Billy Martin
Google
If I could give 0 stars I would. This doesn’t even deserve 1 star. Myself and my girlfriend had an absolute horrible experience. I rang to organise a 4x4 rental a few days in advance. The car I rented was a suzuki sierra 4x4. We planned to rent this motor for 2 days. We met Ian at the ferry terminal and all went well until we got to the car rental place. Immediately there was a rust box waiting for us. We sat down with Ian and he told us to sign some paperwork and give our bank cards and licences. He gave us some info on the island. After that Ian took us to that car. It had dents, bashes and cracks all over, rust absolutely everywhere and did not look safe. We were not happy with it and asked to change car. Ian refused to give us a different car and told us it was roadworthy. It absolutely was not. The clutch felt non- existent. The steering fluid felt low which resulted in stiff steering. The steering wheel itself did not feel secure at all and very loose. The car would not go into gear properly. The horn did not work. The seat did not move position. Radio did not work. Mirrors were very stiff. The car kept conking out. When accelerating I felt like I would flood the engine with petrol. You could smell fumes the whole time while driving. Although this car was a 4x4 we were told to keep it as a 2 wheel drive in a low gear. We wanted a 4 wheel drive for the island. We drove from Arcadia to Nomads hostel (about 5 minutes drive). The engine smelt like burning. When I rang Ian and asked to drop me over a different car, he shouted down the phone telling me how useless of a driver I am and that “there is nothing wrong the car and it is roadworthy”. “I watched you leave and you couldn’t drive it so your girlfriend did” (we are both used to manual cars and struggled to get this car to go). He insulted both of our driving abilities and told me “I’d rather not have you drive it so I’ll give you a refund” I told him that’s fine and give me my money back and he shouted down the phone to meet him outside nomads in 5 minutes for a new car and just hung up on me. He refused to believe there was anything wrong with the car by saying “you don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s nothing wrong with my cars, they’re completely road worthy”. Also what’s very important to note is that we only had this car for approximately 10 minutes before we called Ian up. Once he arrived (with a replacement car) we told him this car is not safe to drive and we want our money back. He angrily shouted at myself and my girlfriend and told us to drive his incompetent car back to Arcadia. (After a short row we drove the replacement car back and it seemed to have no issue apart from having no radio and loose cables inside, while he took the original car back. Also he had to fully rev the car all the way to get it started and did so in an angrily manor while telling us to “drive that f*****g car to my joint and make your own way f*****g back”) Once we got back to Arcadia, I got a refund. We both received a lot of verbal abuse and horrible attitude. He appeared to want to try and fight my girlfriend who was with me instead of me. Once we gave back the key he told us to get off his property and started to bad mouth us to other customers which we could clearly hear while walking away. We could smell the alcohol off of him when he came to meet us at Nomads. We also had to walk back 45 minutes from Arcadia to Nomads hostel. I would 100% recommend to go elsewhere with your business and do not come here at all. These cars are an accident waiting to happen. They clearly never get serviced or even repaired. It ruined our trip to the island. This man Ian is a scam artist. We done the right thing in returning this vehicle and organising a refund. What a waste of time and a waste of $250. Also he told me the car I rented was worth $8000 and I would have to pay this if any damages were occurred which I thought was ridiculous. The excess in the insurance was worth way more than the car. ($1800).
