Prime Safaris & Tours

Reply from Prime Safaris & Tours

Dear Sokratis,

It’s unfortunate that you did not enjoy your self-drive trip experience in Uganda. This concerns us as a professional company as our primary aim is to offer lasting memories for our esteemed travelers’ world over.
However at times, the guest experience is affected by issues of own making even when we are committed to surpassing their expectations.

On Dec 28th 2018, the vehicle Station wagon Land cruiser was delivered by our Driver Mike and our office staff Sharon to you at Entebbe International Airport upon your arrival. You inspected the vehicle, agreed to it, paid the remaining balance and signed both vehicle delivery form acknowledging the reception of the vehicle along with the self-drive car rental contract.

You embarked on your self-drive journey in Uganda dropping off the Company staff at the Office junction at Bwebajja along Entebbe road 24km from the Airport and proceeded to drive without any complaint on Dec 28th, 29th & 30th across the Eastern and the far eastern parts of the country. On Dec 31st, you transferred from Matheniko / Moroto in the far north east of Uganda and took 12hrs drive to Masindi town in the West of the country without any stop to allow the vehicle cool or check lubricants including water levels.
At some sections, the vehicle movement report shows the vehicle speeding beyond the Uganda’s speed limit of 80km/hr. even reaching 120km/hr. This was great pressure to the vehicle as the first section of this journey was on a rough murram road in the Karamoja region. On this long drive, you only enjoyed the acceleration and never bothered to check the water levels causing great damages to the engine system.
Even before starting the drive on the morning of Jan 1st, basic things like checking water levels and oil wasn’t done. No wonder, at only 17.22km drive on that morning from Kabalega Resort to Murchison, the vehicle stopped shortly at Kidwela (07:39am – 08:05am).

We received a call around 9:43am from you while in Masindi and we were informed that the vehicle had gradually stopped moving while in Murchison Falls NP due to overheating. That upon the vehicle stop at this point, you poured Oil in the vehicle (not necessary in this case) and water after which you returned to Masindi town and handed over the vehicle to the people at the gas station to start working on it.
It is at this time when the gas station people had removed the oil and opened the vehicle engine system that we received this call letting us know of this matter. It seems you wanted to patch up the damages caused to the vehicle and proceed on the drive without letting us know and unfortunately, they were colossal and your hired people / “mechanics” could not handle.
We halted the proceedings on ground and arranged the travel of expert mechanics from Kampala to go and work on the vehicle as the engine system is very sensitive. But also not to delay your movements, we dispatched an alternative vehicle TX Land cruiser from our office with a professional and an experienced driver called Robert to transfer you to Fort Portal as we ascertain the cause of vehicle breakdown after which you would be informed and if you are responsible, meet the repair costs as per the vehicle hire contract and then, your self-drive vehicle finds you at the next destination.
The mechanics ascertained that while driving, you had hit a strong instrument (presumably a hard rock along the murram roads) damaging the radiator leading to water leakage and hence the rise of temperature which you even failed to notice thus going beyond normal leading to the stopping of the vehicle on the next day. As seen above, you remembered to check the water and add when the vehicle had already stopped. Regrettably, the radiator, gasket, cylinder head & water pump had been destroyed.
The vehicle was put on a carrier and transferred to an established garage in Kampala to get the spares and replace accordingly.

Regrettably, when you had reached near Kyenjojo en route to Fort Portal a speeding self-drive traveler driving a hired car from Alpha Rent A car failed to control his vehicle and rammed into you causing damages to the vehicle. Fortunately, no bodily injuries happened and the Police came to the scene to generate a report. Even when everything was clear that the self-drive traveler had failed to control the vehicle resulting into hitting of your vehicle from its side, it came to everyone’s shock including Police that you choose to shift the blame to your driver at a time when the driver of the other vehicle had obviously acknowledged the mistake and making apologies. Could it have been motivated by the desire to disqualify chauffeur driven over self-drive as we had not given you a self-drive vehicle for that transfer!
At this stage, as we were arranging an alternative vehicle to transfer you after the accident to Fort Portal as the driver had to remain behind to finalize with the police, you got a passing vehicle and proceeded. You wrote to us while in Fort Portal.
At this stage, you also brought to our attention in e-mail that you had another passenger by the names of Panos whom you had not informed us about right from the start of the booking process. We had actually hired the vehicle to you and you had not communicated that you would be traveling on this self-drive trip safari with other people which you later did at your own making and decision.

In response, we were sorry about the accident, informed you that we are still finalizing with the Police in Kyenjojo but we would be dispatching another vehicle to find you in Fort Portal and proceed with the rest of the journey. In the same e-mail, we also provided an update about the mechanical findings from the initially hired self-drive vehicle regarding the damages that you had caused including repair costs. You retaliated by noting that you were no longer interested in our services, an action that must have been driven by your unwillingness to meet the repair costs which you had caused as they were higher compared to the amount for number of days that were remaining and since then, you disappeared and completely ignored our requests to have this harmonized as it would never be our wish to end with a guest in such situation.

It is from this basis that this review is motivated by the desire to blackmail and creating bad impression other than a genuine ground. Prime Safaris remains committed to professionalism and serves its esteemed guests with trust and responsibility.