We had the time of our life campervanning in south west Australia over Christmas - would recommend it to anyone!

HOWEVER, I just wanted to warn anyone against using a company called NQ Rentals (based in Cairns) to rent the van. They insist on taking $5000 as a deposit from your credit card. When we returned the vehicle in perfect condition we were promised in writing to give us the deposit (security bond) back. But hey - 3 months later we still have not had the money back. We have tried everything - hundreds of phone calls and emails. When we eventually got through to the Managing Director, he gave the reason for the delay as being a computer hickup in November and lack of staff. What a great business!

Anyway - the moral of this story - DON'T TOUCH NQ RENTALS with a barge pole.

anyone looking into campervaning, check out this site...

http://www.wickedcampers.com/

cheers!
~ megz ~

I have heard similar stories about the Travelers Auto Barn in Sydney. Also problems with dodgy campervans breaking down immediately and being sold with faulty parts etc. Apparently the company don't want to know as soon as the sale has been made.
However, I must stress that I have NOT personally used this company, it is simply information that travelers' using my website have passed on.
If you have any similar info, please contact me through my website so that we can keep travelers' informed of any potential problems that may crop up en-route (I'll give you credit for your contribution on the site).

Thanks

Richard

==============================
Richard Fletcher
The Travel Monkey - FREE advice on tickets, accommodation, scams and more!
www.thetravelmonkey.net

Good on you Richard. Choosing to rubbish our company in an effort to promote your own website. Not very ethical I think. If you want to promote yourself, just do it.

Using the power of the internet to create gossip isn't a new strategy, and I hope that consumers are becoming more savvy to these tricks.

As for NQ Rentals, they were broke and went out business at the time of the original posting. We on the other hand are very stable financially and have no such dilemma's or issues surrounding us.

Any feedback that you have about us, I would welcome your comments and can be contacted on cf@travellers-autobarn.com.au

Best regards,
Chris
Travellers Auto Barn

Chris,

I think any intelligent person reading this will be able to see that your comments are a blatant and transparent attempt to deflect the original comments regarding your company.

The Travel Monkey is a consumer website which is aimed to help backpackers, rather than sting them for as much cash as possible.

As I clearly stated in my original message, I have not used your company myself so cannot personally comment. However, when you hear something once you tend to ignore it. Hear the same thing several times or more, from different sources and you start to think that there is more to this than idle gossip and rumour. I noticed that you did nothing to deny the claim about dodgy campervans being sold with faulty parts, and the after sales service being none existent.

All you did was to accuse me of self promotion, rather than address the issues raised in my post. I think my post was totally fair - I've heard the same thing from several different travellers and I mentioned this - and clearly stated that this was NOT my own personal opinion. I then offered people the opportunity to get in touch with me to post any similar issues, in order raise awareness over the internet and help fightback against companies that are out to rip off innocent travellers.

Of course, since your company is a totally reputable organisation, with only the interests of the traveller at heart, this is something that will please you. Right?

Richard

==============================
Richard Fletcher
The Travel Monkey - FREE advice on tickets, accommodation, scams and more!
www.thetravelmonkey.net

Sorry to say mate, I find your retort a little annoying.

We've built a reputable business over the last 13 years, dealing with over 2000 vehicle movements each year, helping backpackers/travellers with the pitfalls of buying old cars, supporting these customers on their entire journey, mechanically inspecting and servicing their vehicle, dealing with mechanics on their behalf, building a national network of 'friendly' support mechanics, showing them the ways to deal with the 6 state laws of registration, providing roadside assistance, are one of the only places in Australia to provide Third Party Property Insurance to travellers, providing freecall support, built and provide a comprehensive warranty package, helping them sell the car at the end of their trip or giving them cash when they claim the buyback in 6 different locations around Australia........and we are what???? Only trying to take advantage? You are kidding yourself.

The original comment was about NQ Rentals - a company that went out of business and has nothing to do with buying and selling cars to backpackers. You chose to drag our company into the conversation just so you can promote your own website. You know it, I know it, be honest. Your own web forum has only 2 posts on it from the entire world.....both done by you!

