RW
Ralph W
Active since Nov 2024
8
Reviews
0
Industries
Reviews
8 reviews3 months ago
Bye Bye Uber
I have a very low regard for companies that use AI to resolve issues, without the possibility of contacting a human being. Many issues are unique and the AI cannot resolve them. Users are left out of pocket as the amounts are usually too small to challenge legally. It should immediately ring a bell if no email address is available. My last two trips I paid the toll road fees at the toll gate with my own bank card but they still invoiced me for them and charged me for them a second time. There is no way of resolving this issue through their AI help and I can see that they ************ly make a lot of money by taking small amounts which customers don't see or are not worth taking legal action against. . and I am slowly but surely eliminating these companies from my service providers and going back to the old school. I urge people capable of critical thought to do the same.
0 replies
3 months ago
Bolt chaos at OR Tambo Airport and poor support.
I have used Bolt three times recently for trips from OR Tambo airport. There is a dedicated pickup and dropoff area on the second level of the airport parking. The E-hailing pickup area stretches across 27 parking bays and there are benches on which to sit while waiting. Both Uber and Bolt use this area. At times there can be more than a dozen E-hailing cabs circulating to pick up or drop off people. It helps to identify a cab if the cab is painted in Bolt colors but all of the three which I recently used were standard factory paint jobs. The only way to identify the vehicle is by its make and license plate, although there might be more than one of the same make. If the vehicle passes through the dedicated stretch, and the rider stands at the edge, the rider will be able to identify the vehicle fairly easily. My first ride, I was waiting by the benches and the driver came down the lane and I spotted him quite easily. However the two most recent rides, the drivers have proceeded to park in one of the 27 parking bays, they were not the only vehicles there, they did not pass through the lane but approached from the adjacent lane. They immediately activated the waiting time function. During this time I was trying to get their exact position from them via the message function as the GPS doesn't work inside the parking. I received vague replies in both cases as most of the parking bay numbers painted on the ground are no longer visible and I doubt if they were aware of them anyways. Remember that there were quite a few other vehicles circulating and many people waiting around. The 3 minutes waiting period was up while trying to determine where they were and the Bolt collect-extra-money function kicked in. Pressuring customers to hurry can also result in mishaps and indeed my cellphone, which I had left on the baggage cart while I was distracted trying to find the driver and identify him quickly, fell off the baggage cart and broke, which is going to cost a lot to fix. The worst part is that I can't find a contact on the Bolt website to address the issue. Their support page is an AI FAQ system which does not address unique issues, and I do not hold companies in high regard when you can't contact a human to address an issue.I did log the trip as one star, and got an automated message that Bolt takes these issues very seriously, but I have never had a reply. I would not recommend using Bolt because of this poor customer service, and if this issue is not addresses quickly and the wait time money returned to my account for both my previous trips, I will delete Bolt and not use them ever again. A second issue is that Bolt must review their map, because on some previous trips, and the last one, the driver's app has got the route or destination wrong resulting in extra kilometers traveled.
0 replies
4 months ago
Woodford shot themselves in the foot.
