Un-Lucky rental experience
A pair of Australian tourists have been left feeling ‘‘ripped off’’ by a rental car company.
Brittany Perry and Shon McKenzie said they felt they had to say something, as the company Lucky Rentals was renting out ‘‘unsafe’’ vehicles to people travelling on a budget.
Perry said the pair picked out the company based on price, and weren’t planning on a luxury vehicle. ‘‘You get what you pay for, so torn seats, dirt, the high kilometres, we expected that; but to feel unsafe is not on.’’
Perry said that after they picked their van up from a Christchurch depot, they made it as far as Oamaru where the vehicle ran out of coolant and overheated.
‘‘We called them, and they were so blase´ about it – they said: just put water in it.’’
Perry said they were lucky McKenzie knew a little about car maintenance, as he had to employ those skills to get the van back on the road.
‘‘I know enough about cars to get by, I’m not a mechanic,’’ McKenzie said. ‘‘But you shouldn’t have to know anything about cars to rent one.’’
This was not the end of their troubles, however. After they sorted out the cooling system, they continued to struggle with the van, which they said frequently got stuck in first gear.
‘‘It was an automatic but it would get stuck in first gear, the revs would be really high and it wouldn’t go faster than 30kmh.
‘‘We pulled over wherever we could to let people pass but we couldn’t always do that.’’
Perry and McKenzie took the van back to the Christchurch depot within the week and had to wait over four hours for a replacement.
‘‘About half the people in the office were there because of problems,’’ Perry said.
‘‘It felt like we were in a comedy skit. It was unbelievable.
‘‘It got to the point where if anyone actually left with keys, everyone in the building applauded for them.’’
However, the replacement van is not without problems – a rear door has no inside handle, there is an unfixed chip on the windscreen, and when it rains, it leaks.
‘‘Our bed is soaking wet. ‘‘We tried to call Lucky and their 24/7 service means getting hung up on!
‘‘We haven’t been able to talk to anyone,’’ Perry said.
Their story is echoed by a long list of reviews on TripAdvisor commenting on long wait times, poorly maintained vehicles and hidden costs.
A Lucky Rentals spokesman said that while some on-road issues in the vehicle fleet of any rental company was normal, he said it was not a common issue.
He said the Lucky Rentals fleet of over 1000 vehicles was aged from 1997 to 2015, and each one went through its certificate of fitness every six months.
AA motoring adviser Cade Wilson said: ‘‘A CoF . . . doesn’t include many areas of a vehicle’s condition.
‘‘For example it doesn’t check: engine, clutch, gearbox and differential condition; lubricant levels and condition; brake pad thickness or life expectancy, unless they are visibly below safe limits; paint work condition and some rust in non-structural areas.’’