Woodford Car Hire Anmeldelser 

Heavy fraudulent company in Johannesburg Aeroport

We rented a car for 8 days. Turns out they’ve been taking money off my credit card + didn’t get back the refund till today. It’s been a week and their policy says after max 72 hours the money will be refunded. Watch out for this company. Also don’t give them your credit card. God knows what they’ll do with it behind the teller. We reported this issue to a investigator in South Africa

It was a distaster. It ruined the start of our holiday in SA. The car we booked was not available (Renault Triber). The only thing that they offert were smaller cars but that was a joke for a family of 5 with luggage. No upgrades, what other compagnies normally do. The other stupid things is that the guy at the desk let me do all the administration for half an hour and then told me the car was not there. I ended up renting a car at Avis instead of Woodford. Avis had great service with honest and polite people. When I came back at the Woodford desk to cancel the booking another guy told me that Woodford sold all the Tribers half a year ago. Why not inform costumers about this??? Because of all the extra time it took to get a suitable car we were to late at the Kruger gate. We had to pay extra money to get in. We will never rent at Woodford again.

I have not had my deposit refunded since the 6th December. There is no answer when calling customer care and no response to emails. This is THEFT.

The service at Cape Town international branch was great. However I do not understand a system that can take your money but cannot issue the refund.

Paid €750 deposit. Handed in my car with no damage. It was all signed off. But never received my money back. Customer service did not help me, only replied with standard answers, his name was Syabonga Ngubane. Horrible service.

This company is absolutely fraudulent

You cannot count on any service, there is no reply nor response to emails.

They fail to refund the deposit.

We also paid a zero liability at the start of the contract and yet we are charged almost 500 euros extra!

This is a gangster company.

DO NOT BOOK WITH WOODFORD

Woodford has a disastrous service. We have been confronted with 2 damaged tyres during our 3-weeks trip. Woodford refused to provide us service during the trip, so we had to go to a tyre center ourselves and keep the damaged tyres in our car. After different oral confirmations that the costs of the new tyres would be reimbursed (we had zero exces liability cover), they currently refuse to repay the new tyres "because we drove sandy roads". The tyre company however confirmed us that the tyres were of old age. Furthermore, they charged us with administrative fees for looking into our claim. I will never again hire a car with Woodford.

It's 2024 and still haven't received my refund from Woodford car hire. Emails get ignored, calls got put down on my ear as soon as they hear it's me again wanting my refund. I really feel scammed by this company. Woodford car hire should be investigated. Something is really off. I don't recommend anyone to use their services, they lack empathy and definitely not professional.

Update. I returned the car on the 24th of December with a full tank of fuel and no damage whatsoever. I noticed, 4 days later on the 28th of December, they charged me R12500. I have sent emails to the branch manager and seniot management. I have contacted my bank and will wait for them to deal with these scam artists. Avoid them, just look at the reviews.

Pathetic service. The agents lack customer service skills.
I've been waiting for my refund and I've been the one to constantly follow up and when I speak to an agent (Mildena from the OR Tambo branch), they spoke over me in a raised voice, without a solution.
I will definitely be advising my friends, family and anyone to NEVER EVER use this rental company.
Absolutely appalling.

Great service today. Helpful and considerste. Thank you. Alison Melvill

Been waiting for my deposit since from the 17th Dec 2023 and no help even the branch manager at sandton branch telling me it takes 3 days for the customer service to give a respobd to a query. A whole manager not keen to resolve giving an excuse. My last time using this business. Very bad service and experience!!!

We rented a small SUV from OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg. We reserved a Toyota urban cruiser of course, in small print, it says “or similar vehicle”. We were given a Kia, which was an extremely CHEAP car that you should NEVER drive when it rains because it slides all over the road. 😩 All went well with our trip, but when we returned the vehicle (at the Woodford kiosk at the same airport) on Nov 21st we got out, took our bags and an employee then drove the car to their hub to be cleaned. Sadly, I left my jacket behind the passenger seat on the floor. about 30 minutes later I went back to the Woodford office and asked if someone could please get my jacket from the SUV and bring it to me at the office. (Keep in mind the car had been in Woodford’s possession the entire half hour). So The guy came back and said that the “jacket was gone”. He Offered no apology, no payment for the jacket and basically did not care. So be extra careful you don’t leave ANYTHING in your car cause they will HAPPILY steal it!!😩🤪 Needless to say,we will never be using this agency again.

