US Rentacar???

[allie5]

Just been looking around for a good rental car package and this company www.usrentacar.co.uk seem miles better than anyone.

They have quoted £552 for a 7 seater MPV or a 4x4 for 3 weeks over Christmas with Alamo at MCO. Fully comp with taxes, only extra is the first tank of fuel. Thats nearly £150 better than any other company I have tried. However, Im dubious because Ive never heard of them!! I can leave a £50 deposit only, which Im inclined to do, but some feedback (good or bad) would be appreciated!

Allie

 

[Minx]

I have just paid £618 for a 4x4 for 3 weeks July/August. I have booked with www.sunchase.co.uk They use Alamo cars, I have the gold package which includes a tank of petrol and up to 3 drivers. They are a UK based company and I have used them many times before.

Dee

 

[mike230652]

Allie

There have been posts about this company........ 95% were negative.

It would appear that the dirctors of this lot "allegedly" went belly up with a similar cheap rate US car hire company in 2003, leaving MANY unhappy people out of pocket.

From the contradictory info they gave out I certainly wouldn't part with any money to them.

I'm sure you'll find a couple of threads about them if you enter their name...........

mike

 

[mike230652]

allie

Check out Elle's post about floridacarhire.com in Aug 2003.... I believe these are re-incarnated as us rentacar....................

mike

 

[kipper]

Oh Dear
I have just booked a seven seater also for xmas also for three weeks at the price mentioned
Only paid the £50 deposit but still worrying.

 

[allie5]

Aw, flippin heck, I booked (£50 deposit) last night after I got some positive replies to the same post on the DIBB.

I have also been told that Virgin Travelstore will match any quote....what do I do? Cancel, rebook with Virgin TS and lose my £50 or stick with US Rentacar???

 

[allie5]

Update, just read their T&Cs and they have a 48 hour cooling off period where you can cancel incurring no penalties. Have emailed them to cancel, but If I dont hear back within the hour I will call them and my Credit Card company to cancel the booking. Phew. I feel better now. Will rebook with Virgin later, when HOPEFULLY this is sorted.

EDITED TO ADD: US Rentacar just emailed me to say my booking had been cancelled and my CC refunded. Very prompt I must say. Maybe they have improved!!

 

[martina857]

1

 

[mike230652]

Try www.airline-network.co.uk

We've used them..............very good value especially if there's more than one of you driving ...their Platinum package is a bargain in that situation.

Mike

 

[Gavin Boswell]

Dear All,

My name is Garry Boswell. I am the Managing Director of U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk. The company at the centre of this thread. A customer of ours has very kindly contacted me with regards to this thread so that I can put some minds at ease and stop all this misinformation.

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk has no business connection with FloridaCarHire.com, who experienced problems in the summer before being bought by Holiday Cars Ltd, or USA Rent A Car, who were part of Hire4Lower who went bust. None of the directors who were associated with any of the companies mentioned here have anything to do with U.S. Rent A Car Ltd and never will. We are also not attached to and have no connection with Holiday Cars Ltd.

My son, Gavin Boswell, did work for FloridaCarHire.com, he also worked for Holiday Autos, and has been in Car Hire for most of his working life, at FloridaCarHire.com he was a manager in their call centre and was in charge of training and motivating the call centre staff and was defiantly not a Director as suggested. He had no responsibility for accounting issues or contract negotiating. He was also the first person to be made redundant from FloridaCarHire.com. I am sure this can be validated through Global Leisure Cars t/a FloridaCarHire.com's liquidators.

I myself am a retired police officer who worked for Hampshire constabulary for 15 years. Previously I was in the army for 22 years.

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk has been trading for a year, we became a Limited company in Aug 2003. This can all be validated by looking on companies house.co.uk. You can also find information about the directors, unfortunately you would have to part with some hard earned cash.

We have won awards for web excellence and we are also the first car hire company to be excepted by SafeBuy, who are an independent body who monitors web trade and are currently in the final stages of taking over from which?. We are also members of the FLAUSA association and the visit usa association. As with all car hire brokers we are unable to join ABTA or ATOL., but we would whole heartedly support a governing body for car hire.

I totally understand the paranoia that consumers have at the moment regarding car hire brokers but we are an honest company, who pride ourselves on our excellent level of service, which was commented on, it is shame that people are now suspicious of good service!

It appears we been tarnished with a very ugly brush.

Martina857 accusation that we are involved in a criminal activity as you have mentioned on previous threads is a libellous action. I look forward to you showing everyone the proof that you have! I suggest you post an apology as soon as possible. If this continues I will seek legal advice.

