Reviews
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We booked a van very cheaply for our stay.
Hannah Fidora -
Exceptional value for the money spent.
jmano -
Easy to get to location in Christchurch.
Cesar Juan -
Great!
jule -
Great value for money - includes pick-up.
Robin & Sandra Dijke
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Horrible campervan experience (Lucky Rambler) especially compared to our other experiences hiring vans through other companies.
1. Broken water pump started leaking halfway through trip
2. Waste water pipe snapped clean off and mechanics could tell it had a very sub par patch job done to it
3. Leaking roof onto our bed during rain
4. Had to fill up the oil twice in 2 weeks despite being told it was fully serviced and ready to go
5. Broken sliding passenger door so you couldn’t open it from the inside when you closed it.
Escalated all these things appropriately to Lucky who were defensive, patronizing and obstructive in discussing any reasonable compensation for providing ultimately what was a faulty product. Disappointing given we’ve only ever had great experiences in Campervans.
This was our first time with Lucky and understandably our last!
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MINOR- velcro didnt hold on curtains - blocked driving view.
Table fasteners didnt work. Constant thrashing. Rear view mirror fell off several times and both interior door handles broke off. Not even glued. Error in booking ferry - different to agreement. MAJOR- Bank said if they release their authority over the bond imnediately it would expedite the return process. Lucky Rentals management NO we WON'T do that. We wont be doing anything. 0 customer service.
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I urge you to read this before booking with this company.
Disappointing Experience: Poor Customer Service and Unsafe Vehicle
My experience has been incredibly disappointing. I rented a vehicle for 17 days, and right from the start, I noticed it pulling to the left. By day two, a local pointed out that the tires had no tread left.
The gas stove was unreliable, requiring multiple attempts to ignite each time. Additionally, the fridge would randomly turn off, forcing me to discard groceries twice during my trip.
I reached out multiple times to address these issues, expressing my disappointment and mentioning the grocery loss. Instead of acknowledging my concerns, the staff simply told me to visit a mechanic two hours away—without considering my travel route.
At the mechanic’s, I learned that the fridge had a loose connection, which was fixed, and the front tires were moved to the back due to their unsafe condition—less than 3mm of tread. The mechanic mentioned that the company needed to replace the tires upon my return.
When I returned the vehicle and showed the staff member the tire photos, she dismissed my concerns, stating the tires were "still legal." This lack of accountability is unacceptable, especially after driving in challenging conditions.
While she eventually apologized for her customer service, it felt insincere. The $72 refund (2 days of hire) I received was insufficient, barely covering my fuel expenses to travel to the mechanics from my pre-booked accommodation.
If you're traveling, especially solo, the last thing you need is to deal with unsafe vehicle issues. I recommend looking elsewhere—choose a company that prioritizes vehicle maintenance, safety, and genuinely cares about its customers
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We hired for 2 weeks from Auckland.
The 1st van had a defect on the handbrake drum and it smelled of sick . The interior was grubby. We ended up with another one The Boss said it was all ready to go.
After 2 hours of driving we noticed a dangerously under inflated rear that was over heating.
We had to spend 2 hours getting it fixed.
The interior was old and grubby. We got bitten by fleas from the duvet and pillow. My partner now has infected bites and needs medical attention.
When we went back n told the Boss. Hes says they always check the tyres this one was 20:psi below due to a leaky valve. He says they also clean the duvets. This cannot be true how can you do a safety check on a vehicle and miss a low tyre. They clean duvet covers but leave duvet pillows festering in van
This vehicle was dangerous and unsanitary. It ruined the first two weeks of holiday and into rhird we are dealing with infected bites
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I had a great experience with Lucky rentals.
I hired a Rodeo for ten days and collected and dropped off at the Auckland depot.
The service was amazing, a lovely young lady! Made me feel at ease and welcomed me and set me up for an awesome trip.
For the price you pay, you get a comfy bed, reliable vehicle, gas cooker, working fridge, small sink with water and all of the cooking utensils and crockery you need!
I have no complaints and believe people should be more appreciative of the fact that this is the cheapest on the market and you get what you pay for, so be grateful and lower your expectations and standards and be realistic to realise the bargain you have booked. Life’s too short!
Look forward to booking again with team Lucky
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We hired a campervan for the school holidays and spent 2 weeks traveling the South Island.
