I recently hired a tipper truck via the NationWide Hire website for 1 day and paid £167.99

As per website T&C the delivery instruction stipulate that the truck should be delivered to a specific address. My home address has no direct vehicular access from the road stipulated in our address but has access from the road behind us so I put the delivery address as the house beside this access point and waited on the day with my mobile. The booking required my mobile number and T&C stipulated that 'The main driver of the vehicle must be present on delivery and collection to sign for the vehicle at the requested time of delivery'

The hire period started from 1100 and I had taken the day off work. I checked the road and found the vehicle before 1100. It was locked and left and no attempt had been made to contact me. I contacted NationwideHire immediately and they reported that the keys had been put through the post box of our neighbours. The residents of this house had just left for a weeks holiday.

I contacted Nationwide 3 times that day and most days subsequently by phone and email (attached). NationwideHire declined to put me in contact with their local agent and from the start refused to accept responsibility for putting the keys thro the door of a locked house and not contacting me. I never had possession of the truck

Despite multiple phone calls/emails no attempt was made to resolve the situation - I enquired whether the local agent had a spare key but was refused contact details.

The following week I informed NationwideHire that the resident had returned but no attempt was made by NationwideHire to contact them to collect the truck. Eventually the resident gave me the keys and I again contacted NationwideHire and they finally collected the truck. I have never had access to or used the truck.

I discovered yesterday that NationwideHire had debited £1343. 84 from my account

They have also subsequently changed their T&Cs from 'The main driver of the vehicle must be present on delivery and collection to sign for the vehicle at the requested time of delivery'

To

'The main driver of the vehicle usually should be present upon delivery and collection to sign for the vehicle at the requested time of delivery, however, on some occasions if you are not at home, we will post the keys through the letterbox so please make sure you provide us with the correct address at the time of booking'

Customer Care has been singularly unhelpful

I have had to initiate a legal process to try and recover the money

I can only advise anyone thinking of using this company to not do so

Vehicle hired for 24hrs initially from 8.30am to 8.30am, on the day my van never arrived, called the office was told sorry there was an error and no booking has been made we'll sort this out for you. In the end a vehicle was arranged for 4.30pm and I had advised we wouldn't be able to return it till 6pm the following day to which the advisor said that's fine I'll update our records. When the vehicle came it said 4.30pm return time, I called the office to advise it should be 6pm and was told i would get a callback. I didn't and the following day I called again to be told you can't hire it for an extra hour and half and because it is a bank holiday you will have to pay to hire h vehicle for 3 extra days! I asked for this to be raised as a complaint. On the 28th I contacted them again about my complaint and was told by a manager no complaint was raised but that I should know car hire is only for 24hrs and so therefore the additional charges are correct and refused to look into the fact a colleague had told me otherwise. Fast forward to 4th seotember, I receive an email to say £600 will be devoted from your card for damages to the vehicle, I contacted Hertz whose vehicle it was and they said no, no damage on the car. Nationwide car hire initially claimed for £1200 from my bank account! They have charged me £600 but cannot tell me what damage there is, where they have got this figure from and refuse to speak to me on the phone. Checking online it looks like I am not the only one who they have done this to. Please investigate this company as they are clearly committing daylight robbery! They should not be able to get away with this.

We initially booked a van on line and spoke extensively with there customer representatives at the time of booking to ensure that there where NO complications as we where booking a van to and from Liverpool on separate dates, a week apart.

At the time of booking we where asked to pay for each trip, which we did, and where asked to provide a copy of my driving license for security and insurance purposes

The first van arrived in good time at out home address, in fact the evening before we where scheduled to travel, the keys being posted through the door, as both my wife and myself where still at work. So no checks to see if there was any damage first or sign off on the van.

Having loaded the van and traveled to The Premier Inn at Rain Hill near Liverpool to meet friends, we unloaded the van, and continued our journey the following day over to the Isle of Man for our stay.

However we where informed at the time of booking that the van we hired would be collected from the hotel that evening at 6:00 PM, but where somewhat surprised to received a phone call from the Premier Inn stating that the van was still in there car park the following Tuesday! Some four days later, as they where concerned we would be charged for not returning it, although the arrangement had been made some weeks earlier with NationwideHireUK.co.uk

We therefore had to spend time contacting there customer services to enquirer why and to notify them it hadn't been collected.