I didn't bother going into the ins and outs of backpackers buying old cars, because I'd personally rather be attending to other things, and it is also a very long topic. If backpackers could afford to, or wanted to buy newer cars, we'd sell them. Unfortunately backpackers don't want to or can't afford to spend more then a few thousand on an old car, and then ask the vehicle to take on the everest of driving tasks, which is drive 25,000kms in extreme conditions around a road network that cannot be compared to European standards by any means with generally very little or no mechanical knowledge whatsoever. Given those circumstances, how could we possibly guarantee peoples travels will be event free? But what we do is provide the customers with the tools, support, and experience of a whole company, if and when something goes wrong.

If they buy it privately and drive 5km's up the road before they see smoke coming out of the engine, because they bought it with a crack in the head gasket, who are they going to call then? The backpacker they bought it off? He's on the plane to Thailand. If they have little mechanical knowledge and break down in Tenterfield and the local mechanic there tells them that the engine has seized and the head needs replacing, and that it's going to cost $2000, do they know if he's telling them the truth? Who will help these people deal with the mechanic? It may only be a $45 hose connecting to the engine that has burst. How are they to know???? The car just doesn't work is all they know.

And this isn't helping people? This isn't helping the travellers that you are trying to galantly protect? When I think about it, if you are really trying to help backpackers, you should actually be promoting us. Buying a car privately, especially from other backpackers is risky. Some don't mind the risk, some know a lot about cars. We help those who want a bit more 'insurance' with their investment and don't want the hassle of dealing with their legal requirements in owning the vehicle. So if you are trying to actually protect travellers, why would you choose to rubbish us on a topic or issue not related to us? The topic was about the non return of a security bond for a completely different company for **** sake - nothing to do with buying a car or us. If you hold the high ethical values that you purport, why would you do this? Surely there are better ways to promote your website. And if you are really trying to do good, how about making contact with me to try seek resolution or change? Instead you chose to gossip and spread rumours. How is this really helping anybody? We go out of business and 1. less people get the experience of seeing australia in the best form of transport possible 2. the others fall into the risks of buying privately or from local dealers who don't offered a specifically tailored traveller sales package 3. 35+ staff are unemployed and the 15 or so backpackers we give work each year to help them out with their travels, either don't get work or have to pick fruit in the stinking hot sun. Is this really helping?

At least Wicked, a fierce competitor of ours, just wrote down their website, they didn't try rubbish us to promote their own website. In fact, I must admit that I actually admire them for this.

I like debate and discussion and promotion. I think these are all very healthy. But there is a way and a means of doing it, and I personally don't agree with the ethics of your tactic I'm sorry to say.

Good luck with your website which I'm guessing is pretty new. I love the net and what it provides to the world, so I'm guessing it is an exciting time for you.

Sorry to crap on so much, but you did ask.

Cheers,
Chris

I brought a van from Travellers autobarn a few weeks ago and when I saw your info travel monkey I got a bit worried. I looked on you site though and the 'similar stories from people using your site' aren't there. It would also appear that only 10 people have ever used you site and none relate to the campervan topic.

WTF is going on mate. We have been travelling for a few months and have relied on these sites and mis information like the notes you left don't help me or any other traveller. I haven't had any problems with Travellers autobarn, I actually have found them ok to deal with. My van works and hasn't let me down and the small issues we did have have been sorted out under warranty. Our friends brought a van privately for more than we paid and they have been given a yellow sticker by the police and told not to drive it again without $1000's in repairs.
Mate, travellers like us need accurate info and confirmed situations not hear say or smoke and mirrors, I agree with chris on this one and do not support your opinionated and uninformed impression. Do you want me to log into your site and re itterate my experience with travellers autobarn or can you copy it in for me?

Hi Dooper,

I completely understand your concern.

The concerns were not posted on the forums on my site (which I agree is not the most popular area on the site). They were sent as 3 individual emails direct to me through the 'ask us' section of the site.

Now it's possible that someone could be trying to rubbish Traveller's Auto Barn through these emails, in which case I apologise to both you and Chris for me being taken in by this. However it's also possible that the company sometimes does a great job and sometimes doesn't - perhaps you were lucky.

