[Quick update – “UK Van and Minibus Hire” is the same company as A1. Avoid!]
OK, this one’s a doozy and I can’t blame you if you don’t get to the end of it. Upshot is it’s these idiots who cost me the entire of the weekend of the 9th/10th, plus taking the Monday off uni. Not forgetting that Christina, my dad and I ended up spending 23 hours solid moving stuff. And then more time the next day after around 5 hours sleep.
And I just spotted this evening that they’ve over-billed by credit card as well.
UPDATE as people have asked for it, I’ve rediscovered the piece of paper with their head office phone number. It’s 0116 2565656 – the reception will give you the address to send complaints to.
Letter in the post in the morning, addressed to the MD (names abbreviated etc):
Dear Sir,
I am writing to complain in the strongest possible terms about the treatment myself and a friend (Ms C) received from your company on January 9th 2010. One piece of inept “customer care†snowballed into a complete nightmare of a weekend for myself and Ms C.
I am assuming that you or members of your staff have moved house at some point in the past. I therefore hope that you can appreciate that, at the best of times, it is a hugely stressful endeavour. National turned our weekend into one from the very depths of hell itself. Please be aware that I am, frankly, furious about the entire matter and that I have been very careful to refrain from profanity both while talking to your staff on the telephone and in drafting this letter. Believe me, I have not been so restrained when discussing the matter with friends and family.
On the preceding Thursday, we booked a van via your website. This was to be collected at midday from your Perth office and returned around 4pm on the Sunday. We promptly received a conformation email with the address, times and booking reference.
At 11:30 on the Saturday morning, I was stood in the snow outside the aforementioned office, which was unmanned. A large poster in the window told us to ring a number for attention as there was nobody there. At 11:55, I duly called this number… and received a pre-recorded message telling me that the phone was switched off. There was no option to leave a message. We both tried again until around 12:15 – quarter of an hour after we were supposed to collect the van.
We next tried the booking number emblazoned on the side of a van which was parked outside the office. Do note that this “lo-call†number involved a fairly large per-minute rate to ring from Ms C’s mobile as your company does not see fit to provide a proper telephone number for customers to ring.
After ten minutes or so we discovered that there was nobody to rent us a van as there was only one person working in Dundee so they couldn’t close the office to come down and rent one out in Perth. Our booking had been cancelled and nobody had seen fit to do anything simple, such as tell us. By the time another few pounds had dropped into your coffers via the premium telephone number, we discovered that some computer glitch had meant that someone in Dundee hadn’t been able to get our details on Friday to inform us. This same glitch obviously wasn’t still in effect so we were wondering why nobody had contacted us on Saturday morning. Or why they’d not contacted someone else in the company and asked them to do it.
We were given another (premium rate) number to call, which I duly did. I had to explain our situation all over again to another member of staff. They advised us to get a taxi to Dundee and get a van from there, for which you would refund us. Of course, by now we’d be cutting it close as your office in Dundee would be closing in little more than thirty minutes. I asked her to check with them first to see if a van was available. More coins dropped into your corporate piggy bank until she informed us that, no, there was not. A good job we hadn’t flagged down a cab, really.
She agreed to ring round some other offices and call us back. By now, we had no chance of booking from another agent. By the time we got back to my house, it would be past 1pm and everywhere would be shut. My friend was in floods of tears. By this stage, your company had reached the stage of behaving utterly unforgivably.
We finally got a call back where we were told to ring another number. I’ve lost track of the departments now, but more money was added to my mobile bill ringing this one. I demanded a number for the Dundee office, which I called… only to be re-routed back to head office as it was 13:00 and 5 seconds, so Dundee had obviously taken their phone off the hook.
I finally got to speak to a supervisor and informed him in no uncertain terms that National would be furnishing us with a vehicle. On the Saturday. And I did not care if someone had to drive it from London. I did not care if every van was stuck in a garage covered by snow. You would be digging it out. I did not care if it hadn’t been scrubbed clean, or the last renter had left their McDonald’s wrappers on the passenger seat. We would be getting a van.
Maybe fifteen minutes later he called back to say he’d spoken to the manager at Dundee and that there were no vans available. This was simply not good enough. I still had no explanation as to why nobody had contacted us 24-28 hours sooner, why their office had closed early, why the manager herself hadn’t deigned to phone us to apologise, why we couldn’t have the van which was parked outside the office in Perth…
Again I was informed that he would look into it. By now we were well over an hour past out original booking time. The friends who’d volunteered to help us move were getting impatient as they also had other matters to attend to.
Between calls from the gentleman in head office telling me you could do nothing, I received a phone call from Jonathan in Stirling. He, completely at odds to the rest of your company, seemed genuinely sympathetic and interested in helping. I hope you don’t even think of chastising him for this, but he agreed that your other employees had acted unprofessionally and selfishly in trying to fob us off and agreed to make some phone calls. I believe that Jonathan had already finished for the day, but was prepared to put the effort in to resolve the awful situation that Ms C and I were now sliding into.
He contacted the manager of Dundee directly and she, finally, called us. She explained that she was sending someone down to Edinburgh airport to retrieve a van and bring it up to Perth for us. This would take a couple of hours.
This raised some questions:
1)     Why couldn’t this have been organised sooner so that the van had been available earlier?
2)Â Â Â Â Â Where did this mysterious person come from seeing as there was nobody to man the Perth office?
3)     Why couldn’t we have the van that was already there in Perth so that we could get on with moving stuff?
I think I managed to get answers:
1)Â Â Â Â Â Because the manager at Dundee is inept.
2)     He had been brought in on his day off to run a stupid errand which could have been avoided had answer “1†not been the case.
3)     Because it was stuck in snow. Until I pointed out that it was no longer stuck as the snow had melted. At which point it became “too big†as we had booked a smaller van. How incredibly helpful.
Answer three there, really stuck in my throat. I had to, and I do not exaggerate, physically bite my tongue to refrain from shouting at the Dundee manager when she told me that. We were being made to wait what turned out to be five hours for a van to be driven up from Edinburgh because the one already available was too big?! In particular the way that the van switched in the space of one sentence from “stuck†to “big†really galled me. It smacked of someone making up excuses.
I gather that said van had been there for a booking on the 8th, but at that time was bogged down and immobile. However, that booking was no longer relevant. The van was there. And I didn’t give a hoot if it was too large or not. The fact was, we’d booked a van for midday on Saturday and by the time we got one it was after 5pm.
