Overall Scores

Growing up in New Zealand I always thought Jucy Campervans would be amazing, the bright green vans are everywhere and everyone seems to enjoy them. For us, camping with a Jucy Compass Campervan was not this case. When we arrived to pick up our van we weren’t greeted, 3 employees continued to chat amongst themselves about their personal life and one stood up and announced he was going for a “durrie” (cigarette). One of the employees finally decided to look up our reservation. After a good 20 minutes we sat there waiting for her to work out how to do her job. The lady mentioned that because we had booked “Stress Free Insurance” we would get the camping chairs for free! Lovely we thought, until she had seen we already pre-paid so the free add on chairs were out of the question now… it took her a further 20 minutes to work out if we had paid in full for the whole campervan or if we had a remaining balance, in which she had to ask another 2 employees to help her. We were then asked to wait outside for another 20 minutes until the lady drove our campervan around from the back and began to give us a very uneducated, uninformative description about how the campervan worked and it’s features – none of which she had any idea about what she was talking about. If English was my second language I would struggle to understand this process with Jucy and the way their employees act. After a near 1.5 hour delay we were finally on the road to begin our road trip. A 7 hour drive later we arrived and figured our how the features of the van worked by ourselves. We discovered 1 camping chair broken, the van speakers were blown and the secondary battery didn’t work so we had no refrigeration. On return of the vehicle no form of a sorry or discount was even offered to amend this annoying and last time experience with Jucy. On top of that, the social media manager of Jucy “Lucy” replies to questions online but is rude and unhelpful.

We have rented a Jucy van in Nov. 2019 and had some problems while on the road. The customer support of Jucy Rentals was not helping us at all – they told us that we should find a solution and left us on our own. We were stuck for 5 days with our van and lost 1/3 of the time of our road trip due to their lack of interest and unwillingness to support us. They then charged us an estimated amount to solve the problem without being able to give any prove how this costs come to be. Apart from our experience on the road, the staff at pick-up and drop-off were lacking motivation and interest in customers. We had to wait pretty long to be dealt with and there was a queue of people on both occasions. We rented a Compass with a pod and got a vehicle with a tent on the roof. We were shown a short video how to use the tent. We were also sent-off without sufficient explanaition of the vehicle. I have already rented at another company in 2017, so I know how much time and effort others put into explaining the car and NZ-roads. Due to our problems on the road we were “lucky” to experience two of their cars. The compass, which I already mentioned, is rather unpractible and looks as if it offers a lot of space but doesn’t. I would not recommend renting this car for 4 people! After the compass was towed, we got a Cabana. This car was honestly really great and offered a lot of space. It was, however, already damaged at the rear when we got it so we had to find a solution for this as well. Please don’t get confused: There are a lot of Jucy vans on the road, their social media marketing is great and they seem to be one of the largest rental companies in NZ. This does not proove that they are good. They are, in fact, the worst.

From the moment we arrived at the collection point in Christchurch, it was clear that chaos reigned supreme. With no semblance of organization, customers were left to stand around aimlessly, some having waited up to five hours due to the company’s policy of waiting for vans to be returned before hastily recycling and “cleaning” and reissuing them with little preparation. This was hardly the welcome we expected after a grueling 24-hour flight from Europe.
The van itself was a Pandora’s box of problems. The sink was clogged with rotten food, which we had to clear out ourselves, only to find it still drained at a snail’s pace. To add insult to injury, the gas bottle was empty, a discovery made at the most inopportune time—while trying to prepare our first meal. We emailed JUCY and although the company’s response was to reimburse us for a replacement upon receipt submission, this did little to satiate our immediate hunger. Upon attaching a receipt to the email the response from Roh who we were in contact with was “why have you emailed us a receipt?” – how about reading the email for the answer, it’s because you asked for it!!! This was the start of the extremely poor communication from the so called Customer Service team.

The cooker’s ignition was a lost cause, and even when resorting to matches, only one burner remained lit. Our journey was further marred by a persistent battery warning light, leading to not just one, but two garage visits during our holiday to replace firstly the battery and then the alternator. These unplanned detours resulted in lost bookings for things we had planned for my Birthday and Wedding Anniversary which lost us over 200NZD, not to mention the exorbitant costs of another 200NZD in calls to JUCY to try and address the van’s faults. On the first occasion JUCY stated they would email us the details of a local mechanic once they had sourced one. Which is fair enough as using our mobile phones in New Zealand is extremely expensive. We heard nothing back so had no choice but to call to get the information. The rep on the phone (Malika) had the cheek to try and tell us off stating they had been trying to call us, despite saying they would response would be by email knowing full well we had phones switched off and had no signal at the campsite anyway!!!

Communication with the company was an exercise in futility, with nearly half of our 40 emails, primarily to a representative called Malika, going unanswered. Even our identity seemed to be of little concern, as they managed to get our name wrong multiple times.
We sought some form of compensation for the myriad of issues and the failure to provide a van in suitable condition, only to be met with what seemed like a strategic silence, perhaps in hopes that we would tire and accept the subpar service.

In conclusion, our experience with JUCY was nothing short of a debacle, characterized by poor service, inadequate vehicle maintenance, a lack of customer care, and lost holiday time & money. I cannot recommend this company and urge potential customers to consider alternative options for a stress-free holiday. I’m left with no alternative but to now try and seek legal recourse to get a suitable resolution as emails are just ignored.