Practical Car/Van Hire - Caerphilly - AVOID !!!

[paulfoel]

Hired a mini-bus yesterday to take my son and some of his friends to Snowdome in Tamworth for his birthday.

Mini-bus we had from these people was a complete shed. Never hired a vehicle in such a bad state or repair.

Battery flat twice. Took ages to jump start it - we missed our first booking at snowdome. Cost me £40 to pay again. Then had to jump start it again to come home.

Took ages to get the bonnet open. Bonnet release had snapped. Had to phone hire company for them to tell me about the temporary cable tie on the front I had to pull to open the bonnet.

Heaters stuck on hot. It was warm yesterday and the kids were boiling in the bus - had to drive with the windows open.

Worse thing is the company did not give a toss at all. All they did was argue that there was nothing wrong with their bus as if I was making it up !!!

Took it back this morning and complained again. No use at all - they pretty much said they dont give a toss !!!!

Avoid these cowboys at all cost !!!!

[TiTheRev]

One for the vent board?

[RegWorts]

Complain to your Local Trading Standards as surely an unroadworthy vehicle used for public hire must be illegal?

[anewman]

Complain to your Local Trading Standards as surely an unroadworthy vehicle used for public hire must be illegal?

From what I read above it could only possibly be argued the bus was unroadworthy in that the bonnet release did not work properly. All the other faults mentioned would not fail an MOT - but obviously you would expect a car/van hire firm to be doing *MUCH* better than that.

Might have been a better option to buy a banger minibus off ebay for the trip? Could well have been a better condition vehicle.

[paulfoel]

From what I read above it could only possibly be argued the bus was unroadworthy in that the bonnet release did not work properly. All the other faults mentioned would not fail an MOT - but obviously you would expect a car/van hire firm to be doing *MUCH* better than that.

Might have been a better option to buy a banger minibus off ebay for the trip? Could well have been a better condition vehicle.

Yeh. Probably not far off unroadworthy but maybe not quite...

[Brian Bullocks]

Practical Car Hire have always had bangers, as far back as i can remember. They used to rent out cheaper than other companies, by offering cars (or vans) 3 or more years old and not having unlimited milage. I would never use them.