Sweet as Campers

We booked a high top Toyota Hiace for a long time and had lots of trouble with it. At pick up, we realized the car doesn’t have the 2 meters inside height as promised on the website. When we tried talking to the Manager Anthony Laughton his words were to “go fuck ourselves” and “take it or leave it”. Moreover, the car was dirty (port-a-potty clearly used) and the fridge was not working at all (he had given me the warning before, that the fridge “wasn’t working well”). When we tried negotiating for a car suitable for our needs (traveling with a baby) we were yelled at and threatened by his staff on the ground (seriously not the way you want to start your holiday!). In the end, we took the car out of desperation because finding a van in high season without booking in advance is not only very expensive but sometimes just impossible (and Anthony knows that). The staff refused to hand out a copy of the contract to mark dents and scratches - even after asking for it multiple times (they never sent it via mail either, as promised). After the horrible pickup, we repeatedly tried talking to Anthony about possibilities for changing to a bigger and functional Van. All we got was mad mails and calls (which we are happy to share if somebody doubts our story). He accused us of trying to lower the price, which we never did. He said that we were not thankful for the upgrade (there was no upgrade – we just rented the more expensive van) or the good price we got (what good is a low price if you don’t get what you ordered). He also threatened us by saying that using the GPS tracker he would always know were we are and that he knows people to make our trip unpleasant. The service we were hoping for by paying the money for a rental van was nonexistent. When we had problems with the van (the driver’s door lock stoped working), we were too scared to call and knew, that it wasn’t going to be fixed anyway. Fortunately, on the road we didn’t experience bigger problems. At drop of, Anthony tried apologizing for the trouble he had caused, blaming it on medication and illness. Dear Anthony, if you are sick I am sorry for you – however, this is in no way any excuse for the trouble, fear, sleepless nights and time lost, trying to organize alternatives that you caused us. Summing up, don’t be fooled by the low price he might offer you – don’t book with sweetascampers! As said earlier, if you have questions regarding our story, please email me at [email protected] . I am happy to help in order to prevent you from making our mistake again.

The motorhome was picked up by us in bad condition and only got worse as out trip continued. The two side window were taped up with duct tape, the interior had several latches that were damaged or broken (fridge would not stay closed when moving, overhead latch to one bin was not even there and taped up and the door handle was cracked). This vehicle should have not be rented out for trips in areas where there are hills as it was so under powered at times we were hard pressed to do 50 klm per hour, when we started small inclines there was always a line up of people lined up behind us where we would have to pull over to let pass. After the first couple of days the brakes begin squealing and continued throughout the trip and in the last couple of days the motorhome began to jump out of 5th gear when driving. In short when we identified these issues along our trip to the owner his response was we told you this was a older vehicle its a camper not the HILTON. Be aware of this rental agency is what I am saying.

1) Paid for 1 advertised van and delivered another, not even of the same make. 2) No instructions or helpful hand over at all. You're given the keys and that's it. Work the rest out yourself. Oh, you mentioned you've never had a campervan and would like some help? Well. Here's some switches. Turn them on and you're good to go. READ: The hand off person has no idea about this van and possibly any campervan. 3) No, not all necessities are provided (as advertised). We purchased basics like porta-paks and dishwashing liquid all the way to a plug for the sink... so you know... you could actually wash up. 4) While the van was somehow Certified Self Contained it clearly did not meet this criteria. Again, from things like no bin to there being absolutely NO WAY near enough water to sustain anyone for 3 days. We couldn't wash the dishes (after getting a plug) and do 1 stop-start to soap up 1 minute shower, without needing to refill the water tank. 5) The grey water tank we were told was emptied for us, but we weren't provided fresh water. Except... The grey water tank also wasn't emptied and it's clear why - because again the hand off guy has NO CLUE. The handle to the grey water tank was bent upwards and this caused the almost understandable confusion. We had a lovely local legend help us with his - and not Sweet As Campers who we had been in contact with about a related issue for almost a week.... 6) The hot water was entirely unreliable. Not just bad wind, or unstable camp ground. You were just 99% likely to have to wash up in cold water, doesn't matter anyway since we were having to pay for more expensive campsites so we could actually shower... AGAIN, something we were in contact with you about for almost a week before eventually giving up on any communications with you. We never got a fix, never got a sorry or a discount (and more on this later). 7) There are no checks. No photos, no support for you or the company at all on the condition of the van. So we got an extra $200 charge on our card (with no prior notice or invoice) for a 'broken grey water pipe'. Yeah, the one they gave to us with a bent pipe? Apparently it was smashed when they received it. Well, we emptied the grey water tank minutes from the straight, well made roads of Christchurch. So NO. We DID NOT break this pipe. 8) Oh, and all the bedding and towels were mildewy and had holes in them. In summary, don't go with Sweet As Campers. The local legend who helped us was with a company called Cruzy Campers. He cared enough to help when these guys should have done the bare minimum.

From 16 November 2019 we are travelling around the North and South Island of beautiful New Zealand with a Fiat Ducato camper from SweetasCampers which is very old (over 250,000 km!). It was handed over to us as planned, however Unfortunately without a full tank. From the beginning we had to deal with major technical issues including: - when it’s connected to 240V we get electrical shocks whenever opening the door with the key or touching any metal based part of the camper - the yellow check engine light turned on - the rpm turned higher than normal without pushed throttle (1200 rpm) - brakesystem warninglight is on frequently - scratching noise when changing third to second gear - camper suddenly starts to jerk while driving with no power when pushing the gas pedal Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach our local contact agent for days. The message on his answering machine said that he is out of Office and even out of country! Today when we could finally „talk“ to each other, he was very angry and offensive towards us on the phone, he did not let us even say anything, repeated frequently that he doesn‘t see any major problem about these things. He told us that he is absolutely sure that there is nothing wrong with the camper. We only shouldnˋt connect it to power anymore. He also ensured that the camper had a service recently. However, the service sticker on the windscreen says that service was due on 31/10/19 and there is a note saying that only oil was changed. Instead of giving us useful advice or support we were taught how to release the hand brake, asked if we were familiar with manual vehicles and told that our English was not good enough to talk and so we should send an email. We are tired of getting offensed and getting treated like we were stupid. We feel very unsafe and alone with this. If you also think that this is not OK then we recommend NOT to book your camper with SweetasCampers!

Totally disaster, never use this company......my holiday was fuxked up due to this dishonest company. 1. Give a totally different car to you and tell you to accept it at the day of pick-up. 2. Shift your car returning time to earlier by its side. 3. Charge you extra money from your credit card without any notification and details. Hopefully no one would suffer again, please be aware of this " Sweet As Campers" car rental company.

hi I have used the sweet as pimped campers a few times and they are very cool they area bit older but I was able to pick one up in wellington and drop it off in Queenstown one one trip I did get a flat tyre on a hill so I just called the AA and they turned up and we were away The camper we were in had a massive comfortable bed and had a gas cooker and out door furniture my husband mt self and out 7 year old all sleeped in the same queen size bed and there was plenty of room so it was all sweet as