The gentleman who we eventually met at Perth was polite and helped us melt the ice in the windscreen wash bottle before we set off. It was obvious, though, that he wasn’t too happy about being called in on his day off.
Sorted? No. Not in the slightest. It was now dark. Everyone who was due to help us move house had left. Instead of eight people moving things from one second floor flat to another, there were now two. We managed to shift some of the smaller items, but due to the lights in the closes at both locations being broken, we had to give in otherwise we would have risked injury on the stairs.
The next morning we began at 8am. By mid-afternoon it was apparent that with just two people, this was going to be impossible. My father very kindly volunteered to help us move some of the heavier items.
I would like to point out that my father is 64 years old. He had pneumonia 3 years ago, never completely recovered and is asthmatic. He is also, stubborn, helpful and prepared to go out of his way to make sure that people aren’t stuck in a hole they can’t get out of. Unlike many of your staff.
Despite his help, we were forced to continue on into the night regardless of the fact that we were walking blind at times due to the aforementioned broken lights. At 4am (I kid you not) I was questioned outside Ms C’s old flat by the police as they couldn’t believe someone would be moving at that time in the morning.
At some point, I can’t recall when, I received a phone call from one of your staff asking when the van would be returned. I told him “6am tomorrow, if we get finished†to which his response was “That’s fineâ€. I thought nothing else of it. I had been informed that there would be nobody to check the vehicle until Monday morning anyway.
We finally returned to my house to bed down at 6:30am on Monday. By the time we got to bed, we had been working almost non-stop for 23 hours.
It gets worse.
Late on the Sunday night, Ms C’s sister had informed us that she could no longer stay awake for us to deliver some things to her house for storage. It was simply too late. She had been expecting us earlier on the Sunday, but we couldn’t get the things to her then as we still hadn’t moved other items due to wasting the entire of Saturday sorting out your mess.
At this point, Ms C physically broke down. Prior to this time I was angry with your company. This, however, was crossing a line. She was, for almost half an hour, inconsolable. 11:15pm on Sunday night was when I decided that I would be doing everything in my power to make National pay for what they had done. Things were now far beyond a financial issue or a simple apology.
The above phone call meant that we’d stored all the things due at Ms C’s sister’s at her friend’s flat instead. She was expecting a few boxes and some furniture. When she arrived on Monday morning to find the flat full, she understandably asked for a large amount of it to be removed.
Monday, then, was spent moving a goodly number of boxes plus a freezer and a tumble dryer across Perth using my Renault Clio. Obviously, this took a vastly larger number of trips than in a van – which by now had been returned.
I’m currently a student on a post-graduate course at Strathclyde University. I must maintain an 80% attendance on each module or risk being unable to collect my diploma in June. One of those modules is on a Monday. However, I could not leave Ms C to move everything herself, especially as she had no transport. As such I was forced to miss a tutorial, which displeases me immensely.
In addition, I didn’t make it back to Glasgow until 1am on Tuesday morning after dropping Ms C off in Stirling. Ms C had to return to Perth the following morning by train and then hire a taxi to move the last few items out of her old flat. This, obviously, cost her money in addition to which she had to pay a penalty to the letting agency for leaving the property a day late – she was supposed to hand the keys over on Monday.
I appreciate this is a lengthy letter, but so much went wrong and every single part of it is down to National failing to contact us on Thursday or Friday, thus giving us the time needed to go to another company and rent another van. The complete failure of your staff, excepting Jonathan in Stirling, to give a damn about us or our situation utterly staggers me. For the Dundee manager to go off the radar for almost two hours, close the phone lines early, refuse to speak to me (until Jonathan contacted her), make up pathetic excuses about the van which was in Perth and then force some poor soul on an unnecessary 2½ hour errand is verging on unbelievable.
As well as the emotional and physical strain that your company put us through, you cost us a small packet. The phone calls mount up to slightly under £10. Then there is the fuel cost of driving my car around Perth on Monday. Plus Ms C’s transportation to and from Perth on Tuesday, along with the taxi fare to move her last items into storage and the letting agency’s “fineâ€. My 100% attendance on my university course has been wiped, though hopefully won’t affect my grade. It does, however, cause potential problems should I fall ill in the next 5 months and there is the fact that the hours at college I missed have actually been paid for. More money wasted courtesy of yourselves.
I went through all of the above as a favour to a friend in need. My father the same. Both of us would do it again. The thing is, neither of us should have had to if National had not acted in such a shoddy, pathetic, and ultimately childish manner. From a simple mistake, to fobbing us off and then spitefully running rings to make it look like you were doing us a favour when a simple solution sat on a driveway 10 minutes away.
And do you know what? It’s not finished. I have just checked my credit card and found that “EC VEHICLE RENTAL WATFORD†has charged £79.17 to my credit card. This comes as a huge surprise given that the bill was supposed to be under £50 as per the agreement I signed on the Saturday evening.
No damage was done to the van and the vehicle was returned with the fuel needle above the “F†mark. I shall, of course, be ringing someone tomorrow to discuss this little affair. So where this extra £30 or so comes from is a mystery. I’m sure someone will make up some pathetic excuse when I call them tomorrow.
In the meantime, I have contacted my credit card company and informed them that this payment is in dispute.
I have dealt with some pretty poor companies in the past. National, however, have caused more problems from one act of ineptitude than just about any other. Believe me, that’s actually quite impressive.
Obviously, I expect a full enquiry and prompt written explanation for all of these failings. I would also expect a reasonable level of financial recompense. I won’t throw figures around. I leave it to you to decide what you believe to be fair for the utter chaos and financial loss your company has caused.
Rest assured, though, that you aren’t trying to buy back my custom. You won’t be getting it again.
I await your prompt and full reply in short order.
Yours faithfully (etc.)
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God what a nightmare!!!
Tell me about it. And I’ve been trying for two days to get through to their “customer services” so that I can find out why they’ve overcharged me for the rental.
Bloody useless.
Yowch – hope you get this sorted soon! Muppets!
