Thinking very dark thoughts about how awful my Europcar experience had been, I fished out my phone, as I walked away from Europcar’s ‘reception’, and once again googled ‘van hire Rugby’.
Enterprise Car Rental came up, the next highest google return, after Europcar.
But my mainstream palate was jaded after the Europcar experience, so through no fault of theirs, I decided to give Enterprise a miss.
The first independent company google offered me was Townsend Vehicle Hire.
I called them.
Me: Hi. I need to hire a van. Today (it was about 1.30pm). For 24 hours
TVH: Yep, no problem. How large?
Me: (explained)
TVH: The only van we have that small is out on a job. It should be back in about half an hour though.
Me: Brilliant. What do you need from me?
TVH: Both parts of your driving licence (which I had on me), and a utility bill or a bank statement
I cursed to myself
Me: I’ll be there in about 40 minutes
I walked down to the train station and got in a taxi, and asked him to take me home (so I could get a utility bill) and then take me on to Townsends Van Hire.
While the taxi waited outside the house I looked all over the place for a utility bill.
Well.
There weren’t any.
So I picked up a handful of bank statements.
The taxi driver took me to Somers Road.
The hire receptionist photocopied my bank statement (just the address and logo at the top), and my driving licence.
She relieved me of a hefty chunk of money as a deposit.
And then I sat down and waiting for the on-hire van to be returned.
Less than 10 minutes later one of her colleagues came over and asked if I was waiting for the van.
I said I was.
He tried to ring the driver.
Got no reply.
So he came back to me and said ‘Look, we’ve got another van you can have. It’s a bit bigger than the one you wanted. But you can have it for no extra charge. At least it’ll get you on your way and you won’t need to keep waiting here’.
Brilliant!
They changed the paperwork to reflect the upgrade, I jumped in the van and drove back to my house.
About 45 minutes later Liam (my helper) arrived and helped me load the three large, awkward-shaped boxes in to the van.
I thanked him, gave him some financial recompense, and got in the van and headed it up the M1.
When I returned the van the next day, the hire receptionist said ‘As soon as you drove off the other van arrived’.
Sods law, I said.
But wan’t that nice of them?
An upgrade, just to get me on my way, and at no extra cost?
Now that’s what I call good customer service.
Unlike Europcar.
Nine times out of ten, smaller companies are always better than the big multi-nationals. Usually cheaper too.
And that particular adage may well apply to your little venture!
Aye. Wise words. And thank you. I hope so too. It’s a long way off happening, but steps are being progressed.