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At the established time the van arrived, and the DutchBikes guy tried to fix the chain and then offered us another bike which was absolutely terrible! Old, scruffy, and really too high for my friend, and having to ride along the canal we didn't feel confident to use it. So we proposed the ... Read review
Advantages: none Disadvantages: deceiving images, you don't get the bikes you are paying for
...website with photographs of fantastic dutch classical bikes for hire in London.
The website shows photographs of really nice and stylish bikes which are for rent at a decent price, 25 pounds per day per bike if you hire them for 1-3 days. Even though there were cheaper options we decided to treat ourselves for one day and choose one of these appealing bicycles, just to make it a really unique experience for one day! If only we knew! ...definitely nothing even resembling the dutch bikes that you find on the website! We thought we shouldn't complain mainly because we wanted the bikes for our day out, so we kept quiet and started off our day. Problem is, after 10 minutes we had left one of the bikes lost the chain so we had to stop and fix it. Due to the make of the bike this was a more difficult task than it is normally (we all rode bikes all our lives and are know how ... more
Last weekend, me and my friends decided to go for a tour of Regent Canal by bicycle, and therefore we looked for a bike hire service in London. Between all the websites we found this one, an appealing website with photographs of fantastic dutch classical bikes for hire in London.
The website shows photographs of really nice and stylish bikes which are for rent at a decent price, 25 pounds per day per bike if you hire them for 1-3 days. Even though there were cheaper options we decided to treat ourselves for one day and choose one of these appealing bicycles, just to make it a really unique experience for one day! If only we knew!
The delivery process is quite straightforward, you choose a bicycle and they deliver it to you wherever you are in London with a little van. And here we had the first surprise: they delivered to us 3 bikes and none of them was what they promised to us!
The bikes were all different between them, really old, and definitely nothing even resembling the dutch bikes that you find on the website! We thought we shouldn't complain mainly because we wanted the bikes for our day out, so we kept quiet and started off our day. Problem is, after 10 minutes we had left one of the bikes lost the chain so we had to stop and fix it. Due to the make of the bike this was a more difficult task than it is normally (we all rode bikes all our lives and are know how to fix them), so after 10 minutes and a lot of black grease on our hands, we were ready to go again.
Unfortunately this happened other 3 times, and we were still at 1/5th of our journey and really late. So we decided to call the office and ask them to bring us another bike. They didn't sound too happy about our request and tried to explain to us how to fix the chain by phone (which being them Polish is not really easy!) Seeing that this didn't work, they agreed to come with a new bike, but only after 2 hours, so we had to force-stop for a long lunch break and wait for them and for our replacement bike. At the established time the van arrived, and the DutchBikes guy tried to fix the chain and then offered us another bike which was absolutely terrible! Old, scruffy, and really too high for my friend, and having to ride along the canal we didn't feel confident to use it. So we proposed the guy, who was already pissed off, if we could keep the old bike but have a discount, seeing that we had already lost the morning because of the delays that the chain caused.
He reacted really badly, starting to shout that we didn't know how to use the bicycles and that they were fine and we didn't deserve any discount. We really wanted to finish our trip so we just told him we would have kept the bikes but we would have never used him anymore and he got even madder, took the bikes back and gave us our money back.
That was the end of our trip! We went back to regents park by foot and spent the rest if the day there! at least we had our money back, but the day was totally spoilt by these people's dishonesty!
I think the worst thing of it all is not to receive the service you are willing to pay for. The images shown in the website are totally deceiving and show a product you are never gonna get, so you end up paying more for a really bad product that doesn't even bring you where you have to go!
Advantages: Exceptional service and value for money Disadvantages: none
...I was totally impressed with Dutch Bike Hire - I received a prompt reply via email confirming they would deliver a bike to my hotel , which they did on time. They provided me with not only a bike that suited my needs totally ( I didnt want a flash new bike as I wanted to be able to lock it and visit some of the London sights during the day) but helmet, bike chain, bike path map, basket, in fact nothing was too much trouble for Wojtek. I asked for ... ...enjoying our meal I sms'd Dutch Bike Hire and within 20 minutes they came to collect my bike from where I was. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Forget hot stinky tube rides and expensive cab fares - see London the best way ( its all very flat and easy to manouevre around) by bicycle. This is one 50 year old Aussie gal who'll remember that day for a long time. regards, Annie Monks ...
anniemm 16.09.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Dutch Bike Hire, Bayswater
Advantages: A proper Dutch bike with great convenience! Disadvantages: None - all you need is some luck with the weather
Last week I rented Dutch bike from Dutchbikehire in London. Even though I placed a last-minute request, they were able to meet me at a time convenient for me and provide me with a true Dutch bike (a so-called 'oma-fiets'), which was exactly what I was looking for. I am Dutch myself and missed cycling around on such a bike. The bike was of good quality and was amended to the right height for me. It comes with a good additional lock and even has working ... ...the bike at a time set by me and they agreed to meet me (in my case 8pm) at a convenient location. It is clear that Dutchbikehire knows their bicycles and know what cycling is all about. I will definitely return for another great day of Dutch cycling in London! ...
Dutch_KK 20.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Dutch Bike Hire, Bayswater
Advantages: ease of drop-off and collection Disadvantages: none
...expense spared. Hiring bikes from Dutch Bikes was one of the highlights. What a brilliant way to see London. The guy dropped the bikes to our hotel. They were basic but serviceable bikes- all you need for the totally flat and non-challenging cycle round London. He sent us on our way having adjusted the bikes and given us directions. After 5 mins cycling we were delighted to receive a friendly "toot" of the horn from the guy. He had driven ahead to ... ...find fab parts of London we would have completely missed. If you like a laugh and a bit of adventure we would definitely recommend hiring a bike from Dutch Bike Hire. We are Scottish and would not give a good review if we were not happy with the service. ...
kevinamacdonald 19.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Dutch Bike Hire, Bayswater
Advantages: convenient, friendly service Disadvantages: can't think of any!
...1 July 2009. Called Dutch Bike Hire and was able to secure a bike for the next day. It was delivered right on time to my friends house. I was given a lock and helmet and gave it a quick ride to make sure all was working properly. We had a great day out and when we were close to home I called ahead of time so the bike could be picked up when we got back. He was there shortly after our return to collect it. The entire process was convenient and hassle-free. ...
Sherry88 23.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Dutch Bike Hire, Bayswater
Advantages: easy, very quick ,cheap and friendly service Disadvantages: none
...out bicycles and we found dutch bike hire company .The reason why we chose them is their price very affordable and beautiful ducth bikes they have.We weren't sure to be able to ride a bike with back pedal brake but finally we decided to have fun and have a try ... And we really enjoyed cycling on a big oma black bicycle with basket! it is not so difficult ,you just need to get used to it and the fun is great ! .we were even so surprised to find them ...
tratatata123 18.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Dutch Bike Hire, Bayswater