Found the people working at the Christchurch office super helpful, though don't recommend arriving on a weekend or holiday as you could get caught out with the LPG tank, which isn't necessarily full and they told us we could fill it but nothing was open on good Friday and the gas stations couldn't fill or swap the small size bottle (4kg vs standard 9kg). They did replace it with a full one when we came back after driving around for 40 mins. Apart from that the van was pretty old but did everything we needed and we put it through its paces on some pretty sketchy roads. I wasn't bothered with the appearance (ripped upholstery etc) as it was great value for money. Returning the van was simple and also great service when I left something in the van and they dropped it off. Thanks Lucky rentals!
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After convincing myself I had made a massive mistake after reading the negative reviews, we arrived in Christchurch with very low expectations.
We were met with a really friendly, helpful team at the counter. They honestly couldn't be more helpful.
Now about the van. We got a "lucky rover". Yes it is an ex-jucy and has done over 400,000kms. But it drove perfectly and was in pretty good overall condition, i could not fault it, everything worked. It was well set out and comfortable. We had a minor electrical issue with the fridge, But after a few friendly taps with my palm above the switch panel, everything corrected itself and we didn't have any more issues for the second week of the trip.
It liked the fuel in windy conditions and in hilly areas and above 90kmh, but it sat on 100kmh and above just fine and passing other cars was fine with a little planning. Real steep hills certainly slowed the little 4 cylinder down, but that's to be expected. It's a high roofed camper, not a race car.
Thank you so much lucky rentals, it was an excellent experience.
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Do not do it.
They forgot about my PREPAID rental and left me stranded. Furthermore they are trying to charge me for tolls outside of the return date with no physical proof of return on file. It’s a Scam!
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This people just steal your money!!
Lucky rentals you owe me $200 for the this you did give me in my car and that I PAID! I WANT MY MONEY BACK!
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Where do I start?
Worst customer experience in ANY field, not just rentals, I have had.
- Meant to pick up our campervan at 8am, wasn’t ready until 4pm (previous customer was still using until 12pm, then central locking needed fixing- which then didn’t work for the whole trip).
- Terrible customer service, staff ignoring us when we came back to pick up the van, not shown around and if my partner hadn’t checked the cooker (it wasn’t working and needed replacing) we would’ve left with no way to cook.
- Van was dirty and extremely old (570k’s!). Sticker on the inside of the windscreen tells you you’re liable if you overheat the engine and to stop every two hours. This happened to us driving much less and taking care of the vehicle.
- We advised Lucky from the very start we would be returning the van outside of office hours due to an early flight. When we arrived the gates were locked and the key drop was on the inside of a barbed wire fence. Ended up leaving the vehicle outside and were later told you are not allowed to drop vans off outside of hours!!
- $2500 bond is held for THIRTY days on your card. Whilst this is in the T&C’s it is a ridiculously long time. When you ask about this you are immediately referred to your bank.
- To top it all off we had to pay an extra $160 when we returned the van because it was diesel (never mentioned to us at any stage prior). What a great way to finish the trip!
Would go nowhere near this company again and would not advise anyone to rent a vehicle from them.
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please run away from this company.
They are milking their investment and have only old vans with basic features not working: gaz cooker not working, very dirty (the 1st car had all the sofa with big fat stains). They repaired the cover of the boxes for plates and used screws too long which were appearing on the other side (was very dangerous). The 1st day no electricity in the van: two problems electricity cable broken and more important battery for pump and lighting out of service; Had to spend one day to go to a garage to repair everything ( of course we could not go to cap ringa); they forgotten to give us a piece of wood to complete the bed and we had our feet hanging down a hole. We had to spend a lot of time on the phone for getting garage address and we lost 127E of phone cost. Their manager said they will reimbirse us but he never did it and never apologize. On the south same issues, gaz cooker not working, we had rain in the car going through the sliding door. All the people we met using same companies had the same crap than us. Saw many people complaining at their offices.
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The worst experience Ive ever had in my life.
They deliberately changed my rental doc and charged another cars parking violation fee from me. Definitely unluckiest rental. 100 percent do NOT recommend the company. It is the worst.
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This is the most unprofessional car rental company I have ever worked with.
