Seville - Cordoba - Madrid

We arrived on time but the designated car model was not available. They offered a free upgrade which we did not accept, so we opted for a paid upgrade.

Overall it was okay. The staff at the store communicated in English without any issue and were quite patient. However, we were a bit late, and there was a queue to pick up the car. Then they told me the reserved model was not available. Either I had to upgrade at an extra cost or wait. The upgraded model did not come with any discount, and the additional cost did not include tax. Ultimately, the final payment required an extra 21% tax, which made it much more expensive than expected.

The service attitude was okay, but the waiting time was extremely long. The first round of waiting took almost 20 minutes, and when it was finally my turn, I was told the car would take another 20 minutes to be ready. However, it took over an hour, and there wasn't even a place to sit during the wait because the Alamo rental office next to Seville train station is very small. Finally, after my strong request, they replaced the car with another one. They explained that they rarely have automatic cars and suggested I choose a manual car instead. After I accepted the manual car, I received the car smoothly.

ALAMO refused to let us pick up the car with just a Chinese driving license and its sworn translation in Spanish, along with the reservation and insurance documents from Zuzuche. ALAMO insisted on having an international driving permit (IDP) in addition. Zuzuche's customer service tried to help via email and phone calls, but it didn't work. Eventually, we had to switch to Hertz. During this time, there was another Chinese couple trying to pick up their car, and ALAMO staff tried to trick them into paying 1100 euros upfront. We helped them contact Zuzuche and found out that the 1100 euros was the maximum insurance deductible, but the renter needed to pay first. What a scam!

Maria at Seville Santa Justa station was brilliant and should get a medal for counter staff service. We were upgraded and she set the GPS to English for us. In Madrid the service was fast and efficient and we were credit for the extra petrol we returned. Our only problem was the signage at Madrid Terminal 4 which was unhelpful in finding the entrance to Alamo returns.