Below, our email conversation with Wicked Campers. Because of privacy reasons we changed the names of the employees answering the emails.
Mail 1 to Wicked Campers 08/04/2007
L.s.,
Through this email we would like to make some complaints about our rental of one of your campervans in New Zealand. We will try to be as exact as possible, in order to make you understand how we feel about it.
After filling out the internetform to make a reservation (end of january) we received no reply within 5 days, as was promised on your website. After a week, we sent you another form via the internet. Because there was again no reply, we phoned your callcentre and received a bookingnumber. We were promised to receive a confirmation by email a.s.a.p. Again, we never heard from Wicked again. Afterwards it turned out that an email was sent, but to the wrong emailaddress.
Because we saw that we did pay the required $200 via our creditcard, we assumed everything was okay and picked our van up on the 24th of march. And indeed the booking had gone well after all.
At the depot, some financial surprises came up. Your old website (you renewed it a couple of weeks ago) said nothing at all about an extra fee of $50 for a one-way rental. On top of that, your prices do not include a full insurance. The old website stated that there were no surprises, and we have never read about the need of extra insurances (although we read the site very thoroughly!).
The first night after having picked up the van, it turned out that there were some things missing. We didn't have a dishtowel and sheets for one of the blankets. On top of that, the blankets smelled horribly and had to be washed by us.
Worse, the van had technical problems. The uphill speed was up to 30 km/h (also on HWY no 1), which can of course be quite dangerous. Inside the car it sometimes smelled like gasoline, and after a couple of days and some mathematics we counted that the usage of fuel was 1 litre per 6 km. Expensive holiday!
After a couple of days we decided to go back to the depot in Auckland. The mechanic seemed to understand right away what was wrong with the car. He left to get some parts. Unfortunately, no one of the staff informed us about this or how long it was going to take. It turned out that we were sitting in the depot, waiting without a clue how long we would have to wait, without any offering of something to drink from the staff. It looked like the staff really didn't care.
After the mechanic returned (at 16.30 h), the other staff left immediately without waiting to see what would happen with the car. After the mechanic was done, he told us that some more "finetuning" was needed, probably also affecting the fuel usage of the car. To do that,it was going to take the whole next day. We guess he did feel a bit sorry for us and offered to start an hour earlier the next morning. Because we already lost a day because of all this and because the van was driving okay again, we decided not to wait for this.
When we had just arrived in the depot, we discussed some things with the staff which we didn't fully understand. As it turned out, the staff didn't either and did not try to find out either.
The prices: The dayprice for the first week was $65, which was not correct according to us. When the girl showed us the pricelist, it turned out that the prices had been lowered since the 1st of march, which she didn't even know! Because we had paid several hundred dollars too much, we wanted the money back. She explained she couldn't give it to us herself, but that she would arrange it with her colleague in Christchurch. We agreed that she would send us an email the next day to tell us the exact amount we could expect at returning the van. Untill now, we never heard from her. (although we checked the emailaddress twice with her because of the confirmation email that we never received!) We hope that some interference from the head office can be made?
Further on, we had some questions about driving on unsealed roads. Wicked uses a standard contract of car rental, which states that driving on unsealed roads is forbidden. The staff says that it is okay but that you just have to be careful. Since we signed the standard contract, we doubt what the insurance will say if something happens on such a road? The staff left it like this, never tried to phone a colleague to find out.
Another thing about the contract: the standard one states a hirer lyability of $2000, while the Wicked version states $1000. Which one is it? The staff was not able to explain, and again did not try to find out.
We know that Wicked Camper New Zealand only started less than a year ago, and with your lower prices we do not expect perfection. However, what we do expect is a staff that is trying their best to serve their customers. To us, it seemed that the staff in the Auckland depot (except for the mechanic) didn't really care about solving our problems or answering our questions. It would have made such a huge difference if someone said something about the shitty situation!
The whole situation has cost us a lot of worries (is it still save to drive the car?), frustrations, money (extra costs for the one-way, insurance, washing of blankets and a van that drinks gasoline like it is lemonade) and time (which no money can replace).
From New Zealand, we fly to Australia on the 25th of april. Our original plan was to rent a wicked camper again. After all this, we have some serious doubts.
We hope to receive a quick reaction from you and a reason to stay a customer of Wicked Campers in Australia.
Answer Mr F. from Care Department Wicked Campers 13/04/2007
Hi there,
Thanks for your email. We are currently reviewing your enquiry and will be in touch. Please send me a detailed list of any expenditures incurred also.
Kind regards,
Second Answer Mr F. from Care Department Wicked Campers 17/04/2007
Hi there,
Thanks again for your email. We apologize for the delay and are sorry to hear you were unhappy. We are aware of a problem with the fuel consumption in this van, therefore, management has approved a refund of $100 towards your fuel expenses plus $9.60 for oil, total = $109.60
This will be refunded to the credit card details provided to us on your contract. You will receive a further email of confirmation once this has been processed. We apologize again for the delay and wish you all the best on your next adventure!
Kind regards,
Mail 2 to Care department Wicked Campers 18/04/2007
Hello F.,
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, we do not fully agree with your proposal.
1. You do not mention the amount of money that we paid too much (because of the new prices)
2. After your last email, we made a calculation of the fuel consumption. The van uses 1:8 average (1:6 in the mountains!). Normally, a van like this should use maximum 1:10, so with around 5000 kms, the $100 does not cover this.
3. What you couldn't know: yesterday the exhaust pipe of the care completely broke off. We had to go to a garage, who fixed it for $81,00. Receipt follows in Christchurch, garage emailed you about it.
4. Your proposal does not say anything about compensation for the lost days, worries and frustrations.
Mail 3 to Care department Wicked Campers 19/042007
19/04/07
Hello,
See email below: unfortunately we spent some more hours in a garage today. We called road assistance about it. The expenses were $75,00. Please use this amount in your new proposal.
