CM
Celeste M
Active since Jan 2016
7
Reviews
0
Industries
Reviews
7 reviews35 months ago
CHOOSE ANOTHER CAR HIRE COMPANY - AVOID BUDGET AS VEHICLES ARE NOT SAFE & YOU ARE DISHONESTLY CHARGED FOR REFUELING!
CHARGED FOR REFUELING WHEN RETURNED FULL & CHARGED FOR DELIVERY OF AN EXCHANGE VEHICLE FOR FAULTY UNSAFE VEHICLE I rented a vehicle for 8 days requiring to do huge mileage to attend appointments & being time strapped. I discovered that all FOUR tyres had slow punctures, after I 'eyeballed' a flat tyre (1 Bar pressure!) having been driving 120 kph one day into my rental period. The vehicle also obviously had an electrical system error as no warning light was showing up on the dash, but after pumping up all 4 tyres to the stipulated pressure, the warning lights flashed persistently (evidently only happy when the tyres are flat!!). There are very few locations for this car rental company for support, & the telephone numbers are NEVER answered wasting valuable time. On day 5 of my 8 day rental, at 8am just prior to another urgent semi-rural trip, after yet again requiring to pump the tyres, I was able to get through to the Stellenbosch Budget/Avis office, who in turn put me through to the CPT Airport location office. The Airport office said that they meet me at my 'rural' location (as I was unable to drive the 1.5 hrs to the airport (time constraints!) & they would bring a replacement vehicle BY TRUCK & take the faulty vehicle back AT NO CHARGE TO ME because their vehicle was declared unsafe. Instead of delivering by truck as they stated they would, a staff member drove the replacement vehicle obviously arriving with NOT a full fuel tank, & drove the faulty vehicle back to CPT airport depot. At the end of my rental period, after refueling (FULL TANK) at the garage on site, a Budget staff member told me all in order after seeing my fuel receipt, looking at the fuel gage & checked no damage to vehicle. A week later I was billed for nearly R500 for petrol (including R60 which they claim was the amount of fuel they had to put into a refueled tank BP attendant saying 'full full won't take any more mam') and to'ing & fro'ing by totally disinterested Budget staff, I now realize that this is one company who clearly are NOT HONEST and obviously DO NOT CARE that their VEHICLES ARE UNSAFE. Instead, they would rather try and dishonestly fleece a customer - probably thinking that living overseas gives them the right or perhaps that we are less likely to pay a visit to any Budget office in person to speak to someone who actually cares about honesty & the company reputation. Sadly AVIS who are a reputable company have associated themselves with Budget, but hopefully they can disassociate themselves soon, as Avis will no doubt be severely *****ed by this ill reputed company Budget Rent a Car, which the good name of Avis appears to be carrying. I will head to HERTZ or one of the other car rental companies before returning to BUDGET and recommend anyone considering a Budget Rent a Car rental to do the same. AVOID Budget Rent a Car if you want an honest company & safe rental vehicle.
0 replies
80 months ago
Disgraceful zero communication despite erroneously taking funds with no notification or refund
I made a provisional booking on 11th August 2019 for a couple of nights stay in October 2019 at The Reef Hotel in East London - which is part of the Hotel Osner group. On the 12th August I cancelled my booking free of charge (no charge if cancelled before 25th September!) only to find that Hotel Osner charged my card R540 on the 12th August AFTER I had cancelled, with no communication or notification to myself. This erroneous charge I discovered by chance when I was reviewing my card statement around the 6th September. I immediately sent an email to Hotel Osner - with no response. Then a couple of days later I followed up with a telephone call (from Ireland where I've been this year!) - 3 phone calls later after being referred by Hotel Osner to the Reef Hotel where I had my booking and then the Reef Hotel telling me that Hotel Osner did the finances/took payments for any of their bookings, being placed on hold twice and finally being put through to Antoinette who apparently attends to the payments & refunds - after relaying my dispute about erroneous payment being taken with no notification or refund despite the booking having been a 'free cancellation' cancelled booking nearly a month previously, Antoinette asked me to send her an email direct and gave me her email details. I asked her to immediately confirm receipt and keep me posted as to when I could expect the refund. Antoinette said that any refunds due are automatically sent every Friday - Somehow the payment that was 'stolen' from my card reflecting no reference number on my card statement, failed to achieve any automatic refund. This is tantamount to Fraud. Needless to say, TWO emails and 3 phone calls after payment was taken, and more than a full month after this, again by calling up my card statement, I noticed that the refund was finally sent on the 13th September 2019. Absolutely no communication has been received from Hotel Osner who I hold responsible as they took the money according to their policy but failed to refund - Also, funds taken were subjected to foreign currency conversion by my bank and fees debited to me. I have therefore received a shortfall refund and I am not a happy person. For this reason and for the reasons of poor communication and exceedingly poor customer relations/service and insincere empty promises to follow up by customer service relationship staff, If there was a zero star rating for this group, I would give it. Would I every consider booking with this hotel group again..... I'd rather pitch a tent!
