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No travel to South Island (NZ)
When picking up the car at the Auckland (NZ) airport, I was told that the car could not be taken to the South Island, or a NZ $1500 fee would apply This was not disclosed in the terms and conditions I accepted when I reserved the car; furthermore, cancelation at the counter would have resulted in the entire rental amount being forfeited. When I e-mailed AutoUnion a day later asking that they waive the South Island fee, as it was not disclosed in the booking, and that I was given no choice (as per the reservation I would have lost the payment had I canceled at the counter), they only indicated that I could return the car for a refund -- which I was unable to do given my itinerary. Consequently, to continue my trip as planned, and not lose out on my lodging reservations, I had to rent a second car from another firm to go to the South Island. The terms and conditions presented at pickup are the most restrictive I have seen for a rental car firm and include a number of clauses I have never seen anywhere else (e.g., no driving on dirt roads). Anybody renting from AutoUnion should request a copy of these in advance. The vehicles AutoUnion rents are high-mileage used cars imported from Japan. My car had 155,000 km, with fading paint, a speedometer that was inaccurate, and a habit of not starting every fourth or fifth time. The staff were pleasant and the facility clean, but to present a different set of terms and conditions from what was accepted at reservation when a customer shows up is unacceptably sloppy/shady -- hence the one star.