I think the only way to clear this up is if other travellers can post their personal experiences with the company on this forum. If it turns out that it's all positive, then I will hold my hands up and apologise for my mistake.

Richard

==============================
Richard Fletcher
The Travel Monkey - FREE advice on tickets, accommodation, scams and more!
www.thetravelmonkey.net

Also, to reiterate - this is NOT a self promotion exercise.

Regular posting on Rough Guide forums only gives me around 50 new visitors a month - I get more than that each day from search engines alone, so why would I make a post that could potentially harm my site just to get a few extra visitors?

There are plenty of other topics on these forums I can safely contribute to without having to resort to rubbishing other companies in an attempt to promote myself to gain a measly few extra hits.

However, I do take your comments on board and accept that I may have jumped the gun a bit.

So let's see what people have to say in their replies to this.

Thanks

Richard

==============================
Richard Fletcher
The Travel Monkey - FREE advice on tickets, accommodation, scams and more!
www.thetravelmonkey.net

Having used the Sydney branch of Travellers Auto Barn, I'll dip my oar here, I think ...

We purchased a Ford Falcon XF stationwagon for $7000 in October 2000. Yes, it was overpriced, but we didn't realise it ... we were still getting used to the exchange rate.

This vehicle had no matching body panels, but we just thought it added character. Auto barn assured us that it was solid underneath, and anyway - we were covered by their nationwide army of mechanics, weren't we. And they threw in a free esky.

So, heading north to Queensland, we developed an intermittent 'hicup'. We were too far from Sydney to go back, so when we got to Cairns we dropped in on the Travellers Auto Barn office to get them to fix it. Now, this was 5 years ago, but I think I can remember the nice man's exact words ... "You're outside your buy back period, mate. Bad luck. Bye" After that I couldn't even get them to answer the door. All I wanted was for them to fix it.

I put some new HT leads on and that seemed to work, so we headed west into the Atherton Tablelands. A couple of weeks later, intermittent hicup returned, together with an inability to idle. We didn't bother finding an autobarn mech, we just went to a local garage. After laughing at the bodywork, he opened the bonnet and stopped laughing. "Where'd you get this?" he asked. He explained what was going on ... the engine in an XF has electronic ignition. Except this one had had its ripped out and replaced with a carb. Only, they hadn't ripped out the whole system, just a bit, so some of the sensors and timing bits were still in there, functioning. It was a 'bit of a mess'. He assured us that it was safe, and it wasn't going to break, but it was a damn site less efficient than it should be, and that's why it was running rough. He fixed the idle problem by cutting something off and crimping the end of a tube, or something. He said that normally that would adversely affect the mpg, but seeing as how autobarn had nobbled it already, it wouldn't make any difference. AND he didn't charge us anything for the privilege.

So off we went.

A couple of months later and we're in the middle of nowhere in the NT. Clank clank clank goes the engine. CLANK CLANK CLANK goes the engine. Oh dear, we'd better stop. CLANK C-L-A-N-K BANG goes the engine, and then silence as we drift to a halt. In a fitting tribute, we rolled up and died next to the rotting carcasses of two cows.
Stay with the car if you break down, they say.
Yeah, what if you're in the middle of a fly frenzy?

As it happens, it was only half an hour 'til 2 army guys in a truck drove past, so we jumped in with them and got dropped off at the nearest place with a garage. Timber Creek, NT. I can recommend a brief visit as they have a flock of fruit bats living above the creek, and a healthy supply of crocodiles in it. They feed them raw meat from a hook every day when the tour bus stops. Doing it for 2 weeks while we waited for a recon engine to be shipped from Darwin got a bit thin. Were autobarn available? No - we should use the RAC equivalent - can't remember which one - because autobarn got us membership for this very situation. "Hello, RAC? Yes, our engine's blown up. Can you help us? We have membership through Travellers Auto Barn" "Ah, Travellers Auto Barn, you say? No, you've had it towed to a garage outside our remit. Bye."

