Car Rental Nightmare

Okay up until now, we have never had a problem renting a car in NYC .In fact I even mentioned how easy it was in another post-http://www.streetadvisor.com/new_york/forums/cars-and-nyc. Well all my favorable impressions changed when my effort to rent a car on the spur of the moment was thwarted. Earlier this morning, my husband and I decided to drive out N.J.to go visit some friends in Princeton.
So we tried all our regular car rental options like Zip Car and Hertz Connect. We couldn't find anything suitable at a reasonable price so we decided to try Alamo. Nothing seemed available so we called their toll free number and were told they were sold out and that if we opt to book a 3 day rental they could probably release a car. We explained that we probably needed the car only for 24 hours but the booking agent went on to make our booking anyway. He then added that when we get to the Alamo center on 80th st between First and Second Avenues we should tell the manager that we need the car only for one day.

As soon as we arrived at the garage we explained our case to the manager who located our booking but refused to release the car unless we were committed to using for three days! We tried telling him what the booking agent had told us but he refused to budge so we just turned around and walked home. My point is why should Alamo have a weird 3 day requirement? who would rent a car for Sat,Sun and Mon when Mon is a work day? If that is their policy the booking agent should have be upfront and not tried to book a 'sale' in any case and finally its the dead of winter I doubt 10,000 New Yorkers have had the same idea as us to rent a car and drive out. Lesson learned , you can't expect to book a car at the last minute in NYC unless you are prepared to pay a price. So much for the tag line 'Wheels When You Want Them'.