BVRLA Reviews 145

Absolute disgrace . Contacted this company to help me fight my case against a leasing company. Pointless did nothing to help whatsoever, when these are suppose to be a fair and honest company

Just look at all the other reviews. Do not bother engaging with this supposedly independent service. They are clearly in collusion with their members who pay levies to fund their organisation.

I sent through extracts of the leasing companies own T&Cs and screenshots of guides, the website etc to support my claim. These were not used in the original investigation because they “didn’t come through” even though I sent through on the portal and followed up via email.

Like all the other cases I’ve read the BVRLA side with the WORD of the lease company and not the EVIDENCE provided by the consumer. In my case they were quoting back wording from screenshots in bold that DIDN’T exist in the screenshot. They completely ignored and failed to address the fact I was using Lex’s own T&Cs to support my case.

Absolutely shocking but not surprising given the other reviews on here.

Have to agree with most other reviewers. BVRLA ignore facts and use the smallest detail to find in favor of the leasing agency. I've been in dispute with Zenith for over a year about a car faulty on arrival. They refused to follow the consumer act and take the car back and finally returned a repaired vehicle to me after 15 months. BVRLA ignored the breaches over the first year and just concentrated on the fact the vehicle was finally repaired so reckon there was no breach. They don't even quote evidence but just that Zenith said so.

This company doesn't even deserve one star but there is no other option! They are a disgrace and wish I had never even bothered reaching out to them to help with my complaint! I was treated unfairly by LeasePlan who lied and scammed to get extra money!!! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!

BVRLA's complaints process is deeply flawed.
1. BVRLA Fair Wear & Tear guidelines can't be trusted. BVRLA is funded by membership fees from car leasing/rental companies, so BVRLA's position is fundamentally biased and they cannot be a fair judge of what is fair wear and tear. It's naturally in their interest to favour their members over the end customers.
2. Leasing companies anyway circumvent the BVRLA Fair Wear & Tear guidelines by stinging departing customers with extortionate damages for even small infringements. So what's the point in the BVRLA guidelines? Better off without them.
3. Most leasing companies anyway sell the used vehicles. So in quoting huge repair charges on the end-of-lease inspection reports for small scratches and dents, they are simply lying to recover beyond depreciation. They just get quotes from the most expensive garages and inspectors that are clearly biased. They don't do the repairs! Even if they were to do the repairs, such small scratches and dents could be easily made good at a fraction of the quoted cost. And BVRLA does nothing about this cheating.
4. BVRLA's complaints process is flawed. I clearly demonstrated faults which BVRLA refused to act upon. The leasing company didn't respond to my emails, didn't share a copy of the inspection report file (only a link to an online doc which cannot be downloaded), didn't share proper photos (only small grainy thumbnail photos in the online doc, which can't be properly analysed). Furthermore the amount that they tried to charge my credit card upfront was more than what BVRLA later determined, so it's clear that I would have been overcharged had I not blocked my card... but BVRLA sided with the leasing company by stating that they are entitled to legal proceedings if I block my card. Makes no sense.
5. BVRLA said some of the measurements of the scratches are beyond their guidelines, so the charges are justified. But the photos don't show any visible measurements because they are thumbnail photos and are too grainy to see the rulers. When I questioned that, BVRLA's simply said their conclusion doesn't change and that is their final word on the matter. Great for them!

after posting a hard reply and them flagging it they did reply. and only quote the book did nothing else dont waste your time with this company do not investigate anything out the box or previous rentals that the same issue not reporting damage by the same branch on collection happend. stay far away it will only make you more angry fully on the side of the rental firm.

After sending several emails and links to 2 videos, its clear that Sallie Catchpole hasn't actually reviewed all the information I provided her with, in another case of Enterprise car club ( Or just Enterprise ..its the same company ), attempting to charge me for damage I did not cause, and was only found half an hour after their maintenance staff had turned on the car's ignition a day later.

Apparently their staff seem to not be held accountable to the same standard of reporting damage as their customers are, unlike us they can have at least 30 mins of being responsible for that car before they have to note damage and then they can just claim its someones else's fault. Even though the car has been left on a busy street overnight. Somehow I'm literally responsible for anything that might happen to that vehicle for whatever amount of time passes until either their staff attends it, or another customer drives that car.

