JUCY Campervan & Motorhome Hire - Cairns Reviews 34

My car broke down in 90 km north of Winton in Queensland
No replacement car was available,
Initially Jucy consultant took some responsibility and promised to pay for my trip back to Cairns in public transport. It involves taking 2 separate buses over 4 days as the buses do not run daily. They also approved to cover 2 out of 4 nights of hotel accommodations on the way.
Based on their approval I paid 270 dollars for 2 nights in a hotel in Winton where I am currently waiting for the first bus.

At 9.28pm, long after I checked in Winton hotel,I received a message from Dan B -senior consultant, saying that once he escalated the issue, Jucy management decided that they would no longer cover any additional costs at all - no transport back to Cairns, no hotels.
Yes, I checked in into a hotel Jucy senior consultant approved, yet at 9.28pm I was informed that they reversed their decision and they would not reimburse the hotel charges.

This is how Jucy management treats their clients. Jucy old car brakes down in the Outback, the company cannot provide a replacement vehicle and Jucy management tells you “Manage yourself mate, no help from us whatsoever ”

It means I have to spend 21 hours on 2 buses to get back to Cairns airport, all at my own expense-around 350 dollars and pay for 4 nights in hotels on the way - ie. spend another 570-600 dollars on accommodation.

And Jucy? They offer to refund the rental cost of the car which broke down on day 4 of my holidays and left me stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Dan B from Jucy finished his email saying “we are happy to help”.
It sounded like a sarcastic joke.

Official complaint will follow as customers cannot be treated this way in Australia.

JUCY car rentals were absolutely shambolic and disgraceful to deal with and I would recommend to avoid them at all costs.

They will do everything in their power to keep their deposit and tried to charge me $3000 because of a crack in the windscreen that had been there already when I picked up the car.

Their customer service was appalling particularly Fernanda who was incredibly unhelpful and difficult to deal with. I would definitely not recommend them and will be spreading the word.

Extremely Disappointing Experience with JUCY – Safety & Hygiene Concerns Ignored

Unfortunately fell far below the standards we expected, especially having had a great experience hiring in the past.

From the outset, the vehicle presented multiple serious issues:

Rear Suspension: Constant squeaking that made us question the safety and roadworthiness of the van.

Black Mould: There were visible mould stains and patches of black mould inside the vehicle. Completely unacceptable in any rental, and downright dangerous for my partner, who has a respiratory condition and is highly sensitive to mould.

Rear Doors: Both rear doors were extremely difficult to open, adding to our frustrations.

We contacted your after-hours support line on Day 1 and requested a vehicle swap. We were not advised that this was even an option, leaving us stuck with a substandard and potentially unsafe vehicle for the entire trip.

When returning the van, we again raised our concerns and were told by your staff that we should be entitled to compensation. We’re still awaiting confirmation on this. They also mentioned that mould stains are to be expected in a vehicles in Cairns.

This experience was both disappointing and unacceptable, not just due to the condition of the vehicle, but the lack of support we received during the hire. We sincerely hope JUCY takes this feedback seriously.

We will not be hiring from JUCY again unless there is a clear improvement in vehicle maintenance, hygiene, and customer care.

Pros - Cheapest big company van rental (but you get what you pay for), staff are friendly, with the extra insurance check out and in very easy and quick (in hindsight too quick didn't really tell us how to make the bed etc), they paid for a replacement gasmate bbq when ours broke, you can stand up in the van

Cons - very poor build quality and space lay-out. The van is massive but they utilise the space so so poorly. No clothes storage. No bin. Gas BBQ is in a box you have to take out every time (unlike other vans we have rented where its just a pull out draw.
Bed is a massive massive faff to make everything. It involves removing a 3 part table and then rearranging loads of cushions before putting a sheet on.
Again other vans just utilise the space way way better!

Bed bugs, broken car, with 400,000km on this car. this is the worse experience I have ever experienced! Picked up the car from Cairns Australia, and plan on returning the car in Melbourne. Second day sleeping in the roof tent, I have found bed bug but didn’t know it was bed bug at first. Woke up with my entire back and leg covered in bites. I thought it was mosquito for the first couple of days, but it gotten worse. I have picture to show you guys how disgusting my skins are right now due to the bits from sleeping in the tent. It is covered in both of my arms legs and feet, and some on the chin and my back.

Second huge problem, on the third day the car got stucked in mud, and have to call them and paid $440 to get it out, and the girl on the phone call asking me to pay $3000 bound right the right even tho I have paid for the insurance.

Two days later, due to how old the car key is, it just snapped in half, and have to also paid $330 to get a locksmith to come and get a new key, thank god I was not in middle of nowhere.

