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We would love to be able to say that renting Sparkey was a special experience that we truly loved, but regrettably that is not the case.
Sparkey was rented to us in defective condition, albeit that the defect in question did not become apparent until a third of the way through the rental. The locks on the side-door to the vehicle failed due to the defect, meaning it was prone to swing open (outwards) at any moment when the vehicle was in motion, as it could not be effectively secured other than by holding it closed by hand from inside the vehicle. When this alarming fault became apparent, we had a very stressful experience, having to drive an unroadworthy vehicle 80 miles, on poor country roads, to our planned destination for that day; the experience totally overshadowing the day.
A technician to fix the fault was organised by the owners somewhat begrudgingly and only after prolonged attempts by them to make out to us that the defect was not really a defect, despite us sending them videos showing how the door could not be fastened shut. The technician came out to fix the dangerous fault the following day, however this required us to lose a further half-day of our holiday waiting around for this person to turn up and perform the necessary repairs to return the vehicle to roadworthiness. Tellingly, there was no attempt at follow-up with us from the owners regarding the experience once the issue was resolved or any apology for the inconvenience and stress encountered.
We also had other issues with this vehicle.
The motorhome has a speed limiting device that was not mentioned to us when we collected the vehicle, which we only found about when it was accidentally activated by one of us inadvertently engaging a control that had not been pointed out to us at the handover. We then found that the vehicle would refuse to accelerate past 28mph as a previous user of the motorhome had set the device at that level and the owners had not cleared this setting prior to passing the vehicle over to us. This led to a very stressful 1-hour journey on a standard A-road rated at 60mph for most of the distance, with a tailback of irritated motorists building up behind the vehicle repeatedly, even though we stopped where possible to allow other vehicles to pass.
Probably the most aggravating thing with this motorhome (out of the collection of problems we had with it, not all detailed here) was the fridge, which would regularly malfunction (switching itself off), at least several times - sometimes numerous times - a day, every single day throughout the rental. There were often prolonged periods when on the road where the fridge was non-functional, and this meant that keeping perishable food was not really viable when mobile. This impacted our enjoyment of the motorhome negatively throughout the entire time of renting it, especially as we were in remote areas without plentiful places to buy groceries.
All of these issues might have been somewhat mitigated had the owners been pleasant to deal with and acknowledged problems encountered with the vehicle with a degree of honesty, openness and humility, as opposed to attempting to minimise repeatedly the issues encountered and evade any sense of accountability, but regrettably that was not the case. We were obliged to conclude that they are not individuals who readily take responsibility for shortcomings with their vehicle, and certainly not with much grace or a sense of providing a service to users trying to have a quality leisure experience.
By the time we handed Sparkey back to the owners, we were more than glad that the experience had come to its conclusion. We would not recommend others take on this vehicle
Giugno 2024
Risposta da Jessica
Please read all our wonderful five-star reviews before drawing a conclusion from this customer's rant. We pride ourselves on keeping our motorhomes well-maintained. They have annual habitation checks and are thoroughly checked between hires to ensure they are safe and pleasant to use. We want all our hirers to have the best experience possible as for many it is a life dream to have this kind of freedom. Occasionally, things can fail; if this does happen, we are always happily on hand with help and advice, as many times there is a very simple remedy, and we aim to get your holiday back on track as soon as possible. The key is to notify us of any issues immediately so we can take swift action (this was not the case with these travellers). We also have many returning customers who absolutely love their experience with ‘Sparkie’ and us.
Famiglia
Diesel
Posti letto 4
Rebecca
Peter
Gioia
Brett
Lewis
Przemek
Yun Yuen
David
Mark Ford
Rob
Anna Thompson,
Caroline And David
Mike
Anna
Mark Leslie Allan,
Martin
Phillip
Stephanie Ahern
Michael
Carolyn
Jane
David
Kurt Matthews
Andrew
Abigail
Claire
Martin
Jonathan
Tanya
Laura
Neil And Emma
Conor
Christine
Mark
Roger