But that hardly matters now, she has made a serious error in claiming that Enterprise sent me an email accusing me of causing that damage within 10 days of my hire time.

She wrote...

" We note the hire was on 11th June and the damage claim was reported to you on the 26th June. As this is within 10 working days this complies with our Code of Conduct."

( From 11th of June to the 26th of June ).

NO IT'S NOT WITHIN 10 WORKING DAYS Sallie, its 12 working days!

If you'd actually made any effort to work this out, ( there are even online calculators that will do this for you) you'd see this is 100% INCORRECT.

Even if you don't include the 11th its still 11 days...

Therefore, by your own Code of Conduct Sallie Catchpole, as well as ignoring all of the questions I asked, plus ignoring the 2 videos I provided you with, have made a rather blatant mistake, which just happens to favour one of the companies who fund your organisations.

I've already been threatened with a debt collection agency after I had to freeze a lost debit card, and this was just for £7. I paid as soon as my card arrived in the post.

So it's not unlikely Enterprise will still try and claim I owe them £1244 (for a few tiny scuff marks), and pass it straight to a debt collection agency, despite them not following your own code of conduct.

There are already a number of terrible reviews on here, and like most people on here, I can confirm that BVRLA appears to have ignored most of the information I provided, won't answer specific questions, and in my opinion appear to be extremely biased in favour of the hire companies, who pay them for their supposedly " unbiased" adjudication.

Lets see if Sallie Catchpole will actually recognise her mistake?

Edit 5-8-24
So after pointing out to Sallie Catchpole that in fact Enterprise car club did NOT email me within the BVRLA's own code of conducts time frame she replied that ECC are not actually legally obliged to follow it...?

So why even bother pointing it out?

BVRLA's code of conduct is, in fact, utterly meaningless.

Now I have noticed that the car in question which is the nearest car to me, parked about 100m from my flat, has had the scuff marks largely buffed out, but the marks are still there. The wing mirror and door trim are still the original ones so this invoice for £1244 I've been sent is clearly fictional, all thats happened is ECC have covered the scratched company lettering with some new ones and buffed out the marks. Even though I'm being charged for a total door respray and new parts none of which has been done.

Are the BVRLA actually completely biased? I've never heard of a so called ombudsman being financially supported by the companies they're supposed to be investigating? How can this NOT be a conflict of interest.

I've made another video last week ( hosted by a friend on Youtube, thanks Mike 972 ) that shows these marks are still on the car, so clearly not a respray, or had 2 days off the road that I'm also being charged for, you can even see the powder residue from where the marks were buffed out. Between ECC and the BVRLA I feel like I'm being bullied into paying for damage I know I didn't cause? This cannot be right, that this level of blatant bias, and somehow holding someone responsible for something they can't prove they didn't do, but can't be proven was caused by me either is a legitimate and reasonable practice in the UK at this time. If my partner wasn't going through treatment for cancer I'd do a lot more to bring this current system into further scrutiny, but without legal support which is likely to cost us more money, what chance does a low income couple have against this massive multi billion company. If we could afford our own car we'd have one, its because I'm retired that we joined this car club in the first place.

Don’t bother using them basically called me a liar saying I had signed something and they weren’t there so couldn’t say one way or another waste of time.

Do not trust BVRLA. An useless, biased and corrupt organisation.
Not interested in evidence or facts then even lie in their response.
How their CE, Gerry Keaney is still in post is beyond me.
By the way, Zenith, who my complaint was with in fact dropped their charges when I presented them with the evidence that BVRLA weren't interested in!

Biased company, closed my case on the 2nd email, contradicted information on their own website. waste of time......

Not even worthy of 1 star! As all the other reviews state - don't even bother! BVRLA failed to investigate my complaint properly and with any neutrality. They are a biased industry funded body and their "investigations" reflect that.

I have since got my money back anyway, through a credit card recharge. The industry is in urgent need of reform and regulation to halt the fraudulent activity within the sector. BVRLA are not the solution and will waste your time with their unprofessional and inadequate investigations- go straight to your credit card and use charge back or section 75 as this biased industry body will not help, only hinder!

