Woodford promises great service but fails to deliver
We booked two rental vehicles to be collected at Cape Town airport on 25th April 2021.

The website booking process was excellent, the rates were good and the follow up communications via e-mail and text message were great. I was looking forward to very good service from this company based on these experiences.

However, when we arrived at the office to collect our vehicles we were told that none were available! After the gentlemen behind the desk spent a long time on the phone he advise that there was one vehicle that was being washed that we could have (not the one we booked, but an upgraded class so that was ok) but we'd have to wait for it to be washed.

The only other vehicle available was two hours away and they weren't sure when it would come.

And that was that. No offer to make a plan in any  way or to address the fact that there were now 6 of us sitting there with our luggage and no transport.

After 40min of waiting and more phonecalls I eventually went next door to Hertz and was able to book a replacement vehicle on the spot.
I came back, cancelled the second vehicle booking and we took the replacement upgrade.

Of course we missed our appointments that day as we were ultimately delayed by 2 hours.

Then, when I checked my mail, I found an e-mail from Woodford in response to the cancellation I'd made at the desk, to inform me that their policy was to not pay a refund on cancellation but rather to give me a credit on my next hire!

I was forced to get the MD involved to press this - explaining that it was not a cancellation - it was a failure to provide the service.

Thereafter they refunded only the holding deposit and I had to chase up again to get the rental fee refunded.

So... finally (a month later), all was refunded... but the MD's response to my complaint was
"Hi James
My apologies for the inconvenience caused
Please provide me with your rental agreement
I can ensure you it won't happen again.
My apologies once again".

Well, it's good to apologise but I'm afraid that's not good enough. The failure cost two hours of time, extra rental fees (walk-in rental is not as cheap as pre-booked) and a great deal of time and effort getting the refund through.

And we were incredibly fortunate to be able to rent from Hertz on the spot or else we'd really have been stuck.

Everyone makes mistakes and there are glitches that happen but it's how you respond that makes all the difference.

Management should have taken responsibility on the spot and made sure we were sorted. They could easily have called us personally, arranged for an Uber to take us where we needed to be while they sorted out the vehicles in the background. Instead, that man at the desk just says "sorry... no vehicles available".

Pity... because the website was really good, it all looked so promising. But I have no confidence that should I use these services again, I won't be left high and dry again. And with no compensation except a brief sorry... I'm afraid I cannot recommend this company to anyone.
