NationwideHireUK.co.uk

I first wrote a review about my bad experience with Nationwide in July, briefly, hired a van for removal for 8:30 am through Marcelle in customer services, invoice *******, she booked it and confirmed... it didn't turn up... phoned Marcelle and complained as I had also hired 3 men for a full days work costing £280... lots of excuses and guaranteed van to arrive by latest 11:30 am. waited until 1:30 then had to give up as the job was going to take at least 6-7 hours and men hired couldn't stay any longer but still had to pay them. Nationwide have refused to accept ANY responsibility for my financial losses... what's more I asked Marcelle in customer services to pass my complaint on to managing director for her comments and am going to copy and paste her disgusting unprofessional reply... it is obvious I wasn't meant to be copied in on this but displays another side to their incompetence as a company. Was waiting for an apology after I let her know I had received this but none has been sent hence the reason I am posting this second review... the following is an exact copy of the email from 'managing director'...
My company would have fired me on the spot for this...
I also have a transcript from Amy on the chat line when asking about guarantees for van delivery... she states 'after confirmation delivery times are set in stone'... not so.

Do not use this 'company'... you will have NO recourse if things go wrong...

Will continue to post here and other sites until I have satisfaction from them re my case.

You have to rate from 1 -5 stars, I have HAD to rate 1 star, but if I had the choice would be NO stars.

This is the email from 'managing director' Kate Ellis

From: *******@nationwidehireuk.co.uk [mailto:*******@nationwidehireuk.co.uk]
Sent: 30 August 2016 09:54
To: *******@nationwidehireuk.co.uk
Subject: RE: 406 people have read your review!

Leave it shes done her review! $#*!

Many Thanks

Kate Ellis

Director

Direct Line: ******* 602 766

Freephone: 0500 053 899

Web: www.nationwidehireuk.co.uk

Email: *******@nationwidehireuk.co.uk

Open Mon-Fri 8AM to 6PM, Sat 8AM to 5PM. Sun 10AM-5PM

Out Of Hours Email: *******@nationwidehireuk.co.uk

I rented a van from Nationwide Hire. The rental all went fine, but after the van was collected I was hit by a £166 fuel charge. This is ridiculous because:
- I fully topped up the tank at the end of the hire, driving only 7 miles after filling it
- The charge is over twice the price of a full tank
I knew nothing of the charge until I spotted it on my credit card and queried it, if I didn't check my statement so carefully I would never have known. I submitted a dispute, with evidence of the fuel purchased. After 11 days with no response I chased it up only to be told I'd have to wait 28 working days. After 28 working days, still no response or refund.
Furthermore, I was supplied with a van smaller than I ordered or paid for. I was informed of this too late to book with another company, and I never received the promised refund to compensate for the smaller van.
I WILL NEVER USE THIS COMPANY AGAIN.

Do not use them.

The booking process was simple, van turned up on time.

They then left us with the van for 6 DAYS after we off hired it, that's 6 days we had to store this huge vehicle somewhere.

They then charged us £600 for a chip in the windscreen, without so much of a mention, only realised when we checked the credit card statement.

After a long argument they refunded part of it but charged us for a chip repair and a £60 ADMIN FEE! Even though we stored their vehicle for 6 DAYS!

Nowhere in their terms does it state any of this and their customer service manager is rude and vague.

DO NOT USE

Back in November 2015 I made a complaint after hiring a van from Nationwide Hire UK.

The vehicle was driven on the motorway for 3 hours and during this time the shutter door on the back on the vehicle repeatedly kept opening. On inspection, the locking mechanism appeared to be broken. Our items were drenched from the wind and rain that had battered them whilst the door had repeatedly opened, but luckily the van had been packed well enough that nothing fell out of the vehicle.
One would assume that their vehicles are checked prior to dispatching to ensure that something as simple as the shutter door locking would be guaranteed... apparently not.

When we reached our final destination, the shutter door would not stay open. Unbelievably we now had the opposite problem in that we now couldn't keep the door open in order to offload the furniture etc. The spring mechanism which prevents the shutter door from dropping appeared to have broken. So how were we to get our furniture off the vehicle? Luckily we found some wood and used it to prop the shutter door open in order to slide the items under it.

The wood, while effective, was not safe, and had the wood moved, some 30-40kilos worth of door would have either crashed onto the furniture or the person under it.

Luckily for everyone involved I am not writing this review stating that someone broke an arm, or received a head injury because of their faulty vehicle. Thats due to luck alone.

The vehicle hired to us should never have been dispatched. The door refusing to lock meant that our furniture was open to the elements whilst travelling and sofas, rugs, soft furnishings etc were soaked through. The door then refusing to stay open meant we had to put our health and safety at risk in order to off load the furniture.

