vehicle booking were done via the internet and payed for by DINERS CLUB CARD. Imagine my surprise when upon receipt of the bill (this morning) I found a charge of £10. for Manchester Airpoprt. I called Eurocars who told me that this is the regular charge for picking up a car at the airport and that MAN considers the off-site Moat House Hotel a part of the airport. They said I would have to take it up with the airport.

I picked up the car at the hotel, I booked it through the internet, I took a cab to the hotel, I returned to the airport in a cab and I payed all applicable taxes through my airline ticket.

Can anyone tell why Manchester would charge me £10? If I landed at MAN then proceeded to and rented a car at Liverpool, or any other UK airport for that matter, would I still have to pay MAPLC a £10 fee?

[Bear Cub]

I've picked up many many hire cars from off airport (but close) rental centres.

Nearly every one of them (indeed, all of them in the USA) have charged me an airport tax or fee of some sort.

------------------
Hunting is bad!!
Support the right to arm Bears!!

[cossack]

Its true.
I use Alamo at EWR a lot and get charged an "airport tax" for the privilege of trying to negotiate the "assault course" which purports to be a road system to the west of the airport.

[Getting Old]

If you think that is bad you should try a landing fee at Luton - over £250.00 (yes £250) for a single engine at under 2 tonnes. Anyone care to explain why?

[Sensible]

How about my two experiences with Alamo.
Incident #1
I rented a car from Alamo (rent a wreck)in January this year through Holiday Autos in Mexico City, it was dirty, tatty and dented and was clearly well used. Whilst driving the car in heavy traffic, I experienced complete brake failure, the brake pedal went down to the floor without any braking effect. I telephoned Alamo who advised me to let the car cool down for half an hour and then try the brakes again and further advised me to use the gears more and the brakes less. They said that they were unable to assist with a replacement car.

A few days later, the car broke down completely in the countryside about an hour before dark. I finally managed to telephone Alamo who advised me that they were unable to assist and that I would need to find a mechanic locally to repair the vehicle. I subsequently found a mechanic who diagnosed a broken cam belt, towed us to his garage (shed) and replaced the belt. The mechanic advised me that the belt had broken due to the belt not being changed in accordance with the manufacturers instructions and showed me the condition of the spark plugs which were severely eroded. He told me that the brake failure was also due to lack of maintenance. I then had a perilous drive in the unlit wilds of Mexico in the middle of the night when I again experienced complete brake failure again on a steep mountain road.

The next day, I complained to Alamo and it was changed. When the car was changed over, the driver noted that the spare wheel was missing from the car. I then realised that the car had been burgled whilst it was left at the side of the road. To date, I have neither received a bill from Alamo for the lost wheel or received any offer of reimbursement for the problems or cost of repairs which I had carried out on their vehicle.
ncident #2
I rented a car again from Alamo through Holiday Autos this time collecting the car in California USA. I have now received my charge card statement and see that I have not only been charged for the rental by Holiday Autos but also by Alamo for the same car rental.

I wrote to Holiday Autos in February about the Mexico problem but they were unable to get any response from Alamo, I wrote to Alamo over two weeks ago about both incidents but I'm still waiting for an acknowledgement. I suppose they reckon that they have my money and more besides so what's the point of inconveniencing themselves

BTW. I haven't just typed all this out, I cutand pasted extracts from my letter to Alamo BBTW, the cost of the tow in, cam belt and labour charges even though I stopped the mechanic from sitting down to eat his evening meal to work on my car came to a grand total of £24.00 as the TV programme says, "don't try this at home"

[This message has been edited by Sensible (edited 28 May 2001).]

[GoneWest]

On my first ever visit to the USA, I was conned (by Alamo) into renting a convertible sports car instead of the Mini Metro equivalent I had booked.

I complained to Alamo when I got back to UK.

Problem was sorted in very short time. Free rental voucher and full refund for my inconvenience.

[angels]

Alamo did me a favour! I'd hired 'a mini-metro equivalent' from them via a travel agent. I was to pick it up at Miami airport.
When I got to the centre, the car was there, but blocked in by about 30 other motors which they would have had to have moved to get to mine.
I ended up with a Firebird convertible with 27 miles on the clock for the same price as the 'metro'!
It's lucky gas is cheap over there!!

[JPJ]

I rented a small tin box called a Kia from Budget in Venezuela. The car was okay, but the best bit was that when I returned the car after about 200 km I filled the tank for 2 UKP! I then came home, picked up my car from Gatwick Long Term (5 days, 42 UKP) and filled the tank (48 UKP). Hmmmm.

As low cost airlines proliferate we are already at the stage where it can cost more to get to the airport and back than it costs to fly.

[This message has been edited by JPJ (edited 29 May 2001).]