Woodford was doing fine but now they shot themselves in the foot. I have rented cars from them on several occasions without any issues (as well as Enterprise for several years prior). The past month I rented a vehicle for a period of 30 days. I wanted to extend the rental so I sent an email the day before stating my request. I received a delivery report and a read receipt for the email which I always do for this kind of correspondence. By the 10th hour (next day, 7 hours before expiry of the contract), I had not received a reply, prompting me to call. The clerk who answered gave me information, which I accepted and for the payment , and she agreed to call me back at 1pm. By 4pm, 1 hour before the contract expiry time, no call came from Woodford so I was obliged to call back to finalize the extension. This is not very efficient customer service. BTW are they too stingy to have a toll free number as these 087 numbers eat up your airtime? The second issue is one of "policy", I requested a further 24 days but they told me I can only extend it for 3 days, which I did but not really happy about it. This is mind boggling considering that when you call the automated voice harps on long term rental???? They said I have to present myself at their depot to take out a new rental which would consume almost an entire day of my time as I live very far away. I'm not aware of any law that restricts vehicle hire to 33 days***, but if there is, please let me know, as it will be good for any tourists who want to come to SA to know. The policy of KISS will always attract customers - Woodford website states "Simple and affordable vehicle rentals ...." but this experience IMHO does not reflect this. ***From Enterprise website "With an Enterprise long-term rental, you can rent a vehicle for as long as needed, whether it's several weeks, a month, or longer. Additionally, there is no mileage limit for most vehicle classes. See our unlimited mileage FAQs page for additional information and exclusions. " So now I was obliged to go all the way to Sandton, about 100km distance to take out a new lease. While trying to locate the premises, tried to call their office to get the exact location of the branch as neither the branch nor the hotel show up on offline maps. I called so many times times only to get the automated voice, that my airtime ran out. I was now obliged to drive around until I found the premises, and arrived at around 5.25pm -the return time stated on the form was 5pm and they supposedly give you a 39 minute grace period. When the agent showed up I asked him if I would be charged for an extra day, he went away and came back and said no, there would not be an extra day's fee and there was still 9 minutes of the grace period remaining. Had he said that there would be a fee for an extra day, I would have then kept the vehicle for an extra day. I also asked the receptionist upstairs why weren't my calls and emails answered and she apologized and rep**** that they had a high workload and not enough staff to cope. I then left and dropped the plans to rent the vehicle for a further 24 days. When I received the final invoice by email, I noticed that they had indeed charged me for an extra day and it showed up in my credit card statement. I queried this again by email, stating the above, and received a read-receipt indicating that someone at Woodford had read the email, but today 2 weeks later, they haven't had he courtesy to reply. Needless to say I won't be renting from them again, so they really shot themselves in the foot.
0 replies
4 months ago
Woodford shot themselves in the Footford
Woodford was doing fine but now they shot themselves in the foot for two reasons. I have rented cars from them on several occasions without any issues (as well as Enterprise for several years prior). The past month I rented a vehicle for a period of 30 days. I wanted to extend the rental so I sent an email the day before stating my request. I received a delivery report and a read receipt for the email which I always do for this kind of correspondence. By the 10th hour (next day, 7 hours before expiry of the contract), I had not received a reply, prompting me to call. The clerk who answered gave me information, which I accepted and for the payment , I asked her to call me back at 1pm to which she agreed. By 4pm, 1 hour before the contract expiry time, I was obliged to call back to finalize the extension. This is not very efficient customer service but I can live with it. The second and more important issue is one of "policy", I requested a further 24 days but they told me I can only extend it for 3 days, which I have done but not really happy about it. This is mind boggling considering the automated voice when you call harps on long term rental???? They said I have to present myself at their depot to take out a new rental which will consume almost an entire day of my time. This is bean counter logic (don't try to make feeble excuses please I have heard them all) because I will now look somewhere else for a vehicle, out of principle, and I might not rent from Woodford again. I'm not aware of any law that restricts vehicle hire to 33 days***, but if there is, please let me know, as it will be good for any tourists who want to come to SA to know. The policy of KISS will always attract customers - Woodford website states "Simple and affordable vehicle rentals ...." but the above IMHO does not reflect this. However I will consider an offer to extend my rental until my requested date (Jan 4), at the same rate I have been given for this rental period , and will then adjust this review. ***From Enterprise website "With an Enterprise long-term rental, you can rent a vehicle for as long as needed, whether it's several weeks, a month, or longer. Additionally, there is no mileage limit for most vehicle classes. See our unlimited mileage FAQs page for additional information and exclusions. " BTW my phone automatically records calls for quality assurance ( something most call centers use to intimidate customers ) just sayin'
