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If you decide to use hi de hi then just keep your eyes open and be careful. You may get charged for things that aren’t your fault and in our case, Russell waited many weeks before letting us know (I can only presume he hoped we’d write a good review first? Who knows? This was the first time I have rented a motor home and I was very excited about it. Goboony made it all seem very easy. Russell’s motor homes appealed because they looked shiny and new so made us want to ‘push the boat out’ and spend a bit more. He was more expensive than the others so we naively assumed that would mean ‘better’. Russell’s smiling face and quick friendly response to messages made me feel we had made the right choice. It wasn’t until I met him that reality started to materialise and I felt I had been duped by a salesman. He didn’t seem keen to see me and proceeded to walk me around a motor home that had lots of body work damage. I felt like a teen about to hire something I was about to abuse (I’m 41 and not remotely interested in that sort of thing). He made comments along the lines of “that’s another bit of damage there but it won’t matter to you”. I was keen to get on and go on holiday so I agreed but felt a bit disappointed and to be fair a little insulted to be told it wouldn’t matter but let it go. After all it was only cosmetic but we had paid significantly more for a shiny vehicle.
Whilst away we had a head rest come clean off during driving which nearly hit my 5 year old daughter (it had clearly been poorly repaired as we were able to hand screw it back on without it feeling secure and it came off again. We considered calling Russell but were on holiday and thought we just wanted to get on and enjoy ourselves. Also, what could he do from a hundred miles away anyway? This alone nearly ruined our holiday and had it hurt my only daughter in any way, things would be very very different indeed.
The bathroom door handle came off as well (neither my wife nor myself are heavy handed people) we are in fact the sort of people who take care of other peoples property as particularly in my case I hate it when people don’t respect my things so am mindful of giving the respect I expect in return. We took a photo of this one as it seemed by this stage things were falling apart a bit too much.
Next day I was opening the trap in the toilet to the cassette and off comes the plastic handle! I showed my wife in disbelief and low and behold it had clearly been glued back on before. We laughed a nervous laugh and to be fair felt a bit cross as it seemed we had paid over £1000 for 3 days that wasn’t really acceptable. Our friends next to us paid much less for an older home that was just as nice and didn’t fall apart. Again though, our thoughts were “if he doesn’t try to charge us for this we’ll say fair enough and put it down to experience. As it turns out he has chosen to charge us so I find myself writing this review. Shame. I wrote to Russell when I realised he was keeping £114 of our deposit for a tiny plastic handle and he said “don’t worry I’m only charging for the cost of replacing the handle”. Sorry but am I supposed to be grateful for that? Oh so you’re not charging more then? Thanks so much! The photo we’d taken of this handle my wife deleted as so much time had gone by unfortunately so we didn’t have the much needed evidence!
Basically the overall experience was hugely disappointing. We won’t be using them again and anyone who asks will get my honest story. Personally if it was my business I’d want people to feel valued over wanting to charge £114 and hope they’d come back. Especially when it wasn’t caused by us and we were given a tired looking motor home which wasn’t as advertised. Tight and short sighted sum it up unfortunately. I wish him all the best as he’s just another person trying to make a living but hopefully he realises he needs to be more careful inspecting things and passing costs onto innocent parties. Sorry Russell I would rather have given a 5 star review but things didn’t live up to expectation or cost and I know no matter how much we argue via message, we did not cause that damage and you did give us a motor home with a head rest that was so loose it flew off and nearly hit my daughter. Not good enough. One of the front tyres was illegal as well.
October 2022
Response from Russell
What a shame you have resorted to personal insults Thomas.
You took advantage of my better nature and took me saying not to worry about the end of season exterior blemishes as I was selling the motorhome to mean you could damage anything inside the motorhome and not be charged for it.
You didn't report any damage while you were away and it was only when I inspected the van when you dropped it off that I found the fresh damage.
That tends to happen when people try to get away with it.
Unfortunately it doesn't work that way and if I had damaged your £50,000 motorhome, I wouldn't be trying to justify why I shouldn't pay for damage I caused just because of a few minor imperfections on the outside.
I have a post hire email from you saying how much of a great time you had and if any prospective hirer needs clarity, I'd be happy to forward them your email.
Unfortunately, there will always be a very small minority of self entitled people who think the rules don't apply to them.
Your comments aren't at all concerning to me as one inaccurate review in a sea of positive ones only goes to prove what sort of person you are.
I would also urge any future prospective hirers to avoid this person for the reasons listed above.
Family
Diesel
Sleeps 4
4 Seats
with seatbelts
Charles
Linda
Jonathan
Bradford
