Urdrive Avis 

*** AVOID AVOID AVOID *** GENUINELY THE WORST CAR HIRE EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD
I don’t normally leave reviews, but I feel I have to warn others about this one.
I’ve been hiring cars for over 35 years, and this was by far the worst experience I’ve ever had.
We booked a car in Brisbane, Australia for 4 days, all arranged in advance — but from the moment we landed, things started to go wrong.
First issue: we couldn’t get hold of anyone. After about 1.5 hours of trying, we finally spoke to someone who sent us an Uber voucher to get to the pickup location. The problem? The voucher didn’t work, so we ended up paying ourselves.
The Uber driver (a local) said he’d never even heard of UR Drive, which immediately raised alarm bells. When we got to the pickup point, it turned out to be a small place called Andy’s Garage — not exactly what you expect from a car hire company.
Then the car… completely wrong.
Much smaller than what we booked, quite dirty inside and out, and had already done around 37,000 miles. When I questioned it, I was basically told: “That’s the only car — take it or leave it.” At that point, we didn’t have much choice.
What made things worse was the total lack of support.
We were given no paperwork, no instructions, nothing about what to do in case of an accident or breakdown. I tried calling and messaging (including WhatsApp) multiple times over the 4 days — never got a response. Honestly, I was just relieved when it was time to hand the car back.
Then came the final headache — getting the $1,000 deposit back.
It took a full month of chasing and eventually mentioning a Section 75 credit card claim before the money was returned. Even then, about $25 was missing with no explanation.
All in all, a really stressful and disappointing experience.

My advice: Pay a bit extra and go with a reputable, well-known car hire company.

I should have listened to the reviews. Worst company to deal with. They steal your money and offer no reasons or excuses. They will be reported to Fair Trading NSW. Stole $1000 bond and I am still chasing it over a month later.

This business knowingly supplied a defective vehicle and did not offer any resolution until five days into an eight-day rental. The only option provided was a possible vehicle swap, without consideration for the time and inconvenience involved.

When the vehicle was returned, no reimbursement or compensation was offered.

While the check-in and check-out process was quick, the location was convenient, and the price was slightly cheaper (about $70 less than major rental companies), the overall experience was poor. I would recommend choosing a major rental company instead—one that does not knowingly supply defective vehicles.

Screenshots of the conversation are attached for reference.

SCAM! IF YOU WANT TO RUIN YOUR HOLIDAY USE THEM. Do not fall for it!! I booked the car for 11:30am and was told there would be a shuttle bus coming to collect me and my husband. They asked for a photo (text message) of my 🚩license front and back and a 🚩$1000 deposit. I did not do either of those as I was waiting until I saw the car and did paperwork in person. All conversations with the company were via text message 🚩. When we arrived in Melbourne, I texted the company to let them know we had arrived. No response, I tried to call them and the phone number wasn’t connected🚩. Then I went to their ‘website’, and they had a WhatsApp and that phone number didn’t even have an account🚩 6 Hours later I get a text from another phone number🚩 asking me if I had gotten onto the shuttle they sent. I explained that they should know if I had gotten onto it or not because they would know if I had picked up the car🚩. They made excuses about phone issues etc and said they would pick us up again and I said well we aren’t at the airport anymore since they were 6 hours late, so drop the car to us in the suburbs. They asked where, I left them on read. Horrible experience,

Crooks and scammers. They literally steal your money without explanation. I lost $189 and lots of pain though no issues with car. They are just crooks - they extort you at start with overcharging but don’t give car unless you pay, then keep a large part of it. Avoid at all costs

Agree with all the other comments made.
I've booked an EV and when arrived the car was only 30% charged, tire pressure extremely low and maintenance overdue. We had to drive around at night to find a charging station so we could commence our planned trip the next morning. I think the car was just dropped by the previous customer and not checked at all.
The customer service wasn't really helpful and did not offer a solution. All communication was via text message (I think they are based somewhere overseas). Although they were the cheapest offer, it wasn't the best and I would not recommend to hire with them.

Avoid this company.
It is a SCAM !!!

First of all they take your holding deposit of $1,000 up front as well as the car hire. They do not return your holding deposit for 20 days if you’re lucky! As they claim to do. In my case, I have not received my $1,000 holding deposit back!

Mine had been over 20 days and I am still fighting to get it back. They have now claimed they have made the deposit back to my account. I have sent off statements to prove I didn’t receive it and now they are blaming my bank! When clearly the deposit has not been made. Now my credit card is in debit $1,000 and I have lodged a complaint to fair trading to try get it back.
It is going on 30 days after I returned the car and the holding deposit has not been returned to my account.
I have tried to call the numbers provided , mobile numbers and 1300 numbers to speak to a human and all I get is AI. Only communication is via text or email. All attempts to speak to a human on the phone failed.