Here’s hoping I do too. For their sakes…
[…] Van Hire – resolution February 3, 2010, 6:37 pm A couple of weeks ago I sent a 6-page letter of complaint to National Van Hire (a.k.a. EuropCar) regarding a huge mess they made of a rental on January 9th. […]
I too rented a van from A1 National Van Hire of Milton Keynes and they not only messed up both the delivery (a day too early) and the collection (2 days later! – it turned out that the 5PM collection on Sturday PM they quoted was impossible as the office is actually closed on a Saturday!!!) but they then over-charged me 48 quid. When I complained they fobbed me off to Europcar, however as far as I am concerned my contract is with A1 National Van Hire. This was th eend of last year and I still have not resolved this matter. BE WARNED, the price quoted is not the price you may end up paying…
A1 is very dodgy!!! I have a complaint on going since end of November 09 and I am about to take them to court due to them overcharging me by £100!! I have not even got a response from them by email or letter & when ever I phone its either constantly engaged or no answer!! I don’t suggest anyone ever uses this company!
I guess we should avoid A1 then!
This truly is a horrible company. These are the main problems I had with the service:
1. The delivery of the van was late by 30minutes.
2. I requested a 7pm collection, which was confirmed via email, in person and on the telephone. I was advised after calling numerous times around 7.30-8pm that the van would not be collected until the morning.
3. The lady who came to collect the van did not have any documentation and asked for my copy. I confirmed with her there would be no charges and gave her the copy so she could do the necessary checks.
4. A £70.21 charge was taken from my account without notice 12 days later for fuel…even though there was more petrol in the vehicle when it was collected than when it was dropped off. The gentleman who dropped it off said it needed to be returned with 2 notches of fuel, and it was returned with 3 notches.
5. 3 months down the line and they are still investigating the matter as they used two different subcontractors to delivery/collect the van and there was a communication problem between them. The company who collected the van was not advised of the amount of petrol the van was delivered with and this has meant I am penalised and have to call and email them regularly to get updates to try and get the money they STOLE from me back.
I sincerely would not recommend anybody to use this company as this is the worst experience I have ever had with anything I have ever purchased or rented. The customer service is appalling and I have to wait for another 24hours now to hear back from them. A call back has been promised to me on two prior occasions, so I do not hold out much hope.
Brunost – sorry to not reply sooner. I didn’t spot the comment arriving on the blog. I’d suggest doing the same as I did – write a letter to the MD then chase it up a week or so later.
I too have recently been had over by this company, van not turning up at all, then them taking money out of my account for this priviledge. For the people who are taking it further in order to reclaim there monies, how are you going about it, and do you have a postal address for the company as i can’t find anything on their website!
thanks
Hey lillybet.
I wrote to the Managing Director at their office, but I seem to have lost the piece of paper with the number and address on. Next time you speak to one of the drones at customer services, ask for the phone number for head office. Call them and ask for the MD’s name and the address to send to. That’s what I did.
I then waited two weeks, getting no response, and chased them up to finally get a resolution. If I find the address I’ll publish it on here.
Update – can’t find the address but the phone number for their head office is:
0116 2565656
thanks for that Mosh, i will get on the case.
Did you get a refund in the end?
Yes I did. And an additional £30 towards costs (telephone calls etc). And £40 in vouchers which I’ll likely pass on to someone else as I doubt I’ll use them again.
https://www.moshblog.me.uk/2010/02/03/national-van-hire-resolution/
I totally sympathize & think this company employs a very dodgy work ethic!
My problems started from pick-up at Glasgow Airport & continued at drop-off at Edinburgh Airport.
I booked a car via Holiday Autos & was given Alamo as my designated agent.
I requested during online reservation for the car to be ready for when my flight landed. They gave this option, so I added flight details & suggested an approximate time of midday.
My flight landed 25 minutes early, so made my way to the Alamo desk (11.40am). The guy read my booking confirmation & looked at his PC for a bit, then notified me my booking was for midday and the “system” would not allow him to get in until then (Rubbish, I thought!). But, I was hungry (no breakfast), so went to Pret A Manger for a sandwich & to while away 20 minutes.
I returned at midday. The previous guy was nowhere to be seen, so I approached another, who informed me that the car was not ready & I had to wait. At this point, I’m thinking I have hired a car from 12 & should be in it to get to my destination! I had also booked it from 12am Wednesday till 5pm Friday but was getting a 3 day rental charge, so I figured I could pick that up 19 hours earlier for the same price, let alone 20 minutes!
Anyway, 15 minutes passed & I asked where the car was & what time I could be getting in it. “I don’t know” was the response. So, I put the pressure on and, 10 minutes later, I had the SatNav I had hired & walked through a blizzard to the parking lot.
Once at the booth, the woman there did not know where the car was, so I wandered out into the snow & started hitting the “unlock” button on the key fob until a car flashed at me. (Very professional customer service, don’t you think?)
OK. It’s now 12.35, but I have a car. (Phew!) I loaded it and got into the driver’s seat & tried to install the SatNav (I had a whirlwind business trip from Glasgow to Aberdeen to St Andrews & Edinburgh, so it was essential).
Anyway, the holder was broken & the Sat Nav just drooped downwards, making the screen invisible, unless it was supported by hand!!!
There was an Alamo / Europcar guy having a fag by the booth, so I called him over to check if I was just being thick. He confirmed it was broken & that I needed to return to the terminal to get a new one.
Again, a walk through the snow, got a half-arsed apology, & a new Sat Nav holder.
OK. Looking good to go now! SatNav installed. Postcode in. Destination found!!! I’m off!
So, I start the engine & a warning light springs up on the dash “OIL SERVICE REQUIRED!”
Luckily the fag smoking chap was still loitering nearby. I got him over. He asked me “Where are you returning the car to?”. “Edinburgh” I said. “That’s why they’ve given you this one, then!” he said. (So, if I was returning it back to Glasgow Airport, I would have had a better car? Mmmm. Can’t be arsed to do the oil change, let’s let the guys in Edinburgh do it, maybe!!!)
I followed him back to the booth where he calls up “someone” & mentions the problem. I was told to just drive… (Great service & great to know I was driving a car in need of a service into the worst weather Scotland has had for years!!!)
I set off at 12.55. I made it to Glasgow (late for my meeting). But, I arrived in Aberdeen that night, before the roads through Stirling & Perth got closed!
No thanks to Alamo!!!!
Next episode: the drop-off…
(TBC!!!)
I’m thinking you should be starting a blog of your own with a comment this length… but I’m hooked! I have to know how this finishes!
In case you think I’m on the wrong forum here (with Alamo), Enterprise bought up the National & Alamo licensees.
