Cheap minibus rental - Too many worrying signs?

Wabiloo

In a few weeks' time, I have 15 members of my family coming from abroad for a wedding. I decided to hire a 17-seater minibus to get them from Ashford and drive them to Bradford, then back again a few days later.

Searching for the minibus online wasn't easy (so many dodgy looking websites, and the main car rental companies never seem to list minibuses). I finally found http://www.minibus-van-hire-car.co.uk/ which seemed at least to be presentable and serious. After getting a quote online, I called the number and made the booking. The chap on the other end gave me reference numbers, number plate of the vehicle, and asked me to make a BACS payment for 520 + VAT for the reservation. He ensured me that there was a 24h notice cancellation with full refund.
That was several months ago.

Then 2 weeks ago I received a call from someone asking to confirm the dates and details of the booking. I did state that everything was the same, but I might downgrade to a 15-seater (the family group having in the meantime reduced in size).

Today, another guy calls and tells me that I could reinstate the booking I had cancelled for 725 pounds. It then appears that the first guy was just a "broker" and that this one is from the underlying rental company supplying the vehicle, a company called World Rent a Car (http://www.worldrentacar.co.uk/). I explained that I never cancelled the booking in the first instance, and that I had already paid for the booking. However, he kept insisting that I had to pay 725 quid and that "the broker would pay me back". Massively dodgy! After more discussion he apparently got his supervisor to approve that I could reinstate the booking if I paid 624 quid (the original 520 + VAT). I refused and asked for details of the company (company registration number). This seemed to spook them somewhat and he didn't want to pass these details on. Finally, I called the "broker" I had initially been in touch with.

After some back and forth, the broker indicated that there had been some miscommunication probably, and that they'd understood I had cancelled. He insisted that I communicate through him (never mind the fact that WRC had called me, not the other way around). He ensures me that the booking is reinstated, that the vehicle will be delivered, and that no payment is required.

By now however, I am getting worried. I therefore decided to look up this "World Rent a Car" company (first time I'd heard of it). A search in the companies house reveals incorporation just a year ago (June 2014). An online review search shows a couple of very poor reviews in Google (https://www.google.co.uk/search?aq=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22world+rental+car%22+reviews&qscrl=1&gws_rd=ssl#q=%22world+rent+a+car%22+reviews&lrd=0x4876724fa72eea9d:0xc2201d554f3ac3e1,1) with one reviewer indicating that the owner of the company have a history of owning dodgy companies (however no data to verify this).

Finally, I ran the number plate (YS14 UBE) through the DVLA checker, and the status shows as "SORN in place".

Now, am I being paranoid or is this too long a list of "coincidences"? What I'm most worried about is that on that day, there won't be any minibus turning up at my door. Beyond the nighmare that this will cause on the day, having paid by BACS, I also believe I would have no way to recover that money.

Any advice?

ljonski

Have you anything in writing?

novelty-socks

A few thoughts:

Is the company you're renting from a member of the BVRLA?

You can now look up a lot of information from Companies House without having to pay. If this is the same company then they don't seem to have a long trading history - but that doesn't mean they're dodgy.

As another poster has said, what do you have in writing? Do you know the full terms and conditions of the rental, including things like damage deposit, insurance excess, etc? You should be able to see all these things before agreeing to a rental.

BACS payment strikes me as odd — I rent cars a lot (usually directly from the rental firm) and they always expect payment by credit card.

To be honest, if I were you I would try and cancel (depending on the T&Cs) and rent from a well-known provider. I just checked on the Sixt website and got a quote of £270 for a three-day rental of a 17 seater for a random weekend in October.

You might even consider booking a minibus with one of the major companies now. Most will offer 'pay later' tariffs where you can cancel without penalty, even close to the rental day. This will give you a backup if the worst happens.

Good luck!

Alan_Bowen

No you are not being paranoid, this looks entirely suspect. I rent vehicles 30 times a year, and have done for the last 4 years. I have never heard of either company, never come across a car rental company that did not accept payment by credit card and the booking conditions of the first website appear to have been copied from other rental companies and they forgot to remove the original names.

It is impossible to give a registration number months before the hire, you never know before the day of collection, speaking of which World car Rental only appear to have one office at Heathrow, so collecting at Ashford in Kent could be quite a problem... they do at least accept credit cards. What name was on the BACS accepting bank account? The problem is the original brokers website actually has no company names or company registration details, which is wrong in itself but the address they claim to be registered at in Hatton Gardens is just an accommodation address with 25 companies registered there, none of them sounding like a car rental broker unfortunately. If you can get your money back do so, I suspect the promise of a refund will be denied of course. Be very wary of the wonderful reviews of World cars, I suspect they may be relatives of the director Mr Shah