And juts earlier today, the entire back bumper fall off in the middle of the highway. This car is literally on life support. Called JUCY customer, they tell me to pay for the fix and reimburse me later, like WHAT? I traveled with limited budget, I don’t have extra to cover it up. Anyways, ended up telling them I’m just going to duck tape it, they agreed, I told them I’m going to return the car early, because all of these issues, and they said due to policy they aren’t willing to pay back the dates when I return early. I’m literally going to call my credit card company when I get back and get my money back, because this is supposed to be a fun trip turned into absolutely disgusting nightmare with bed bugs biting me, car breaks down every two days, and when the weather gets cold it is also very hard to start up the car so good luck with that.

Edit from the response: yes the car stuck is not covered in the “insurance” only if you didn’t put a worn out tire on the car maybe the car will still have a grip and allows me to drive??

Second, your car key snapped in half and that’s only if you didn’t give me a worn out key that’s been used millions of times? Your car is old, and it is full of bugs why didn’t you address that? Respond to my email already, I sent it two days ago, I returned the car early but still never got any confirmation email.

We hired a Jucy 6 berth motor home for our family of 4 to drive down the Qld coast. We had issues with the vehicle from day 1 and noticed beetles and small bugs in the overcab bed and around the kitchen table fold-out bed on night 1. Initially we didn't think too much of it and just removed the bugs and searched around all the beds - removing all the beetles we found. In the mean time we had the following problems:

- AC issues (we sweltered through drives)
- Cruise control not working intermittently
- Cabin door lock not working
- Toaster and cook top smoking - so we could not cook inside
- Toilet door loose and opening when turning/driving

Then a few days into our trip, we came out in bites and skin rashes and had to get medical attention and creams to treat ourselves for bed bugs / beetle allergies. We again searched the motor home and found more beetle larvae and beetles that we photographed and removed.

Throughout our journey we reported all of our issues, but Jucy was unable to coordinate repairs / cleaning or replacement due to a number of public holidays and a long weekend. They expected us to travel hours out of our way, to sacrifice a day of travel to facilitate repairs after the weekend, but we were on a tight schedule to drive 1000s of kms over 5 days and would have missed our flight. They were not willing to have a technician meet us on site at a stop over.

We considered staying in a hotel, but had already paid so much money for the motor home and caravan park sites that we decided to squash onto the lower beds and barely slept. My kids cried one night because they were worried about getting more bug bites.

Jucy initially were very empathetic and promised a refund for our inconvenience and I would honestly say trauma. We also incurred costs of a few hundred $$$ in creams and Dr bills. We then spent 2 full days laundering everything we owned the day before our flight, instead of enjoying our last night in Brisbane and the day we arrived home. We continued to use creams for 3 months. It was a horrible experience to ensure we rid ourselves of the bed bugs / beetles.

We then emailed Jucy over a 4 month period, as they periodically disengaged and eventually just stopped replying to our requests for updates on our complaint. Months later after countless calls and emails and promises a manager would call us, the calls never came. The last reply stated we should have reported the issues during our trip and nothing could be proven - they essentially called us liars. This is despite reporting our issues at the time and on return - over and over to customer service and them promising our issues were logged. It's been exhausting and a terrible and expensive experience that we just want to forget. Getting no compensation for a holiday ruined, bed bugs / skin irritation, medical costs and trauma on the side is a real slap in the face from Jucy. There lack of action and response and dismissal of our complaint is negligent.

I do not recommend you hire a Jucy rental if you want to have an enjoyable and trouble free (bugs free) holiday!

Get rid of your crap cars - the modern Toyota Corolla or similar in the picture did not match what we got. We got a beaten up Toyota of some sort. Near 7yrs old, $425,000+km on the clock, dodgy brakes and no pick up to pass cars safely and for $630 5days nz. Booked through DiscoveryCars Cairns. I should have taken note of the reviews.

Condition of the car was poor

Car was dangerously unsafe. The passenger side seatbelt randomly unbuckled THREE TIMES when driving without touching it. Also their reply is nonsense no one has been in contact to discuss the issues, they don't care.

It took over 90 mintues to get the car. Your only option is to get a shuttle. I waited 30 minutes on the phone for the shuttle and got hung up on multiple times. None of the operators knew where I was supposed to go. So wandered around following the "green line", which isn't continuous, there's no signs to tell you which way to go and it isn't even painted for most of it. So we ended up walking from one end of the domestic terminal all the way to international because contrary to their email there are zero signs at the airport and the lines they tell you to follow aren't even painted. And no one on the phone would help because they kept putting me on hold.

Once finally on the shuttle the driver went back to the pick up area after leaving three times.

The car was in abismal condition with dents, rust and marks everywhere. They wanted us to complete an inspection report on the car marking all the areas of damage on a diagram... this is after waiting 90 minutes mind you. If I had actually filled out the paper, it would have been marks everywhere, literally no point.