I am more than happy to answer any questions that anyone has. All I ask is that this type of thread is stopped. My team and I have worked very hard and sacrificed a lot to get to this position. I note that this has already lost our company one booking, who knows how many more have been put off by these inaccuracies. If you know of any other threads of a similar nature please can you point them to this information or alternatively forward me the threads and I will post replies.

For your own piece of mind please do some investigating of your own, our Company number is 4877174 our vat number is 831 8261 35.

Please except my apologies if I have appeared rude in anyway, it was not my intention I am very passionate about this company and seeing our good name trashed like this upsets me.

You can email myself at garryb@usrentacar.co.uk or alternatively you can call us on 08715 200 135. Both myself and my son will make ourselves as available as possible.


Kind regards,

Garry Boswell,
Managing Director,
U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk.

 

[martina857]

m

 

[allie5]

Gary

I appriecate you taking the time to come here and explain things.

It is very difficult for the average consumer to trust a new business, where there are no "safeguards" in place (such as ABTA or ATOL). I understand your situation, if their is no governing body you can join, then how are you supposed to build Customer confidence??

I am keen to support new business (as we run and own a small company ourselves) and think the service you offer appears very good. My queries were dealt with promptly and corteously and the prices you offer seem unbeatable. However, I admit I panicked when I read the threads about a seemingly related business going belly up and leaving customers stranded....I can ill afford to lose £500.

I have since read (on other boards) only good things about your company and had feedback from satisfied customers. I think your business CAN do very, very well if you continue to offer a high level of service and fantastic prices. I would like to see in place, some sort of affiliation to a UK consumer association (which you say is in progress).

After careful thought, I have decided to leave booking my car hire for awhile. Although I can get a similar quote through other companies, I do like to support small business and would like to acknowledge the low prices and good service that I have seen so far. I will wait to see some more feedback from people who I know have booked via your company for this summer. I do feel more confident after reading your post and the fact you have taken the time to come here and face up to the "allegations" (that Im sure were posted here in good faith in response to my orginal question). As I mentioned, I asked the same question on other boards and only had good responses in return.

I wish you the best in your venture.

 

[Gavin Boswell]

Allie5 – Thank you for your post.


Dear Martina,

Before I begin I would like to point out that we are a secure company with nothing but honourable intentions, I must admit that am slightly disappointed that I am again having to justify myself and my company even after my original posting. After you have read my answers to your questions I would really appreciate it if you wrote another apology as I feel the last one still left things up in the air. (Thanks)

U.S. Rent A Car Ltd has provided numerous rentals to many customers all who have been completely satisfied (For small examples of this please visit www.thedibb.co.uk another forum that has threads from people who have actually used our services.)And I am only answering these questions to put minds at ease.

After speaking with my Son and reading your other posts, we guess you must be friends with Elle of FloridaCars and Florida homes and travel and therefore it is logical to assume that you are speaking of the initial contact between my son (representing FloridaCarHire.com at the time) and Elle who was interested in opening an account which was one of his many duties. Although Gavin was the first line of contact for travel partners, he was not in charge of putting rates together and took all instructions from the board of directors, as all employees general do. There were guide lines in place that Gavin followed.

I am slightly confused as to what you are trying to imply? I can assure you Gavin has only ever acted in good faith. As stated before he was not a director and made no decisions that affected the company. He did not have access to accounts information and was as surprised as anyone when Global Leisure Cars t/a FloridaCarHire.com went in to liquidation.

However I can now see why you would be suspicious, maybe this is why you posted your original statements but Gavin is not to be blamed for the lose made by Florida Homes and Travel or any other company who entered in to agreements with Global Leisure Cars T/A FloridaCarHire.com.

Gavin was merely an employee and just like Ellie and others, Gavin suffered as a direct result of Global Leisure Cars t/a FloridaCarHire.com failure and it appears he still is. He lost a well paid job and the financial security for his young family. The anger that you obviously have for Global Leisure Cars (and with good reason) should not be directed at U.S. Rent A Car Ltd or Gavin. If you or anyone from FloridaCars are still concerned please contact Gavin, he will answer any questions that you have.

With regards to ABTA and ATOL bonds, to my knowledge they are not available to car hire companies, we did approach ABTA but we were informed that we only qualified for partner status which carries no legal obligation or official bonding. The accreditations I have spoken of do not carry any bonding either and I have not stated that they do. They are well respected organisations within the travel trade and there use was not to imply any bonding. There is no official bonding for Car Hire companies. We are members of SafeBuy and trustUK who are independent bodies who monitor web trade, TrustUK actually monitors ABTA.

