Alameda Rental Center

ALAMEDA LOCATION CLOSED — note that when you call for the rental store that was formerly on Buena Vista Ave in Alameda, all calls are now automatically forwarded to another rental store in Oakland. It’s at 66^th behind the Oakland Coliseum. I was told that the two locations had «merged.»

What can I say… I love this place! My husband and I own a small Catering Company, and we use West Coast Rental, (formally Alameda Rental), for all of our rental needs. The owners Steve and his lovely wife Tracy Ann are both very friendly and helpful. What I like most about this place, is that it reminds me of how businesses are supposed to run. How I could imagine it used to be back in the days (i’m not really that old), when owners actually took the time to say «Hi», no matter how busy the store was, and actually learned the names of their clients. We’ve been using West Coast for over 5 years, and I have never had a bad experience with them. They are dependable, honest, and flexible, and I recommend them to any who are in search of a rental company.

See also: West Coast Rentals, their other name!
I hired them for our first wedding anniversary party just over 2 years ago and had no problems. This past weekend, we hired them again for my Baby Shower, except this time we only needed a few simple items – two 8′ long tables, two lavender tablecloths, and 20 white chairs. Simple enough. So we thought.
I first reserved the date and items over the phone to a man who didn’t really seem to care about the order. He seemed distracted, disorganized, and kept repeating my simple order back with errors. I came down in person 4 days later to ensure that my order would be correct. Again, the same man I dealt with over the phone was still acting like he could care less and STILL getting my order wrong.
The customer service I received should have sent me running for another company, but I stayed because I wanted to support this locally owned business, especially since I had one good dealing with them years ago.
Come the day before the delivery, I received a call from a woman confirming my order – three 8′ long tables, 20 brown chairs, and 2 white tablecloths. I had to read her back the actual order and she replies, «Oh. Hmmm… well, this is what was put into the computer… I can fix everything else… but which white chairs did you want?» I explained that I came down in person to choose the chairs and she apologizes that there was a screw up. She also lets me know that I will have the first delivery of the morning and to expect my rentals around 9am.
Day of the delivery – 1Oam, still no delivery. 10:15am, I call them and the same man I dealt with the first two times acted flustered and said he could have the rentals to us by 11am. So we waited… at home… on a work day. 11:30am, no delivery. 12pm, I finally had to leave and had my visiting Dad wait for the delivery.
Got home at 2pm to find my Dad washing the chairs down. I asked him what he was doing, and he pointed to the mound of paper towels on the floor that were full of food and grime. He said that the chairs came very dirty, not in shape for a Baby Shower, and besides all the dried on food, dirt and sand, the chairs were also completely rusted.
Called the company and the phone was answered by Tracy Ann, the other owner. She placed us on hold for a long while and then said she couldn’t help us. I had my sister deal with her since I’m 8 months pregnant and was feeling quite frustrated with the lack of service and care. You could hear Tracy Ann bitching through the phone as my sister simply asked for clean chairs. There was no promised delivery time of new chairs, nor was there any apology.
Finally, my Dad thought we should just go down there and return the chairs ourselves and be done with the whole thing. I agreed, calling back Tracy Ann and also insisting that we get our original «drop-​off delivery fee» of $ 30 wavered. Tracy Ann replied that we would not get this delivery fee wavered, and in fact we «are already going to get upgraded white chairs that would have cost an extra $ 1 per chair» since she had no clean white chairs of the kind we picked out originally. That didn’t seem to be our problem, but she was surly and rude and we didn’t want to have that kind of interaction before our big party. She agreed only to refund the $ 20 for the chairs.
My Dad and I returned the original white chairs to the rental warehouse and my Dad pointed out to Tracy Ann what we were talking about regarding the dirt and rust. Her reply: «I am late to pick up my kids. You could waste my time showing me the rust or you could let me go get you new chairs.» GROWL!
I explained on our way out to Tracy Ann that I had used her company in the past and was really disappointed that there seemed to be so much difficulty in dealing with them this time around. She continued with «What do you want from me? You’re getting $ 20 back and upgraded chairs! And I have to pick up my kids late because I had to come down here to deal with all this.» I just left letting her know that despite being frustrated, I still dealt with her with respect and I never raised my voice. Really, all I wanted was the same in return. No response from her.
And 5 days later, still no $ 20 refund. I’ll let this go since dealing with the company has been so difficult. Luckily this was just a Shower… Imagine if this was a wedding or something!

We have used this company on a number of occations for events at work.
With the bad weather over the last couple of days we were unable to return a table to them on a Friday night before they closed.
When we brought it back the following Monday they waived the late fee.
Great people & we will continue to use them in the future.

Quick service, nice, friendly staff that helped us, very professional. The chairs we rented were sturdy and clean. We only got folding chairs, but they seem to have a wide selection of party rentals. The only down-​side was that they’re not open on Sundays, so we had to return the chairs on Monday. The friend who recommended them had nothing but good things to say about them and she rents regularly from them.

I am a caterer and use Alameda Rentals when I need extra equipment. They are always friendly and accommodating. Everyone in the office is friendly and professional. There equipment is always of high quality.

I still didn’t have a good experience with this business and I think it is very shady that my review was taken down shortly after I wrote it and I was never notified by Unilocal that it was being taken down.

Tracy Ann and Steve were very flexible when rain forced me to cancel my outdoor event. They returned calls immediately and were very understanding about the circumstances. Because the situation was so unusual, they waived the cancellation penalty. I still used them for renting some other party supplies, and they were tremendously accommodating. I most strongly recommend Tracy Ann and Steve at Alameda Rental Center.

We’ve used to this place twice. Once was for a huge party in our home. We rented glasses, tables, small items. Then for a block party we got many tables and chairs. Both times we were late returning the items because of lack of appropriate transportation. We were treated very generously. This is a great community member.