Woodford was doing fine but now they shot themselves in the foot. I have rented cars from them on several occasions without any issues (as well as Enterprise for several years prior). The past month I rented a vehicle for a period of 30 days. I wanted to extend the rental so I sent an email the day before stating my request. I received a delivery report and a read receipt for the email which I always do for this kind of correspondence. By the 10th hour (next day, 7 hours before expiry of the contract), I had not received a reply, prompting me to call. The clerk who answered gave me information, which I accepted and for the payment , and she agreed to call me back at 1pm. By 4pm, 1 hour before the contract expiry time, no call came from Woodford so I was obliged to call back to finalize the extension. This is not very efficient customer service. BTW are they too stingy to have a toll free number as these 087 numbers eat up your airtime?The second issue is one of "policy", I requested a further 24 days but they told me I can only extend it for 3 days, which I did but not really happy about it. This is mind boggling considering that when you call, the automated voice harps on long term rental???? They said I have to present myself at their depot to take out a new rental which would consume almost an entire day of my time as I live very far away. I'm not aware of any law that restricts vehicle hire to 33 days***, but if there is, please let me know, as it will be good for any tourists who want to come to SA to know. The policy of KISS will always attract customers - Woodford website states "Simple and affordable vehicle rentals ...." but this experience IMHO does not reflect this.***From Enterprise website "With an Enterprise long-term rental, you can rent a vehicle for as long as needed, whether it's several weeks, a month, or longer. Additionally, there is no mileage limit for most vehicle classes. See our unlimited mileage FAQs page for additional information and exclusions. "So now I was obliged to go all the way to Sandton, about 100km distance to take out a new lease. While trying to locate the premises, tried to call their office to get the exact location of the branch as neither the branch nor the hotel show up on offline maps. I called so many times times only to get the automated voice, that my airtime ran out. I was now obliged to drive around until I found the premises, and arrived at around 5.25pm -the return time stated on the form was 5pm and they supposedly give you a 39 minute grace period. When the agent showed up I asked him if I would be charged for an extra day, he went away and came back and said no, there would not be an extra day's fee and there was still 9 minutes of the grace period remaining. Had he said that there would be a fee for an extra day, I would have then kept the vehicle for an extra day.I also asked the receptionist upstairs why weren't my calls and emails answered and she apologized and replied that they had a high workload and not enough staff to cope. I then left and dropped the plans to rent the vehicle for a further 24 days.When I received the final invoice by email, I noticed that they had indeed charged me for an extra day and it showed up in my credit card statement. I queried this again by email, stating the above, and received a read-receipt indicating that someone at Woodford had read the email, but today 3 weeks later, they haven't had he courtesy to reply.Needless to say I won't be renting from them again, so they really shot themselves in the foot.
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