Peter

Mar 18, 2023

Poorly maintained vehicles

Clearly those who have given good reviews were fortunate in not having problems with the poorly maintained cars which Go Rental provide. Be aware though, if your car has mechanical problems, you will get very little help, and will feel abandoned! On the first occasion that the car wouldn’t start, Go Rental told me that I would have to ring the AA myself and pay them NZ$184 in advance, for them to attend, even though I had paid for full ‘“peace of mind” cover. Go Rental would not even make that call for me! I was also told that I could not use my UK mobile phone to call them and would have to arrange to use the phone of somebody with a New Zealand phone!! - imagine how difficult that was! I eventually managed to contact the AA, and after paying NZ$184 they attended, commented that the battery was badly corroded, and just started the car with their own power supply. The following day, it wouldn’t start again. I tried to contact the local Go Rental manager, but he did not answer either his mobile phone, nor his landline. He ignored my voicemail, and did not respond to my email, so I called the local office. I was told that they were short-staffed and asked me to jump-start the car and drive it to their local depot, a 30 minute drive away so they could put in a new battery. How I was supposed to jump start an automatic car, which was stuck in the hotel car park, was beyond my understanding. Eventually the battery was replaced and we were able to restart our journey after another long delay, but sadly much of our schedule for the day had to be abandoned causing enormous disappointment. Additional faults with the car, were a headlight didn’t work, and the brakes shuddered badly at times. Finally, we returned the car to the Go Rental depot in Christchurch, and given all the problems which we had, we asked that one of their staff drive us the short distance back to the City. Our request was met with an outright refusal, and I must say, that summed up the uncaring attitude of every member of the Go Rental staff that we had the misfortune to deal with! My initial complaint resulted in a derisory offer to compensate us, which was eventually increased to 25% of the rental cost, but was still an inadequate recompense for such appalling service. The company’s Chief Operating Officer wrote to me “We hold our hands up to inadequate maintenance of this vehicle, which is what caused the issues you experienced and for that we genuinely apologise”, but he then went on to say that he thought his team had acted ‘professionally’! Clearly, the senior management are happy with providing such poor service, and the rest of the company have adopted a similar ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude. Look at other options before using this company - they provide poorly serviced vehicles and have uncaring employees. I gave them the opportunity to make amends, but they fell short on that too.