J
PS Drop off is a corker & so is the final bill. Watch this space!!!
Yeah, they also seem to own A1 (which someone mentioned above). Astounded that this is the most-read post on my blog for *many* months. Getting about 50 hits a day on it.
Hi Mosh. Yes, probably should have started my own blog, but just to satisfy your curiosity, here’s the rest:
OK. Now to the drop off.
I am a smoker. This vehicle had no signs whatsoever (I bet it has now) to say you cannot smoke in it. On the way to the drop off at Edinburgh airport, I smoked 2 cigarettes in rush hour traffic, concerned I would not make my flight. The windows were closed because of the sleet. The car ashtray was not used. I used a portable ashtray.
At Edinburgh, a “jobs-worth” check-out clerk informed me that I would incur a fee for a full valet because he could smell a cigarette & had therefore “damaged” the vehicle. £85 he quoted. At my request, he acknowledged the car had no “No Smoking” signs, but refused to put that fact in writing unless I signed his form – ie TO AGREE TO AN £85 VALET!!!
I refused to sign for 3 reasons:
1) The car had no “No Smoking” signs anywhere.
2) The car did not need a valet: 20 minutes with the windows open would have solved what his sensitive nostrils were alerted to.
3) The ash he claimed to see was negligible: there is more dandruff on a vicar’s collar!!! And the standard clean the car deserved between rentals would have removed any ash in 3 seconds (a vicar’s collar would take longer!). £85 for a full valet!!!!??? Complete rubbish. (Also, a full-on valet in London costs £25 (a standard costs £12), so where they get £85 from is ridiculous!!! I know for a FACT that the car did not warrant a full valet, & I bet it did not get one…)
Finally, the “jobsworth’s” colleague piped up when I refused to sign & said “We’ll take your money anyway”!!!
Since when did giving my credit card number allow Alamo, or anyone, to take whatever they like as they see fit without my approval? That is called THEFT!
Having checked in for my flight, I phoned up Alamo to register a formal complaint. All details of the pick-up fiasco & drop-off fiasco were logged & I was assured I would get a response within 7 days & that no charges would be incurred until the matter was resolved.
Well, guess what? A week has now passed without a squeak from them & £107 has been taken from my credit card by “EC VEHICLE RENTAL WATFORDâ€!!! The rental had already been settled with Holiday Autos for £92.
I have just phoned Alamo / Enterprise & requested a manager call me. 48 hours they say. They also say that I must contact Holiday Autos about the matter, since I booked through them, even though the charges that I am disputing are directly from Alamo!
Incredible! Passing the buck or what! I wonder what Holiday Autos will say!!!
I’ll keep you informed…
This blog has really helped me to keep going with my complaint. Thanks everybody 🙂
As I guessed in my last message, I did not receive a call back. So I called them again on Friday 19th to complain and I did get a little angry. I requested to speak to a manager about the issue and the adviser put me on hold. He then came back to me and said he had spoken to someone dealing with it who had issued a refund for the amount to my bank account which should arrive by Wednesday 24th Feb. Thank Jesus I thought, but just to be sure they weren’t lying to me again, I asked for an email to confirm they were refunding it. An hour after speaking to them, I had not received an email. I called them again and was told the email can take up to 24hours to send!!! I’m not sure what internet service provider they use, but 24hours for an email sounded a bit odd. I, however decided to be patient. I then called on Monday 22nd Feb after not receiving an email and the guy I spoke to said he would send an email that morning to confirm it. Again, I did not receive an email. I called again Tuesday 23rd and was told by the adviser that no refund had been issued as the matter was still under investigation!!!!! I could not believe it. The adviser said he was going to get it all sorted and call me back that day. Surprise surprise…I did not get a call back. I waited until today to call them again. I was told that it was refunded yesterday as the refund department was closed for a number of days. I again asked for an email confirming this and said I would like it ASAP as waited two weeks for the email already. He said within an hour. Two hours later, I called again and another adviser sent the email whilst on the line.
Fingers crossed I actually get the refund!!! I can’t believe how much hassle they’ve caused since I hired the van on 19th November. Good luck to anyone else who is going through something like this as it really was a horrible experience.
Joolyjay – you’ll find if you check the rental agreement forms that you signed, I’m sure you’ll find some mention of the fact that you can’t smoke in the vehicles. Small print it may be, but it’ll be there. It’s likely that the same paragraph will give a charge levied if they reckon you have. And if you’ve signed it…
Europcar (and other companies) also levy very unfair fuel fees if the vehicle’s returned with anything less than they reckon it had when you got it. I’ve heard of tales of them charging 50% over the going pump price per litre to top up cars that were slightly short.
And, yes, they do have permission to take whatever they want from your credit card. Again, check the rental forms. By giving them the number you agree to the initial charges plus whatever they deem necessary on its return (damage, lack of fuel and so on). Whether those charges are warranted is a very different matter – but they can just grab it.
I would contact your credit card company and tell them that the matter is in dispute and you’d like the cash back in the meantime until it’s resolved. At least then there’s no worry about having to pay interest or suchlike.
Brunost – you’re doing the right thing in hammering at them. Getting something in writing is likely to be a nightmare – you can tell this kind of thing when it’s a struggle to even get through to a manager. Nobody wants to take responsibility.
This company is so ridiculous!!
So I got that email on the 5th March stating a refund was made on the 4th March. Yesterday (16th March) no money had been returned to my account so I called them. The adviser I spoke to said he could see it had been refunded on the 4th and it looks like a delay with the refunds team so he was going to have to chase it up with them and would call me back. No surprises, but he didn’t call me back.
I called again this morning at 9am and spoke to someone else. Apparently the payment is still in dispute with their subcontractor so I was not getting a refund until they did!! I could not believe it. I told the adviser that I have it in writing that a refund had been made and about 5 or 6 advisers on separate occasions also confirmed this. He just said he doesn’t know who sent me the email or who I spoke with, but I was not getting a refund. I demanded to speak to the manager. Apparently the manager did not start until 12pm. A call centre without a manager present? I do not think so. Anyway, I called back at 12pm and was told the manager is on lunch!! I told the adviser that I was informed the manager started at 12pm, so why was he on lunch? He responded stating that the manager started at 11.30am and was now on lunch after 30mins of ‘work’.
I am just sitting waiting now before I call them again.