Honestly I thoroughly regret using Jucy and will never again, dangerous unsafe cars and terrible service. I will be making complaints to consumer affairs and the ACCC.

even though the customer service were flat out busy
[ saturday morning ] they were cheerfull helpfull acurate and quick

I only just received the car but the checkout was good.

Staff were friendly and very informative, knew where to find required documents and very helpful with ideas of where to visit in Area.
Had 2x kids 5&6 with me booster seats supplied at a good price and easy to use.

The staff were very friendly and accommodating. The car was not fancy but very dependable. We travelled approximately 2000kms with only on incident being a flat tyre. I would recommend Jucy to anyone as they are well serviced throughout Australia and in Our Instance Queensalnd

WE DEFINITELY DO NOT RECOMMEND!

Our JUCY Coaster was a disaster. At pickup in Cairns, features like the grey water and fresh water were not shown to us so we had no idea both containers leaked. Actually, we tried calling JUCY customer service from the first night on because the grey water container leaked and the grey water was all over the car's floor. Our entire belongings were wet and dirty from the grey water which was a really disgusting situation. In addition, we found out the mattresses and the car ceiling were full with mold, entirely dirty. Also, there were ants in the car. We cleaned the entire car after finding out about the ants and they still kept appearing underneath the "kitchen". Moreover, the fresh water hose was leaking, leading to water puddles next to the kitchen. The fresh water hose could only be used with full pressure, making it useless for the "kitchen" in the van because it spashed everything due to missing pressure adjustment options. The fridge was full with rust, really disgusting and not even clean. We had to clean it before use. Also, the steering wheel was shaking when driving 100 km/h which is an acceptable speed on Australian highways.
With these issues, we tried calling JUCY from the first night on (April 25th) and waited for hours just to be kicked out of the customer service line without being connected to an agent. On May 2nd we succeeded after days and days of calling the customer service hotline. The agent told us to speak to the JUCY staff at the drop-off location in Sydney and that we will get a refund at the drop-off location in Sydney.
This was the e-mail we received from the customer service agent:
"Hi M******,

Thank you for bringing to our attention the issues you have encountered with your Jucy vehicle.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration caused by these concerns.
Rest assured, providing a seamless and enjoyable journey for our customers is our utmost priority, and we regret that your experience fell short of expectations.

We have taken note of the following issues you reported:
Leak in the fresh water hose - noticed on 01/05
Grey water container leaks - noticed on 01/05
Steering wheel shakes when speeding - noticed on 01/05
Ceiling mold from day 1
Unclean mattresses with mold from day 1
We understand your reluctance to visit a workshop or Jucy branch to address these matters directly. However, to ensure the best possible resolution, we kindly request that you allow our branch to assess the vehicle upon drop-off. This will enable us to thoroughly evaluate the issues and provide appropriate compensation for the inconvenience experienced.
While we may not be able to offer compensation immediately off-road, rest assured that our team will diligently assess the situation and strive to offer fair compensation upon inspection of the vehicle.

Please contact us if you have any further questions, we are happy to help.

Kind Regards,

Malika
Contact Center on Road Support JUCY Group (2020) Ltd – jucy.com
Talk to me direct:
NZ: 0800 399 736
AU: 1800 150 850
UK: 0800 559 3292
DE: 0800 181 7169
NL: 0800 020 3516
International Number: +64 9 929 2462"

When arriving at the drop-off location in Sydney, the JUCY staff told us that we were told incorrect information and it is not possible to receive a refund at the drop-off. They told us no mechanic and no manager was on-site to handle the issue and have a look at the car. However, the staff member confirmed all of the issues we reported to be true and stated that she would let customer service know we had such a bad experience. She told us we must react to the customer feedback e-mail in order to receive the refund. She promised that managers will read this text and that we would receive a refund.

Until this day (may 27th), we have not heard back from JUCY and are very disappointed. We definitely want and expect a refund because our experience with the JUCY Coaster was really really bad.

WE DEFINITELY DO NOT RECOMMEND!!

Great company friendly and very helpful

When we picked the camper van up, we suddenly had to pay a little over 2000 AUD. The lady told us two times that we would get the money back, if the camper was in the same condition, as when we got it. Now we have been mailing with different people from the Jucy staff, and they are all saying that we are not getting the money back. I can’t believe that we got lied to - and even with the amount of money that we had to paid.

Booking online was extremely smooth and easy and the prices are very affordable!

For the price I paid, the car was amazing, the only thing I missed was the bluetooth, but for the rest all great!

Everything went smooth and the car looks and drives good. I am a happy customer. Would recommend this company for sure!

I have had worse cars and worse experiences from the major rental companies. I hired from JUCY and drove Cairns to Sydney in an SUV. Yes the car was a bit older and had a few Kms on the clock but it was more than up to the job. The staff at both Sydney and Cairns were ultra helpful and made the whole process of pick up and drop off a breeze. Thank you JUCY, I will definitely hire from you again.