James Blond Rentals Reviews 

Recently I hired the van from them. The staff at the counter was good and knowledgeable. Suggested me good deal to keep the van for the whole day instead of having it for few hours. Their rental rates are very good. Well maintained vehicles. 100% coming back.

Friends arriving from U.K asked us to find them a rental car, we found a local company called James Blond who quoted a 2023 SUV for less than half the price of Budget. Friends had a great time, good service and left rental in Kelston. While collecting them we saw a large range of Furniture trucks, vans on the yard as well. Will use them for our next move!. Thanks heaps.

Simply put .... I hired a 3 tonne furniture truck, with tail lift, and got exactly what I requested, including FREE moving blankets, and the service was fabulous.

The final cost was exactly what I had self calculated and the bond repayment, less mileage, was expedient. Overall a better deal than their competitors.

I would definitely use them again.

Hired a truck from James blond last week for a house move. Check out was the quickest I have experienced. Truck was well presented and came along with free blankets. I found them to be the cheapest in the market. Plus I got a 25% mid-week discount.

Great experience with Rega who went the extra mile to secure a vehicle for me after i put wrong dates in my reservation.
Shuttle to and from christchurch airport were excellent.
Highly recommend.

Me and my husband booked a car with them, directly on their site. We gave us a 30+ year old car, which was discarded from Japan and bought by James Blond. It had a cassette player, a CASSETTE PLAYER, not CD. So very old car. The very first night we were driving, during the dark, all the lights (headlights / high beam etc.) went out and we almost crashed. Horrible experience. When we tried to call them on their non-stop line, it was not working. We were not able to contact them. After this, the next day, they changed to car to 2006 Toyota, again from Japan, again very old.
If you value your safety, pay a little more elsewhere, where you can get more modern / safe car.

I booked directly on their site, and got 30+ year old car, which was discarded from Japan and bought by James Blond. It had a cassette player, I repeat CASSETTE, not CD. So very old piece of shit. The very first night we were driving, during the dark, all the lights (headlights / high beam etc.) went out and we almost crashed. Horrible experience. When we tried to call them on their non-stop line, it was not working. We were not able to contact them. After this, they changed to car to 2006 Toyota, again from Japan, again very old.
If you value your safety, pay a little more elsewhere, where you can get more modern / safe car.

Poor experience. Booked a truck the website lists as automatic - arrived only to find there is only a manual transmission available. Clutch was tough to drive,. Just don't bother. Provided feedback on my experience and the response was essentially that autos are a first-in-first-served situation and overall 'tough luck'.

BEWARE & read the small print carefully.

Our car was booked by an organisation with a named driver.
There were four adults and four suitcases.
The car that was booked was suitable for that number.
Upon arrival we were offered a car that was not the one we booked NOR was it similar.
The booking James Blond receptionist/facilitator proved dominant aggressive and insisted a smaller inadequate vehicle was our designated car.
To demonstrate our requirements we tried to fit ourselves and luggage in this car which proved to be impossible.
After 20 minutes of frustrating demonstration and discussion, the original pre ordered car somehow arrived, and was not “broken” as we were told.
An excessive bond of $2000 was required before the keys were provided.
Not an entirely pleasant experience and one I would not wish to repeat so I won’t be using or recommending Christchurch Green Motion/James Blond.

Disgusting company, expect your quote to be padded up once you've booked, hidden charges like relocation fees once you've turned up for your hire & they are racists, the creep who bought the company fired the kiwi staff in order to hire indians on visas to exploit easier. It was a highly reputable company when Lee created & owned it (Vancy Rentals), now it is the worst since sold (October 2024). Bankrupt this creep & send him back to the filthy hole he came from. Do not give your money to this company.

Went to NZ for Christmas 2024 and needed a car. James Blond were by far cheaper than any of the bigger companies. Got picked up at Auckland Airport, short trip to their depot, quick intro and we were off. The suv was immaculate, low mileage, exactly what we'd expected and paid for. Drop off at Christchurch was similar, no dramas or waiting around, even though the depot was again off the airport site. Highly recommend James Blond as a cheaper alternative.

We arrived at the Christchurch location to be given a 10-year year-old hybrid, apparently just delivered Japan, with all the instructions - the screen and various written instructions on the car - only in Japanese.
There was no way to change the screen to English or French (our second language).
Of course, no one can safely drive a car when you cannot understand neither the safety instructions nor the way to operate the navigation system nor even the simplest things, like how to set the clock or change the brightness level on the dashboard, which was set at dim.
The contract states that renters are fully responsible if car instructions are not followed for overheating or oil loss etc.
But we could not understand the instructions on the dash, so no way to know what any warning light might mean.
The contract (Clause 9b) states that the contract is null and void if a vehicle is unroadworthy.
It was. Any vehicle is of you can’t read the instructions.
We wanted out.
The local manager in Christchurch was excellent and put us in touch with headquarters, who argued for 20 minutes that the car was roadworthy and to trust them that the screen instructions were irrelevant, and not part of the contract. That was ridiculous: all parts of a vehicle are part of the vehicle, screen and safety instructions included.
On Google a similar car was selling for less than $6,000.
Yup it passed roadworthy inspection …we were told.
No proof was offered, and of course the Japanese language navigation screen had Japan and not New Zealand.

The manager refused to include a separate English language GPS system.

Finally, after much argument, the contract was cancelled.

Three hours lost.

We did appreciate the goodwill of the local manager: she was understanding and delightful but caught between us and a very unpleasant manager on the phone from HQ.

Advice: read the fine print and stand up to the bully tactics.

Yes, James Blond is a few dollars cheaper but buyer beware, “Gold Economy” may well get you a secondhand car with no place to charge your phone and with all instructions in a foreign language.

The car smelled of cheap perfume, no doubt to cover up that a previous owner was a smoker.

We have just rented from Budget, a brand-new SUV with top-notch safety features and excellent insurance coverage and only nominally more expensive.

Off we go to hike.

We have rented from James Blond many many times over the years, getting a variety of vehicles from small cars to large family vans, online booking is easy and pick up and drop offs to international airport with friendly van drivers always a seemless transfer. Econonic rental prices as well.

Amazing staff, great vehicles and no stress process

Great van to drive and the staff were really accommodating.

Great, friendly and helpful people . Will recommend:)

Awesome customer service, initial call taker we dealt with was 5 star however when picking up truck we dealt with another staff member who forgot to put straps and hand truck that was part of our order on the truck so we had to go back to the yard to pick them up which he apologized for.

Aside from that over all, James Blond rentals is hands down the best rental vehicle service company out there. We will continue to use their service, worth every cent..

The team at James blond are always so helpful and I enjoy their different style of vehicles from cars to trucks.