ALAMO SUCKS, consider yourself warned.

To start off, I would encourage anyone who reads this blog (all 3 of you!) not to rent a car through Alamo, at least in the UK. I’m about to explain why, but suffice it to say, we are getting harassed & threatened by them for NO REASON except their incompetence. Here’s a brief description of what’s been happening since we rented the car in the UK in May of this year.

- Picked up the car from Heathrow on May 28. We had originally booked (and PAID FOR) a basic car while still in Canada. Since we were going to drop the car at Gatwick, we paid a little extra for this privilege. When we picked up the car we upgraded to the next level up & also requested & paid for a GPS (and also paid for the upgrade).
- Returned the car to Gatwick on June 2 & settled the account. We thought this would be the end of it. How wrong we were.
- During the next 6 months our credit card was credited & debited 6 times for various reasons (insurance, damage waiver, theft waiver, some other mysterious charges). They also sent us an invoice for GBP 372.51, for a car rental we had already paid for. We were confused but not too worried at that point. Andrew called & email Alamo to try to sort it out. He got a confusing, nonsensical response.
- On Dec 23 we received another invoice for GBP 372.51, this one stating it was the FINAL NOTICE!!!!, and failure to pay this account within 7 days (mind you, the invoice was dated Dec 7) would result in legal action & damage to our credit rating. FOR AN ACCOUNT THAT WE HAD PAID FOR 7 months earlier. It also stated that we had been blacklisted & would no longer be able to rent from Alamo anywhere in the world. No problems there, we won’t ever rent from them ever, ever, ever again. Seriously.

So, let’s review – we rented a car, we paid for the rental car, we were debited (4 times) & credited (twice), and now we apparently owe GBP 372.51 for a rental we’ve ALREADY PAID FOR, all because of the incompetence of Alamo. And we’re being threatened with LEGAL ACTION for an account we settled in good faith 7 MONTHS AGO. We’ve copied our travel agent on the correspondence & recommended that they not use Alamo for their other clients. Alamo are treating us as if we rented the car & deliberately did not pay for this privilege, when the error is entirely their own. If this is how they treat their customers, I wonder how they are still in business. In this day & age, this kind of customer service is DISGUSTING. In this recession, you’d think businesses would be striving to keep customers happy, to encourage repeat business. Alamo clearly thinks they are above this way of thinking. Shame on you Alamo, shame on you.

Please pass this story on to anyone you think might benefit from it, I wouldn't want anyone else to get screwed by these people. I want to get the word out there - DO NOT RENT FROM ALAMO!

Happy Holidays

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Back on track!

Well, it's been a busy week for the agency this week. Since my last post they've had their license renewed by the Ministry (of Magic.....just kidding), something renewed on the Ethiopian side too (not sure what, but it was good), and they've started issuing REFERRALS! Obviously we've got quite a wait in front of us, but to hear that some families are already getting referrals makes me insanely happy. Four families just got the BEST. CHRISTMAS. PRESENT. EVER!

Speaking of best Christmas present ever, I cannot wait to give Andrew his present. I bought it about 3 months ago & wrapped it & had him put it in the basement, and I've been dying to give it to him ever since. It's something that he's been looking at, but he has no idea what the gift is. Only 3 more days! We got the Christmas dinner groceries on Saturday, we wrapped all the presents on Sunday so all that's left to do now to prepare for Christmas is to give our house a clean. Because Christmas is at our place again this year we get to chose the dinner, so we're making Andrew's mum's signature roasted leg of pork, with crackling. I LOVE crackling. And we're making spiced peaches (peaches done in a spiced vinegar) too, which is my FAVOURITE part of the pork dinner. Can't wait, but not looking forward to the cleanup. No sir.

I'm not sure if I'll be back on line this week, but if not, Merry Christmas everyone (all 2 or 3 of you)! May 2010 bring you everything you wish for & more.

It came from beyond the breadbox...

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100th post! Weeee!

Wow, this is my hundredth post! Who knew I had it in me? Not me, that's fer sure.

On a less self-congratulatory note, I'm constantly thinking of how to decorate Wren's room, and yet afraid to start anything unless the adoption goes south again. I've decided on a bird theme for obvious reasons, and have found some awesome wall decals, courtesy of one of the blogs I read (www.theblessing.ca). A division of her brother's company is producing these decals & I've fallen in love with one of them. The website is www.peelmonkey.com, and the decal is of birds flying out of a bird cage. Here's a photo. I'm thinking of the white & purple decal against a soft apple green background. I always wanted to do that colour scheme anyway.


Now I just need to decide if I want to paint the crib. It'll be a big job but I've got nothing but time.