With regards to our own procedures for security, firstly, we are a financial secure and well run company who are respected in the travel industry; the only place where doubt has been cast is this forum through misinterpreted information. Secondly, we take payment via credit card so automatically the customer is covered via their credit card company for all situations. Thirdly, we issue vouchers swiftly and with reference numbers which can be verified directly with the supplier. I am not prepared to discuss my credit terms with you, as with all companies these are commercially sensitive, but I can assure you there are measures in place in the form of a security bond that guarantee the pick up of vehicles with our major supplier should anything unforeseen happen.

We are also currently looking in to a scheme for customer piece of mind where their money is held in a neutral account until the rental is finished and then and only then would we receive their money (this is through the Travel Trust Association). This is in its infancy stage as the ramifications of such a departure from normal protocol are something that we would be ill advised to rush in to.

We do not claim to have all the answers so if you have an idea of your own that you think may help, please provide it and we will do our best to accommodate.

I hope these answers have satisfied you and hopefully you can repost an apology. I do not wish to be dragged in to a war of words via this forum I posted my original reply so to stop the misinformation started here, I hope the honesty I have shown in answering all your questions will now put an end to this topic.


Kind regards,

Garry Boswell,
U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

 

[amf]

Originally posted by Gavin Boswell
He had no responsibility for accounting issues or contract negotiating.

The later quote "Although Gavin was the first line of contact for travel partners, he was not in charge of putting rates together and took all instructions from the board of directors, as all employees general do. There were guide lines in place that Gavin followed." does not make commercial sense. Why would an employee who was the first line of contact not be empowered to negotiate? Having viewed many business practices at first hand, this is very much a new one on me. Why have a business contact point when the contact cannot negotiate a deal?

Whilst I'm much impressed with your answers to other points, I rather feel that martina may have a valid point.

 

[Gavin Boswell]

Hi AMF,

Thanks for your post. My Dad thought it best that I reply. But I am slightly confused. You left it with "I rather feel that Martina may have a valid point." the thing is I don’t think Martina made a point she just hung a question out there.

When I joined Global Leisure Cars t/a FloridaCarHire.com I had no experience in contract negotiating and received no training in this skill. Before hand when I worked for holiday autos I was in charge of a sales team. While it is true to say I was the first line of contact, I ran every decision through the board of directors and I mean every decision! You must remember AMF we were not dealing with a huge corporation but a small company with about 3 employees (excluding the directors) of which I was the oldest at the age of 24. The directors had no formal training and were pretty much winging it, hence why they went in to liquidation. So I never really negotiated. I understand what you are saying and now that I have a more hands on roll in this company I can see how such a thing seems strange but I can assure you it happened.

I still am unsure though what difference it would make even if I did negotiate rates for travel partners. I still did not have anything to do with Global Leisure Cars going in to liquidation and I gained nothing by it. I have no contact with either director and they have no part to play in U.S. Rent A Car Ltd. I think this was the original point to the thread and nothing to do with me.

I don’t want to appear rude and I hope I haven’t but all we are trying to do is build a business. Forums like this are a great way for consumers to trade information but they can also cause problems when information is misinterpreted. All we have tried to do is correct this error.
If any one would like more clarification please call me I am available 8 - 8 on 08715 200 135.

Kind regards,

Gavin Boswell,
U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

 

[dbm001]

I would like to applaud Gary for putting his side to this previously very one sided story.

I think that it is very wrong to come on this board and throw around unfounded allegations and rumours about a new company whenever anyone mentions their name.

I have booked a car with Usrentacar for our forthcoming trip, I have no regrets in doing this, in fact after reading the Managing Directors posts I am now even more satisfied I have used a good company.

I hope we can now lay this matter to rest, and only talk about facts and proven track records in the future.

Dave.

 

[martina857]

m

 

[GO2209]

Originally posted by martina857


Also for the record, the only relationship I have with Florida Homes and Travel is that I have used them to book cars, and yes they are protected ;-))

Without wanting to further inflame this 'debate' - what protection can we as travellers/customers reasonably expect?

Martina, what protection do Florida Homes offer? What makes you trust them? I note they are not ABTA members?

Admittedly, I have little confidence in abta. I feel it is a form of self-serving, self-regulation. ABTA are unlikely to really bite the hand that feeds them - the tour operator.

A credit card limits your risk in terms of direct costs, but as with Martina's example, it cannot help with the indirect effects.

The package holiday has certain advantages in so far as you have someone to turn to for help if any aspect of the package goes pear-shaped (in theory). What does the independent traveller do with their seperately purchased products?

So much of business is done on trust and promises - look at any of our banknotes "I promise to pay the sum..." Another promise?

 

[martina857]

m