Greetings,
We ask you to reply a.s.a.p., because it has cost us enough time and has given us enough worries already.
Greetings,
Answer Mr F. from care department Wicked Campers
No answer from Wicked this time
Mail 4 to manager depot Christchurch Wicked Campers 24/042007
Hello,
This email is meant for J., who was phoned about this email by R. in Christchurch on the 24th of april.
We've written a lot of emails about our complaints (see below), trying to get a fair answer. Since F. doesn't seem to read his emails, we hope to solve the problems via J..
Again a summary:
* We paid an amount of $1535 in Auckland. According to our calculation it should have been $1305 (22 days x $45 plus 9 days x $35). Price difference is $230, which we would like to have refunded.
*Garage costs 17th of april $81,-. See picture of receipt.
*Garage costs 19th of april $75,-. See picture of receipt.
*We already received a refund of $109,60. See our email below: the consumption of fuel was so high that we don't agree with the $100 refund. We attached a picture of the oilreceipt, which was already refunded.
*And finally: as we tried to explain to F., we've lost a lot of precious time in garages, not to mention all the time in internetcafes writing emails. We even had to change our travelplans and skip a trip to Kaikoura because we just didn't have enough time anymore and were afraid the van might have problems again. Together with all the frustrations and worries about the van, we think it would be not more than fair to compensate us for this. Your prices are good, but delivering a van that is nog checked at all is something no customer will accept.
See for the detailed emailcorrespondence below.
We hope to hear from you soon.
Greetings,
Answer Mr F. from Care Department Wicked Campers 01/05/2007
Hi there,
Thanks again for your email. Management has approved a refund of the remaining expenses, total = $156 NZ. This will be refunded to the credit card details provided to us on your contract. You will receive a further email of confirmation once this has been processed. We apologize again for the delay and will be in touch.
Kind regards,
Mail 5 to manager depot Christchurch Wicked Campers 04/05/2007
Hello J. and R.,
Hereby we sent you the last email from F., who obviously doesn't know that J. would handle our situation from the day we gave back the camper (24th of april). Also it is obvious that - again - he did not read our email well, because we still miss the price difference and compensation for fuel and lost days.
PLEASE handle this situation now for once and for all because we really get very desperate now.
Just to be clear to you both, below is also a copy of the last email we sent to J. on the 24th of april.
Greetings,
Answer R. Manager depot Christchurch Wicked Campers 07/05/2007
Hi Joris and Jessie,
I have spoken to J. and he said that all matters are to be referred to the care department. It is my understanding
that your case is being dealt with there.Any further inquires are to go to care and will be resovled though them.
Mail 6 to manager depot Christchurch Wicked Campers 08/05/2007
Hi R,
We understand that you cannot change things the way they go in your organization. But on the day that we talked to you, you did make us some promises, e.g. that things would be quickly solved. If this would not be the case, you said that you would make some phonecalls. Now, two weeks later, the care department (F.) still has not solved most of our issues. (We presume you read the last email of F.) Meaning, Wicked still owes us a lot of money!!
Please, you seemed to be the only one inside the organization who seemed to take action on the spot. Maybe you could make a phonecall which would speed up things a bit?
Greetings,
Answer from manager depot Christchurch Wicked Campers
We never heard from her again!
Mail 7 to Care department Wicked Campers 08/05/2007
Hello,
We still miss your answer about the refund of price difference: Wicked owes us $230 for that. On top of that, again you say nothing about a refund for our lost days (3 times to a garage in 1 month!!) and high fuel usage, also after the first garagestop (please read our earlier emails: wicked refunded us $50 for the first days, but after that the usage was also excessive).
Please reply this time with an answer concerning all our issues.
Greetings, Joris and Jessie
Answer Mr F. from Care Department Wicked Campers 09/05/2007
Hi there,
Thanks again for your email. We apologize, but the prices were correct at the time your booking was made. You are still due a refund of $156 for the expenses incurred. We will notify you again once this has been completed.
All the best,
Mail 7 to Care department Wicked Campers 19/06/2007
Hello,
Sorry for the delay. We ask you to discuss this email with your management.
We don't agree with your explanation below about the prices for the following reasons:
1) When we made a reservation, we never received a confirmation with the prices from Wicked Campers (see other emails).So before picking up the van, prices were never explained to us and we never agreed or signed for a price. (For example: the old website didn't state anything about insurance and oneway fees)
2) We paid at deliverance of the van, so the prices of that day should count.
Despite our specific question to you to answer ALL our issues (bold typescript!!), again you never mentioned anything about a compensation for our lost days. According to the contract, Wicked must deliver a roadworthy van. for the following reasons this was obviously not the case:
1) By the time of picking up the van, there was no oil in the engine.
2) The exhaust pipe totally broke off. According to the mechanic, ANY mechanic could have seen at checking the car that - at delivery time - there must already have been a huge crack in the pipe.
3) The first days, the usage of fuel was ridiculously high. Your own mechanic agreed on this and saw immediately what the problem was. If the car had been checked, he would have seen it earlier and could have repaired it before handing the van over to us.
4) At the third garage we visited, the first thing the mechanic said to us (without even mentioning it) was that, according to the color of the exhaust gases, the engine wasn't finetuned and therefore was using too much gasoline. Why did your mechanic never see this?
For the above reasons, we think that Wicked did not deliver a roadworthy van. Therefore, we hold Wicked Campers totally responsible for our lost days, which should be compensated.
Again we ask you to answer ALL our issues and discuss them with your management. We assume you understand by now that we are getting kind of tired of this now.
Answer Care department Wicked Campers
We are still waiting....we will keep you updated.
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