Renter Beware: 1st Cart Rental Review
 

Please forgive me for posting here (and for the length) as I am not a Villages resident. However, my parents ARE residents and I felt obligated to share an experience that they (and I) had in dealing with 1st Cart Rental so that hopefully a few of you might be spared a similar experience.

A little background, my parents bought their place in The Villages back in March. They spent a few months in the spring in The Villages and then went back home for the summer. Then a few weeks ago they flew back down to Florida to spend the month of October there before the holidays. Since they were going down I thought it was a good opportunity for me and my daughter to join them so she could see her grandparents and we could go to Disney World for a day or two.

My parents had yet to purchase a golf cart of their own by this time and had been renting from various companies in the spring and were planning to do so again for October. Like many of you they saw 1st Cart Rental’s ad in the newspaper and called them up and arranged for a cart. My mom’s feedback to me later was that they were so much cheaper than the others which is why she chose them. In hindsight, what my mom should have done was to check this company out on Yelp or on a site like this to see if there were any complaints/issues that others have had…..because cheaper certainly isn’t always better!

Anyhow, the owner, Marc, delivers the cart and everything seems fine. It’s a nice cart. Clean. The problem starts when the windshield falls off the front of the cart. My dad, myself, and a friend of mine are playing golf at Havana and as we’re making the turn the windshield of the cart falls off the front of the cart and, as we’re driving at the time, we have no choice but to then run over it and basically destroy it. We were in the parking lot at the time so besides the three of us there were at least three or four other players who witnessed this as well.

How can that happen you ask? Well, unlike most other carts that I saw around The Villages (because I was very observant of it after this happened), the windshield was not bolted on to the roof supports. It was simply held on to the supports with plastic clips. My dad and I picked up the windshield and the pieces of plastic that had broken off, put them in the cart, and finished our round.

My dad then left Marc a message on his phone relaying what had happened. What happened next still boggles my mind.

The next morning as I’m finishing breakfast with my daughter the doorbell rings. My dad is out running errands and I’m home with my daughter, my mom and a friend. I answer the door and it’s Marc. I tell him my dad is not home and he starts by telling me that my dad would have to pay for the windshield and that he deals with a lot of people and my dad is the first not to “own up”. His mannerisms and speech are very aggressive and confrontational right from the moment I open the door. I explained what had happened and that it was clearly not our fault for it falling off. He questions my account…so basically calling me a liar to my face. Things quickly got heated. He asks me to show him the cart so I open the garage door and we both go in. I again explain what happened, and again I’m told that wasn’t what happened. At this point we’re both basically yelling at each other and I tell him to get this cart out of here and get lost. He gets in the cart, backs it out, and puts it on his trailer and as he’s walking to his truck he says “come out here in the street big boy and I’ll beat your f*cking a$$” and then tells me “I’m a vindictive mother f*cker so don’t be surprised if you come home six months from now with a rock through your window”. That is verbatim as I will never forget that. He then gets in his truck and roars off.

Before some of you criticize me with something like “we’re only hearing one side of the story”, “it’s your first post what’s your agenda?”, etc. please note that this is not the first time on this same site where someone has posted a negative review of this company and its owner. Do a quick search for the following posts for the others:

"Stay away from 1st Cart Rental"
"Golf Cart Rental Ripoff!"

In short, I do have an agenda and it’s simple: I am appalled by this guy’s behavior and don’t want anyone else making the same mistake and don’t believe he should be allowed to continue doing business with Villagers. After reading these other reviews it’s clear he has no respect for his customers and is in the business of taking advantage of Village residents if it serves his purpose. I am a police officer in Colorado and see all manner of deplorable human beings on a regular basis and this guy is certainly right up there. I’ve advised my parents to file a police report and would certainly encourage any of you with similar experiences to do the same. As for only hearing one side of the story, he’s certainly free to post a response but I highly doubt he will as he’s a bully and a coward.

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Call the sheriff and report what happened.

Wow! It appears that this businesses motto is "the customer is always wrong".

In another lifetime I worked with small businesses (business plans, loans etc.) and when I hear a business man behaving like OP has posted---I just cringe ---especially his language and verbal threats.

One of the problems, anybody can apparently get a couple of golf carts and truck and trailer and open up a rental business. Some agree that's the way it should be---others, including myself, believe such services should require some oversight and maybe a license. What oversight and how much is another discussion.

We believe you, rockchalk6. Since your parents bought a place here in March, I would forget about renting any more carts, and would just buy one from TV Golf Cart store or the other reputable ones people note here.

The money spent on renting now is better invested in a cart of their own. And get a separate insurance policy for the cart (not on the homeowner policy that can be jeopardized/cancelled because of a cart claim), and get the cart policy with liability in mind.

Call the Sheriff ---dont let them get away with that --










11

I too had a bad experience with this company. Having been assured that a cart would be delivered and despite 3 calls to chase up the elusive cart I had to make other arrangements. Luckily no money had changed hands. I wish I had checked on a website sooner

Rockchalk what part of Ks

We dealt with him last Jan/Feb. for my parents. We had to have him bring us 3 carts over this time. They were all junk! One left me on side of the road. I called him and he told me he would pick it up the next day. I was out of luck and left on my own. Luckily I was in TVs and someone gave me a ride home. He did bring me another junk cart late the next day. The best day was when we returned the cart! He was rude.

1st Cart Rental
 

Word of mouth is a powerful tool and I can only hope that we as a community can put 1st Cart Rental out of business.
I called 1st Cart Rental in October for a rental during Thanksgiving. His first response was "I don't have any 4 seaters left." I said that was fine because I only want a 2 seater. On the day of delivery he brings me a 4 seater like he was doing me a favor. My son said it would be ok so I wrote the $75.00 check.
I should have checked it out before I wrote the check. The cart was a piece of junk and dirty. I had to clean the cooler with clorax. The enclosure did not cover the back seat so what good is a 4 seater if you are going to get wet and freeze to death! We played golf on Wednesday and as it was cold and windy my son put down the enclosure. Of course as he zipped down the zipper pulled away from the plastic. We stitched it back together! That night we discovered that the cart only had 1 headlight. The cart was slow and it back-fired every time he stopped.
On the day of pick-up I had an appointment so I made a list of the "problems" with the cart, then I decided to call. I explained everything to him and his response was "Well, don't rent from me." I assured him I wouldn't and reminded him that word of mouth can be a powerful tool. He started mouthing off so I hung up.
When he came to pick up the cart my husband went out with the list and told him "Here is a list of some things you should take care of on the cart".
My husband then told him that he did not like his attitude when I had called him. His response was "Like I give a " but stopped himself. My husband told him to get his cart off our property.
I pulled up my bank statement to see who the check was made out to (he told me he would fill it in). The name on the check is Richard Castonsvay.

Just as an aside... I would suggest we all fill in the name on the check ourselves. The obvious reason he wanted his personal name there rather than the name of his business is that he is avoiding taxes and will not be listing your check as business income. However, he could also have simply written "cash" as the recipient and then claim you never gave him a check or if he is really difficult the name of a friend who would launder the check.

He sounds evil!!!! Disgusting!!!

We too had a horrible experience with Marc at 1st Cart Rental. I posted our experience last year.

We had reserved 2 carts and I called a week before coming to TV to check on the reservation. When I called him to check, his response was "well you reserved the carts didn't you?"

When I called the morning of delivery he said I only reserved one cart. My husband picked up the phone to tell him he was there when I had reserved the 2 carts. Words got heated.

Marc is a rude person and hope he never does business in The Villages.

We do recommend Grandpa and Grandma's Village Buggies.

Is second that!