I booked a van on the internet and when I went to collect it I just had to give my paperwork and collect key.
It sounds simple enough but it took over half an hour because the person at the counter was trying to sell me extras whereas I had already paid for my rental.
Then I went to collect my van in the yard. There was a lovely man, John, who was very helpful and was straight to the point. And off I was.
A few days later, when bringing the van back, I drove in the yard, waited for a man to check the vehicle (not a long wait at all) and then back to the counter.
Whereas I only had to sign a document (pre-printed, only requiring a tick or so from the person at the counter), it took a good 20 minutes.
Staff at the counter are usually nice and helpful but as they are told to try to sell you loads of extra stuff, there is clearly a waste of time and energy. And maybe they should just simplify their language when they are trying to sell the extras to people not speaking a good level of English (it would save a lot of time and would avoid customers being annoyed and upset)
Overall, my experience was positive (the van was in good condition and did not break down) but I felt like I was waiting a lot of time which was frustrating (maybe even more as I got stuck in traffic to get there) and they clearly need better selling techniques. read more