I am so sick of this company. I have been lied to over and over again. I think because I have an email stating the refund, that they are legal obigated to action it?
Its just really annoying me spending all my time calling them and such. Why can’t they just give me back the money they stole 🙁
Well speaking to a manager didn’t get me anywhere. All he said was that it has past the 14 days they allow for disputes so there is nothing they can or will do.
I have spent the afternoon writing a 3 page letter (still not as long as yours Mosh)to an address I got by dialling the number you provided. I also sent them copies of the emails I sent them and the email they sent me. I sent it recorded delivery just so I know they have got it as apparently they don’t have any records of my emails….even though I have forwarded the original ones onto them. Meh. Life is hard.
I’ll update you with another moan if I get a response to the letter.
Brunost – you could do with a blog of your own for that farce! Please do keep me updated and good luck with the letter. The “14 day” thing sounds like a crock as I think that’s meant to be to ensure that you complain within 14 days of them making a mess of everything, and not them just getting bored and junking your complaint after they’ve sat on their arses for 14 days.
I guess we’ll see…
Hijacking your blog is much more fun than spending time creating my own haha.
I received a letter today from Europcar saying the reference number I put on the letter did not match their records and they think I have the wrong company. A1 gave me the wrong address haha. Lovely people! So I just wrote out another letter and printed off all the other stuff…so I’ll take that to the post office shortly and post it to the address stated on the website. Fingers crossed this time it goes to the right people 🙂
I thought you all may be interested in the outcome of my complaint to Alamo/Europcar/Enterprise.
After originally phoning them only to hear they would be in touch, they finally told me on the 3rd or 4th call that they had dropped the claim because I would have to go through Holiday Autos, the 3rd party I booked through.
I was incensed – I had settled with Holiday Autos in full at the time of booking & the charges that I had incurred came directly from Europcar.
So I wrote an email to them stating this & suggesting that they should be aware that it had cost me a lot more than the cheeky & unnecessary valet fee for the hour of MY TIME they had wasted at pick up, what with broken SatNavs & cars that needed an oil service.
I also suggested they Google their company & see what their customers thought of them!!!
After a week or so, I had had no reply, so I phoned & reiterated all of this. I was told my email was being dealt with & I would be getting a reply. Yeah, right, I thought.
The very next day the phone rang – it was Europcar! I was expecting disappointment & nearly dropped the phone when the guy said that they have recredited my card in full with the Valet service they had dinked me for & recredited me for the SatNav too, as a gesture of good will!
Can you believe it!???!
Maybe the power of Google got them thinking after all!!! (Maybe they read all our complaints on this blog!!!)
I suggest no-one gives up pursuing their issues with the company & truly hope you all get them to give in in the end.
GOOD LUCK, ALL!!! 🙂
Brunost – good luck with that. As I think we’re discovered, they’re a complete bunch of inept tossers.
As Joolyjay has mentioned, perhaps the results we’re slowly getting are partly as a result of the negative comments on the web. This post is still by far the most read on my blog in a long time.
I wish I had read this prior to booking.
I am in the military and as you know we move around every three years or so. As I had moved from Watford to North Yorkshire I had arranged a van delivery to travel back down and collect my personal belongings on Saturday 20th – 10 am. Having specified on the key collection point in bold, “MAIN GATE” “CONTACT VIA MOBILE”. Simple enough I thought.
On Friday 19th I rang and received confirmation the booking was valid and reiterated the contact details.
I arrived at the “MAIN GATE” at 0945 an waited.
At 1010 I contacted the booking agency and was informed that the driver was on his way and would be there in 10 to 15 minutes.Using this information I booked a hotel in Watford for that night.
1035 there was no show. I contacted the booking office and was put in touch with Stewart.
He attempted to contact the driver and received no reply so left a message on the drivers mobile.
1100 contacted Stewart, he still had no contact will the driver.
1120 contacted Stewart who informed me that the driver had been turned away at the gate.
“LIAR” was my exact reply.
I had been standing at the gate with an unrestricted view of all approaching vehicles none of which resembled a short wheel based transit van, no vehicles were refused entry in the 3 hours I waited, that is unless they somehow managed to drive up to the main gate and inadvertantly left his Klingon masking cloak on so as to be undetected by myself or the CCTV Security cameras. No one came into the reception area (which is the only way to gain entry to the site)to drop off a vehicle of any description and no one called the mobile number as instructed on the rental agreement.
To cut a very long story short(er), I was in touch with Stewart until 1300 when his office closed. On Monday I rang to register my complaint. Vince informed me at the start of the phonecall that the money had been credited to my account due to the non delivery, so I went away a happy bunny.
Suddenly it clicked that it was a bit too easy and I googled A1 NationalVan hire complaints, there my greatest fears were realised. Using the information I gleaned I both e-mailed and rang back and asked for written confirmation. No problem they said.
Hours later no response.So I sent the following e-mail.
At 1425hrs I contacted you on 0116 268 0984 and asked for a confirmation e mail regarding the refund, for the reasons given in my previous e-mail. Stewart (Stuart) said one would follow immediately after the phone call. It still has not arrived
I called again at 5.30 pm and listened to the guy as he typed out the following.
A1 National Van Hire to ******
hi
the refund of £139.98 has been credited back to you as we were unable to supply the vehicle the funds should bee back in your account next 3-4working days
sorry for the inconvience
kind regards
That was on Monday, and they even admitted they were unable to supply the vehicle.
It was immediatley followed by another e-mail in capitals.
A1 National Van Hire to ***@.com>Mar 22
WE ARE JUST INVASTIGATING THE MATTER IT WILL TAKE 2 WORKING DAYS.
KINDREGARDS
Ah!,
I’ve seen this somewhere before. Is this the excuse they will use later for not giving me my money back? We are still investigating!!
Armed with this information I sent the following after giving a reasonable time for the BACS transfer process.
On Mar 25, 2010 4:06am, ******@.com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Although I have received written confirmation on the 22nd March 2010 that the funds have been credited back to my account as it is admitted in your previous mail ” you were unable to supply the vehicle”, I still have not received the £139.98 as expected. BACS transfers occur within three days therefore I was expecting to receive the funds today. I am requesting you provide me with the contact details of the person or department responsible and I will seek confirmation for myself.
Also, you stated in your e-mail that an investigation would take two days to complete. According to my phone records, “Vince” whom I spoke to on Monday 22nd Informed me that I would be contacted by your management staff regarding the outcome of the investigation. Please can you supply me with the contact details of the relevant department, I would be interested to hear why the failure occurred.