It all started when I wanted to pick up the car. The car was supposed to be ready at 11am and I got the keys at 2pm. Later, I had an issue with a flat battery on the road and called the road assistance. They told me that I was only responsible for the payment if there was no technical issue. The mechanic that came to see my car said that it was an old battery and things like that could happen but there was no evidence that it was my fault. To my surprise, the road assistance charged me NZD 140 (for kickstarting the battery btw). I talked to the road assistance and lucky rental but there was no agreement possible. Without further evidence they claimed that there was nothing wrong with the car, despite the fact that the mechanic said something else. I continuously asked to contact the mechanic himself but they refused. Instead, they wanted me to go to another garage and get the battery tested. Furthermore, I had to deal with false accusations. My words were twisted and turned. Eventually, they just hung up and told me to "get my ass to the car".
Lucky rental car showed a tremendously inaccurate approach.
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Friendly and helpful staff, but when we experienced issues with our campervan (significant) the call centre was not helpful or proactive in getting them resolved.
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Cheap price compared to other companies,I can now see why though, I wouldn't recommend this company.
The vans are very old, and have multiple problems - our door wouldn't open and shut on the first day, and the company did a dodgy fix up job which only got us through for 1 week of our 3 weeks journey. Our clutch on the side door wouldn't release with door handle, and lucky did a shit fix. Hence we had multiple times of becoming frustrated trying to open and shut door. Then the other door you couldn't open from inside of the van. Our fridge which we paid extra for stopped working - leaving us having to pay extra for ice every few days. In addition with about 1 week left on our journey our electronic system would cut in and out and effect the windows - this meant we could only do windows up and down when radio was on. When the radio/electronic system cut out so to did the ability to power the windows - left us multiple times at destinations waiting for the electronic system to kick in, often waiting 20+ min. Bare minimal cutlery and pans. When we thought we had a crack in our windscreen, we did the right thing and notified the company, in which we took the van to their provider, whom explained that the crack was an older crack and had already been filled in, and Lucky rental didn't sound convinced on the phone when we reported what was said by their provider, there response was that we would have wait till we got back to the base site but we would likely have to get the whole screen fixed. Need to update vans and be better off making them all self contained (on road we saw multiple cars the exact same as our small camper and smaller who were self contained. Also need to more assistive in regards to DOC passes - they are passing on incorrect information to customers - we were not a self contained camper but were assured by a Rankers representative that we could use these passes. When i called multiple times and email - they were very unhelpful in this regard
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On pick up our camper was 1.5hrs late.
Lucky rentals (yucky rentals)
The van was rusted in multiple spots, the interior swabs we slept on were filthy, the chairs were stained, the roof had old splatters of who knows what all over it.
The key jammed 50% of the time that we tried to open the front drivers door.
Not to mention there was probably 1/2 a can of toilet spray emptied into the glove box, it was dripping 😑.
They overcharged me $100 and tried to palm it off as an overhead fee and when I asked for it before we took the van they asked us to do it on our return.
All round amateurs.
I will actively advise everyone I know never to use “lucky” rentals.
10days cost me $1700+
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We had a Toyota Estima (old Jucy car) and it was great !!
In the Netherlands we already paid for GPS one way , second driver , but they charged us that twice !! When I found out, they promised to pay back the 150 dollars , so I hope they will.and yes , they need to be more informative about the insurance options
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Lucky knowingly gave us a broken van with nothing to attach the grey water hose to.
Once we realised it, the support claimed that no one on the whole South Island can fix this (yeah...) and refused any support. They knew it by the time they gave us the van that it must have been broken because I had even asked them about whether these loose cables at the grey water tank are normal. After checking they confirmed that everything is fine (which it was not). Also, or stove was broken and so was a door of the cabinet (it constantly opened and closed on it's own. Oh, and the van had 450.000km already and started stinking whenever we drove a mountain road. It was a Jucy Campervan before, easily visible by the green color everywhere where the color was already chipped off. Terrible car and terrible customer service - would NEVER do it again!
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Lucky rental the worst compagny you can find.
1) Problem with the driver key door. We need to open it from the passenger door.
2) Dirty van, gaz not full up when de take it.
3) The pots were breaks. Missing some cutelery
4) We call the assistance who swnd us à Guy who fix the problem but told us that Lucky gonna call us To go in a mechanical area To fix it definetely. After 4 call they just told us drive like that and call us again if you have any trouble. We needed to call them each 3 days.
Worst experience for a rental van.