After days of texting and emailing. I keep getting the same response you have to wait another! 7-20 days on top of what I have waited and kept insisting it’s my banks fault I didn’t receive the money.

The car was run down when we collected it, not like the new car in the picture that I had signed for. It had an inbuilt gps and radio in Chinese and we live in Australia! This was useless to us and tried to convert to English but this did not work.

This company is a SCAM and avoid at all costs!!!

Booked a van through Udrive’s website and could barely reach anyone to confirm it. When I arrived, they claimed they couldn’t find my booking and gave me a different vehicle. They deducted the bond from my account (not a hold), and despite returning the car on time and in good condition, they never refunded it.

The “proof” they sent showed refunds to the wrong card numbers, wrong dates, and even wrong amounts. After I questioned it, they stopped responding completely. I’ve now had to raise it with my bank as potential fraud and will be lodging a Fair Trading complaint.

Extremely poor service and communication — I’d strongly caution others before booking.

So booked two months ago, picked up a special for a people mover. Great price advertised. Locked it in. Three days before heading to Hobart, they cancel my booking. Just an email with “sorry for the inconvenience”. No phone number and no reason why.
Is this false advertising?
Maybe someone was willing to pay full price, so they just dumped my booking.
No phone call or customer service to offer to help out!
I now have family from France, having to pay full price for a trip that was organised 2 months in advance with no offer to help out after they cancelled.
Would I recommend this company.

NO WAY.
Oh but you could still book a people mover for those dates but at x4 the price. JUST WRONG

BEWARE, BAIT AND SWITCH SCAMMERS!!! They took my money for a car that they didn't have any intention of providing at the advertised location, twice!!! Had 2 bookings through evee for a car in South Yarra. The day before, told me that there is no car in South Yarra and that if I wanted to continue the booking I'd have to go to their lot in Tullamarine, which is about a 40 minute, $60+ uber away each way. After they cancelled my booking (which they did on the day of the booking as they didn't respond the same day), I asked them if they would have a car available for the second booking and they said they don't have a car at the location... the money was returned, eventually. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO REPORT THESE GUYS TO EVEE IF THEY TRY TO PULL THE SAME SCAM ON YOU!!!

Just outlining a recent awful trip experience which means i will never use URdrive or Turo there agent again.

I cancelled a month long trip 4 days in advance and was told after cancelling i had forfietted an entire months booking (no partial refund as per the invoice on the email and terms and conditions).

I was told by support, i should have seen a 'popup' at time of booking that states because the trip had a discount it was a non-refundable trip.

This popup was not provided at time of cancellation only when booking. After receiving an email saying my whole trip was forfetted i messaged the host who said call Turo support. They would not allow me to rebook it even though it was only 5 minutes later. They wanted me to pay for another month and at a higher rate.

It seems very convenient for them to not include any information about this in the booking invoice only at time of booking when lets be honest, how hard is it to inflate your standard price then offer a discount so all trips can fall under the non-refundable bookings. Extremely unethical practice.

And a popup by definition disappears automatically conveniently allowing guests to forget about this when cancelling when no popup appears.

Avoid at all costs these guys are scammers.

BEWARE
Initially when we rocked up we were advised the car we had booked was not available, we needed a 7+ seater. Hence why we booked in advanced. We thought we were lucky when the lady taking the vehicle decided not to proceed with the rental due to it not meeting her requirements.

We travelled from QLD to Sydney to then Shellharbour (approx 1.5hrs from Sydney)

On the highway the car started showing issues with the throttle, it would over accelerate then stop etc. We pulled over 45 minutes into our trip on the side of the highway with 3 young children in the car. The car was not working, the accelerator did not work the car was done. Vehicle given ended up breaking down on the side of the highway.

We called UR DRIVE SYDNEY and it got worse from here. They proceeded to bounce my wife between the car rental company to the roadside company. I then got involved and lost my cool at the incompetency of their process.

1. YOU SHOULD CHECK EVERYONE IS OK FIRST.... BASIC HUMAN CARE.
2. GIVE SOLUTIONS AND BE THE FIRST POINT RESOLUTION NOT BOUNCE PEOPLE AROUND
3. COME UP WITH A PLAN FOR THE CUSTOMERS YOUVE STRANDED ON THE SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY WITH AN UNFIT VEHICLE

We were fortunate enough to know people who had to drive 45 minutes to pick the children and wives up first then later myself and brother in law.

I advised to the rental company they needed to sort out the vehicle I was leaving it where it was as it had become extremely dangerous standing on a side of the highway with vehicles flying past at 100+ km/h. They tried to advise I could be liable if the car was not collected.... I laughed as I did not supply a vehicle that was mechanically unsound in the first place.

