I reserved the car for 19:30 and thought there would be some paperwork to do, so I arrived at the pickup point a bit past 7 PM. It was already dark in New Zealand, and the place was very poorly lit. There was a locked gate outside, and I had to call them. They told me to wait 15 minutes, and I said okay. After a while, an Indian man (same accent as on the phone) arrived, but he didn't have the key to the gate. He made another call and said he had a key to the office and would try to crawl through the gap under the door to find the gate key. I told him to be careful. He brought a bunch of keys and handed them to me to try opening the gate. Eventually, one key worked. After getting inside, he pointed to a four-door car and said it was mine. I was shocked because I had booked and paid for a twelve-seat Hiace. He then pointed to a white Hiace by the roadside and said that was it, but it hadn't been cleaned. I was very upset and asked about their service quality. He told me to take photos and file a complaint, but it was too dark to take clear pictures (I later managed to take a few). Inside, the vehicle was very smelly and dirty with lots of trash (which I cleaned myself). The fuel tank was only 3/4 full. I showed him, and he said I could return it with 3/4 fuel as well. However, he wouldn't let me go and insisted on a 3500 NZD deposit because I hadn't bought full coverage insurance. I told him I had basic insurance, but he kept pushing me to buy additional coverage, asking at least three times. Despite the poor service, he was still trying to make money. He then offered an option to pay 10 NZD per day for two days, reducing the deposit to 2500 NZD. I was very mistrustful of the company by then and asked for other options. He said I could buy full insurance for 25 NZD per day (totaling 50 NZD) plus a 500 NZD deposit. I went with this option and signed a handwritten note about holding 500 NZD cash for full insurance. Two days later, I returned the car at 7:30 PM. He checked the car (same guy), then pulled out a car inspection form and said he forgot to inspect it when I picked it up, asking for my signature. He then returned the 500 NZD deposit and had me sign another note confirming the return. This was so unprofessional. I've never experienced such poor service from a car rental company before. I asked him who to complain to and he said the booking website. I said fine and left, never to use this car rental service again. Terrible experience.

When we got the car, it only had a quarter tank of fuel. After getting on the highway, it suddenly showed no fuel. We barely made it to a gas station and added 40 NZD, but the gauge didn't move much. Feeling very anxious, I added another 30 NZD, and then it showed 80%. In the end, all we did was drive from the airport to the city and back, not anywhere else. So, if I had to return it with a full tank, 10 NZD of fuel would have been enough. The rental company refused to refund the extra fuel I added, saying the reason was the boss wasn't around. So I hope you can help coordinate this.

When I placed the order, I was aware it was an old car. The car had 220,000 km on it when picked up, which was acceptable. However, the vehicle was poorly maintained; the steering pulled to the left while driving. The front tires, manufactured in 2013, had started to deteriorate with insufficient tire pressure and tread worn nearly to the bump point. I was anxious about potential blowouts on long trips. Fortunately, I was able to inflate the tires to normal levels at a gas station, and despite driving 1800 km, there were no blowouts.

!!!!!Poor service from hire car company. Car had old bottles and other customers paperwork (from May 2019) in it. Was supposed to be full to full but wasn't. Phone charger didn't work. Satnav was in Japanese (for japan) but couldn't be switched off so had a running Japanese dialogue. But worst was that the renter announced as we left that he would not be there on the day we drop it off, so we had to arrange our own taxi (at our expense) to the airport! It was not clear where to leave the key, I still haven't had confirmation that all was ok (despite leaving a note and emailing them) and not be able to confirm that our deposit would be refunded. We were supposed to be using the same company (spicy cars) when we come back to the north island but plan to cancel.... poor service.

Fine

Car condition was poor. Lots of scratches and dents and yet they said excess would be $3500 when it was $2500 and should actually be even less.