If I could give less than 1* I would!

Leased a car through Zenith. At the end of contract, the guy came to pick up the car. I asked him for checklist for the car and he said that he did not have one and he is just picking the car up. Subsequently I was hot with suspect charges. The car was picked up at 10.05am from my driveway and the pictures of the car was taken at 11.45am on the road without me being present. Very suspicious.

You know that feeling that you should’ve checked around before using a company that takes £500.00 of there mates sorry businesses to help the customer who gives them £0.00 to complain about there mates well that’s the BVRLA. I leased a brand new vehicle from ( I will return to put the name of this s@#&”£y leasing company when the car goes back ) for three years now we all know to hand the lease vehicle back before the first Mot is due just in case the worst has happened well it seems that these customer friendly leasing companies are giving out cars that aren’t brand new but months old with no indication on the many forms that they love to give you so you have to pay for the mot and any other charges which can be a lot so with this I contacted the Best Retail Vehicle Loving A ( had to change last word too strong for here) sorry had a stronger version but would of been sued Anyway I sent them all the (we don’t care emails) from the lease gang and my response’s so with the BVRLA Code of Conduct which sets out the standards the BVRLA expects from its members which seems to be nil so now I have looked at all my options and they add up to nothing so all I can do is wait the months out until the vehicle goes back I will admit however that I’m a bit concerned about that day because I have dared to complain about a member of the BVRLA oh well I will return to name and shame the con artists.

I think the stats speak for themselves. Totally biased in favour of their members despite car hire company refusing to give me the hire car (with no justification whatsoever) leaving myself & 7 year old stranded & in an unsafe place. Thier investigation consisted of ‘the car hire company said’ - no evidence from them, they ignored mine & failed to answer when I asked for justification- even the CEO had no interest they were endorsing perjury & failure to comply with data protection legislation.

Used Bvrla on two occasions, and both times dealt with poorly.
Latest occasion they accepted the word of Arnold Clark whilst basically calling me a liar. Challenged their initial response and they just support their own team in favour of any one but myself.
Offered evidence to support my case to them and they weren't not interested.
More interested in supporting rental companies, can only imagine this provides them some sort of financial incentive.
More interested in telling you you've exhausted the procedure and can't go any further.

I filed a complaint against on.to via BVRLA.

on.to demonstrably failed to follow the BVRLA guidelines on a number of points, but BVRLA found in favour of on.to.

What a total and utter pointless waste of time this organisation is for the consumer.

Absolutely useless. Would not look at my evidence. It is essentially pointless to file a complaint, a waste of your time.

Not independent, do not read your complaint and just forward the email from the service provider. I received a terrible service from Tuskers and even they were partially accepting their failings but when I complained to BVRLA they just sent me boxed standard response and omit any details or evidence.

