Vehicle hire company accused of unethical conduct

Imagine hiring a car from a local car hire agency and being presented with a car that is dented, is missing a bumper and decorated with tacky stickers, delivered four hours late. You complain that the state of the car is not acceptable and instead of receiving good customer service and an acceptable car, you are verbally abused and lightly assaulted. Or what if the hiring service agent verbally promises you 150 inclusive kilometers per day but upon returning the car you find out (that) the contract that you signed clearly stated only 100 inclusive kilometers per day?

Two Courier readers claim to have been subjected to verbal abuse and unacceptable customer service when they hired cars form Boss Vehicle Hire in Stanger. Sonja Whittaker, a 52-year-old Zimbali resident rented a car from Boss Vehicle Hire when her car was in for repairs.

“I wanted to support a local business as it is more convenient and out of loyalty,” said Whittaker.

She signed up to hire an automatic VW Polo, to be delivered to her home at 11.35 am. Whittaker claims Ahmed Mitha only delivered the car at 3.50 pm, missing a bumper and decorated with what she described as tacky stickers.

Whittaker was not happy and Mitha offered to exchange it with the manual Kia Rio that a colleague had been waiting in at the Zimbali gate. But when they arrived at the gate there was no sign of the promised replacement vehicle. Whittaker claims Mitha lost his temper, verbally abused and slapped her on her arm when she asked to be taken back home. When Mitha refused to take her home and demanded that she get out of his car, Whittaker retaliated by hitting him on his arm and shouting to the security guards to call security.

Whittaker called Boss Vehicle Hire demanding that she be refunded but she never heard from them again. To date Whitaker has not been refunded her R3500 deposit.

Umhlali police is investigating a case of assault and fraud made by Sonja Whittaker against Ahmed Mitha.

The Courier gave Mitha the opportunity to respond to her claims.

“We deny the above. The lady was rude and vulgar and we have two witnesses to substantiate this”, said Mitha.

Mitha said Boss Vehicle Hire contacted Whittaker to inform her that the car would only be delivered between 3.30 pm and 4 pm.

“CCTV surveillance from Zimbali Estate will show the vehicle had a bumper and reveal the client’s disgusting and racist behaviour”, said Mitha.

The second unhappy client in as many weeks claims to also have been verbally abused and shouted at by Mitha and has sent the Courier a voice recording to back up his claim. Sizwe Makhanya hired a car from Boss Vehicle Hire and claims he was told he had 150 inclusive kilometers per day and signed the contract without checking. As per the signed contract Makhanya only received 100 inclusive kilometers per day.

In the recording you can clearly hear Makhanya discussing the problem with a male, who he said is Mitha.

“Shut up! Keep those comments to yourself! I’ll f**k you up just now!” said the man when Makhanya tried to defend himself.

Makhanya admits it was a mistake on his part for him not to read the contract before signing it. Makhanya said Mitha should never have told him he had 150 inclusive kilometers per day when the contract states differently and Mitha crossed professional boundaries by shouting at and insulting Makhanya in front of Boss Vehicle Hire staff.

Once again the Courier gave Mitha an opportunity to respond.

“The customer is an educated journalist with the iLembe Eyethu. The invoice was written out in his presence and he accepted and signed our contract before hiring the car. Kindly ask him for his copy of the invoice to confirm this”, said Mitha.

Mitha did not respond to Makhanya’s claims of verbal abuse or the question of the verbal promise contradicting the contract.