I emailed Nationwide Hire about my experience and concerns, and Sharon, the Customer Services Complaint and Relations Manager replied.
The upshot is that they claimed it's not their fault, it's one of their vehicle suppliers. I requested that lessons be learnt in order to prevent this situation happening to future customers, and from that moment on, no one at Nationwide Hire has been interested.

I have chased my complaint since November 2016, I was told by Sharon on the 9th December (when nothing had come of my initial contact) that the complaint would be processed by a max of 28days... it's now March 2016, but I have heard nothing, not even an update to let me know that things were delayed etc.

One would assume that these matters would be taken seriously, although from the lack of response to date or any interest to rectify the issues and put things right for future customers, it sadly painfully clear that customer safety and satisfaction is not high on this companys agenda.

Any customer should get good customer service, but one would imagine that an unhappy customer who's concerned about alarming health and safety standards would have their complaints dealt with in an even more efficient way so as to make sure no other customers encounter the same disgusting service/standards and also to try to rebuild some faith and to prevent customers from becoming even further disillusioned with the company and service.

This company couldn't care less about you, or your health and safety.
Don't be fooled by her title either; Sharon (the Customer Services Complaint and Relations Manager) has been uninterested since the moment I asked for this matter to be taken more seriously than simple monetary compensation and instead for her to investigate and for lessons to be learned for the benefit of other customers.

I have heard nothing from Sharon or anyone else at Nationwide Hire since 9th December 2015 to provide an update. Nothing to reassure me that they take these issues seriously, that the matter is in hand and is being dealt with, nothing other than to say the complaints have been passed on to someone else. Nothing at all. I chased Sharon again on the 22nd February 2016 to say that whilst I had waited the 28days, I was still to hear from anyone about my complaint and asked that she follow this up - Sharon never replied to my email and I'm still to hear from anyone at Nationwide Hire.

Save yourself the risk, your health and welfare is more important than to deal with this company. If there was an ombudsman who regulated them, I'd be referring them for investigation.

This company is an agency - they take your money without even knowing whether they have a vehicle available or not.

Their website says "available" on all vehicles but they do not actually know if it is available and whether they can get one.

They could not get mine but because they had taken my card details, and taken the money! It took three working days for the money to come back into my account which meant that I did not have the money to hire another vehicle.

They actually cost me a lot in lost time and I was not able to buy pick-up goods I was after.

The staff lied to me saying that they had not taken the money. This was only partly true as they had requested the money which then resides in between your bank and theirs for at least 3 days and you cannot access it. The Directors, Jeff and Kate, hide behind the staff and will not speak with you to resolve the problem.

We hired a mini bus to go from Ipswich to Manchester. When the bus was delivered we asked the men about petrol. They said just to make sure the van was full when they came to collect it the next day. We filled the van to the top. About 2 weeks later I had an email from nationwide hire to say they had taken money out of my account as there was insufficient fuel in mini bus. When contacted they said it was for fuel back to depot. How do I put fuel in an already full tank? The men said to just make sure it was full! Customer service is the worst I have ever come across. Never ever again will I use these. Or recommend them to anyone. I'm still fighting the fuel dispute. We go away a lot and hire mini buses. So nationwide hire have lost our custom. Total disgrace.

We Hired a Luton van from Nationwide with drop tail gate, for house move, only to be told the day prior to the move they dont have one available reluctantly agreed to a long wheel base van (apparently similar dimensions) only to have a small VW transporter dropped off by Europcar. This vehicle was totally unsuitable for the job at hand. After contacting Nationwide we were informed that we apparently agreed with the manager via phone that we were happy with this vehicle this was a blatant lie. Nationwide refused to comment further. It wasnt for the lack of trying, I found there empty promises of the manager will call you back and finally being called a liar and hanging up on me totally unacceptable.

Today I place an order to hire a truck and was delighted with the service. Upon calling Nationwide I was greeted by a very helpful employee. She was clear and concise in explaining all of the details about the different trucks available and all of the terms and conditions. Natinwide struck the perfect balance between being helpful while also giving me space to think. Prior to placing my order I had already been to the majority of their competitors but due to the high level of service received felt no need to widen my search or go back to any of the other companies.

Last week I hired at truck too. I called twiced before hiring, on both occasions, I was treated well and given all the help i needed. The whole experience on both days and the completions of the sales was nothing but excellent. The ordering process was throughly explained from start to completion. I feel totally satisfied that I chose the best place and think that others would have a good experience too.

I wasn't sure at 1st whether to book the van with these guys after reading some of the reviews. However when I spoke to the lady at the call centre she was really helpful and made everything sound so easy. Well guess what? It was! I made the booking over the phone and gave my card details it was my brother using the van to help us move. Van arrived on time but only had half a Tank of fuel. Did the job within the day as van was collected the next day, Easy peasy!
Moving is stressful enough as it is, last thing I wanted was anything going wrong. Good experience with Nationwide and I would recommend.
Delivery service was perfect for us. Thanks again will be back next time.