DriveSmart

Worst Company I Have Ever Dealt With – Hired a very run down car at a reasonable price for a month. Everything was okay until I dropped off the car and flew back home. The $1000 security deposit on the car, and the 2nd $350 deposit that were actually taken out of my account didn't show up like they said it would after a couple of days. I should note that they don't just preauthorise… Read more

the amount - they actually take the money out of your account.

It took weeks (well over a month) of calling them, in which time I was rudely told all sorts of conflicting reasons why my money hadn't been returned, that it had, that they would do it that afternoon, they the money was actually there and my bank back home was the problem...

All in all, it took 2 months and about 25 phone calls to get my money back.

I honestly thought that I would have to take them to court and had started looking into getting a lawyer.

Totally unacceptable in all respects - I would only recommend hiring from this company if you are making a T.V show exposing fraudsters. For everyone else, pay a little bit more with another company and avoid this nightmare.

Do Not Use This Company – Drive Smart were recommended by the local tourist board as a cheap way to hire a car. The car was a billy basic and was scratched and dented to bits however it ran well and it was agreed with Drive Smart that there was no way I could be held responsible for any marks on the car. We returned the car on time with no further damage on it after 3… Read more

weeks of hire, the car never let us down.

That's the good news but that's when the problems started..............

We paid our bonds by credit card this was a mistake (paying cash for the hire). For both the insurance bond and vehicle bond I had to chase for the refund of my money and on both occasions it took weeks (over 12 weeks after the car was returned).

I was told by DriveSmart that I had been credited, I contacted my credit card and they told me that this never happened and that no attempt had been made by Drive Smart to refund me. When I rang the managers at Drive Smart, they were away on holiday (cruises!) or my calls were ignored, all my answer phone messages were ignored, no one ever called back or returned my calls even when they said they would (I did get to speak to Drive Smart employees occasionally and they could not help as all the managers were away or they could not be contacted). I was told that my refund would happen the next day on several occasions, that it then took a fews days to appear as a refund in my account. The refund never happened.

I was calling from the UK at great cost and they knew this. I sent over 150 e mails with little or no response.

Drive Smart did in the end send me copies of credit card refund transactions to show that they had returned the money. My credit card company again confirmed that Drive Smart had made no attempt to re fund my money. The credit card refund transactions were not real, one was a copy of another customers transaction!

My credit card company contacted Drive Smart directly to sort it out.

In the meantime I contacted the company owner directly to sort it out. He told me that Drive Smart had paid the money back and the fault lay with my credit card, then I found this site and it seems that they only want to make money.

The good news is that as soon as my credit card contacted them DriveSmart refunded my money and the company owner stopped e mailing me with excuses.

I cannot stress enough that anyone who wants to hire a car should go elsewhere this company cannot be trusted to give bonds back and will lie about the reasons. I am pleased my nightmare is over. My trip to New Zealand was part of a world tour and having booked lots of hire cars and hotels etc all over the world this is the only poblem I had.

For those of you who are still owed money contact your banks and credit card companies, they will contact Drive Smart directly and sort it out for you.

For anybody else do not use Drive Smart!

You will not get your money back unless you involve your bank / credit card

Underhanded staff and poor service – My wife and I hired a car in December 2012, just before Christmas. We found them fine to deal with initially. Booking on the website was easy and the cars were cheap and looked in good condition - at least, the photos online did. When we arrived to pick up the car, however, it was in a state of disrepair. They told us it was cleaned, but the… Read more

insides were filthy - there was a thick layer of dirt in the boot, with dirty fingerprints still on windows and a large number (and large variety) of stains all over the seat covers. The outside, while washed, was heavily scratched and tarnished. I started taking photos of the damage, as proof that it was pre-existing. But after 20-odd photos, I gave up. There were just too many scratches and dents, broken plastic covering the headlights, rust . . .

They advertise "cheap and cheerful", but the car was certainly not cheerful. Instead it was rather dismal and not well taken care of at all. And as for cheap . . .

The hire fee was approximately $130. We paid the required $2,040 security bond plus an additional bond of $255 for potential unpaid speeding fine, parking tickets, and the like. The $2,040 was to be returned to us within three days. The $255 within 30 days.

It is now eight weeks later and we have still only received a portion of the security bonds back - even of the $2,040 bond. That's about 40 days late, and in blatant contravention of our contract with them. The car was in as good a condition in which we received it (which they acknowledged), so they didn't withhold the money for that reason. On the contrary, they promised the whole amount would be refunded fully.

Their reasons for no refund? First, they blamed the Christmas period. Second, that they could only refund $1,000 per day (across all customers). Third, that the only person who could refund the amount was overseas on holiday (for almost eight weeks, presumably). They've told us a number of times that it is a high priority and that the remaining amount will be refunded shortly. We're still waiting.

In addition to that, we were told / realised too late that the 2% credit card fee is not just on the $130 hire cost, but also on the $2,295 of security bonds. That increases the credit card fee from around $2.50 to $48 all up. Thereby making the cost of the car from $130 to $175 or so. Rather less than "cheap", especially given the car's condition.

They did not tell us about this at the time. Their terms of trade do state it, but in contradictory manner it also states that the full amount will be refunded. The invoice we received at the start had a credit card fee of approx $2.50. We were intentionally led to believe that that was the total amount of the fee and that the bonds were only for damage to the car and unpaid speeding tickets, etc.

The staff have been dishonest and underhanded. We have called them more than half-a-dozen times and emailed requesting our refunds. They've made a variety of excuses, while promising a refund within the "next day or two" - which never eventuated.

So be wary, of 1) the credit card fee on the security bonds, which could mean the fee is as high as 1/3 (or even higher) of the total price; 2) them not refunding your security bonds after almost 2 months and counting, well overdue; 3) dishonest and underhanded staff who make excuses and promises but deliver nothing; and 4) despite all of that, still receiving cars in a bad condition.

We've hired a few cars over the years for various reasons. This is by far the worst experience we've had. Their slogan of cheap and cheerful cars we have found to be completely wrong. Save yourselves a lot of trouble and use another company. There are plenty of goods ones around, but DriveSmart is not one of them. Easy to use website (deceptively easy)

Extremely Poor Service – We were charged 50% deposit however when we went to pick up the car on the day they said it was not available and that they made the booking for a sunday pickup by mistake. Assured that they will refund my deposit but after several emails and phone calls all they kept saying was that the refund has been made but failed to provide any receipts or… Read more

proof of this. It has been 1 month since this happened and still no refund and they just don't respond to emails or phone calls.

Worst Car Rental Company I have come accross – Took a 50% deposit for car hire and car seat hire, then the day before we were to arrive in New Zealand informed us they didn't have a car seat. I asked for the receipt I never received and they failed to email me it. After learning that all my family who arrived a week before had numerous issues with their service, I told them that I wanted to… Read more

cancel our booking all together and wanted a refund. They assured me they would issue a full refund but they didn't. Called numerous times but each time was faced with a poor excuse and have never seen my money returned.

All they did was cause me stress and inconvenience.