My first time using Woodford Car Hire yesterday, and I would highly recommend Woodford Car Hire, King Shaka Airport. Desigen Soobramoney and his team are absolutely brilliant. Very helpful and obliging. I would also like to single out Snegugu Hlophe at the pickup area. She was wonderful, she helped us load all our luggage and was so friendly and caring. By far the best car hire experience I have ever had, and I hire cars a lot!!!!!

I hired a car on the expectation it could take 4 adults and 4 large suitcases. This was promised again on collection of the car from O R Tambo Airport. After travelling to Pietermaritzburg it was learnt that 4 suitcases did not fit in the cat. There are no branches in Pietermaritzburg. The nearest is 100kms away in Durban. Telephone discussion with Customer Services and Central Reservations advised I have to do the 200km return trip to sort the matter out. If it was a business booking they would travel to Pietermaritzburg. After taking R26000 from my bank, R5000 of which is an overcharge error fir which I now have to fight/wait for a refund, I do not have a vehicle that meets the needs advertised on the website and confirmed by the consultant. No positive attemps to address the issue. Just walk away and leave the customer with the problem.
Think carefully before using Woodford. They'll take you money and simply do not care whether or not your needs are met and are satisfed.

Shocking service. Even though I paid for full cover I was charged for a scratch. Both rental in Jhb and CTown never saw my deposits again. They took it on both accounts without my approval. Very very difficult to get hold of anyone to help revert this. They are a disgrace. I wouldn’t advise anyone to use Woodford they are a disaster. Be warned!!! Very upsetting.

I've been renting a vehicle from Whybuycars for over a year and their service was fine up until I returned the vehicle on 15 October 2023 and requested the deposit to be paid back. I've sent emails, spoke to Samke, called Dinesh the manager, but all their promises were not fulfilled. Now they're avoiding my calls, and forever in meetings when you call. This is a terrible service and I want my money back

Fraud, I've paid two more thousand ZAR more than it was confirmed in the booking, extra services that were guaranteed to be included when reserved. After 2 weeks the deposit hasn't been returned back yet. Customer care is disgusting, their answer was you are fool because you agreed to pay more upon check in.

NIGHTMARE!

My credit card has been debited without any invoice or reference to it. The clarifications are still ongoing. I suspect that WOODFORD is trying to charge us for damage that has already been done to the vehicle! Unfortunately, the staff proved to be highly incompetent both when picking up the vehicle and when returning it. Comments regarding damage on the report were not accepted and so we had problems with this when we returned the vehicle. Even pictures and videos of the damage at handover were only unwillingly accepted.

They also tried to charge us for refuelling, even though the vehicle was filled up 500 metres from the airport.

Furthermore, the invoices we received were completely incorrect and non-transparent. NEVER AGAIN!

Our second hire car was from FIRST, highly recommended!

I made the mistake of booking for my car at umhlanga instead of the airport. I was stressed when I arrived at woodford at the airport but Mr Shikar made me relax 😌 and said he will help me out. In a matter of minutes he moved my rental from umhlanga to the airport and I drove off happily with my starlet

Customer be warned!

I my case, immediately after drop-off the rented Hilux Woodford debited ZAR 2472,50 = € 123 without any explaination.

After weeks and many many emails I got these explanation: "The T-bar-handle and the lock itself [of the canopy lock mechanism] was replaced in order for it to work effectively".
The truth is - and I declare this on oath - that the canopy lock mechanism works well, neighter its handle nor at its lock itself was damaged. Up to now Woodford did not present a prove of the assumed damage.

I reported at drop-off was that I had screwed in a spare part screw for a lost screw of the cage of the canopy lock mechanism to prevent the loss of the remaining second screw of the cage. Unfortunely said spare screw was a bit too long so that its screw head did not reach the canopy surface but held the cage savely in position and preventing the loss of the second screw of the cage. But this cannot justify the exchange of the complete outer parts of the camopy lock mechanism.

To keep the case - in my opinion fraud - under the carped Woodford offered me a 10% discount on a not existing damage.

So please consider this true story when thinking about renting a Woodford car.