First Car Rental Omdömen 

Do not use this firm. They let you rent bad cars and do not provide the service you deserve.
We had no less than two breakdowns in one week and ended up having to pay a considerable amount of extra money (18.454 zar) for repairs and extra plane tickets. Not to mention the amount of lost time during our vacation or the danger of having to stop along the road in South Africa - not exactly a safe place to have a break down.
I will never use First again.
Pernille Harees

P1ss poor service at the King Shaka branch. Did not accept my British International driver license.

Situation made worse by Landie the Manager. Customer Service skills set of a door-knob.

This company will never see me again. Europecar was way better and more professional.

We had booked a vehicle (13 - 27 Aug 2019) capable of taking 2 suitcases in the boot, however on arrival at Durban International the nominated vehicle did not have working headlights and a replacement vehicle that could barely have 1 suitcase in the boot was given to us. It took 3 days to resolve this and we ended up collecting a replacement vehicle at our cost (time and money), customer service was very poor but more closely non-existent. We hire vehicles regularly and will NOT use this company again!! There are other complaints but that would take too much text and time to post and frankly, I do not anticipate a response due to the lack of customer service

Unprofessional and unethical.

** UPDATE AT THE END WITH THE COMPANY'S LACK OF RESOLUTION **

I rented a car from the loop street branch of this company for two weeks and I had two major issues with them so far.

1. When I received the car they told me that there is a handling fee of 30 ZAR for every toll I pass, and that the toll charge is charged automatically.
I explicitly told them that I don't wish any toll to be charged automatically and asked them to remove the toll device from the car.
When I asked that, the representative told me with complete confidence "there is no need to remove the device. When you'll get to a toll they anyway ask you if you want to be charged with the device or not".
I was naive enough to trust her word, and when I got to a toll, nobody asked me anything and they charged automatically from the device.
I asked from the toll representative to cancel it and that I would pay cash directly, but it was too late.

The problem is not the additional 30 ZAR I needed to pay.
The problem is that since I add additional charges from the car company, they needed to use my deposit to pay those charges.
And then, instead of unfreezing the transaction of the deposit, they needed to withdraw the full amount of the deposit and then to refund me for the deposit amount minus 80 ZAR (30 handling fee plus 50 for the toll).
This made my bank converting from ZAR to USD twice, and for a really high amounts (because it;s a deposit of 3000 ZAR)!
First, 3000 ZAR were withdrawn (charged in USD), and then 2920 ZAR were refunded (converted to USD).
This caused me to lose a total of 23 USD!!!
Normally the deposit charge is just frozen and after the return of the car this amount becomes unfrozen and the bank doesn't need to make these conversions.
This unprofessionalism from their side cause me to lose 23 USD.

2. I discovered with an email notification from this company that I got a 800 ZAR traffic fine.
The fine is obviously my responsibility and I will pay it directly to the authorities (as I did in other times when I got a fine with a rented car), but the outrageous thing here is that FIRST company charged me for 300 ZAR handling fee!!!
I NEVER consented for such handling fee, not to mention that I never encountered a HANDLING fee for traffic fines from any other company, since I'm the one who needs to pay the fine and therefore HANDLE it.

I wouldn't recommend anyone to use this company's services, there are more reliable companies out there who might be slightly more expensive but wouldn't try to earn money from you in these ways.

** UPDATE **

I opened an inquiry with the company regarding the second issue (handling fee of 300 ZAR, just to transfer the traffic fine to my name).
Their response was directing me to clause 4.1.3 in the agreement that says:
" 4.1.3 All fines, taxes, charges, levies, legal costs and tolls, including e-tolls, payable by US to any third party arising out of YOUR use of the VEHICLE. "

There are two things that I find deeply disturbing with their answer.

1. This clause is talking about charges that THEIR COMPANY should pay to a THIRD PARTY, for things that are ARISING OUT OF MY USE OF THE VEHICLE.
But in the email they sent me with the fine notification, their explanation for the fee was: "The reason why an administration fee is applicable is due to the fact that we have to redirect the fine from our proxy’s name to the responsible driver at the time of the offence, which requires software, software support fees, permanent Traffic Fines department staff – all of this in an effort to avoid being responsible for all offence amounts that are accrued with our vehicles."
Basically, it means "Pay for our inner operations regarding traffic fines", which is definitely NOT A PAYMENT TO A THIRD PARTY!

2. They didn't provide any documentation of a payment they had to make to a third party, what makes me think that they might as well could charge me for 3000 ZAR or 30000 ZAR, without needing to prove anything.

