Never again

My wife recently had the misfortune to book a rental car from Alamo, a company operated by Woodford Car Hire, which is also in partnership with Enterprise and National.

My wife, together with three long-time friends who had flown overnight from the UK for a three week tour of the Cape, went to Woodford’s Alamo branch at Cape Town airport to collect the vehicle that she had ordered for their holiday. All were unaware that the powers that be who control Woodford had decided that they only wanted certain South African residents to be their customers.

My wife has neither a credit score nor a smart identity card both of which are essential requirements for hiring vehicles from Woodford. Regrettably Woodford hasn’t bothered either to publicise or to advise all its prospective customers about the requirements. Apparently Woodford advises customers who have booked directly with them that that a credit check is made, but this is worthless information as they are not told the score required to be accepted as a customer. My wife’s booking was made through Economy Car Rentals, a booking platform from which Woodford happily accepts bookings but does not liaise with about the terms and conditions required for the bookings.

Even though she did not have the essential requirements, staff at the Cape Town branch attempted, but failed, to process her rental agreement and this resulted in her being told that she couldn’t hire a vehicle, meaning that she and her friends would not be able to go on their holiday. I cannot imagine what went through the minds of four elderly ladies when they were given information that meant their vacation was ruined!

My wife had a credit card to pay for the hire but Woodford’s systems blocked its use as she wasn’t qualified to be a customer. The systems were poorly designed as, it seemed, there was no way that the block could be bypassed or overridden. Eventually a member of Woodford’s staff managed to take payment from the credit card. Unfortunately this took well over an hour, a long wait especially for her friends who had just flown in from the UK.

Although we have complained, Woodford’s staff are only interested in defending their poor, ludicrous and impractical systems; there has been little sympathy shown for us, the customers.

Clearly we will never use Woodford or its associated companies again and I would strongly recommend that other members of the public steer well clear. Nobody should deal with an organisation that creates its own rules about which members of the public it wants as customers and then doesn’t bother to publicise those rules effectively.

Regrettably my wife’s dealings with Woodford worsened throughout the rental period and, also, after it ended.