Woodford Car Hire Reviews 

Heads up to anyone renting from Woodford! Even when you pay extra for their "Zero Excess/Full Cover" protection, they'll still charge you a "claim handling fee" (R575) if there's any damage.
Your not told that this fee isn't excluded from the "Full Cover" when you book. Despite multiple emails explaining that "Full Cover" should mean exactly that - FULL coverage with no additional charges - they hide behind fine print. Their "Zero Excess" marketing is misleading at best. Just be aware before you book with them and check ALL the fine print!

Professional Services as usual by Rinae in century city brunch,professional with the best sense of humor,I referred my colleague/friend today and their feedback was excellent' she went to an extend of buying them Coffee which they truly appreciate 'Woodford you have hired a sales Guru right here, such level of service are not easy to find in this time and age, thank you century city's will continue to spread the word

Odwa Skalk
Angie vukuthu
We’re nothing but a pleasure to work with.
Coming from the states navigating the region and the car hire was made so easy with them, open WhatsApp chats made the process a breeze.
Additionally I forgot a few high value items in the vehicle which they got returned to me extremely prominently.
They had good energy and really are an asset to the company! Go Woodford.

Simply top experience
Fantastic staff professional and kind
Super transparent conditions no hidden surcharges
Brand new car

We rented a car at OR Tambo on Thursday 27 March and return the car on Monday 31 March.

We were told that the holding deposit will take 14 working days to be released. On 16 April my husband followed up with Ortia, and she said she spoke to Standard bank and the deposit has not been released. My husband ask for feedback, and till today have not received any.

He works at Airlink, and refer a good number of passengers to you, however, from now on no recommendations will be made and if asked, this event will be mentioned.

Shocking service!!!!!!!

Staff were great at car hire but every time we try them there is always a problem with refunds, there was an obvious double booking on the system, I was charged twice , multiple emails they promised me a refund , 3 weeks later - none!! My friend had a similar problem he eventually gave up and has not received his refund deposit
REFUNDS ARE YOUR REPUTATION-THIS SHOULD BE YOUR MOST AVAILABLE AND EFFICIENT DEPT!!

Awful experience. We have tried to reach the Cape Town Airport office (by regular phone and What’s App for 4 hours) and no answer although the answering machine does say ‘Your call is important to us, please hold!’ Since this morning FOUR different admin assistant, all confused, still cannot sort out a VERY simple request, that is simply extend our rental agreement by five days in spite of the fact 5hat one of them provided me with a quote and promised a copy of the agreement within minutes! Nothing after 10 hours!

Thanks to Busi and her boss, Desagan, and, not forgetting SB on the forecourt for a hassle-free car hire on our recent trip to KZN. The three of them went the extra mile (excuse the pun) to make sure we had a vehicle that best suited our needs and worked well within our budget.
It is evident that this small team strive relentlessly for customer satisfaction.
We returned our Toyota Starlet this week without issue (just waiting for our deposit to be returned) and plan to hire another vehicle via Woodford when we return on April 24th. Busi, SB and Desagan - you have been warned!
The only point where we feel Woodford could improve is being available for contact via WhatsApp for international customers such as ourselves.
Hopefully see you guys in just over two weeks' time.
Garry Marshall and Angela Peat.

INCOMPETENCE AND LACK OF CUSTOMER CARE

We hired a Toyota Corolla Cross car 2 weeks ago from the Enterprise and Woodford Umhlanga Branch, who together with the King Shaka International Airport Branch messed so much up.

Despite numerous follow ups over the last 2 weeks, Woodford has still not solved our issue.

Enterprise and Woodford made the following errors:
* They did not have our requested vehicle ready, and the Umhlanga office was closed when we arrived at the 17h44, despite us being told by their King Shaka employee that they would be open until 18h00.
* ⁠As such, they made us go to King Shaka to collect the vehicle, and only when we insisted that we needed to be picked up, did someone come collect us.
* ⁠It cost us an extra hour.
* ⁠Then they did not provide the unlimited kilometres change we requested, despite this being a service they offer and advertise, claiming the system was not allowing them, and the manager was not present.
* ⁠So, we requested the manager to contact us the following morning to resolve this as a matter of priority, and instructions were placed on their system to that effect. The manager never called, and we had to phone them the following morning.
* ⁠They keep avoiding resolving the issue, and after 3 requests, their 'Customer Care Manager' has still not bothered to call us back to resolve the matter. They are clearly not serious about customer care, and client satisfaction.

The branch manager promised to provide a R300 refund to apologize, but 5 days later this has not been done.

Smangele Mbhele, the "Customer Care Manager", is useless and non-responsive.

