Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Cheap, good car, flexiable |
| Disadvantages: |
Bad communication and too flexible |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
no |
When I wanted to return home one weekend with my partner we decided the cheapest way would be to hire a car. So I got on the Internet and did my research for the best deals that were around. I wanted a cheap car with unlimited mileage. In the process of this research I came across 1st-ukcarrentals.com, a good website with lots of options and an instant quote.
I booked a car leaving from Heathrow airport for a few weekends time. The deal was good and everything I needed from a rental. I had booked a mini class 3-door car thinking it would be a saxo or something similar. Unknown to me at the time the website acts as an agent for numerous local car hire firms and sends them to the sites requested from the net.
I arrived on the day at the meeting point and the person meeting me was half an hour late, good start. I filled in the paper work and went to the car. It was a Picasso- a massive people carrier! Not good when I had only really driven small cars. But it turned out to be the easiest car I have ever driven, but that’s a different review. I was also asked to check the outside of the car for damage before I signed for it, which was very difficult in a dark multi-story car park. But I looked it over and could not see any damage. Off we went.
I had a fantastic weekend in a great car and no trouble at all.
I went to drop the car off and was slightly worried about leaving it at the drop off point over night. As the car company policy is that if it is out of office hours then you park the car in the
Holiday Inn car park at Heathrow and leave the keys at reception. I parked the car and took the keys in. Before I left I checked the outside of the car for damage. My partner also checked and we found none. I left feeling great but exhausted.
I received a letter in the post nearly a month later telling me that there had been damage on the car and I had been charged £380 from my credit car a few days after I had dropped the car off. I was livid as they had not informed me of any such damage, sent me an invoice and had taken my money without asking. The damage they were referring to was a pin dent on one of the back doors, for which I had been charged parts! They were having a laugh. So after phoning around the numbers on the letter they had sent me I discovered that the car company and the garage where the car had been fixed were all owned by the same people trying to make a quick buck. Not from me they weren’t. I got onto the boss and complained about the lateness of my contact about the situation and how much the so-called damage had cost to fix.
After much debate and many phone calls the charge was dropped to one hundred pounds as I couldn’t prove that I had not caused the damage, but I was still angry that I had been taken for a ride.
I believe that the rental was so cheap they felt they needed to make some more money from me. I would not use them again, and hope my situation was a one off.
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