Dishonest Ombudsman - Watchdog need to thoroughly investigate this corrupt organisation. Clearly the rental companies are crossing there palms with silver plenty of back handers going on here with this out of touch organisation.
December 1st Vehicle breaks down with technical issues as it’s a brand new vehicle and under warranty the manufacturer Mazda have aligned themselves with Allianz who are to recover your vehicle if they can’t fix and use there third party Enterprise Rentals who are to get you in a vehicle that is suitable to your needs.
The morning of 1st December 4 adults and 2 dogs in a Mazda CX60 Phev which is the flagship model of Mazda had a software issue and I was unable to select gear and drive instead I was stationery having called Mazda roadside assistance under the guise of Allianz I was told that a vehicle technician would be with me within 1hr this turned out to be a eta of 8hrs to add further delays I got a text to say no one in the area available?
I contacted the CEO of Mazda UK via email to which his exec team contacted me to advise they had arranged a local recovery company to collect my vehicle and to take to the dealership, which happened the following morning.
Mazda advised that Enterprise would contact me that evening to place me in a like for like vehicle and have me on the road that evening.
Enterprise contacted me to say No vehicles available and that my local branch would contact me, the following morning they didn’t contact me so when I contacted them they advised No vehicles available? The out of office staff contacted me at 1500hrs on the 2nd December to advise that the two vehicles they had available which were a like for like were a Nissan Qashqai? And a Renault Electric vehicle with a range of 100 miles I advised our journey was 350 mile round trip and no access to a charge point and that the Nissan didn’t constitute a like for like with our CX60 - They then contacted me at 1800hrs to advise they had a basic VW Tiguain and it would need to be valeted and would arrive at 1800hrs, at 2000hrs they arrived and the vehicle was filthy! I was then told that I would have to cover the cost for the insurance liability as Mazda didn’t cover this? I refused and said take the vehicle away! An hour later they returned and wavered the excess.
I contacted Mazda UK to say the vehicle I was in wasn’t a like for like my CX60 is a 2.5Litre Phev Awd full leather heated seats steering wheel Dab Radio etc etc where as this Vw was basic and had No extras
Mazda UK contacted Enterprise to arrange for a premium luxury SUV to which they advised that Enterprise would contact me to arrange collection of the VW and that I would be put in a Mercedes GLE or equivalent
Enterprise failed to contact me at all I constantly chased them to which in the end they failed to get me in the vehicle or any replacement vehicle as promised.
I contacted Mazda UK once again to advise of the incompetent plebs that Enterprise are and that something needed to be sorted asap! At the same time I contacted via email and LinkedIn the CEO of both Enterprise UK and Enterprise USA of my frustrations and how they treat customers to which the ceo of Enterprise UK wouldn’t take ownership and referred me to customer services / escalations in which I wrote and received No response.
Mazda UK liaised with a dealership who contacted Warwickshire dealership and the Branch Manager placed me in a Mercedes GLB suv which in hindsight was better but it came with a price I had to pay £70 excess insurance for the duration of hire and return the vehicle with a full tank of fuel which is to be expected.
Enterprise escalations then contacted the Area Manager for Oxfordshire who insisted that her branch Banbury had tried to contact me on numerous occasions and place me in a vehicle and blatantly refused to believe my version of events which had arisen she then went on to say that she would allow the vehicle to be returned without paying for fuel however she didn’t have authorisation as Warwickshire branch comes under a different area?
She wouldn’t take ownership or responsibility for her cock ups! Instead starting to argue with me and then advised to contact the BVRLA in which I did and gave all the factual evidence only to receive a response in favour of Enterprise Rentals totally bias towards them hadn’t even bothered reading my statement of facts just fobbed me off!
The BVRLA are a disgrace and are not fit for purpose they should be abolished they are corrupt and the people who work for them are equal to all criminals in the UK
Disgusting abhorrent behaviour - If any of them are reading this you should look at yourselves in the mirror and be ashamed of yourselves Parasites the lot of you!

Absolutely disgusting organisation as previous comments say don’t waste your time, but do waste theirs and the member who you complain about as each case raised costs the member, but let’s face it they probably don’t charge them as they’re in bed with them. My complaint related to Zenith who refused to refund my lost costs caused by their negligence. My car required a service (they don’t state anywhere which type of service & nor does the car manual) so I booked the service on their booking system where there’s one option for a service called ‘service’, yet it’s apparently my fault for not booking a 4 year service!!! There’s no option for a 4 year service. Due to Zenith insisting the car after I booked it in had a 4year service no service could be carried out that day & the next date available was the day I went away on holiday so I was left with a non serviced car all because Zenith spent two hours communicating with the garage refusing to pay for the service that was booked in (you know the only service I could book in). Two weeks later my cam belt was so worn it caused a breakdown on my way on holiday. Zenith told the BVRLA that I was ‘under the impression that my car needed a 1 year service’ absolute claptrap and completely made up as not once has Zenith spoken to me so they made it up and the BVRLA just believe them!!! They actually admit: ‘We hope you can appreciate we can only comment on the information provided to us by Zenith.’ Not anyone else but their member. That sums it up, they listen to their member and ignore anything you say if you’re raising the complaint. All this over £70! It’s cost both organisations more than that already but just keep on as there’s plenty of time wasting you can do. If none of them are prepaid to do anything then that’s the next best option. Remember the costs involved for them having to pay staff to deal with it all.