A1 National Van Hire

What reason are they giving for not returning your deposit? I take it the van was checked over and signed for on collection and that you still have the paperwork.

You need to report them to Trading Standards, if they are making a habit of this and TS receive a number of complaints, they will act.

Take them to court, will cost you £25 and is quite simple to do online at https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Get your bank or credit card company involved.

I too am trying to recover my deposit, I have just phoned the bank who have been very helpful and are now taking forward the dispute on my behalf.

Good luck!

I am having exactly the same problem with A1 National Van Hire, and there appear to be hundreds if not thousands of us being ripped off by this firm. If you Google their name, you will find a stack of sites with complaints about them.

Watch out, because if you complain too much, they respond by taking another £500 out of your account. They have done this to me last week, and to another victim posting on the "measured up" site over this weekend.

I have involved the bank, trading standards, consumer action and the police - because the second lot of money taken is theft and/or fraud, and anything else you like to think of. The next step will be a small claims court action.

The best advice is don't deal with them. If you already have, then you need to chase hard. I read of one man who did get his deposit back, but it took 7 months of effort.

Same problem!
I booked a rental of a minibus through A1 National Van Hire as their pricing seemed good compared to their competitiors, probably for a reason! The £500 deposit was orginally taken out of my account as I booked, months before we actually had the minibus. The minibus when delivered turned up late and then they were 2 days late in collecting it as well. But now I have a month down the line having rented the minibus and they still have not returned my £500 deposit. I have been phoning them everyday but the are consistently rude and unhelpful. They keep ensuring me the money will be in my bank the next day but it never is. I am now following this up with Trading Standards and with my bank (luckily I booked on my credit card!). Under no circumstances book with this company! I dont understand how they can be allowed to do business in this way.

Very same problem back in March. .

We contacted the bank who were very helpful and we got our deposit back via the Visa Dispute procedure, as we used a Debit card. It would have been so much easier and quicker if we had used our credit card though as you have more rights, but the Visa Dispute were brilliant.

Make the necessary call to the company to ask them when they will transfer the money, but don't waste your time with repeated calls.Log all calls and promises for evidence and report it to wherever you can.

I would also advise your bank to block any further payments to the company just in case.

I am just amazed that 6 months on, this company is still getting away with it.

Good luck.

I will start by saying if I need to hire a mini-bus in future I think I would prefer to walk rather than use A1 National Van Hire. They are the worst Company I have had the misfortune ever to be involved with. I hired a 17 seater mini bus from them on the 8th June 2012 - they took payment of £422,38 from my debit card on 12th. On the 3rd August they then took the £500 refundable deposit, then on the 7th August they then took an unauthorized payment from my debit card of £922.38. After dozens of emails and phone calls, they promised to repay their mistake, but it never happened. After taking advice from Citizens Advice and Consumer Advice Centre they advised me to put together a Breach Of Contract letter, but even that did not change things. I then went to my bank with the complaint. They did get back the £922,38 - but am still battling to get back the two previous payments after cancelling the contract. Again I have sent emails and telephoned them - but is all falling on stoney ground, My bank are trying to get these two refunds, so we shall see. This Company should never be allowed to trade, and moreover should never be allowed to get away with this kind of practice. The customer Service is non-existent and their telephone manner leaves a lot to be desired. They should really get a refund themselves from the charm school they attended.

The same guys have now set up a new company called UK Van and Minibus Hire. If you find their website you will see that they just changed the template and the content is almost the same. Avoid them at all costs! Hope this will help someone not to get in their new trap.

I cant believe people are still getting away with this sort of stuff, I shouldn't be surprised as I wrote a post on this sort of thing on my page the other day (vanhireworthing.co.uk)
But it always amazes me, at how they always manage to come up with new bull sh*t to rip customers off.
Take care and be vigilant people.

We too have had experience with this company,we hired a van in august ,took them over a week to come an collect it cause the guy when dropping off said he wasn't coming out on a sunday or a bank holiday the day after ,they didn't sign any paperwork to say they had collected it in good condition ,we left nearlly half a tank n fuel in it we even cleaned it outside and in before return ,the deposit of £250 was never returned ,ive emailed no repsonse ,the calls are never picked up its either engaged or no answer,we have been to the warrington address listed now and it seems they are no longer trading from there,we have logged the complaint with trading standards but we are still out of pocket .We hired the van in the first place to pick up a free sofa given to us cause our old one was wrecked ,this was the cheaper option, we are a family with a disabled child and can't afford as im sure most cant afford to lose £250 it's had a spiral affect for us with things like charges on the bank account ,it's disgusting they can do this.
If you google a1 national van hire there is an article bbc4 have done recently in connection with this company ,it seems trading standards are trying to get a court order ,that was in nov 2012
If anyone has anymore to share about how to get our money back i'd be grateful ,we have contacted the bank but seems without the paperwork they had the vanback in good condition we are stuck and if they are now trading under a different name we are stuck