Erikson Rovers Safaris — Local services in Biashara ward

BIG WARNING... DO NOT rent from this company, James and Roversafari is a SCAM. It's a complete scam and here's my story to share with you for the sake of safety for yourself and family.

Coming from Vancouver, Canada, I did my due diligence to find the best company that allows overlanding vehicles into multiple areas of Kenya. James and his company promised me a reliable vehicle with camping supplies, so after much discussion and convincing from his company I chose to settle with them and gave them a deposit of $300US. Upon arriving in Nairobi and receiving the Land Rover the morning I was to leave, myself, along with two friends, who have being overlanding Africa for the last 12 years, could not believe our eyes at what this company was trying to rent us. First off, the vehicle was simply not worthy of the road. You couldn't even open the doors from the inside, you had to roll down the windows and open them from the outside, which was even a challenge at best. There are no door panels and chunks of metal where sticking out on the side of the doors. Not one of the switches nor meter readings in the car worked, and I mean not even one. We drove it around the block and it had a serious pull to the right side and the entire frame shook whenever we went over a bump in the road. I cannot imagine it even making it on the main road to Masai Mara. After 20 minutes I told the delivery guy I could not take it because it was unsafe and the first thing he said to me was "I can not disagree with you on this". He left with the vehicle and fortunately, we were able to find an excellent Land Rover Defender, at Foley's which is just down the street from the camp we were staying at, Wilderbeest (which is a great starting point camp I should add). Not only was the Defender an amazing off road machine, it had all the perks, with a great camp set up, functioning stereo, everything working in the vehicle, and it was one third less the price of what James and roversafari we're trying to rip me off for. Not only that, but I heard from other rental companies that they are notorious for a scamming people.

After I phoned James to get my deposit back, he told me he would only give me half the deposit back. I did not agree with this but accepted it and told him I will wait for payment. Well, to no surprise, the payment never came and after sending multiple emails over the next two weeks, there was zero response from James and his company. Clearly they were not interested in sending me even half of my deposit. Some people I talked to think that this is their scam, essentially holding onto deposits after people refuse their unreliable vehicles.

Anyway, since I was passing through where roversafari is located, Nakuru, I decided to call James using Skype and pretended to be interested in meeting to rent one of his vehicles. He was quick to respond and showed up within 5 minutes. Upon meeting him at a nearby Mall, we surprised him by saying I was the one he owed the deposit to. With his filthy clothes and sketchy demeanor, he said everything he could to try to leave at that moment. My friend and I basically cornered him and told him he's not leaving without giving me back my deposit. He continued to lie with an excuse for every little argument he was trying to claim. We basically cornered him into an ATM and after using his cards, he complained that they didn't work. We continued to corner him and basically he finally gave in and pulled the money out of his wallet and gave it to me very reluctantly, mumbling some horrible words. The bottom line, he is a horrible man and is truly a disgrace to Kenya, the country that I not only fell in love with, but discovered that out of the 43 countries I have traveled, has the friendliest and sweetest people I have ever come across. Shame on James and his company and if you read this, please trust me on this and rent from a wonderful company like Foley's where the owner, Nick, is more than helpful and followed through with every promise and was available by phone and email the entire trip. Happy...

We rented the vehicles from 29th of Dec. 2019 to 2nd of Jan. 2020

I will start with the good because this is quicker to summarize. Getting in contact with Rover Safaris (RS) was no problem and they were very friendly and competent in establishing what we wanted to book.

My whole group and I were happy with the driver we were eventually provided, John was an outstanding person, good driver and he was by far the best thing we got from RS. He was extremely polite, very helpful, entertained us with interesting stories of trips he had done before and impressed with his knowledge of animals.

That being said, I will come to the actual reason for this Review. When I contacted RS I was given reason to believe that the service is better and more qualitative than the norm. I am sad to say what we witnessed was far from that.

While the prices were above what one would expect I was of the opinion that for such a price one can count on a good service. The car we were provided however, was not in a constitution to be driven by a reasonable standard, the size of the car was by far too small for a group of 5, which I made very clear during booking, the required two roof tents that others had ordered, without a problem, were unavailable to us for the apparent reason that my driver’s license was not sufficient. The rented equipment, while it served its purpose for the most part, left us wanting.

After having discovered this and gotten back in contact with RS, they proved to me not only of being unaware of what exactly I had booked and quite obviously that they had given us less than what was ordered. Under normal circumstances with any organization, wherever, one would expect to be compensated for this inconvenience without any further discussion. But RS forced me to bargain with them about how we were going to fix the situation in exchange for me paying an additional fee. I am sorry, but that was just appalling.

The exchange team was late which resulted in us having to change our plans for the next stay and as mentioned the equipment was not worth the charge.

All in all I suggest if you have to use this service go there in advance and make sure everything is as you need it to be, check everything! I mean everything. And if you have the choice use a...

I agree partially with the Post of Courtney Wing.

We booked a car for 15 days with camping equipment. When we were picking up the car in Nairobi just the roof top tend was delivered. So we had to drive to Nakuru to pick up the missing equipment. The staff was very helpfull here. The car itself was rocked down to the bottom. Ok, the engine will never leave you alone but this only will get you just half the way. camping Equipment was old, rocked and dirty 12V plug in was not working in any way had a brake down while leaving the Massai mara because the engine was spitting its cooling water. Peoples at the gate were very helpfull here. several hours later we came in the dark and... Light was not working. You will not imagine what it means driving in Kenya at night without Light. And 12 km before we reached Our Camp we had a total breakdown. The response to that light was not working and we had a breakdown at night was: You should never drive in kenya at night. Sure! Despite this, the staff was very helpfull again and organised a guy from anywere who took us and the car to our camp.

The Day after we got a new car, which we picked up in Nakuru. That one was slidely better. One thing, it was not possible to lock the doors... But it did not matter... we droped it off the next day. Several weeks later we received the deposit back to our account. Kenya not again...