When we arrived at the Depot. We followed an airline type zigzag to the desk. The lady asked us if we had completed the wavier online (welcome to America). We said we had already done it, but she said that she did not have it so we had to go back to the front of the zigzag scan the QR code and do it all again. We had paid the full amount with Viator. We knew we had to show our driving licenses which is understandable but instead of taking an authorisation on the credit card for a deposit, the lady decided to take a credit card with the driving licenses put an elastic band around them and put them in a drawer. I was very concerned about that type of policy, as the Card could have been copied and cloned therefore a high security risk. Not only that it is against the credit card companies terms and conditions. After the booking, I wrote an email to the company asking why they took away in the credit card and kept it in a drawer. They kindly reply to me saying it was collateral against damages. I’m not sure that that would do them any good if you had already used your app to block the card whilst on the trip and driven down the road. I explained to the company that this could be done and driving licenses in the UK are easy to replace. They stated it was standard practice in Nevada. Having looked this up on the Internet this practice is not normal, and causes a large security risk. We made a complaint to Viator who said they were going to take it up with the company. So be warned they carry out this practice. The ATVs were a little bit worse for where they were fairly old and loose. On the trip we saw One ATV with no rear wheel which had come off. We spoke to the rider, he said it just fell off. Very dangerous if you’ve been going up or down a hill and reinforced my position that the vehicles were not well maintained. The desert course you go on is very rough mostly and certainly not for the faint hearted. You have to be well proficient to drive an ATV to manage most of the terrain, although we were given very limited instructions on how to ride safely. Because of the above issues, we would not recommend or hire from this company again. Remember, I did give them a chance to explain on an email so they can’t say they haven’t been advised and asked for an explanation before I published this.
Hi Don, we understand your concern about leaving your credit card and identification with our staff and recognize that this may differ from what you are accustomed to in the UK. However, temporarily holding a physical credit card is an established practice used by many businesses here in the U.S., including other rental companies as well as bars and clubs that retain cards while a tab remains open. Policies vary, but this approach is not unique to our company. The purpose is to encourage customers to return our equipment and complete the checkout process, at which point their items are returned. It is not based on the monetary or replacement value of a drivers license, nor is possessing someone’s card permission to charge it without authorization. An alternative would be to require a substantial security deposit. We do not place that additional hold on customers’ funds or available credit, which many of our guests appreciate. However, we recognize that you would have preferred it. We take your concerns about the condition of our equipment seriously and recognize that we need to do better. We are addressing these issues immediately and implementing more thorough inspection and maintenance procedures to ensure our fleet meets a higher standard going forward.
