1car1 daylight robbery (1car1)

Member Name: Steven Adams

Product:	1car1
Date:	28/10/08 (473 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Absoloutly nothing

Disadvantages: disorganised, under staffed, cluless managment and no customer service department.

I pre-booked a car with 1car1 two days before i wanted to collect the car this was done over the phone due to not being able to reserve through the website. The women on the phone did not inform me of relevant information that i would need to take with me and gave me the wrong location to pick the car up despite confirming the address with her.
When i arrived at the address that i was told to to pick the car there was a sign on the door telling me that this pick up/drop off station was closed and to go to there York Road branch which was approx 20 Min's walk away. Eventually after i found this branch i was greeted by reception staff that told me to wait which was approx 10 Min's whilst they pondered around with paperwork. When i was seen i was told that i was meant to have the paper part of my licence ,i explained that this was not told to me, i was spoken over, and told the information is on the website. This was not told to me over the phone and i had to pay an extra 7 pounds as they would have to contact the DVLA. I didn't think there would be anymore problems after this but how wrong could i have been.
I signed the documents and the car was checked for damages, i agreed and took the car away. On my arrival of my destination approx 190 miles from the depot. I found that one of the tyres on the car appeared slightly deflated, i pumped the tyre up and didn't think anymore of it until dropping the car back at 1car1. When the man checked the car he pointed out that one of the tyres looked deflated i explained to him that i had noticed the same problem when i arrived at my destination and had pumped the tyre up myself. He spoke to what he led me to believe was the manager who told me that the tyre would be pumped up and left over night and if it went down then a new tyre would be needed ,i excepted this and was told that i would contacted if any repairs needed to be carried out and if any money was to be taken relating to the 500 pounds excess. I never heard from the company and didn't think nothing more about it until my bank contacted me and told me that i was overdrawn, when i asked for my recent transactions they informed 1car1 and took 500 pounds. Now i was 500 pounds missing from my bank account and had incurred a bank charge.
I made my way back to the depot to speak to the manager to ask why i had not been contacted like she had promised, she went on to say that she had rung me a left a message. This was a blatant lie. She said that the repairs on the tyre were carried out that day but the man who checked the car originally informed me that the work had been done the previous day, but my money had been taken on the previous thursday it was now Monday. The manager went on to explain that they would have to wait for an invoice from the people that changed the tyre then this amount of money would be deducted from the 500 pound excess and the remaining balance paid into my account. I wasn't happy with this but excepted it as there was nothing else that i could do i tried to phone the customer services department but was told that someone would take my number and then phone me back, this once again didn't happen. I eventually found an e-mail address but surprise surprise no re-ply. I left it until the following week to give them ample time but on the following Monday morning no money had been put into my account. I once again made my way to the depot and was told that they would phone there head office to find out what was happening and contact me to let me know. Guess what? no one phoned me.
I decided that i had been patient long enough and made my way back to the depot for the third time it had now been 2 weeks since i had hired the car, i made my own way into the site managers office and explained all what had happened and the endless promises from his staff that turned out to be a pack of lies. He said that he would look into it himself and that he could only apologise as the lady dealing with this for the last week had been contacting the wrong people!.
I'm still waiting for my money and would strongly advise that no one uses this company they have little staff, no complaints department and endless promises that arise to nothing.

Summary: Use someone else and the only reason this has a star is because i couldn't submit it without giving