This was probably our biggest mistake as we had booked a second van for our journey home having brought substantially large items back with us from the IOM, hence the necessity for the van hire, which was due to to be delivered to us at 8:30 AM on Monday 12th.

When the van didn't arrive we phoned there customer services and where informed they allow 15 minutes either way to allow for traffic, but to call back at 8:45 AM if it hadn't arrived.

We phoned back again at 8:45 AM and was informed by there representative that he would find out from the driver what was happening and when to expect it.
Having waited another 120 mins, we then phoned again and was informed by there representative we needed to provide a copy of a utility bill from home, or confirmation of our stay at the holiday Inn, which after having to have copy sent to my wife's phone; as the original copy had been sent to her work email address we did.

Following on from this we called several times to find out when we could expect the van but each time we where told that they would call us back, which they never did, until eventually we where informed that unless we could provide a utility bill we couldn't have the van.

Although there customer services where quick to apologize they offered no solution or help in what had turned into a nightmare situation for my wife and myself, and our family, having been left high and dry by them.

I questioned why having had an initial van delivered to us, and eventually collected from the hotel ( the delay being the fault on there side not ours), and having provided a copy of my driving license at the time of booking, and having taken the money from my wife's bank account registered to our home address to cover the hire costs in advance, and having provided evidence of our stay at the Premier Inn on request, I failed to see why we where refused a hire van, having already had one on the same booking to the same place with the same company NationwideHireUK.co.uk

And yes we did read there terms and conditions, but had we been informed at time of booking we would be required to carry around copies of a utility bill, as if these are actual proof of residence we would have done so, instead we where left with just our small car and two four month old babies belonging to my son in law and his wife, as well as our belongings we where transporting, in Liverpool in a Premier Inn car park, having had to check out due to the time it took to be let down by NationwideHireUK.co.uk, some 400 miles from our home with no recourse to be able to find another company to hire a one way journey from in the time remaining in the day.

Thankfully we where able to arrange for a friend to travel all the way from Colchester to Liverpool to assist us at the last minute, was our only way home.

As it was the car had to be packed to the hilt with items that would not fit in the van, along with two four month old babies, just goes to show what a shambolic company NationwideHireUK.co.uk run.

So please listen and take my and others advice and do not rent from NationwideHireUK.co.uk, they are only a broker who add to the expense and offer NO help when things go wrong, they will lie to you, not return your calls, and leave you to deal with the mess of there making. Your are taking a very serious risk in using this company either for business or personal hire, and we have made other business associates aware of this as best we can, and will certainly advice friends likewise.

Please please please DO NOT HIRE ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY! They don't have any cars anyway. We hired a 9 seater van from this people, during the transaction it was very clear that the van hire cost £914.00 plus deposit of £500. They are very quick in taking our payment from my account amounting to £1607. 80 so obviuosly we did our math means they took more than what they should take. We rang them back and the lady who answered said she will discuss it with her manager and so an hour later we received an email saying adjustment done, so we assumed that the refund of that adjustments will be in included when they return the deposit. The day before the delivery day of the hired van, a van was parked not far from our house and an envelop from imperial van hire in our letter box with the van key and paper works ( insurance, van check, rental paper works). The van check we were unable to verify since we were not there when it was checked. It wasn't very clean. So we travelled with this van with the understanding that we are fully covered in case something happened since my husband paid an extra £150 for road side assistance, unfortunate us that road side assistance we paid wasn't included in the insurance. Anyway after 17 days we returned the van and they promised that the deposit will be in my account within a week but until now NO REFUND RECIEVED. We followed up with nationwide and they keep telling us that they will email there costumer service about it and let us know. 3 weeks had passed still NO REFUND OF DEPOSIT. So I contacted nationwide again a man voice said he is going to ask there costumer service but I insisted to speak to them myself and so he said he will transfer me to them and put the phone down on me. I rang them back and a woman voice answered which I recognized and without me telling her about my transaction reference it seems that she already know who I am and was talking about the deposit and the amount we paid them. She was very sharp and said that they don't owe us any deposit because they didn't asked for any deposit at all, she also said that it was the imperial vehicle who got our deposit. Seems strange since few weeks ago after the van was collected they told us that our deposit will be in my account within a week and it is really over overly overdue, And that woman just put the phone down on me. They don' t care at all. Very very unprofessional people. Liars and thief.

Good service, good vehicle.

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.