I am totally dissappointed with the service. I hired the car on the 23.03.2025 until the 31.03.2025. I booked through booking.com. At the airport I was informed that I just needed to call on the 31.03.2025 to extend my rental until the 06.05.2025 this would be a simple call and the car would be extended. On the 31.03.2025 I called, sent emails and also tried the emergency number without any luck. I called for at least 3 days, No one called me back. I had to keep trying. I was then todl I had to bring the car immediatly as they could not rent the car for longer then 30 days. There was a license disc on the car which needed to be done by the 08.04.2025, so this was not the issue. I think that your staff need to be trained better, they lack knowlege, experience and have therefore destroyed my trust and faith in Woodford. I have been booking with you for the last two years and I never had such a bad experience.

I finally took the car back on the 03.04.2025.
I was left in the dark which is not good customer service.

I would like to know how are you going to compensate me for running around to bring the car back to the airport and going to another rental company at the airport where I rented another car for the duration of my stay in South Africa until the 06.05.2025. My time is precious and I had no time for this. The constent calling to your company and no one comes back to you. Just emails saying bring the car back. DISASTER

This relates to the Richards Bay branch. Staff were polite. My complaints relate to the billing process. (1) rental deposit was actually taken from my account - not ring-fenced as is normally the case. Return of the deposit post-rental took in excess of two weeks. (2) my rental extension was changed from a mileage of 100 km/day to unlimited mileage with my attention not being drawn to this. The result was that the rental cost per week doubled. Due to "Company Policy" no refund was offered for this error.
I shall not be using Woodford again.

When I collected the car I noticed several scratches on the car and asked the agent to inspect the car before I leave, he informed me that they won’t do an inspection but will send me a report via email. I had to call them several times and finally got some report. When I returned the car, the first thing they did was an inspection of the car and claimed that I caused some damage to the car. They withheld my deposit for several weeks, in addition to deposit, charges for alleged damages. They charged R500 for damage handling fee, and claimed that it was waived as a “goodwill” gesture, which didn’t happened……Insist on an inspection of the vehicle upon collection

The car’s condition was completely unacceptable — the wheels were neither balanced nor aligned, making it unsafe to drive. Once the speed exceeded 70 km/h, the vehicle began veering dangerously off course, rendering highway travel impossible. Customer service was nonexistent, with no attempt to apologise, address or compensate for this clear breach of contract. Avoid this company at all costs; it is poorly managed and appears to operate with highly questionable business ethics.

Be very careful, they have illegally charged my credit card SIX MONTHS later without my consent, they store your details and charge you later

I am shocked at the service received from Woodford car hire.

I hired a car in November 2024, 4 months ago. I have received a traffic fine but no proof by photo, not even a date, time or place where this happened.

I was then presented a link to pay R400 + other charges of R72. I was also provided an invoice from Woodford changing the fine into my name, although the car is in Woodfords name. I agreed that if I was at fault I would pay the R400 fine, but have received no proof. I asked why Woodford could not just pay the fine and then bill me the fine amount but received no reply to this.

Woodford then deducted the R287.50 without my approval and transferred the fine into my name.which I am now forced to pay a total of R760, almost double the initial fine.

I am shocked at the service received and why there is no simpler and cost efficient method to pay this fine..

Will I use Woodford again when travelling to SA? They were my first choice in car hire but I doubt they will be going forward.

Got our car which faulty. We informed them we needed a replacement. They continuously ignored my calls and messages and passed me around to multiple people who ignored and lied to me. They left me stuck for 3 nights with an unusable car. I lost a day in Kruger and had to pay for extra accomodation where I was stuck. I asked them to cover this which they ignored. I had to get in touch with booking.com who I had booked through, Woodford then lied to them and said they had dealt with the issue even though noone had rang me back to tell me anything. They said they had no drivers, no cars and a lost of other lies. Absolutely shocking customer service. I would never use them again

Really great people - helpful and friendly. Couldn’t do enough to help. Check-in process with Ryon (YNWA) super efficient and collection/drop off smooth and easy with Dhengan and Bradley. Will definitely use these guys again on next visit from UK!

I rented a car from Woodford at OR Tambo airport. The location of the rental companies had moved since a previous visit, but was easy to find. The representative who dealt with my car hire was very helpful, friendly and polite.
Upon returning my car, the man who booked it in it was very pleasant. I had to email Woodford after i returned home on a couple of occasions, and received prompt and courteous replies. Excellent customer service.

Hired a car from King Shaka airport. Process was smooth and easy. Car was fine nothing special but it got the job done. Had a minor rattle which I rectified but did point it out when I returned the car. Value for money and had no issues at all. First time to use them so will definitely book again.