Woodford Car Hire Arvostelua 

airport in Richards Bay but it is not! Your car is far from the airport on the city center and you need to get there first.

But the real face of a car hire company you always see in case you happen to damage your rental car during the rental period.

I had a Hyundai Grand i10 (smallest and cheapest car available) on which the radiator was loose when I returned it on February 18th. I was forced to sign a paper confirming my liability for the damage.

After a week, I noticed that R5000 were taken from my credit card. No explanation, no invoice. I later found out they just took the whole deposit. After two weeks I still had no information. When I asked on their official WhatsApp what the status of the claim is, the answer was: "The claim is still open". Thank you for nothing, I wanted details. Ate they waiting for spare parts? What is going on? But no further answers came.

I tried WhatsApp and the official contact form ti get more details.

When five weeks had passed since the claim was opened I wrote clearly that they now need to properly finish this claim. 5 weeks of no answer or just "we forwarded your request to the claims department".

Now finally after 5 weeks I did get the final "invoice". In the e-mail it is written that the radiator and something on the suspension were damaged.

In the invoice itself it just says: "Damages", 8000R. No details of what part of the cost was for spare parts and what for work, nothing. This sum (ending up at exactly R10000 including VAT) seems like a random number they made up. I asked for more details and never got an answer. Like this it feels like a complete scam. And by the way, you do not pay the invoice. They just take whatever they feel for from your credit card.

Do not use this company! For this small i10 they take a maximum liability of R30000. This is a lot, if you use other companies for a similar car you have liabilities between R13000 and R20000, woodford takes double that. And do not expect any useful or fast help from their customer service.

Just the worst service ever.
I truly advise customers not to use this company. I am an international traveller having hired hundreds of cars over the past 20 years and this is without doubt the worst experience and customer service.
We hired from Woodford car rental in Loop street Cape Town.
I rented the car for 7 weeks and you would have thought they would have valued this business but they did not.

Very disappointing experience.

I rented a car through Alamo in Cape Town, but €975 was withdrawn from my account by Avis without any clear explanation. I never signed anything authorizing Avis to charge me directly.

Despite several attempts to resolve the issue, I still have not received a proper refund. The bank refuses to reimburse me because the charge was processed by the rental company.

This situation is extremely stressful and unprofessional. I expect transparency and an immediate refund.

HIDDEN FEES
These people will rob you blind on account of a dangerous mix of incompetence, dishonesty and greed.
GO TO THE AIRPORT or HIRE YOUR CAR ONLINE.
Avoid these money-grabbers at all cost!

Utterly incompetent. They lost my booking and I had to wait hours for it to be found. (Had paid in advance via Booking but this was to become a negative.). I explained I might need to return car early so could I expect refund? Their answer was yes so I took the car. In the event I did have to curtail my trip and returned car four days early. But was refused refund because I had not booked direct with Woodford! Complained in writing only to get a reply claiming I had kept car for full duration. Their own contract closure document proves them wrong!
Too frustrating for words. Their admin is beyond hopeless.

Woodfords took a R5000.00 deposit from me. I Returned the vehicle with 3/4 of a full tank of petrol and no damages. They only refunded me R178.87 with no information on what the cost were.

I'M WAITING MY DEPOSIT MONEY BACK!!! 5 MONTHS!!!! DARIO VIRGIS

They debited my credit card 4 times for my rental payment. When I enquired, they made out as if I was trying to scam them. Only after I contacted my bank to confirm that the funds had been taken and not reversed did they look into it.

Once they did it, it took them 5 days to process the refund after numerous follow-ups. The person I dealt with even sent me the wrong customer feedback, which seemed to have the same issue.

This payment deduction occurred on their website without my bank authorization. So I am not sure how they did it, but it seems very dodgy that they just skimmed my card for almost R30k extra.

Don't trust them and won't use them again.