BEWARE!!!!

Picked up the car at Johannesburg Airport. Rented the mini option. Were pleasantly surprised by the car we got!
Drove in 3 weeks to Cape Town, no problems with car at all.
Delivered the car in Cape Town to a very friendly, nice, cheerful employee.
The invoice we received 2 days later was completely correct and clearly specified.

First car I was given was extremely dirty and covered in dents and scratches. Just felt there would be problems when I returned this vehicle. So for peace of mine opted to upgrade the car. Big improvement! On returning the car to King Shaka airport, Durban, I went to the garage and ensured the car was full of petrol. When I eventually tracked my final invoice, it is not sent to you, I was very surprised to see a refuel admin charge of R20 which by the time it got to the final bill was R29.90! Queried this with customer services to be told all cars are topped up! Sorry this is just a racket!

I hired a car at Bloemfontein Airport, South Africa.

1. Instead of pre-authorising the deposit on my credit card, they charged it, and refunded it a few days later. The exchange rate had moved against me so I lost money. This is completely unacceptable. Luckily I wasn't at the end of the month for my credit card otherwise the money would have come out of my bank account.

2. I refuelled the car at the nearest petrol station immediately before returning it. They managed to squeeze in another litre, which they billed me for, plus an admin fee. They refused to refund this.

I will never use First Car Rental/Sixt again.

First Car Rental at OR Tambo airport is a fail. I booked a car online in advance and was due to pay a set amount for the rental. However, I observed that the thieves at First helped themselves to an amount exceeding the agreed invoice amount from my bank account. Their customer service is completely useless, as they were unable to give me a logical reason as to why this occurred, much less to refund me the extra amount deducted from my account. Terrible service, definitely would advise everyone to stay away from First Car Rental at OR Tambo.

Never use First Rental for a car hire

I have booked a car online after a long flight of 10 hours I arrived to agency they were making us waiting for more than 1 hour to enter information they have already. I was told on rude way that they don’t allow to use 2 card even I told them my debit card have spending capped daily they refuse and I ended by paying extra money so they can reduce the regular hold of amount on my card as Renter's Responsibility, In addition on top of that another 3000R for "Fuel and Possible Extras Deposit". But that is payed amount. They eventually refund me with less than 3000R because I returned the Car 1 hour late so I have to pay one extra day). But if you are not South Africa citizen (and so your bank account) you are at risk of exchange rate swings. You can lose another money on that. It’s not a reservation on card or deposit as they are saying. In the end you pay too much extra than the online price…

Giving a good example for other rental companies!
I hired a car for 10 days at Johannesburg airport. Pickup without any problems, car was working, return without any problems. Only about two days after car return I received a very clear invoice with e-toll fees and gazoline (at a reasonable price, as promised).
For my opinion, First Car Joburg airport is recommendable without any reservations!

DON'T HIRE WITH FIRST.
Hired a car with First for a full month from Capetown. 30mins into my hire period the key become stuck in the lock. Not wanting to do any damage I contacted First emergency who sent a locksmith to my aid. The locksmith advised that lock was faulty , had been repaired previously and that I should not use the lock.
Not happy with car and broken lock I requested a replacement car. Replacement car was only available from the airport. Well out of my way. Once at the airport they only had a smaller size car available for me. Not happy.
I took the smaller car and requested a refund on the difference. Instead of giving me an apology and refund , first stung me with a damages bill for the lock.
After countless emails First still claims I'm at fault for damaged lock and has not refunded me and kept my deposit.

Can't stress this enough. "Don't hire with first !!"

4 months on and they are still taking money from my card. No reply to emails. Dreadful company ended up paying three time the rental I was expecting when I booked

I hired a car from these scammers at Cape Town International Airport for 15 days. I have received an invoice now I am back in the UK.
They charged me R260 for a R50 Toll. This included a R50 admin fee.

They charged me R34 for 'topping up' the petrol tank.Before returning it I filled it to the brim and gave them a copy of the receipt.

The car had a flat battery so I called their breakdown service who phoned me back 3 times because they kept forgetting to ask me for certain details! They never attended but have charged me R34.

None of these charges were advised as extras when I booked the car last year.

They should not be allowed to trade!

