Tempestcarhire Reviews

Tempest car hire rip off

We hired a car from Tempest Johannesburg airport recently for 20 days I made sure to refill the tank at the service station closest to the airport as fully as possible before returning the vehicle to the office I discovered they only charged a refuelling fee and made a charge for petrol on my credit card when back in the UK Ongoing dispute still have not had a refund Awful company very untrustworthy if I could give no stars I would Avoid like the plague if you want to avoid being ripped off Many similar stories on the internet it seems to be a recurring practice by Tempest rental in Johannesburg

Never rent a car over here

We had to bring the car back outside office hours so we did More than 10 days after bringing back the car we suddenly got a bill for damage liability without any explanation really nothing although we were certain there was no damage to the car at all I have repeatedly ask for an explanation asked what was wrong with the car asked for photo s I ve never got a response nothing at all The bill that I got was just a part of the deposit I ve paid but I also didn t got the rest of the deposit back These thieves basically stole a small 350 from us Never book with this company

Avoid at all cost

Avoid at all cost 1 Few days after my return I got invoice of additional admin fee despite I made a booking with full prepayment insurance means no add costs at the desk 2 After many emails I got my deposit transfered back after 30 days and got another invoice for what they call traffic fine It might be for everything as I have no further details 3 The deposit was returned with contrubutions BUT they took much more like 300 of the invoiced deductions 4 Few days after they returned the deposit I see unauthorized transaction on my credit card Made by Tempest Joburg That s funny as I took a car in Cape Town and at the date of the transaction was in my home country To sum up - don t go for any bargain with them Avoid avoid avoid

Atrocious customer service at JNB

Atrocious customer service at JNB airport on three counts specifically 1- travelling with three suitcases I was assigned a bakkie with no canopy How ridiculous the suitcase would have gone missing at the first intersection To be fair the staff in the car park switched the vehicle without fuss 2- the damage deposit is taken as a purchase rather than aa a sum to be blocked against your credit card as is the case at almost every other airport in the world So you are left waiting for a refund and as an aside at the mercy of currency exchange rates 3- as with other reviewers I refuelled the vehicle to the brim only 3kms from Tambo The petrol filler overflowed on to the bodywork But I have been charged for refuelling along with an admin charge This always occurs at JNB and must be a lucrative little scam In summary Tempest are awful but I could write similar reviews of their competitors One common complaint is unrelated to the individual rental firms rather to Tambo itself Without fail there are always scam artists operating in the vicinity of the car hire area lifts etc I ve seen several elderly Europeans fall prey Surely the firms and the police could deal with the problem

Wrong car and dodgy damage and fuel fees

I booked a Land Cruiser through Holidaycars com but Tempest only had an Urban Cruiser which you can t even fit one large suitcase in This was entirely Holidaycars com fault but Tempest still made us pay extra to get a vehicle large enough to take 5 people plus luggage they were helpful at the desk getting a vehicle quickly although their partner Europcar could not help When we handed the vehicle back to swap to a different vehicle the inspection was signed off and they took the vehicle away and parked it in a semi-public area Then just a few hours later we got an email about damage they had subsequently found and invoices for petrol As we were swapping cars we had not left the airport and no one raised this issue with us so it was clearly fabricated as the vehicle was parked next to us while we waited for a new one If any damage had occurred it was while under their possession of the vehicle We had also just filled the car up at the airport station Both claims were total nonsense and we refused to pay When we handed the 2nd vehicle back a couple of weeks later I took videos and photos of everything including the fuel gauge to avoid similar issues only again to get an email after we had left the airport saying that the fuel was low and wanting to charge admin fees which we refused The team at the front desk were helpful but the backoffice admin team must have targets to claim spurious fines Vehicles themselves worked fine but I will go with Woodfords not Tempest in future

Never again

Never again will I hire a car through them The charge astronomical admin fees to start off with They do anything they can to keep your depisit A bunch of thieves in my opinion They claimed the etag was missing and want to charge R750 for it whilst it wasn t there to begin with I m still waiting for my deposit after nearly 3 weeks

Dishonest charging of refuelling after dropped off

We rented a Hyundai Staria from 11 June 2023 to 16 June 2023 Picked up the car from Johannesburg Int l Airport and dropped off at Nelspruit TKRU Airport Before dropping off the car we refuelled the car to full tank at a gas station which is about 8km from the airport The Tempest staff which attended to the return of the car had checked the fuel gauge and also for any damages and did not say the fuel tank is not full About a week later Tempest Car Hire deducted ZAR240 from the deposit of ZAR18 000 00 taken by them during the pickup of the car at Johannesburg We argued that before dropping off the car we have refuelled the car to full tank but they just ignored our argument and insisted on deducting the ZAR240 00 This ZAR240 00 can buy more than 10litres of fuel at that material time I would like to warn all prospective hirer of cars from Tempest Car Hire on the above and take steps to prevent being forcefully charged dishonestly afterwards It can be from the company itself or from the staff at Nelspruit Tempest Car Hire

Avoid using Tempest car hire

I rented a car in Kimberley South Africa from Tempest car hire A few minutes after leaving the airport a warning light emerged regarding its wheels I took the car back to the nearest Tempest office which was in Bloemfontein South Africa where the Tempest employee confirmed that I will be refunded for days not used but paid for and my deposit will be refunded Tempest subsequently sent me an INVOICE charging me for returning the vehicle to another depot and refunded me ZAR2 000 than the deposit that they took from my account Also no refund for a week s rental that I paid for but could not use as their car was defective Refrain from using Tempest when renting a car poor quality vehicles and you do not get your deposit back