Never use Tempest car hire!

Dear readers,

After a recent bad experience I feel the need to warn other customers about certain issues, the failure to warn customers and about and the poor customer service that one can expect to receive from Tempest Car Hire, also affiliated to Europe Car.

My girlfriend and I recently made the (not so obvious) mistake of renting a Volkswagen Polo from Tempest Car Hire at the end of January. We had the option of an older Renault Sandero or a newish VW Polo. We were tempted to take the Renault but chose the Polo simply because it was newer. Little did we know that we had made the worst possible choice... I had booked through Discovery to save some money, as you do in these tough economic circumstances. I erred on the safe side too and decided to spend extra money to get the 200 km free mileage per day, which includes super damage and theft waivers and charges a lesser deposit against your credit card. Incidentally, we also took the extra cover for tire and windscreen damage just to be on the safe side.

We had booked a Ford Fiesta Ambiance online because I rented one previously and was suitably impressed with it. When we landed at Cape town International Airport however the attendant informed us that they only had the Polo or the Renault available. I was disappointed, but we signed for it and left the airport, and made our first stop at a nearby mall called Zevenwacht Mall en-route to Stellenbosch. When we emerged from the mall I noticed, quite by chance, that the front right hubcap was missing. We didn’t think much of it at the time because it is simply a little plastic hubcap, and we weren’t even sure if it fell off, or if it was even there to start with...

The car was reliable, and we returned it in perfect order. I always take care of rental vehicles proudly, as if they are my own. Within a couple of days I received an email from Tempest. I had to file an incident report because of the missing hubcap. I called and after being transferred and cut off several times, I explained that there was no incident that we were aware of, and the only possible explanation was that it fell off, or it wasn’t there to start with, or it was ****** in the parking lot at the mall. They said I needed to fill in an incident report in any case, and then their accounts department would send me an invoice for the missing hubcap. I explained that I was very keen to get my deposit refunded in the meanwhile, but they said that this wasn’t possible. I questioned the attendant asking what the hubcap would cost, thinking that it might only be R300 or there about, but he wouldn’t speculate. I mentioned that we noticed that it was missing after a short stop at a nearby mall, and he rep**** that it was very common for VW Polo hubcaps to be ******, and that we are lucky that they didn’t ***** all four of them at the same time! Lucky us I thought, but shouldn’t we have been warned about this fact from the start?

I was anxious to get my R2250 deposit back on my card because it was due to be debited on my account within days, and there weren’t sufficient funds for the whole amount at the time. But time was no factor for them and to make things worse, we only received the account a month later. The claim for the hubcap was a shocking R1000! To be precise, our car rental for the 4 days after my Discovery discount was only R759.20. The cost of the plastic hubcap was R695.98, and I was debited with an additional R353 claim fee, bringing the total cost of the hubcap to a whopping R1048.98! We thought that this was very unreasonable, and I decided to appeal to the Tempest Car Hire customer care service supervisor, Mr Craig van Niekerk. He would understand that it was not our fault, and we did nothing wrong to warrant this, especially with all the insurances in place... At first, I thought Mr van Niekerk had a lot of sympathy with our appeal. He listened and understood our predicament and agreed with me that it was not our fault. “Leave it with me” he said. “I will take it up with the claims manager Mr Haripersad”. I explained that we had taken the super damage waiver and super theft waiver and extra cover on the tires and windscreen as well.

Well, to make a long story short, Mr Haripersad declined our hard-felt appeal simply saying that they have a valid claim against us. Since then I checked our Vehicle quality check form that was ticked by the attendant and issued to us with the keys when we received the vehicle. Interestingly I found that the hubcaps tab was not ticked! This should mean that the hubcaps either weren't checked or left un-ticked for a reason, but may you believe that despite this evidence they persist with what they call a valid claim against us. Mr van Niekerk who was supposedly to motivate and assist us, simply turned his back on us and washed his hands in innocence. Since then, we were threatened to pay-in the shortfall, or we would be turned over to the lawyers.

True to their word the lawyers have been contacting me and demanding that we pay in an extra R159.18! It seems that is the one thing you can rely on from Tempest. I however just can’t believe this treatment after the extra cover that we took, even the one for tire and windscreen damage, but they simply said, “none of the insurance covers the hubcaps!” I feel the least that Mr V Niekerk could do is to agree that it is not our fault or neglect, and in fact agree that it should have been their responsibility to have warned us, as unsuspecting customers, as to the risk of having all four hubcaps ******. If that were the case they would be suing us for almost R 4000 for something that we had nothing to do with...****tle did I know how lucky it was that i opted for the smaller deposit amount because for months they could have held onto my whole deposit.)

So where does that leave you and me as a customer of Tempest car hire? I would rather not make use of their services again! Not only is the customer service shocking. They won’t own up to their responsibilities and failure to warn me as customer and to agree that their tick sheet is faulty or incomplete. And if you were me... would you rent a VW Polo again, or if left with no other choice, wouldn't you insist that they first remove all the hubcaps before leaving their premises?

You tell me...

Best regards,

MARIUS MARAIS Principal Architect