Do not use this company. I hired a 3.5 ton tail lift van in June to move some furniture and whilst the collection of the van itself was extremely simple (they don't inspect the van with you before you leave), it wasn't overall without issues.
After picking up the van and getting it home, I noticed tyre was low on pressure (visibly which is a bad sign if you can see it's under inflated) so I pumped it up to the required pressure, loaded the van ready for the next day and left it.
Checked the pressure the next morning and it had lost 1-2 psi so not enough to be a problem for that day so I set off on my 80 mile round trip. About 30 minutes in to the journey I ended up with a complete flat on the M6 so got in touch with U drive who at this point were helpful, organised the AA to come out to me and get the spare fitted and be on our way. This is where the problems started. When the AA arrived and got the spare out of the back, it was pretty much completely bald - certainly illegal - U-Drive Bolton sent a van out with an illegal spare tyre (I found out later the owners reasoning for this because people steal them!). Luckily the AA changed it still so that we could get off the hard shoulder and get it replaced.
So, another conversation with U-Drive and they said that we should head to their local place to get the tyre fixed or replaced and sent me the address, perfect. Only it wasn't, I was 12 miles from the junction to Lancaster on the M6 in the wrong direction, so that would have meant probably the best part of 40 miles to get to the garage driving with an illegal spare which I wasn't willing to do so decided to find a local tyre place just off the next junction 12 miles away.
With a replacement tyre being fitted I thought I'd call U-Drive to explain what I'd done, I hadn't even mentioned any reimbursement cost when I was met with a "not at our expense you're not". The owner (Stuart Lever) was very hostile from the mere mention of me using someone else to sort the tyre out regardless of the legality of the situation or how dangerous it could have been (found out the tyre that went flat had been plugged before rather than patched up). He then started with a sob story about people don't care about the vans and treat them like dirt and it's impossible to run his business. Eventually I managed to explain I wasn't looking for him to cover the cost of the tyre I'd had fitted and merely was looking for him to refund me the cost he would have paid. Said he'd deal with it when I returned the van.
The weekend came and went and so I returned the van first thing Monday morning. On asking about the refund for the tyre I was told Sophie who works on reception would sort that but she wasn't in. After listening to his sob story again about how hard it was to run his business and others like him were shutting down, I left.
I chased that week a couple of times, no refund.
I chased over the next couple of weeks, no refund. Each time with various excuses about how Sophie wasn't in or had already left with the last attempt me pointing out it wasn't my problem now that I wasn't being called back and maybe they want to learn some customer service, the owner (Stuart Lever) hung up.
I called back again just this week to be told they'd refund £47 for the tyre, I paid nearly £120 - I accepted. I wasn't in this to cause them hassle, I made the decision to go and get the tyre fixed somewhere else and I wasn't asking them to cover that, only what they would have paid. Money has turned up on my card now so this review can go out.
Do not use U-Drive Bolton, the vehicles are badly maintained (I've not even listed the other issues like roller shutter barely working, dash trim falling off above your knee, etc, etc), the owner (Stuart Lever) wants you to have sympathy for him rather than actually caring about his customers and they then fob you off with excuses when you try and get something sorted. I know I won't use them again.
U-Drive (Bolton) Limted: 03948043 read more