As you may be able to guess there was no response, so today 26th March 10, I contacted them and guess what? Stewart answered the phone. He assured me his boss would contact me within the hour when he arrived at work. I deduce that his boss starts work at 11am.
Well I am still waiting and its 8.30pm on the 26th.
I suddenly had a brainstorm about 2 hours ago. I had paid with my debit card, My LloydsTSB account has card protection, I’ll give them a ring. The card dispute agency sounds about right. The recorded message directed me to a kind agent dealing with “have you paid for a service which was not delivered” category.
Five minutes of small talk later, ah we will send you a form, fill in the details and we will credit your account for the full amount. We will deal directly with the company and their bank regarding the refund.
My final correspondance with A1 is as follows.
Hello.
Having worked in a customer service environment I have learned that it is only courteous to respond to customers correspondance,yet you have still not responded to a number of my emails regarding the refund or indeed the outcome of your investigation.
Today at 0954 I spoke to Stewart and informed him that the money had still not been credited to my account.He then informed me that he was going to get his supervisor to contact me. I supplied him an alternate phone number to the one on register so as to have no excuses.
I still have not been contacted by anyone from your company with regards this issue.
I have since handed the issue to my banks’ card dispute agency to persue the matter further.
Kindest regards
My advice.
1.Do not use this company!
2.Follow every phonecall with an e-mail. Keep this as evidence.
3.Log every call and get the name of the person at the other end of the phone.
4.Try to get them to confirm their breach of contract in writing.
5.Get your bank or credit card company involved.
6.Tell all your friends, family, colleagues to steer well clear.
I have booked another van for exactly the same duration for £86 which oddly matched the advertised price on the web site. They also suggested the driver would call me on my mobile when they were on their way.
Chris, I’m going to struggle to get rid of the vouchers that EuropCar sent me if people keep posting issues like yours on here 😉 All of your advice at the end there is pertinent and I’d apply it to pretty much any service provider issue, not just EuropCar/National.
Hi Guys, just reading your posts with interest.
I have been overcharged by these goons £328 on my companies credit card, supposedly for Fuel Surcharge even though the van was full.
Extra days rental for leaving it another 30 hours on my drive, and £166 for mileage surcharge, even though the van was smaller than I booked, and no refund given.
They have promised to refund the money, so I am watching with baited breath.
The way I resolved it was to email everyday threatening court action, phoned Europcar who even though my Contract was with A1 I said I would drag them in court to as they are the ones who charge the fuel and mileage surcharge to A1.
Just keep on at em as much as you can.
If need be fill in a Particulars of Claim online and send it to them. It works. Good Luck everyone. I shall be back if I do not get my refund.
Thanks, Neil (and I made the spelling correction for you 😉 ). It does seem to appear that there are a lot of issues with this company and it’s interesting to read the variety of stories of the ways they’ve managed to screw up.
Good luck getting your cash back!
Hi
My partner ( a non driver) recently booked a van from A1 national van hire – it turned up from Europcar 45 minutes late. I had the misfortune to catch the back of the van at the end of the day and was not aware of the horrific £1000 excess which they took immedietly.
Every time we call the normal contact number sopmeone is going to call us back – they never do. And every time we ask for a name… Smith!
The damage was minor and we are trying to get the damage report to get some of the money refunded to us and would like the address of the head office. Does anyone have the A1 National van hire head office address please? The constant 0870 numbers are costing a fortune!
Thank you
Hi, “Van” – to repeat one of my earlier comments:
Update – can’t find the address but the phone number for their head office is:
0116 2565656
They’ll be able to give you the address, it’s where I got it from.
Hi I tried ringing that number and it connected me to Europcar. They said they didnt have A1’s Head office address
From http://www.a1nationalvanhire.co.uk/contact.php :
Call us on:
0116 268 0981
0116 268 0984
0116 266 6747
or…
Write to us at:
A1 National Van Hire
180 Melton Road
Leicester
LE4 5EE
This lot are as bent as 9 bob notes. They sub contracted my hire to SIXT who subsequently subbed it to a local Van Hire company.
A1 didn’t tell SIXT or the Owner of the van that it was booked to go abroad. This would have incurred a higher share of the rental for the person who owned the van. As a consequence we set off in mainland Europe without the vehicle owner’s knowledge or his permission to take the vehicle out of the country. I am told that had we been challenged at a border we could have had not only the van, but our stuff that was in it consficated. I also suspect that not having the owner’s consent to use the vehicle abroad we could well have been driving without insurance also. I have asked A1 for the details of the policy we were covered by but they don’t respond.
The rental ended on a Bank Holiday, so the van couldn’t be collected. The day after I went to work, taking the keys with me and telephoned the owner of the van to say that the keys had to be collected before they could get the van. The owner asked A1 through SIXT if they could claim the extra 6 miles travel necessary to collect the keys. A1 told SIXT to say no and charge us an extra day rental. SIXT in turn decided to dip their bread and actually charged us 2 days, using the debit card details we had given to A1, who had passed the details on to them on without reference to us.
Having got your money the arrogance and contmpt these people have for their customers then begins to show, but I will have my pound of flesh.
The owner of the van is a company called TJS Van Hire. If you want to rent a van anywhere near Leeds go to these people directly and speak to Oliver. They are straight forward and honest and will send you away with all the cover and paperwork you need to be legal. They can also do rentals for vans to go onto the continent.
Of the £900+ we have been charged for the rental the owners of the van received less than £300, less than 10p for every mile we travelled in it. If you want to support leeches who make their living on the back of the hard work of others, at the risk of being found by the authorities to be driving illegally, then feel free to open your bank account to A1, then sit back and see how much they can take from it before you squeal.
Steve – great comment and thanks for the information on TJS. I would have used them if I still lived down there!
It is a very good point that large companies often subcontract out and the poor bugger that does all the work is the one who gets paid the least. Support the small operators!
I was looking at using either A1 National or Nationwide Hire UK and thanks to your comments you have saved atleast one customer from being ripped off
Paul, you’re welcome. Nice to know that the posts are useful sometimes 🙂
Do not use this company, quoted me £330 then charged me £387. Could never get through on the phone, when I did they hung up and when I did again they were unbelievably rude. Trying to tell me VAT was 20% a complete lie.