On the day of collection, the 12th December, I was told the car booked was on its way from the depot.
After waiting around for over an hour (collection time was 2pm), the decision was reached and agreed upon, to cancel the booking.
I have not heard back, nor have I received confirmation of the cancellation or refund.

Woodford was doing fine but now they shot themselves in the foot.

I have rented cars from them on several occasions without any issues (as well as Enterprise for several years prior). The past month I rented a vehicle for a period of 30 days. I wanted to extend the rental so I sent an email the day before stating my request. I received a delivery report and a read receipt for the email which I always do for this kind of correspondence. By the 10th hour (next day, 7 hours before expiry of the contract), I had not received a reply, prompting me to call. The clerk who answered gave me information, which I accepted and for the payment , and she agreed to call me back at 1pm. By 4pm, 1 hour before the contract expiry time, no call came from Woodford so I was obliged to call back to finalize the extension. This is not very efficient customer service. BTW are they too stingy to have a toll free number as these 087 numbers eat up your airtime?

The second issue is one of "policy", I requested a further 24 days but they told me I can only extend it for 3 days, which I did but not really happy about it. This is mind boggling considering that when you call, the automated voice harps on long term rental???? They said I have to present myself at their depot to take out a new rental which would consume almost an entire day of my time as I live very far away. I'm not aware of any law that restricts vehicle hire to 33 days***, but if there is, please let me know, as it will be good for any tourists who want to come to SA to know. The policy of KISS will always attract customers - Woodford website states "Simple and affordable vehicle rentals ...." but this experience IMHO does not reflect this.

***From Enterprise website "With an Enterprise long-term rental, you can rent a vehicle for as long as needed, whether it's several weeks, a month, or longer. Additionally, there is no mileage limit for most vehicle classes. See our unlimited mileage FAQs page for additional information and exclusions. "

So now I was obliged to go all the way to Sandton, about 100km distance to take out a new lease. While trying to locate the premises, tried to call their office to get the exact location of the branch as neither the branch nor the hotel show up on offline maps. I called so many times times only to get the automated voice, that my airtime ran out. I was now obliged to drive around until I found the premises, and arrived at around 5.25pm -the return time stated on the form was 5pm and they supposedly give you a 39 minute grace period. When the agent showed up I asked him if I would be charged for an extra day, he went away and came back and said no, there would not be an extra day's fee and there was still 9 minutes of the grace period remaining. Had he said that there would be a fee for an extra day, I would have then kept the vehicle for an extra day.

I also asked the receptionist upstairs why weren't my calls and emails answered and she apologized and replied that they had a high workload and not enough staff to cope. I then left and dropped the plans to rent the vehicle for a further 24 days.

When I received the final invoice by email, I noticed that they had indeed charged me for an extra day and it showed up in my credit card statement. I queried this again by email, stating the above, and received a read-receipt indicating that someone at Woodford had read the email, but today 3 weeks later, they haven't had he courtesy to reply.

Needless to say I won't be renting from them again, so they really shot themselves in the foot.

Rubbish company - go with another car rental company - scammers - blaming us for putting a plug in the spare tyre. Why would I do that? They want to claim R5000 for this.. absolute sharks.

Woodford customer service in Springfield park is the worst I have experienced, I have been a customer on both commercial and private. I was debited amounts from my credit card unauthorised. Thereafter I had vehicles with mechanical issues and not compensated. Springfield is a total waste I will move all of my business to new provider you guys lost an ongoing customer due to poor service refunds unexplained debits on credit card,

Terrible dishonest and horrible customer service do not book with these guys

We booked a vehicle through Booking.com and were told at collection that the booking was confirmed. We paid for additional insurance with unlimited mileage and completed payment. At the Lanseria branch, we were asked where the vehicle would be parked and provided proof of our rental property. We were then informed of a refundable R15,000 deposit, which we paid via their EFT machine.

When signing for the vehicle, we noticed the mileage was limited to 1,400 km, which was not what we paid for. The entire process took about two hours.

