Don’t use MAUI!
We rented a Campervan from MAUI for a 5 weeks NZ trip in November-December.
What should have become a trip of a lifetime was badly influenced by the very low quality of service and product of MAUI.
Their main fault was delivering the wrong campervan!
We had explicitly booked the MAUI Ultima for 2 persons. The choice was based on the usable seating area up front so you don’t have to convert the bed in the back every day. They delivered the Ultima PLUS. This sounds like an upgrade and that’s also what they made us believe…but it isn’t.
The plus means an extra bed in this seating area which in summary makes this entire arrangement unusable. When complaining, MAUI hides behind their small print which basically states they can supply you whatever interior lay-out they fancy. Really bad!
And that’s not all by a long way:
State of maintenance:
• When we picked up the camper it was clear this was an “experienced” model. It had quite a few dents and evidence of heavy usage and was not very clean inside. After 1 day it appeared to have a leak. Water was continuously dripping from under the sliding door. As we were still in the neighborhood of Christchurch we went back to THL and they repaired the leak. This has cost us all in all nearly a day.
• Later we also discovered a leak in the shower. We never found the source but the floor of the shower/toilet is always wet and everything you put there also.
• The boiler is producing lukewarm water at best.
• The furniture is of an abominable quality. Everything is making noises all the time. Nothing fits well and looks like very old and heavily used Ikea stuff. The locks on the cupboards are of a weak plastic which develops cracks. On one drawer this gave way and it went through the camper while driving. As we were in the neighborhood of Queenstown we went to the THL center there and they repaired this (they knew the problem very well). This costed us again quite a few hours.
• Most locks on the outside doors for gas etc. are sort of broken. E.g. the door for the gas bottle needs a lot of wiggling before the lock will turn.
• Inventory is bad. It’s a random collection of stuff. Broken and blunt knives, Cracked an leaking mugs, Bad pans etc.
• The front table is highly unstable.
• There are zero tools. Hence every problem like the falling apart furniture becomes a big problem.
Design/execution of camper:
• The upper cupboards have a sort of “rolling doors” which is a problem. Not only do they rattle constantly, they slide into the back of the already tiny cupboards pushing out the content.
• The bed is too small. I’m 1.80m tall and don’t fit in the bed.
• The sink in the kitchen is so small it’s basically unusable.
• There’s no inverter in the camper. Hence when not plugged in there’s no way of getting 220V, not even for small usage like charging a laptop etc. In my opinion quite ridiculous in 2024.
Service THL:
• Nobody seems really interested in “customer happiness”. E.g. when I asked in the Queenstown office if we could get allowance to drive the (in their documentation forbidden) Crown range road (it was good weather, we had an appointment with friends in the Cardrona Hotel and we knew much larger campers also drive this road) the answer was literally a rude No. No friendliness, no question why, just this is the rule and that’s it.
• When the plastic lock was repaired I found another cracked one a few days later. It was clear nobody had been interested in delivering a good product, just repair the problem and get rid of this customer asap.
• A few days ago we got an email about harsh driving. They actually were accusing us of harsh driving in a so called “courtesy message for our own safety”. Let me be clear that we drive safely. Funny to hear from other Maui camper drivers they received the same email.
• The table of the extra outside chairs and table is laughable. It’s the most flimsiest tired old thing you’ll ever see.
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