Avoid this company at all cost. It ruined my family holiday. I hired a car from first rental for 17 days. On the first day on arrival at OR tambo airport went to collect the car at the car rental office and I was informed the car was not available I should come back at 09.45 which I did but still there was no car available. I was further told to wait for another 30minutes by the time I eventually got the car it was 11am. We then had to drive to Pongola which is about 5 hours drive. On our way we got stopped at the road block and was informed by the police that I should drive into the secure area. I asked why and I was immediately informed that the car I was driving had some pending traffic fines which had not been paid. I took me four hours to prove that I had only been given the car on the 24th december 2018 and the fines were issued on the 14th December 2018. Several attempts to contact the firstcarrental were made but nobody was available to pick up the phones. At that point my wife and my 7 year old son were so distressed. We continued attempts to contact the first car rental for the next days but nobody was available to help. On the first of January 2019 we went through another road block where we got stopped again the issue of the fine was raised but this time another problem with the car occured in that the road tax disc was expired and I was told not to drive the car. I made attempts to contact first car rental to no avail. I ended up parking the car and using my sister's car for the duration of our stay in South Africa.
First car rental is an absolute rouge trader and please do not use them at all cost they ruined our holidays in South Africa.

Hired a car for one day with extra insurance for tyres and windscreen. When the car was returned no damage was found, they called later to say that there was a flat tyre. We paid extra for tyre coverage, but they still charged us 700 rand for just the administration costs without any explanation whatsoever. Bad communication in general. They did not at any point mention the administration costs.

First they gave me a car with only one working reverse light. I had to make several calls and send several emails before they deigned to replace the car - not just the reverse light, because their procedures don't provide for simply replacing a light bulb.

Then they decided to take a large amount of money from my bank account to pay for damages from an accident that according to them I "was not aware of" - damn right, because it never happened. They simply had the opportunity to take money from my bank account, hoping that I would not notice. I had to ask them several times and threaten with legal action before they returned the money.

Then they charged me petrol for bringing the car back to their OR Tambo branch after filling up at OR Tambo. The reasons they provided for this is that
* I brought the car back with bubbles in the tank, and they had to fill the tank. Never heard that one ... and I would have thought it would be dangerous for them to fiddle with the tank in a parking garage ...
* they had to drive the car to a depot and fill up there - on my account, because I returned the car to their OR Tambo branch as per our contract, when in fact they wanted the car at a depot and I still don't know where the depot is, because that was never part of any contract with them.
* they hung a piece of paper in the car telling me not to fill up - so that I would not notice how much extra they charged if I actually assume that such a piece of paper is part of the contract I signed with them - and it is not. I undertook to return the car full of petrol to their OR Tambo branch where I got the car, and I did that.

If there was a rating of -1 I would have given them that. Instead, Mr Managing Director, here is some free publicity for your company. You're welcome ...

Terrible customer service and rude counter staff at the Cape Town airport location. I was given incorrect information from the counter staff and was subsequently over charged for bringing the car back at the agreed upon time, which they are now claiming was ten minutes too late. Staff member also tried to get me to sign off on the vehicle's condition before physically seeing said vehicle, claiming a walk around had already been completed. I refused and did the walk around myself - found numerous large scratches across the whole left side, a rock chip in the window, and a dent. This damage was overlooked and I could have been charged for it unfairly. I do not trust these employees and this company and will never rent from them again. Think twice before choosing First for your car rental needs. They are not worth the trouble.

We had a puncture on the left front wheel, in South Africa, about 1.5Km from the Emahlatini/Sicunusa border post at about 4.30 pm. The border closes at 6pm.

I tried to change the spare wheel, but the wheel spanner key would not fit the locking nut, holding the wheel to the rear door.

After trying to release the when for 30 minutes a passer by who was a mechanic (I am an Engineer myself) also tried and proclaimed the wheel nut spanner to be the wrong one.

The location was not safe or suitable to wait. We called breakdown services who said they could help within a few hours, or the following day, as the nearest representative was in Nelspruit, it was late and Sunday evening. I had my wife and children with me and it would have been a huge risk to stay where we were, on a remote road, in the dark for several hours. Even if and when we did reach the border, we would have had to sleep there, in the car overnight.

The location of breakdown was also unfortunate, no phone signal. I was advised to drive to the border by the breakdown service and affect repairs in Swaziland, My destination.

It was getting late and dark, the only option was to drive to the border on the flat tyre.

We arrived at the border late. 6.20pm. The South Africans allowed us through even though the border had been officially closed already, and so did the Swazi police and immigration. So now we were waiting in the dark, on the Swaziland side of the border... Sicunusa. I called several people for help in Swaziland and eventually Kitwe Engineering agreed to come to our rescue. They arrived and further confirmed the key was no correct.

