NEVER HIRE THIS COMPANY UNLESS YOU WANT TO ENDANGER YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY!!
I used City Car's service for the first time yesterday, under the reservation ID is 1996980.
The car did not have a spare tire, and it had an awful left front tire. Its brand was HIFLY (I've never heard of this until then). The other three were Michelin. I did some research and found out that this is a budget brand, a low cost tire that is not reliable at all.
I had a puncture on this tire, and I couldn't fix it with this ridiculous repairing kit that was inside the trunk, where I should have found a spare tire. How can they rent cars without a spare tire? This is totally crazy, an insanity. And it gets even worst, because one of the tires was a completely disgraceful budget brand. Ever since I was a kid, I've always heard that YOU CAN'T SAVE MONEY ON TIRES!!!!!! City Car Club should probably write this with capital letters on their company's walls. Tires are one of the most important security-related items on the car. I'm lucky that when this misfortune happened, I was driving slowly - only 40 mph. If I were on a faster and busier road, such as M25, I don't want to imagine what could have happened.
After the tire was punctured, I started to try to contact their poor customer service. And this is one the the worst part of what happened yesterday. I lost track of the amount of times I tried to talk to someone who could help me. When someone managed to answer the telephone, I was kept on hold after trying to explain the situation. After a few minutes, the connection was dropped. The first time I called was 16:55. The service ticket with AA was registered around 17:30 and I've been told that they would arrive at 18:00. When I asked what would they do, I was told that they would tow the car. I couldn't believe. Towing a car because of a punctured tire? This is completely stupid.
Anyway, no one arrived at 18:00. I called again and I was told that they would arrive at 18:10.
No one arrived at 18:10. I called again and I was told that they were late and they would arrive at 18:30.
No one arrived at 18:30. I called again. Another delay. 18:55 is the time provided this time.
No one arrived at 18:55. Another call, another delay, another reschedule: 19:15.
As you may expect at this point of the story, They did not show up again. Once more, I called. Then someone from AA called me saying that they were late and the new expected time would be 19:50.
AA's van finally arrived a few minutes after this call, around 19:30. We were in The Ridgeway road, NW71QU. This address is 8 miles away from the initial pickup point, on Gloucester Avenue, in Primrose Hill. It took more than one hour and a half for the car to be towed from there to the pickup point.
Hiring City Car Club was the worst choice I could have made. They are, by far, the worst company I dealt with after living in London for more than one year. I'll summarize my reasons:
- The car did not have a spare tire;
- One of the tires was from a low cost brand, Hifly, and it got punctured;
- Their customer service is despicable;
- Towing a car because of a punctured tire? Seriously?
- After their worthless customer service kept me waiting for more than four hours, I was charged the amount of £40,28 because I was returning the vehicle late;
- This low cost tire was already in a very bad shape. Its side rubber layer is dangerously thin and it had a hole on the opposite side of the puncture. I took pictures of it.
I will never ever use this service any more. This company does not care about its customers. Actually, it is much worse than that. They are a threat, endangering peoples lives with a poor maintenance and with the nonobservance of the most basic security standards.
I sincerely hope City Car Club will go bankrupt as soon as possible. They had a very good idea and turned it into rubbish because of all their incompetence.