0 replies
4 months ago
Woodford shot themselves in the Footford
Woodford was doing fine but now they shot themselves in the foot for two reasons. I have rented cars from them on several occasions without any issues (as well as Enterprise for several years prior). The past month I rented a vehicle for a period of 30 days. I wanted to extend the rental so I sent an email the day before stating my request. I received a delivery report and a read receipt for the email which I always do for this kind of correspondence. By the 10th hour (next day, 7 hours before expiry of the contract), I had not received a reply, prompting me to call. The clerk who answered gave me information, which I accepted and for the payment , I asked her to call me back at 1pm to which she agreed. By 4pm, 1 hour before the contract expiry time, I was obliged to call back to finalize the extension. This is not very efficient customer service but I can live with it. The second issue is one of "policy", I requested a further 24 days but they told me I can only extend it for 3 days, which I have done. This is mind boggling considering the automated voice when you call harps on long term rental???? They said I have to present myself at their depot to take out a new rental. This is bean counter logic (don't try to make feeble excuses please I have heard them all) because I will now look somewhere else for a vehicle, out of principle, and I might not rent from Woodford again. I'm not aware of any law that restricts vehicle hire to 33 days, but if there is, please let me know, as it will be good for any tourists who want to come to SA to know. BTW my phone automatically records calls for quality assurance ( something most call centers use to intimidate customers ) just sayin'
0 replies
5 months ago
Makro, epitome of a business with all their ducklings in a row.
I ordered an inverter from Makro on Oct 26 and they said it would be delivered by Friday 31. It was listed as "online purchase only" without the option of collecting it myself. The payment was deducted from my bank card and 3 days later Oct 29 they sent me an email stating that the item had been handed to the courier. The delivery was to be by 2 days later, Friday 31. Nothing showed up on Friday, I presume they don't function on the weekend, and nothing showed up yesterday, Monday Nov 3. This morning Nov 4 I received an email saying that my order has been cancelled and that they would refund my money by Nov 12. No explanation given. I certainly didn't ask to cancel the order. How does a company conduct business like this and survive?
213 replies
5 months ago
Food *****s Market does not love customers.
I use Uber and Bolt for my transport and today I went to Greenstone Shopping Centre do do some business and shopping, thereafter I proceeded to Hereford Drive close to Modderfontein Road (with 2 fairly heavy shopping bags) to call a Bolt cab. When I got there I discovered I had no airtime and no mobile data. I asked someone where was the nearest place I could buy airtime and they told me to go to Food *****s Market which is a considerable distance away. Anyways I walked there and went to ask at the kiosk for airtime. The kiosk attendant told me they only accept cash for airtime, and I only had my bank cards with me but no cash. The next nearest place would have been in Greenstone Shopping Center, in the wrong direction, which would have added a considerable price to the Bolt journey and I am on a tight budget right now so I ended up having to walk home with my heavy shopping bags. Why do they not accept a card payment? Totally stupid policy. Shame on them. They have just lost a customer.
142 replies
17 months ago
Do NOT buy anything from CaCell - no customer service
I bought a Tecno phone from CaCell last month for use in the country in West Africa where I am living as an expat. I traveled back to West Africa with the phone but when I tried to initialize the phone, it locked and told me that me that I would not be able to use it, and to take it back to the supplier. The fact that the phone is locked to the country was NOT mentioned on their website. It turns out that Tecno phones are country-locked to the country of purchase. Tecno website has a dumb complicated procedure to request unlocking but by all accounts after an extensive web search, it doesn't work in most cases. They also want an unacceptable amount of personal private information to submit with the appeal. CaCell did acknowledge my initial complaint but have since done nothing about it. They ignore email update requests, which is the only way I can contact them as I don't do Whatscr#p. The cost of sending the phone back to South Africa would exceed the value of the phone and I am not due to travel back to SA until the middle of next year. I do not recommend anyone to buy from CaCell, nor to buy Tecno and Itel products. When i do go back to SA I will be taking legal action
0 replies
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3 Star
1 (12.5%)
2 Star
2 (25%)
1 Star
5 (62.5%)