This page is dedicated to expose shady company like SML Cars (smlcars.in) and create awareness for individuals to NOT engage and patronize such company

🚗 Don’t Fall for Their Tricks! More information with photos will be updated soon!

I am writing this review after having a conversation with the staff of the company who threatened me that that my family are still in India, will create problems for me because they have my details provided to them and accuse me of trying to extort money from them. I am not afraid of them and wanted to expose such malicious company who think they can get away with all their ill doings.

Upon collection of the car, I asked them for a copy/softcopy of the insurance and the RC book, but the sales agent never replied or answered my call. I called another person who told me that the sales team have this problem and asked me to escalate the issue and promised that he will provide the required information. But again, there were no follow up actions, and he too did not reply or answer my calls thereafter.

During the rental discussion, I wanted to view the car and arranged for someone to go down to their office. The sales agent gave excuse that the car was sent for servicing, and this is the standard practise to ensure the car is serviced and properly checked before renting out to the next customer. But when the car was handed over to me, there was an alert on the dashboard that the car was due for servicing – which when reported to them, there was no reply from the sales agent. The car condition when it was handover to me was pathetic – sand and mud all over the car and inside the car. The car protection around the tyres and drive train was all torn and hanging.

One week into the rental period, the car could not be started. Brought a mechanic to check and the battery went flat – how could this happen when they claim that it was serviced and checked a week ago. During the rental discussion they said they have 24/7 support and all sort of promises but none of them answered the call or replied when such issues happened. I couldn’t use the car for 3 days. After repeated calls and messages, they asked me to get the battery replaced, issue the bill to their company and they will pay it immediately. But they didn’t pay.

I thought the issues were over and I will be done with them as I will be returning the car eventually. 3 days before handover, I sent them a message to all the 3 contact persons (knowing that they will give all kind of excuses), on what is the pickup date/time for the car at the airport, outstanding payments from them and asked them to discuss and settle it either before or during the handover. None of them replied or answered the call and as expected they just want to make things difficult at the last minute. So, I sent them a strong message that if they don’t reply, I will lodge a police report and will return overseas as there was no reply or clarity on the handover.

On the day of return, another person from the company called and said they didn’t see the message, the person in charge was on sick leave etc and stacks of lies including that they will resolve this by 12 noon. I informed them that the car pickup time is 4:30pm the same day and my flight is at 7pm and I don’t want any last-minute bullshits at the airport where I want to focus on the purpose of the India travel rather than dealing with this company. No driver details were given until 2pm and again after repeated calls, the same sales agent called and said the driver will be there at 4:30pm and they will settle it on the spot after checking the car and hung up the phone.

Eventually, someone called and claimed he is the driver, and he is late and will be arriving late. I informed them that I cannot delay any further than 5:30pm as I need to check in. But the driver never came, and I had to arrange last minute to handover the car to a friend and asked them to pass the car after the company settle the deposit, battery charges etc which was already sent to the company 3 days ago.

It was so last minute at the airport to deal with all these issues and totally regret renting from this company. Not just they will make life difficult for you, they scammed with double charges for the fuel, fastag and driver charges. The fuel was paid for Chennai-Trichy during collection and the car had enough fuel to go back from Trichy-Chennai (they again charged 10K), fastag paid upon collection and had balance but charge again Rs 750. Driver for sending car at Rs4000 but charge Rs6000 for car collection (even though I informed them 3 days ago, they never asked me to arrange or inform me it is going to be higher).

All these ill-motivated tactics from this company didn’t stop here. They called me to threaten that they create issues with information provided to them, accuse that I am trying to create problem for them for extorting money etc.

If you want to go through all these troubles and frustrations… good luck renting from this SML Cars.