0 replies
84 months ago
LACK OF CARE, NEGLIGENCE & HUMAN RIGHTS INFRINGEMENT with Deception/Lies by hospital staff
A 93 year old previously physically active lady, actively involved in various projects in the community - specifically abused children and the aged, fell and broke her hip on the 7th May - at the time she had bronchitis for which she was taking antibiotics. She was taken to the Tygerberg Hospital for treatment for her hip fracture. Instead of the orthopaedic staff taking the patient to theatre for surgery under Epidural (spinal anaesthesia) as a matter of urgency in view of her advanced age and the risk of complication, but, she was put in traction for a week during which time she developed signs of bedsores (poor nursing!) and her bronchitis developed into full blown pneumonia! - (No treatment was given for this besides a further course of antibiotics and she had NO chest physio. Last week she was put on nebulising.) This patient was taken to theatre a full week later after her initial fracture i.e. surgery done on 13th May, under spinal anaesthesia, and her fracture was fixed with internal fixation and she went back to the ward to continue lying in bed with absolutely no efforts by the physiothe******(s) to attempt to mobilise her by walking. This patient was carried/swung across to sit in an armchair for an hour a day, then was put back into bed. When the patient's relative overseas - himself a retired orthopaedic surgeon, personally spoke to the physiothe****** to enquire about the patient's mobilisation program at 08h45 (during handover) on 20th May, the physiothe****** said that she was personally walking this 93 year old patient. This we subsequently found to be a lie, and despite the patient complaining to ward staff and the attendant doctors that she wanted to start walking and getting up, she was dismissed as a confused old woman and the deceitful inaccurate physiotherapy report believed. I believe that today, as of 27th May, the deceipt of the staff and physiothe****** i.e. that this elderly patient was being mobilised when if fact nothing had been done or even attempted to get the patient up and walking, has been admitted and the patient has been apologised to by the doctor. Apparently this patient was promised that steps would be taken to get her mobilised and walking with assistance starting immediately. INSTEAD, after talking to this patient this morning, I understand that she has been moved to the Tygerberg Hospice! Is this sidelining the patient yet again, because she is 93 years old? Is this seriously the way our society today treats the elderly i.e. despite the fact that the same 93 year old person was visiting abused and elderly folk herself to bring light and love into their lives. WHY.... - Incidentally, Tygerberg Hospice motto is "HONOUR A LIFE" - does this count for a 93 year old who has had an encapsulated non-invasive cancer tumour with no change to size or symptom for over 20 years! and who's only LIFE THREATENING problem now is due to NO active rehabilitation for a 3 week old orthopaedic injury, for which a younger person would have been mobilised within days of the injury/surgery and a younger person by now would be rehabilitating at home!?. WHY has Tygerberg Hospital orthopaedic staff been so dismissive and negligent of rehabilitating this 93 year old patient when daily she has begged to start walking? WHY has Tygerberg Hospital orthopaedic staff covered up their lies and negligence of this patient by moving her into a hospice, when her problem is NO mobility rehabilitation due to the orthpaedic ward deceit? WHY has this patient been left to get weak and DEPRESSED when she has always been a very positive minded individual, because of being lied to and ignored by the orthopaedic ward staff and physiothe******? Unfortunately, it is not possible to contact anyone sufficiently interested to actually do anything at this Government Tertiary hospital. CAN SOMEBODY please take an active interest in getting this old lady mobilised so that she can learn to walk again and go home again?
0 replies
102 months ago
Signed up for Avis Preferred weeks ago (J1R503), but Avis Website online states my "Card is used by another Account" - Avis Representatives & Customer Services CANNOT assist
Being a regular Avis car rental patron I signed up to Avis Preferred program to enable easy collection of vehicles i.e. having a profile with Avis would save the need to complete all my details and payments online at each booking and also forgo the requirement to queue and fill in forms at the Avis collection depot. I received this lovely message at the time of my signing up :- "(Congratulations, you've just unlocked a world of benefits with Avis Preferred. Your new unique customer number is J1R503. When booking online, be sure to sign in so your rentals count towards your loyalty balance." but since then and including immediately afterwards attempting my first booking, absolutely NOTHING has changed i.e. neither my name nor my email address and even my preferred number is recognised by the Avis website sign in attempts - These are AVIS responses: "Sorry, we could not find your customer ID. Please provide valid ID." "It looks like your card is already registered to another account. Please log in using those details." "Sorry, that user account doesn't exist. Please try again or call 0861 021 111 / +2 ********** ." Not to mention all the supposed benefits I was to have received signing up as a Avis Preferred member with so many rentals (7) having taken place already over the last month!!. Not a single member of Avis customer attendants has been able to sort out the problem - only can attend to their one single rental! Customer services has yet to reply/respond, however I did receive an email 2 weeks later asking if Customer services had sorted out my query, to which I replied 'NO, no response yet' and a month later I still await assistance. SHAME ON YOU AVIS! Your website is very much a user UNFRIENDLY site for any problems other than RENTING/BOOKING a vehicle.