Funny how I’ve yet to hear one “they’re not that bad – I had a great time with them” comment. The closest I’ve heard was a friend who defended them as one of her friends worked for them. Coincidentally at the Stirling branch, the manager of which went above and beyond to sort out the mess they’d dumped me in.
Well, if only i’d ssen this blog…
I think I have gotten off lightly. My story begins on the 21st May. My girlfriend had hired a van through A1 ational van hire to be dropped off at 6pm at her house in birmingham for our one way trip down to weymouth the next day, where it was due to be picked up at 12pm. Those of you with experience of A1 already know where this is going. First of all Europcar drop off the van. I asked the gentleman about why Europcar are dropping of the van. ‘A1 are a broker’ he tells us. Fair enough I thought. So the next day, off we set with a van load of belongings getting to Weymouth very easily. One of the main problems with weymouth is there is no permanent parking and every hour you need to move your car / van. We unloaded the van and awaited the pick up for 12pm. This came and went. I decided to move the van just in case a traffic warden was walking around…. too late a nice £25 fine as a result of the van not being picked up. I was a little peeved so rang up A1. ‘Terms and conditions state that you are responsible for the van upto 8 hours from the next working day’ I am told. This meant I was responsible for this van until Monday morning! How ridiculous. Why do they even give the option of a 12pm pick up on Saturday if they know full well they will not honour it? I was also told that it should be Europcar that I should be speaking to.
I ring Europcar to be told that there is nothing on their itinerary for the van to even be picked up on Saturday. A1 they lying toads! I explain my predicament. I will be getting a lift home on Sunday afternoon and will be unavailable to give the keys to anyone on Monday and my girlfriend will be at work. It wasn’t until I suggested the possibility of dropping the van of myself that this was even thought of as a possibility. Luckily my parents had come down too to help with the move. I’m then told I have ten minutes to drop it off before Europcar close for the weekend. So I got the postcode typed it into the satnav and off me and my father went. Him in the car me in the godforsaken hire van. We arrived after the closing time but luckily someone was still there.
I thought to myself atleast that’s over and done with. But it wasn’t.
The initial amount quoted was £189.99, however when Europcar dropped the van off there was a charge for £100.23. Both myself and my girlfriend presumed this was because the van was smaller than they advertised. It wasn’t until she checked her credit card statement a few days afterwards that another charge for £123.00 had been taken out. A total of £223.23. As myself and my girlfriend are not in the commercial trade we were not aware that the original price of £189.99 excluded VAT but it will be a mistake we will never make again.
As my girlfriend needed to claim this back though expenses from her company she emailed A1 requesting an invoice for the full amount. Needless to say she never heard anything back. So she tried ringing, and just like most of you on here she could never get through. I decided to try myself and had great trouble. After half an hour one of the phones finally began to ring. It was answered I explained what I needed and they said that if I emailed the booking reference number I would receive an automated response with an invoice (yeah right!). I explained my girlfriend had done this previously, and there response was that the email had been down a few days but it was up and running again now. I was then promised that we would receive one in the next 24 hours, this came..and went. So today I had had enough as after speaking to my girlfriend who was close to tears as she is now going to get charged on her credit card as she hadn’t been able to put her claim in and she’s skint enough already, I decided to get a result. I ended up being put on hold for 5 minutes then hung up on, so I rang back immediately at all times being nothing but polite but firm. The gentleman I spoke to finally agreed to email me the invoice personally, but not until the end of the day….
So 6pm came and I got it 😀 however, the invoice does not even have a VAT number on it and as they have charged me VAT I hope to god for their sakes they’re VAT registered or they are in for one hell of a shock!
May I just add that the 0116 2565656 number quoted actually takes you through to Europcar head office. However the lady I spoke to gave me the name of the MD and the address on Melton road.
I am quite happy to supply the name of the MD and also the email from which A1 personally emailed me. But I need to find out if I would be liable for anything if I should.
Mosh if you know could you please post?
Good luck to everyone that has been conned.
Now if you’ve got a blog on virgin media i’d be very happy to put my two penneth in on that too.
Regards,
Rob
Rob, thanks for the comments and sorry to take a while approving it. I’m working in Vietnam and can only get to a PC every 3 days.
A typically nightmare story and please, if you can get that address, post it here. It’s publicly available by ringing their office so see no reason why it can’t be posted on here. I’d have put it up myself but I’ve lost it.
I rather stupidly rented a van through A1 without checking any reviews first; I suggest everyone does that with the internet. Anyway very similar to so many experiences I have since seen on the web with these guys – they are basically crooks as far as I am concerned. I paid by credit card and was able to just was my hand s of the whole thing and leave it to Barclaycard to sort out. I am amazed that these people still have the facility to take money I thought fraudulent types like these would have these taken of them. Infact as you read more and more of their reviews you can see a real pattern in what they do and also any positive reviews about A1 National Van Hire seem to be written by them. So to all who read this beware of http://www.a1nationalvanhire.co.uk
One other thing I might add is that during some very long phone calls with these jokers, they will tell you they have names like Stephen or William but they are infact all Asian based in Leicester and the company is own buy a guy call Mr Kumar – so why lie about your own name unless you are hiding something
I did find when I was dealing with the “customer service” lot that they were giving me Asian names, though some Asians *do* give an Anglicised name as it’s easier for non-Asians to spell and remember. It’s very common amongst companies with overseas call centres.
Still, another complaint about this dreadful company. I’ve still not used the £40 in vouchers they sent me as part recompense. I doubt I ever will.
Mosh, it sounds like you are the only person who got their money back.
I have also been scammed an additional £154! which they claim is partly in error part VAT- absolute rubbish.
In order for us to have a chance to get our money back we need to know whether you were refunded by Europcar or A1 themselves- please can you let us know!!
thanks 🙂
Rowena (I used to have a huge crush on a girl called Rowena at uni – didn’t go to Bradford, did you?), I lodged my complaint through and got my cash back via National Van Hire. Though if memory serves the vouchers I got in part recompense were from EuropCar.
I have just made a booking.. I am getting a bit worried.. Is there anyway I can cancel it before I go through the nightmare you have!!
Never hurts to try, Rachel. I’d suggest calling them and just saying you don’t want the booking any more. Although I’m sure they could screw up a cancellation as well.
