A1 National Van Hire

They made a mess of my flat move... from Rochdale to Canterbury August 2010

We booked the 1 way van hire a week previous to the move date and asked for a 10am van drop off. This would have been earlier, but they told me (very nicely) over the phone that they would struggle to get the van there before 10am as the day before is a bank holiday. So i settled for that with the intention of getting everything out of the flat for 10am in time for the van to arrive. It didnt... so i was sat waiting for it with the entire contents of my flat by the side of a busy road for nearly 5 hours. After numerous phone calls to the, in my opinion, increasingly obnoxious and arrogant staff at A1 National Van Hire, another very reputable van hire firm (to my surprise) eventually turned up with the van at about 2:45pm. The nice guy from this reputable van hire company told me that the van was only phoned through to them at 12noon the same day, despite the booking being made a week earlier. He told me that he had never heard of A1 National Van Hire, and that the rental had been made by a company of a different name... very strange.

Anyway, this resulted in us missing the office hours for which we could pick up our new flat keys and so had to scavenge to find a hotel until the following morning. We got the keys the next day, and moved our belongings in to the flat. I phoned A1 to let them know that the van was now available for off hire, he told me that it would be, at 2:30pm, so i told him, 'as parking is unavailable at our flat, i will park in a pay-and-display car park near by and pay until 3pm'. Knowing the problems we'd already had, i told him these facts and that i would not be responsible for any parking fees if you didn't pick the van up in time, he agreed and assured me the van would be picked up.

3pm came and went and then at 5pm i got an obnoxious phone call from A1 National Van Hire telling me that in fact i am responsible for any parking fines for 8 hours after my contract time... he then told me that nobody was available to pick the van up until the following day. Eventually the next day an employee of the very reputable van hire company arrived around 12noon to collect the van... i walked him to the van and there were 2 parking tickets on the van...

I am awaiting a bill... which needless to say i will fight.

In summery and in my opinion, don't use these jokers (middle men), use a reputable company and pay a little extra. if i'd have read the amount of bad reviews on the web before hand, i know i wouldn't and most certainly will not be again.

Also watch out for the +VAT that isn't indicated until you pay