On 24 May I booked online a 17 Seater Minibus to be delivered to my home address on Monday 07 June, at 7am.
On the said date no Minibus was in evidence at 7am and consequently I contacted A1 NVH at 7.30am to enquire. I was told by the operator to phone a different number as no-one would be available at A1 NVH until after 8.00pm. At the number which was provided by your operator – which appeared to be an umbrella group for Car and Van hire companies - they could find no trace of my details with A1 NVH.
Consequently at 8.00am, with still no contact from A1 NVH, I had to make contingency plans and decant my colleagues into 4 private cars in order to get to our destination by the 9.00am deadline. This was of course at additional cost to myself in order to recompense my companions for travelling costs!
Having arrived at our destination I again tried to contact A1 NVH at 9.20am and after giving my reference number etc., to the operator was told I was being transferred and was then cut off! Ten minutes later I did receive a call from one of you operators who advised me that the Minibus had been involved in an accident on route to my home address but a replacement was now being sent. I advised the operator that I was now at my destination and there was little point in sending the Minibus to my home address. The operator then advised me to my utter astonishment, that they would send me a replacement Minibus the following day!!! When I advised him that this was of absolutely no use to me he said that he would cancel the hire and invoke a cancellation charge! When I told him that I had no intention of accepting a cancellation charge, he said that the accident was not his fault, those were the rules and then put the phone down on me.
On 8 June a refund of £40.00 was made to my bank account. As the payment to you on 24 May was £70.06 this indicated that a total of £30.06 was being withheld.
On 10 June I phoned your customer service dept (0870 432 1883) and explained my case to the operator who advised me that the outstanding £30.06 would be refunded to my account within 4 working days. When this was not done I again phoned on 17 June and was given a similar message by a very obnoxious individual who told me ‘don’t be so impatient mate.’
In despair on 23 June I again phoned and asked to speak to a Manager. I was told that the Manager was not available and on asking was given the name of Paul Harding as the Manager. I then politely asked if the operator would ask Mr Harding to return my call when he was free. No phone back was ever received.
Two subsequent phone calls asking for Mr Harding or any other available Manager also proved fruitless. It appears that Managers, if they indeed exist, are never available or are incapable of returning phone calls.
My principal complaint is not over the outstanding sum of £30.06 which is due to me, not withstanding the extra expense I have been put to in order to fulfil my obligations to my colleagues and subsequent fruitless phone calls to you company. My complaint is with the quite appalling, treatment which I have received from A1 NVH over the past few weeks.
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