There will no doubt be an admin fee for cancellation! Good luck, Rachel. 🙂
I recently booked a car with National from Manchester airport and was charged correctly then 4 days later 47.60 was debited from my account by EC Vehicle rental. I phoned the rentals section of National and asked what the extra payment was for and he refused to tell me. I insisted that the kind Asian gentleman give me the head office number not the 0800 customer service number, which he did before putting the phone down on me.
The good news is that after phoning 0044 1162 565656 I got put through to Debbie. After reading all the comments here, I was dreading this conversation. However… Debbie told me that the car hadn´t been booked in until 9am. I had dropped it off at 6am and made my 7.40 flight. No problem to Debbie. My account was credited as promised with the full amount 4 days later.
I don´t know if this works for Van hire too but this lady was very helpful.
Pauline, sounds like you struck it lucky. I also found one helpful person after 2 hours of ringing around (see the original post) who really made a difference. The fact is, though, that they shouldn’t have screwed up so badly in the first place. They seem like a very dodgy outfit and I’d never use them again.
A1 Reservations as they are also known have ripped me off to the tune of £1175, nine months after I rented a van with them. If you ever rented a van from A1 good luck!
I still havent got the money back all the usual A1 run around, I cant describe how F****** off I am right now. The money has gone I’m over my overdraft limit and running up bankcharges ….
There is a website Action Fraud if everyone here were to contact them with stories maybe we could get Kumar behind bars?
Hells bells, Gavin – that’s pretty awful. I recommend giving the Small Claims Court a try. See if they fit in with the remit for what you’re after. And good luck.
mosh,
another one foir you! my van did not turn up and got cut off put on hold cut off! not finished with them will update when i have to let you know wish i had seen blog!!
regards
stephen
I have heard today through a friend (I must however say that this is only hearsay) that it is alleged that this company is about to be wound up by one of its suppliers. So if anyone has had a booking with them recently they may find that there will be an additional charge from the vehicle supplier on their card in the near future. So watch out?
Stephen / David – thanks for both the comments. I’ve been offline the last few days or I would have responded sooner.
FYI the BBC have been in touch asking about many of these issues and I put them in contact with many of the earlier posters. I think it’s for radio, but the lady I spoke to was very keen to gather as many examples of different issues as she could. I’ll post an update on the blog as and when I hear more.
Just listened to an item on A1 Reservations, A1 Van Rental or whatever they are calling themselves nowadays. If you want to listen it was BBC Radio 4’s “You and Yours” today at mid day. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t8c9v for the listen again starting at 40.15 minutes and lasting under 10 mins.
Good luck you guys.
Ah, thanks for that. The producers actually got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago and I passed on their details to people who’d commented before! I’ll have a listen in a moment. Thank you for letting me know about the broadcast 🙂
Mosh,
Was just getting round to trying to find a place to make a complaint against Nationwide UK Hire, when I found your blog on this through Google. Thanks so much – just by reading some of the crap others have had to put up with it does make one feel a bit better.
My story with Natiowide – particularly “John” who seems to answer the phone when you can finally get through to them – follows a very similar theme. Lots of promises on the website about free delivery and pick up (not the case), “Luton van” available (forget that), which are repeated in docmentation that you print off the booking confirmation and they then deny ever having sent…..and in the end you get to a regular rental car agency (in my case Enterprise) and some poor sod has to sort everything out for you. In my case, apart from no Luton Van and no delivery, the payment I had made hadn’t got through the records to Enterprise so that was another hassle. Top it all off and “John” plus his colleagues at NAtionwide Hire – although mainly John as far as I can tell (I think he’s a one-man show) – are rude as you like about you not understanding what the terms were.
Anyway, my advice is go straight to the source – the rental car company – and don’t use these tossers at Nationwide Hire (or A1 National – although I haven’t tried them) as they just add an extra layer and no value, and a huge amount of hassle to what is a streeful experience in the first place.
Thanks again for the place to vent, and hope this saves someone a headache …….and denies Nationwide Hire UK some sales…….
Hehe – you’re more than welcome! And the more pressure we can put on companies to improve their services, the better.
You have my sympathy. I am currently struggling to get an explanation from Alamo/National/Europcar group for a EC Vehicle Rental bill that the airport desk has no record of. There needs to be a direct link with EC Vehicle Rental who get your credit card details from the airport desk. At least the credit card operator knows £83.91 is in dispute.
I currently feel hire car companies are none to interested in customers. For example I like a full to full tank but the A/N/E group insist I pay for a full tank and return it empty.
Jamale – at least your card company knows there’s a dispute. I would reckon that if the van company can’t prove a right to have taken the money (which they don’t seem to have) then the CC charge will almost certainly be refunded. Fingers crossed anyway!
This site is good for finding real numbers for the 0845s, etc that companies insist on using.
http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php
Absolutely – I’ve used them a lot and surprised I’ve not devoted a post to the site before. I did mention them on another post regarding SAAS (the education funding body in Scotland) but never given them the credit they deserve! Folks, as Vin recommends, SayNoTo0870 is a very useful site.
I’ve had a nightmare with these jokers just this weekend, turned up to pick up my luton truck to find a regular transit awaiting me.
Went elsewhere to get the vehilcle I required and Nationwide have still charged me, told them the rental did not go ahead due to the vehicle not being what I was after and John has told me to check their terms and conditions (where I do this I have no idea?!) my wife called to speak to Johns boss, Jeff, this afternoon and was told they were sorting it for us at the moment. My wife asked them to check their emai log and that we would also like access to it as we can see spaces of text missing on their own internal correspondence obviously slagging us off at that point they hung up on her and will now not take our calls.
Currently she is on the phone to the credit card company informing them off fraud on the account.
Good grief, Jacko. These pirates go from bad to worse. Good luck sorting that out.
Jacko,
These are the same bunch that I had my problem with (see August 9th post above). John is an aggressive sob, and you are right – he keeps referring to his “Terms and Conditions” which one never sees. The only terms we received were an email confirmation on a Luton van that wasn’t there when we turned up, and – according to John – would NEVER have been confirmed as Enterprise (the rental company he booked us through to) don’t have them. As far as he was concerned that proved WE had made all the mistake!
Stressful time, especially as you don’t exactly have a lot of options when you’re moving house etc.
If you manage to find someone in UK consumer affairs to logde an official complaint (or anywhere else that will bring these sods to account) and need any backup, let me know. Happy to jump in and back you up.