Wongai 4wd Hire — Local services in Brisbane City

A mixed experience with Wongai—resolved thanks to the Queensland OFT

I wasn’t sure whether to leave a public review, but I believe it’s fair to share my experience with Wongai—both the negative and the positive aspects.

I’m an Italian citizen, and during a holiday in Australia with my family, I rented a 4WD vehicle from Wongai for four days. Unfortunately, the pickup date coincided with the arrival of Cyclone Alfred in Brisbane. My flight to Brisbane from Melbourne was cancelled, along with all my campsite bookings in the area. Due to the official cyclone alert, I immediately informed Wongai that I would not be able to pick up the car.

Over the phone, the staff seemed understanding, considering the circumstances. I requested a refund of both the deposit and the rental itself. I was told they would only refund the deposit and issue a voucher valid for one year. I explained that, as a tourist, I was very unlikely to return to Australia within a year, and I asked them to consider the exceptional situation—natural disaster plus being a foreign visitor.

The operator then told me they would proceed with a full refund due to the special circumstances. However, once I returned to Italy, I waited several weeks but received nothing. I sent multiple emails requesting an update—no replies. I eventually sent another message warning of possible legal action, especially since the deposit should have been refunded regardless. Still, absolute silence.

Thankfully, Australia is an incredible country, and thanks to a friend’s advice, I discovered the Queensland Office of Fair Trading (OFT), a public institution that helps mediate disputes like this—even for foreign citizens. I contacted the OFT, and to my surprise, they replied quickly, took the matter seriously, and thanks to their involvement, I finally received a refund.

I decided to share this story publicly to highlight the outstanding work of the OFT, which impressed me with its efficiency and responsiveness. While OFT does not have judicial power, their intervention was enough to convince Wongai to process the refund voluntarily—which I do appreciate.

Still, I can’t help but ask: did I really need to go through all this just to get back money that was rightfully mine—especially given such exceptional circumstances? (It had been over 50 years since a cyclone warning was issued for Brisbane.)

Is it acceptable for a company to stop replying entirely and deny a refund in such cases? That’s for others to judge. I’m grateful it ended well, but I believe this experience...

Updated: we have received an email against us due the review we have done about the bad service of this company, with the excuse that we have scratched the car outside, and inside, damaged in panel of the car, damaged in a chair of the camping, damage for salt and sand in the car (in a 2005 old car) almost 20 years old and the company says it’s everything done in 2 days trip, anyway fortunately we have taken pictures of every single detail of the car before taken to the trip, even the car didn’t have the mechanic sticker updated(wipers not working)(key always got stuck in the car) , looks like didn’t have service for a while.. we have all the evidences of the car… we will go the QCAT and see how everything goes.. we will keep you updated guys, this situation can’t happen to anyone..

When you hire a car make sure the car is 100% working, we have hired the car to go to Moreton and the wipers of the front window wasn’t working, as soon as we saw that we called the company to report that, and the answer was we can’t help you with that, so the solution was pray for a good weather in Moreton, also the offer seat for the camping and one of those totally broken, looks like they don’t check the stuff before renting the car, that’s a really bad service, also we had rent the car to Moreton before on Easter but we didn’t know we have to book the ferry before separate because the company didn’t tell us anything about it, and we end up paying 400 dollars extra fee for the peak season that we didn’t use it on a peak season. Hope it doesn’t happen to...

Kinda of surprised by the number of 5-star reviews. Our hire was well off ok 5-stars.. Initially was surprised how old the prado (I guess just hire a car you expect new model); despite this primary functions worked ok. i.e no ‘show-stopper’ issues / breakdowns etc. Rear AC vents would have been good on the sunny days. That aside, we had 3 noteworthy negative experiences (-3⭐️). On departing Geebung late pick-up, my ‘co-driver’ behind me immediately saw non-working left brake light & bar light. Frustrating and a safety issue. We had to go via Autobarn in the morning for a replacement left light, there was no apparent way to fix the bar light. Then after driving over 200km to I skip point, we discovered the rear right tyre P to be 60 psi (should be 40..60 is unsafe). Reported this to Wongai on return, but got no explanation especially with regard to any corrective QA action with respect to return vehicle safety check procedures. Safety issues should be #1. Finally after returning the car fully cleaned, 40psi tyres & working tail lights, the promised 7 day return of $3k bond did not occur. The $3k was in my account only 10 days before it was in my account. It appears they held off transacting about 5-6 days after the car was returned & then took another 3 days to appear...