Adventure bike rental gone bad

We had a trip booked for South Africa and was planning on renting an Adventure motorcycle to do a 2 day outride with friends. After browsing the web for companies in Cape Town “Adventure bike rentals CapeTown” came up and I made contact with Donovan Ross - the owner of ABRCT. He sent me a quote for the required dates and all was set to go. As per the quote the deposit to be payed was R3330 (full rental amount for 2 days plus delivery and a Jacket). Further there was an amount of R35000 deposit for insurance purposes to be secured and as per the quote stated ( to be paid with Visa card and rental date), and as everyone knows with all rentals is that there is a holding deposit and the banks secure this money in the event of a crash or damaged to the rental vehicle. 3 days before the bike was to be delivered I made contact with Don and as he was to deliver the bike to our holiday accommodation I enquired as to how this deposit will be paid and if he would be bringing a card machine with on the day of delivery? Don then rep**** and said he does not have the facilities for cards at the moment as there is an issue with the bank but I can just deposit the monies directly into his bank account. This did not seem correct to me as his quote clearly stated to be done by Visa card and after all it should be a holding deposit and not a physical transaction. I requested that my deposit of R3330 be refunded and my request was denied as there is a 10 day cancellation policy stating that there will be no refund for cancellations within 10 days of the rental date. To make a transaction of R35000 into an SA account from an Irish bank account would cost me around R1000 just in bank charges and after seek more advise on this the alarm bells was ringing and looked more and more like a ****. To date I have not received back the R3330 as deposit and after sending numerous emails to this company I have had no response. This company did not have the facilities to accommodate my payment as stated in the quote and as the general procedure when hiring a vehicle. I would not recommend this company to anyone as they are out to take people’s money. Please be vigilant and in the event of renting a motorcycle go to accredited companies like Donford Cape Town.

Regards

De Wet