We were taken by Kitwe, who did not have the means to remove the locked wheel, to our hotel in Manzini. Following day, Kitwe engineering found a spare wheel and tyre. The wheel rim was incorrect, causing a further delay, apparently there are different spare wheels for the car, for different models. This is not FCH fault, but as a result of their error.

The damaged rim was removed, taken back to Manzini and panel beaten to fit the spare tyre. The wheel was fitted and I came to Manzini, Swaziland.

The car with spare and wheel spanner nut was taken to Ford Swaziland, who verified categorically that the key was incorrect. They pointed out that it was clearly the wrong shape and gave us a letter to confirm this. They called the first rental team who told them to go ahead and make the repair and that the entire cost would be compensated.

We could not obtain a spare wheel and rim within 2/3 days in Swaziland and I did not have funds to buy a new rim and tyre, so we had to weld a bar to the wheel nut remove the spare and use the damaged rim and tyre that we purchased as a spare.

Ford further commented that all FIVE tyres on the vehicle were different makes/brands. They said this was not a good idea.

We lost 2 days because of all this, it was a public holiday in Swaziland on the 7th May.

For the sake of a small error, our lives were put in danger during the entire process, especially in South Africa.

I missed a very important business meeting in Swaziland, that could not be rescheduled, this was a very serious loss for me, that I cannot now put right.

On return to Johannesburg, the team who met me at OR Tambo Airport said this problem has happened several times (apparently) before, I was not the first 'casualty' of having a wrong wheel nut key spanner. They explained that during washing of multiple vehicles, the tools sometimes get mixed up between cars.

I am seriously out of pocket because of the repairs I had to make to keep myself safe.

First car rental have refused all compensation saying I should have waited on a dark road at night, to wait for the breakdown team, who would take a minimum of three hours to reach us, if not the following day. But the First Car breakdown team, on the given number advised me to get to safety.

IF IT WERE A BREAKDOWN DUE TO NORMAL WEAR AND TEAR, FAIR ENOUGH... BUT THIS WAS SIMPLY BECAUSE FIRST CAR HIRE SUPPLIED THE WRONG TOOLS TO REMOVE THE SPARE WHEEL. FURTHERMORE, THEY AGREED WITH THE ACTION THAT I TOOK AND ASSURED ME ON THE BREAKDOWN LINE AND SERVICE CENTRE THAT I WOULD BE COMPENSATED

VERY ANGRY, LUCKY TO BE ALIVE.

I could say check that the wheel spanner is correct on picking up the car... I could have done so and will do so in future, but WHO would, in practice, do that? Most people who hire a car would not be able to do this and this should not be the responsibility of the hirer, surely.

Bottom line is that the fault was by First Car rental, this was confirmed by an authorised Ford dealer.

Furthermore, it took from 4th May to 5th June to deal with this enquiry. I had to follow up several times, reminding them of the case.

Before hiring the car, I did send an email to them asking about cross border fees. They did not respond. Time was going on, so I went ahead with the booking anyway. On arrival at OR Tambo Airport, I found that there WAS a R1500 (£80) cross border fee, making the total charge MORE than other companies. This is OK, but note that First car rental do not offer any services in Swaziland or across any border. Other companies DO NOT charge for this letter at all. It seems like First car rental ignored my email in order to hide this fee.

THE RATES MAY SEEM A LITTLE CHEAPER ON CAR HIRE COMPARISON SITES, BUT MY SINCERE ADVICE WOULD BE NOT TO USE THIS COMPANY EVER. I SHALL CERTAINLY NOT DO SO AGAIN.

It is a shame because staff issuing the car and receiving it were courteous and kind.

Deceptive and VERY disappointing. I am glad to back up all my words with relevant letters and documentation.... I await the decision of the case I re-opened today and will be glad to inform anybody accordingly. Respond for contact details.

南アフリカでレンタカーを借りる時に利用しました。
1ランド＝約9円。
Holidaycarsを通じて予約しました。
予約後、ジンバブエ、ボツワナ、ナミビアに行きたい旨をメールで言いました。
その返事はHolidaycarsより「つたえといたよ」とのこと。

1.予約時クレジットカードで保険代22,000円を即時支払い、現地で3,141ランド支払ってくださいということでしたが、ヨハネスブルグ国際空港の現地デスクで請求された金額は6,000ランド。
最初より3,000ランドも多いですが「fuel cover」なる料金とのこと。