We left the vehicle, it was collected by a tow truck company... it gets better.

The rental car company UR DRIVE SYDNEY then contacted ME NOT the tow truck company to check if the car had been collected.... WHY WOULDNT YOU JUST CALL THE TOW PLACE????

Processes 1/5
Customer service 1/5
Vehicles 1/5
Overall -100/5
.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY UNLESS YOU HAVE TO

BE MINDFUL IF A THIRD PARTY PUSHES YOU TO BOOK HERE AS YOU WILL BE DISAPOINTED THE SECOND SOMETHING GOES WRONG.

Firstly, they say there will be a shuttle and to send info through.

No shuttle.

So I call the office repeatedly.

No answer.

So I text, someone responds and sends an Uber.

At this point, I've been waiting 40 min.

Uber drops me off.

No one in the office.

Wait around til a man comes and palms me off to a lady.

She cannot find me in the system despite them trying to hit me up for $1000 bond only hours earlier. She tells me it's been booked through x company and to call them about cancelling. They have no record of my booking. I have two emails, text messages, a reference number and a confirmation number, as well requests for $ though.

She walks out of the office and doesn't return.

So I wait, again.

I give up and call an Uber. I tell the original guy I'm leaving and he should not charge me a cancellation fee.

1hr, 20 min. No car.

Absolutely useless.

Extremely disappointed with UR Drive. Our experience was full of issues from the very beginning. The pickup was delayed despite having a confirmed booking via Booking.com, and to make things worse, we didn’t even receive the car we had reserved.

Returning the car didn’t improve things. Even though we returned it in perfect condition, we received no confirmation of return. We had to call multiple times just to get any response about our bond. When we finally got it back, we were refunded only $241 of the original $1000 bond—with absolutely no explanation or breakdown of the missing amount.

The lack of communication, transparency, and professionalism was incredibly frustrating. I would not recommend UR Drive to anyone.

Do not use URDrive - Worst service, discrimination, and complete unreliability

URDRIVE (40 Baxter Rd, Mascot NSW 2020) provided one of the most appalling customer service experiences I have ever encountered. Despite booking a 7-seater vehicle months in advance — and confirming again via phone — we were told upon arrival that there were no vehicles available. According to staff, bookings are “first come, first serve,” rendering the concept of a reservation completely meaningless.

What made this worse was the complete lack of accountability. No immediate alternative was offered until we insisted multiple times, at which point we were told to return the next morning at 7:30am — but even then, we have to wait for the cleaning of the car and no vehicle was guaranteed as the customer service staff FAYE wouldn't be there. This is not a solution; it's a delay wrapped in uncertainty.

URDRIVE also tried to charge us for the first day despite having no car to offer. Only after asking repeatedly — three times — did the staff member FAYE begrudgingly offer to remove the first day’s charge, with zero empathy or professionalism. Her hostile attitude, lack of apology, and clear refusal to take responsibility made an already frustrating situation significantly worse.

Even more disturbing was the behavior of another staff member, PENNY. Not only was she unhelpful, but she interrupted our conversation and belittled our entirely valid concerns by saying we were “going overboard.” To be dismissed and attacked while trying to get clarity on a failed service is unacceptable.

What crossed the line into something far more serious was an incident of blatant discrimination: while we were being denied a vehicle, a 7-seater was clearly parked outside, and then given to a Caucasian couple who arrived after us. We overheard PENNY say, “we rather give it to you,” confirming our suspicions. This is more than just poor service — it is subtle racism, and it has no place in any business, let alone one that deals with the public.

URDRIVE, as a company, has failed on all counts: professionalism, integrity, fairness, and basic customer service. FAYE and PENNY should not be in any position that deals with people, and the company should be held accountable for discriminatory practices.

I strongly urge anyone considering using URDRIVE to reconsider. There are plenty of rental services — choose one that respects its customers, honors bookings, and doesn’t tolerate discrimination.

Hired a 7 seater for important graduation interstate trip. Took my deposit and instructed. Well over 24hrs in advance. Supplier texted me late afternoon to cancel? Something about supply mix up. I said that's not my problem and I needed the 7 seater so best they find one somewhere. 20mins before my midnight flight to. Melbourne they cancelled my booking and refunded.. I land at 10am. Have.no car for the family to get to my sons graduation. I will tell everyone I can until the day I die about this abhorrent customer treatment. Do not trust URDrive Melbourne!!!**edit. Morning of...Same vehicle is back up online showing 5k for the 4 day rental now.. not the $500 I booked. .makes you think they had the pricing wrong and simply cancelled my booking to get out of it.. pretty sure consumer law covers me for supply under the ticketed pricing..