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Do not use this worthless company. After calling a couple times and offering to send their paperwork back via email, the response was, “Well, it will take one or two days to get a reply using that address.” To that I asked if faxing would be better. They said yes, and I tried for two days to fax the information to a number that wouldn’t receive transmission. I then emailed the paperwork and waited a couple days. After receiving no response at all, I called again and received yet another curt response. This time I received a valuable piece of information. They seemed to be out of cars. I understand that it would take a grand total of 6 seconds to have replied to my email, but I stubbornly stick to my requirement of a company at least stating they can’t help instead of leading me along and wasting my time.
This is a miserable company with absolutely no sense of customer service. I have no clue how anyone can give these clowns a good review. They do have my paperwork, and if I see that $100 charge come over on my card, I will be in contact with the BBB in a freaking heartbeat.
Stay away from these extremely rude and inefficient people.
There is a BBB in the USVI ??? I am impressed - what is their address and phone?
EO: if there were, my bet is they won't know how to use a computer either. Why is it that just because everything is done by computer up north, that people think that a business here knows how they work? Just saying.
I remember a post from either Stjohnjulie or Pia some time ago about one of the car rental places that keeps all their information on a big board hung on the wall, in a room other than where their computer is located. I searched but couldn't find the post, but would possibly explain the mixup.
I have been using them since the mid 1990's and never had an issue, in fact I have had great service. They do operate on island time, in fact, they do not have a computer in the office. Everything is handwritten.
The email is answered and monitored by someone at their home I believe.
It wasn't me 🙂 But it is very common practice on St. John to have everything hand written. Not very many of the companies here are computerized. Almost all of the businesses on St. John are small independents and do not use their computers for much. It is expensive to have software written for you needs. And then you have to have training. Then there is the issue of the power going out all time and not being able to access your information or getting it blown up entirely.
I have a small business on St. John and we are making attempts to become 'computerized' but it is kind of double the work because we still have to have everything hand written to fall back on. So, sometimes it's just not as easy as it sounds. Sorry you had a bad experience with St. John Car Rental...but I have to tell ya....most of the businesses here are just not capable of doing things the way you are used to 'back home'.
There isn't a local BBB here, but you can go online and file a complaint against pretty much anyone. Whether or not your complaint will receive a response is iffy. I can't ever recall anyone here (on St. John) claiming to be a member with them or any mention of the BBB at all.
locally we have the department of licensing and consumer affairs.
but if it was so difficult to get to them, why did you not move on to another car rental agency? can't force someone to take your money.
your rental agent or concierge should be able to help you find a car rental company too.
fwiw, here is the web site of the dlca - http://dlca.vi.gov/
welcome to Vinow brak. Sorry that your only post is of a bad experience. Hope your trip turns out fine and you let us know of the good things you found while you visited the islands. I think that while you look for a rental vehicle you will find similar experiences with other companies as well. That is at least as far as communication goes. Please remember that you are renting from small family owned and operated companies in the VI and business as most everyting is subject to island time. I found that once you accept that this is part of the charm and not a failing you will find that the island time zone is a very nice place to be.
Feeling bad for you. Definitely you should move to another car rental company to take services. Wish you a great trip ahead....
I also had a terrible experience with St John Car rental. They were very rude to me numerous times. The accused me of lying!!
They did try to charge me the $100 and I had to make a huge effort to get it corrected but I was determined they were not going to get my money. Some vacationers I met on island also said they had a reservation to get their car at 9am but did not get it until 3pm.
Just got back yesterday and had another great experience with them. No problems, great service.
Not sure where those vacationers got their info about a 9am pick up, but I have been doing business with them since 1996 and I have never known them to offer a pick up that early.
I am not saying that people did not have bad eperiences, but just wanted to let people know that it is not the norm
hm.
sometimes the experience one is expecting, one does not receive. but this experience turns out to be just fine for someone else. i have never worked with this company, and i am certainly sorry for the way things turned out for the poster.
i went to maui once with a friend. we wanted to experience the legendary drive along the "road to hana"... where one could experience, at the end, the best taro burgers on the island (so it was said). a little travelogue disc we got, let us know, not to expect the type of solicitousness we may have been used to where we came from.
i think that was really over-simplifying. there are definitely both social and technological differences just as in many smaller towns in the united states and around the world. if you were trying to rent a car in a province in france, would the experience have been the same? we all have options. you throw out multiple feelers, and where you touch what you consider gold, you work with it. where you don't receive the comeback expected, it does not matter.
we also assume a lot, and don't ask what we consider "silly" questions sometimes. for example, one world traveler was accustomed to having an escort not only pick her up, but taxi passengers and handle luggage. here in the u.s. virgin islands, she found that she had to pay to have baggage taken, and that only a licensed taxi driver could handle her extra passengers, subject to the current tariff for a private taxi run, which is more expensive than for just grabbing a taxi on the street. she had not been informed by her agent, and so she got a surprise, which led her to say that she felt like a "sitting duck".
it happens. the only thing those of us who live here can do, is to offer guidance and advice, and suggest that you be flexible, not assume, and if you don't get what you want, have more than one oar in the water.
Try L&L Jeep Rental. We used them this year again and they are wonderful. They meet you at the ferry dock when you arrive with your jeep and pick up the jeep from the ferry dock when you leave. Very fast response to emails and their jeeps were in better shape than a lot of other jeep companies that we have used. This year we had four jeeps for our large group and it went so smoothly I wouldn't think of using anyone else.
I love the idea that within 10 minutes of arriving on the island we were in our jeeps and on the way to our house.
We have used St. John Car Rental every trip to STJ and NEVER had a problem. Just because they may have had an issue with a fax machine does not make them a bad company. They have always been kind to us.
From my experience you get what you give......Be Nice!