A few days later, we received a message claiming we were near the border and not authorised to take the vehicle out of the country. We explained that the car would be parked near the border but that we were only travelling to Kruger National Park.

The next day, we were told the company had made a mistake and had refunded the deposit. They then asked to recharge my card, which I refused to do over the phone. They emailed their banking details and demanded immediate repayment. I explained that the refund was their error and that I had met all requirements at collection.

Despite this, they charged the deposit to my card again without my permission. I still do not know if or when the refund will be processed. The entire experience was extremely poor, and I would not recommend this company. I will choose a more reputable rental company in the future.

How is Hyundai Grand i10 / Similar to the Toyota Vitz??
These cars a not stable and the vehicle in Durban and Capetown was vibrating.

Your brand manager for Durban also does not return calls????

DO NOT USE WOODFORD CAR HIRE!!
If there was an option to give less than a 0 rating I would. Been on the side of the road for over 5 hours because of an engine issue (car had over 55k KM on it) and am currently standing at petrol station (it's now 8.20pm) for an AA vehicle to drive us to our accommodation , no branch in Uppington so they are sending vehicle tomorrow morning only from Johannesburg!!!! So basically rightnow our vacation is on hold while Woodford decide to 'make a plan'. How can a National ar hire company not have backup plans or arrangements with other car hire companies for replacement vehicles in the location the customer is in. No care for our safety. Multiple BS stories.... Will never use them again!

All was ok with the car on return and suddenly a clip in the headlight had come off. I took insurance with discovery cars but they will not recognise this and have stolen £220 from me - so disappointed. If somehow I get this resolved I will remove the review but currently I am still out of pocket

This is the only place to go when hiring a car in Cape Town, the service from the staff is incredible and the selection of cars are fantastic, all the staff were brilliant but Armien Kamaldien went above and beyond to help us after we got into trouble with our credit cards.

I cannot recommend Woodford Cape Town and all Woodford Car Hire highly enough! Thanks Guys.

I rented two Mercedes Vitos from Woodford Car Hire Johannesburg Airport and had one of the most frustrating car rental experiences I’ve ever had.

Despite booking well in advance for ten people, I received several conflicting emails before my trip saying the vehicles were unavailable. After multiple stressful international calls, we eventually got the original Vitos we had booked, but the process was chaotic even the keys were mixed up between my booking and my friend’s. Bad service.

During the trip, one vehicle broke down on a gravel road inside a game reserve (speed limit 40 km/h). Although I had clearly mentioned to the counter staff that we were driving to a game reserve, I later learned that Woodford’s terms specifically exclude gravel roads. I accept that I should have read the terms more carefully, but being charged R33 000 for damages and R12 000 to deliver a replacement vehicle felt extremely unfair especially since I had purchased what was described as full insurance coverage and the car was most definitely not new. The steering on the car was not acceptable. When I turn the wheel, it reacts a little late. Meaning it’s an old car.

When I later inquired about their insurance process, Woodford confirmed in writing ( see picture) that they are self-insured, meaning they do not use any external insurance provider for their fleet. Instead, they handle damages internally and rely on customers to cover repair costs if you break the terms, although you might have full insurance coverage.

So be very cautious: read the fine print carefully, and do a quick risk assessment of where you plan to drive and what the potential risks are. If anything happens to the car, it may still become your full responsibility, even if you thought you had complete coverage.

It feels like Woodford’s model places most of the risk on the renter, and communication throughout the process was confusing, with slow responses and repeated errors. Based on my experience and many similar reviews, I would recommend considering other rental companies with clearer insurance terms and better customer support. Woodford required a R25 000 deposit per vehicle. Other companies charge R2500 deposit for the same car. Good luck getting your money back.

My wife and our friend were involved in a smash and grap in Cape Town.The staff of Woodford were so friendly and helpfull.Within an hour or two after the incident a new rental was delivered to their hotel and the damaged car was collected.I will never forget this exellent service of Woodford.