0 replies
114 months ago
VODACOM AUTOMATICALLY LOADS A BANKING APP TO YOUR CELL PHONE USING MTN's BALANCE ENQUIRY PHONE NUMBER
<p>VODACOM (indirectly casts MTN in poor light!)</p> <p>I operate 2 cell phones – one Vodacom and one MTN – both are on pay-as-you-go (I travel internationally extensively and thus cannot commit to long contracts).</p> <p>A week ago I dialled *141# to get my MTN balance, but inadvertently I dialled using my Vodacom cell phone. Immediately I received an incoming message “You have successfully subscribed to Vodacom WIG services”. </p> <p>I had absolutely NO idea what “WIG” meant or what I had subscribed to/for. I telephoned Vodacom to complain and to have the “subscription” reversed, however NO ONE at Vodacom was able to tell me what “WIG” meant. Finally the main Customer Services was contacted by a local Vodacom agent and they too had no idea what “WIG” was. After about 45 minutes on the telephone, someone in the customer services section informed the local agent that “WIG” was a subscription for a BANKING APP. </p> <p>The customer services at Vodacom advised that they could not reverse the subscription and I had to call into my bank and get my bank to reverse it - this I was told when I refused to give my banking details to the Customer services agent!!! </p> <p>I told Vodacom that my bank had nothing to do with Vodacom a) using the exact phone number MTN has for balance enquiries, and b), my bank would have no knowledge of anything that Vodacom automatically loaded onto my cell phone!. Vodacom customer services COULD NOT understand why my bank would not be able to reverse the banking app that Vodacom had loaded onto my cell phone! The Vodacom customer services agent then advised that I was to dial a number which would automatically stop all and any automatic apps that had loaded and I would get a confirmation message that “WIG” had been stopped. Dutifully I dialled the number given, anticipating a cancelled/reversed message from Vodacom..... 5 days later this has yet to arrive. SO WHAT HAVE I additionally Put into my phone having dialled the ‘new’ number the Vodacom customer services gave???</p> <p> </p> <p>MTN in all likelihood is completely oblivious of the fact that Vodacom is using the same number as MTN balance enquiry number, which automatically loads an unknown BANKING APP delivered by Vodacom, instead of giving you your MTN balance (if you inadvertently dial MTN’s number on a Vodacom cell phone in error). Is it even allowed that Vodacom can ‘steal’ MTN’s long-in-use balance enquiry number?</p> <p>Is Vodacom’s “WIG” – unknown ‘banking app’ a method to steal ID/banking details surreptitiously? In this land of ours, rife with corruption and fraud, this question begs an answer.... and can the answer even be believed?</p>
168 replies
114 months ago
FICA LOCKS ABSA ESTATE LATE ACCOUNT ON EXISTING CLIENT
<p>I was appointed as the Executor of my recently deceased mother's estate. My mom has been a client of Absa Bank's for many years and was completely FICA compliant up to the of her death in September 2016. </p> <p>According to Absa Bank, if a decease person has more than five thousand Rand in an Absa account, an Estate Late account has to be opened. This Estate Late account opening necessity I understand, given increasing Fraud in South Africa. What I fail to understand is when Absa Bank alert FICA of the new Estate Late account opened on their 'existing' fully FICA compliant client, now deceased, FICA places a lock on the account and declares it to be a "New Account applicant, person not known by Bank"!!! FICA apparently requires the previously Fica Compliant individual to provide up-to-date contact telephone number and proof of residence/utility bill, since they no longer reside at their previous address!!!!! . Since my mother was cremated on the 29th September 2016, I have sadly lost contact with her and do not have any idea if anyone has the contact phone number for the "Here-in-after life" or how I get her new "proof of address"! </p> <p>As regards the Estate Late Department of Absa Bank, the manageress Cindy Stoltz appears never to be in her office to answer any phone calls or assist with escalated urgent queries which have been passed on to her by her department staff members (as assured to me by them) . I reside overseas, my mother's Estate is under R100K and I have already required to change my return flights home twice at USA Dollar penalty costs to me. I was told by Absa Estate Late department that all documents sent in by me are 100% in order and finalised but they cannot give me authority/release the Estate Late account for distribution to 5 heirs until the FICA LOCK on the account is lifted. This frankly, is abominable .</p>
168 replies
124 months ago
FANTASTIC COMPANY
I stumbled across [URL Removed] by chance while surfing the Net looking for a florist which has beautifully thought out flower arrangements (I didn't want \higgledy-piggledy-any-old-how-any-flower-will-do 'stuck in' arrangments). Netflorist promised stunning
0 replies
Review Distribution
5 Star
1 (14.285714285714286%)
4 Star
0 (0%)
3 Star
0 (0%)
2 Star
0 (0%)
1 Star
6 (85.71428571428571%)