Tempest Car Hire Reviews 

Been using Avis for years for business globally and now tried Tempest while in SA, never again. They are utterly useless in communications and issuing invoices. If you on a business trip and need to claim, avoid them at all costs. Receive a speeding fine, they issue you automatically an "Admin Fee" per fine without proof of guilt and ignore all communication you send to customer care.

So be warned if you decide to use them.

I had an issue with my car and I had to pay the damage (which i could reclaim from my insurance). Although it took me more than 2 weeks that my deposit was returned my claim was treated seriously and transparently. I had to pay initially a fee of Rand 5000 but they returned the excess when the broken tire was fixed, I also received a proper incoive with all details. First I was the impression that they charge me twice but that was not the case. Customer or Claim Support was responsive and clarified my confusion. A great thanks to Hanlie at the Openclaim Support.

This company has taken unauthorised payments from my accont post rental. I cannot not get anyone to help me.
Cuttently i've been overcharged by 100% of my original rental

I have changed my review of Tempest , i made a mistake thinking they had kept my deposit when in fact they had returned . Excellent company and would definitely use again

I received the car a day late as my original flight was delayed. Did not allow a refund for the day.

Then when I returned the car back they charged me an extra day, my booking.com confirmation said 10:00 but they're claiming because i picked the up at 8:00 i have to return it the next day at that time.

If so please send written confirmation of time to return. And your agent never made me aware of the time to return. Thanks for punishing me for your poor service.

I returned a vehicle

We hired the car through rentalcars.com and collected our car from OR Tambo airport. Customer services were really helpful and professional.

I made sure to read the terms and conditions before hiring with Tempest because of the negative reviews I'd seen on here. All charges were made clear on the terms and conditions section and the costs that came off my deposit were as expected. These include the admin fee, refuelling costs (I'd used a quarter of the tank on the way to the airport and didn't get a chance to top it up), and e-toll charges.
I would use Tempest again.

Thandi and front desk staff at Hatfield were lovely and made us feel welcome.
However when we arrived a staff member that indicated where we should park and initially checked the vehicle was unprofessional in that he referred to me as an old man and when my wife said that she was melting from the heat due to the vehicle not having an aircon that worked , he said that he would lick her like an ice-cream. Coming from the UK this is unacceptable behaviour and gives the business a bad name

Just be aware they will charge you an administrative fee ZAR 115 in my case. This was taken from the deposit as well as another ZAR 350 which was not explained. I wrote an email asking why there was a difference in the amount on the final statement and that refunded. Yes the email was never responded to

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.

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.

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.

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.

2 stars because the car was ok but smaller than the one booked. I would never use this company again. I checked at the desk that the deposit would be blocked on my credit card as per their T&Cs and told yes. The deposit was then taken from my card incurring foreign transaction fees and interest. Because we had a long hire, after 31 days they took a second deposit and returned the first minus an admin fee and an overcharge for an additional driver. Two visits back to the airport office to resolve the issue! It took 5 weeks and numerous emails to get my second deposit back with more interest and charges, minus another admin fee. First emails ignored so I googled the regional manager, guessed the email address and finally got a reply. I have finally given up and settled for the return of one admin fee and the extra charged for the second driver! What an appalling way to run a business. They kept our deposits for a total of 23 weeks earning interest while we were paying interest on our credit card. In all our years of car hire world wide we have never had a deposit removed from our account. BEWARE!!

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?

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!!!

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!

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.

Returned the car with a full tank and was charged a refueling fee. Shocking

During the lease in December 2019, we received a fine, which was successfully paid. Also, the company charges a fee ( 295 ZAR) for making this payment. So, you can only pay for it by transfer using the bank details, which I did. And, attention, it's August 2021, they still can't see and can't find my payment! I sent the check, the bank kindly translated everything into English, but they don't want to find it!