Follow-up: Enterprise / Alamo Rent-a-Car Toll Violation Problems

For more background on this topic, please see my earlier post – Enterprise / Alamo Rent-a-Car Toll Violation Problems in which I described how Alamo billed be for tolls and fines related to tolls I  had actually paid (and had receipts as proof.

I called and left a message on the phone number supplied in the letter from Alamo. No one returned my call, so I went to my back-up plan – an approach that I have found to be pretty successful in getting a company’s attention – I published my complaint on both the Alamo and Enterprise Facebook pages. Most large companies monitor their Facebook pages, and when they see complaints they will do one of two things: (1) delete the comment, which really inflames people, or (2) reach out to you in an attempt (real or not) to resolve the problem. In this case, Enterprise gave me an email address and asked me to contact them to resolve the problem.

Enterpise’ first approach was to blame IPass for not properly matching up my payments to the toll “violations”. They tried to make me feel bad for other renters, who would be pulled over and ticketed if the rental car had unpaid toll tickets. The representative said she’d forward my issue to the proper department to have this cleared up.

Enterpise’ second communication said I would be receiving another violations letter because they received two more fines for more unpaid tolls! They then blamed me for the problem, saying I entered the wrong plate number into the computer when I paid the tolls. I told them I copied the plate number off the tag attached to the car keys. I paid the toll from a hotel room, and didn’t have the car or license plate with me in the room, nor was I going to bring the computer outside to process the payments. While I might have copied the number wrong once, I doubt I did so twice.

My last communication from them was they were trying to resolve the tolls and fines with the Illinois Toll Authority, and would check with the branch which has the car to make sure the tag is right.

I have not yet heard back, but the charges haven’t yet hit my credit card. If and when the charges come through, I will dispute them with American Express and hope they jump on to Enterpirse too.

After posting the first message, I have heard from a number of people who had similar complaints about Enterprise/Alamo. One person actually had to file a small claims petition against them to get his problem resolved. I hope I don’t need to go that far, but I will pursue this matter and let people know about their actions until it is resolved.

In the mean time, I’ll stick with Avis, Budget,  and Hertz.