$450 for a recon engine, $300 to fit it.
The cause of the 'failure'? Because the timing/ignition system was canibalised, it didn't fit quite right. The timing was off by a whole cog and was, apparently, retarded by 20 degrees. Nice. What had happened was that it had slipped another cog, meaning that the timing was so far out that the top of one of the con rods was hitting the cam on the up stroke. Eventually the con rod broke off, dropped sideways and on the next up stroke had punched its way through the cylinder and out through the side of the engine. The hole was quite spectacular.

Anyway, 2 weeks later we're off. Eventually we hit Melbourne (which is a lovely, lovely place) and notice that the rego is about to expire. "But Auto Barn said they'd give us 12 months" "Er, no - 3 months is standard", say Auto Barn. "Bye".

We consult Autobarn's 'extensive' literature, and it says that if you renew your rego in SA, you can just go to the rego office and get a new one, without having to have any road worthiness checks. So off I drive, back to SA.

"Hello, I'd like a new rego, please"
"Have you got your road worthyness test, please?"
"Errr ... no, do I really need one here?"
"Oh, yes - just pop round to this address and they'll do it for you."
"OK, thanks"

Off I go.
Ten minutes later, I arrive at the testing station to find two Dutch girls sitting under a tree, looking rather upset. They'd had their car impounded for being unsafe. They didn't know for what, but they'd got it from Travellers Auto Barn in Sydney 3 months ago.

Half an hour later the nice man came out of the shed, sucking his teeth and brandishing an A5 sticker that he was going to stick to my windscreen. "Failed, mate" he said, "Sorry".
He explained that the doors were mounted incorrectly (illegally) and that the firewall between the engine and the passenger compartment was actually missing. He wasn't sure how, but he could put his arm through into the car from under the hood. I now had two days to fix the car or get rid of it; after that it was unroadworthy. Considering that, God knows how bad the Dutch girls' car was to be impounded immediately. He also didn't believe me when I told him Travellers Auto Barn had rego'd it as being in perfect health 3 months ago. I wonder if they've got a tame tester?

So, I drove the car back to Melbourne, but that took too much time for me to be able to get it back to Sydney for the guaranteed buy-back. (It was only available in Sydney at the time - at least, that's what we were told). That would have been worth $4000, I think. We had to scrap the thing for $50 - and we only got that because I'd put a new headlight in it.

So, to sum up - our experience of Travellers Auto Barn was ...

1. They sold us an overpriced car.
2. The car was canibalised beyond recognition in terms of the engine, the bodywork and the chassis.
3. They were totally unhelpful in every respect, and mentioning their name to anyone seemed to bring on the same mentality in them as well.

Even the free Esky was useless.

Cheers,
JimbO

Hi JimbO,

Thanks for your tales. We've NEVER EVER sold an XF Falcon for over $5,000 and that is back when they were a lot younger. We have records to prove it.

If you can supply me with name and registration details of your purchase, I can look into your story further. Until then, your comments reek of fabrication with vested interests.

Of course, you are free to contact me at cf@travellers-autobarn.com.au should you wish to legitimise yourself.

Regards,
Chris

Chris,

You know, if I didn't already know, and I had to guess who you worked for, my guess would be Travellers Auto Barn. That's exactly the type of helpful response we got whenever we contacted you. Fabrication with vested interest? My interest was in passing on my very poor experience of your company.

Having said that, I understand you're trying to protect your own interests, and I don't doubt that given proof you'll follow it up, so I'll dig out the numberplate that I persuaded the scrappy to let me keep, and post the details.

As for the price of the car, I'm certain it was $7k, as I remember thinking we'd get a slightly more reliable car for the extra money. Also, if it's any help in authenticating my story, we were one of the first customers to take you up on having a map of Oz spray-painted on the bonnet of the car. You'd just started trying it out. This was late 2000, just after the Olympics finished.

Cheers,
JimbO

Cheers,
JimbO

i too have hear bad things about travelers autobahn
it seems also dooper is in fact chris777
i believe the word he seeks is Duper (someone who misleads)

Comeon Jurgen. That tactic is extremely obvious in any case, and not something I'm interested in doing as I wouldn't of identified myself in the first place. You may wish to check the login registration before you make these claims.

No offence to Jimbo, but I still haven't seen or heard of that rego number coming from you mate.

Chris
Travellers Auto Barn