2.南アフリカからジンバブエに抜ける出国審査の時、書類不備で出国できませんでした。
イミグレーションの係官がオフィスに電話をかけてくれましたが何回かけても「すぐ用意する」ばかり。
10回以上かけてやっと来た返事が「今日は日曜なので書類作成できない。明日の朝すぐにメールでおくる」
翌日朝になっても返事は来ず、電話しても昨日と同じ、埒が明かないので近くのオフィス（といっても200ｋｍ引き返さないといけないのですが！）にむかう。
近くになってやっと「その車ではパーミットを作成できない。オフィスに行って車を変えてくれ」というメールが来ました。
オフィスに行ったところそこでパーミットの値段が明らかになり、4800ランドするとのこと。
飛行機で行った方が安くない？ということになりパーミットはキャンセルし、コースの大幅な変更を余儀なくされました。

3.運悪く車が故障しました。
未舗装路で石がオイルポンプにあたり、オイルがすべて抜け走行不能になりました。
通りがかかった現地の人に電話してもらい、レッカーが2時間後に到着するとのこと、ホンマに来るんかいな。
4時間たって日が暮れ、何回電話しても相手にはまったく伝わりませんでした。
現地の人が言っても伝わってないのに私が言っても伝わるわけがありません。
その後警察車両が通りがかり、警察に保護されホテルまで連れて行っていただきました。
ホテルの人に電話してもらい、やっとレッカーと相成るわけですが、この時点で6時間後、謎のレッカー代500ランドを請求されました。

4.帰国後してから10日後30,951円の請求がありました。
一体何の料金だと問い合わせて初めてすべての請求書が来ました。
計算してみるとパーミット代5,400ランドから余ったfuel coverの充填分です。
パーミットはキャンセルしたのに。ていうかオフィスで言われた金額と違うし。
交渉の結果無事返金となりました。

請求書をきちんとチェックしておかしいところは粘り強く交渉できる方向けです。
fuel coverは最後に入れたガソリン代や高速代に使った余りはちゃんと返金してくれます。

I hired a car from Cape Town airport for two weeks. I booked well in advance, but still had to wait for 45 minutes on arrival, with two very tired kids and a lot of bags. I assume that most people book in advance, and I had to provide my flight number, so I don't know how it can take so long - there should be enough staff to deal with expected bookings.
The booking in process took a ridiculously long time - my parents had booked with another agency and were in and out within 10 minutes - I had to repeat most of the information I'd given online, and they even had to phone a special line to process my Amex payment. This seems ridiculous for a company in the 21st century with mostly international customers who, I assume, mostly pay on credit card.
When we eventually got our car, there was no-one there to check it for us. My kids were at the end of their tether, it was dark, and I was extremely frustrated. Luckily my mum, who had been waiting for almost an hour in another car, managed to find the man who does the check-ins. I must say that this guy was lovely and tried to be quick.
The car was the most basic of the economy range, but I couldn't argue too much with that. A few days later, when driving on a major highway, the tyre blew. Thankfully my brother was with me, as although I am a fit and strong woman, there was no way I could prise open the brand new jack/wrench. We changed the tyre then called the customer services to find out how to replace it. I was assured by the agent that I should return to the airport, where they would give me a replacement tyre. I was fairly dubious that they would keep spares for every type of car in the lot, and questioned this, but again she told me that that was the right thing to do.

On arrival at the airport rental drop off area, they were fairly mystified as to what to do. They eventually told me to go to the pick up area, as I would need to get a replacement car. I went there, and they told me to go to the drop off area. I refused, and insisted on seeing a supervisor. In the office, I explained the situation, and the supervisor quickly appreciated that I was on my own with two kids and arranged for a new car, and for someone to drive the car over to the old one, so I didn't have to haul the bags around. She asked me to sign an incident form, but AT NO POINT did she or anyone inform me of any charges for the replacement or for the tyre. I had explained that the tyres looked fairly worn and the blow out was not my fault - it had happened on a well tarred road with no obstructions/litter.

When I returned the car (to the same lovely and helpful guy who had checked us out) he told me that there was no evidence that I had actually exchanged the car. I could have just driven off with the replacement. He made a copy of his paperwork for me so I could prove the switch, just in case.

When I received my final invoice, there was a charge for the tyre damage and an admin fee. I complained through their online portal, and eventually received the cursory response that I had a signed a form to say that 'while i was driving the car it was my responsibility.' I don't dispute this - but the damage was a result of prior use of the car, AND I should have been informed of charges before agreeing to the new car.

Luckily I have excess insurance with another company, and was able to claim this back, but, with some exceptions, I thought this was pretty poor service.