Tribecar hirer spends $400 to tow broken-down car from JB to S'pore
They thought they would beat the traffic by driving over to Johor on a Monday.
But what the group of four Singaporeans least expected was for their rental car to break down in Johor and for them to incur a hefty bill to have the car towed back to Singapore.
One of the four, 28-year-old Seah, had taken the day off to hang out with her friends in Johor.
The group rented a car from rental company Tribecar, paying more than $60 to have the car for eight hours.
It was not Ms Seah's first time renting a car from the company, which allows customers to drive the cars all the way up to Kuala Lumpur provided they book enough hours for the return journey.
Ms Seah said there were red flags, such as the car mileage being double that typically clocked by a 10-year-old car and the air-conditioning breaking down on the Causeway.
The group's driver, 32-year-old Aq, said the car's acceleration was odd and the steering wheel was stiff when making a turn.
The car broke down at Jalan Dato Onn Utama, mere minutes away from the group's lunch destination.
We wasted a day's leave and had to return to Singapore earlier than planned to avoid the jam.Ms Aq
Ms Aq contacted Tribecar and was told to have the car towed to a workshop in Singapore and that they were not to take the car to a workshop in Malaysia as that would nullify their right to make claims for the reparation cost.
In all, the group of friends paid more than $400 – almost all of the cash they had on them that day – to have the car towed to the Singapore workshop. They then took a cab to lunch and a bus back to Singapore.
"We wasted a day's leave and had to return to Singapore earlier than planned to avoid the jam," Ms Aq told Mothership.
A Tribecar spokesperson said the car was serviced on Nov 23 and everything was working fine, including the alternator, which was identified to be the cause of the breakdown.
An authorised workshop is currently inspecting the car to investigate the breakdown. A refund for the towing cost will be made to the hirer if it is determined that the breakdown was not caused by the hirer.
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