wey

Aug 26, 2023

Think twice before you hire from them

This is definitely the worst RV rental experience I have ever had. We rented two vehicles, one motorhome and one voyager campervan, from Spaceships Rentals from August 2nd to 10th to accommodate our eight-people family trip, including two seniors over 70 and a child of 9-years old. That voyager campervan turned out already having low puncture and Adblue system issue. For the low puncture, the screw was worn out and had been in the tire for some time before we picked it up. The tire issue started showing on dashboard on Aug 2rd evening, the very first day of our pick-up. We contacted Spaceships Rentals about it on Aug 3rd and were told it could be just sensor issue and suggested wait and check, which actually was not unreasonable guess. Then the following day, on Aug 4th, the tire flattened, so we knew it was indeed low puncture. We had to cancel our cruise in Lake District for tire recovery. . When the adblue system issue first showed up on Aug 4th Friday, Spaceship Rentals customer service gave three options about it. One is to drive the vehicle in a certain way for some time, which I was not able to hear clearly over the phone due to the noise from tire recovery right beside me. The second is driving to Edinburgh, but they also mentioned their phones and all offices would be closed over the weekend. There was no one we could reach out to arrange such fix or switch. The third option was to continue our trip over the weekend and they would send us detailed instruction on Monday Aug. 7th, which we followed. However, by the following Monday when we got detailed instructions through email, which required us driving the van for 45 mins at 3500rmp on a motorway, there was no motorway available in our location, as we were in Kyle of Scottish Highland. Then, Spaceship Rentals customer services blamed us on choosing the third, though all three options were provide by them and they were very well aware of our selection over the phone call on Aug 4th. Then, Spaceships Rentals repeatedly requested us to drive that broken voyager campervan 5-6 hours nonstop to their Edinburgh office. This is very irresponsible and completely ignored our safety. Tiredness can kill! Customers have every right to refuse. Later, Spaceships Rentals gave suggestions to the local garages in Kyle. However, they did not give authorizations to those garages, so we were constantly turned away by the garages. This wasted us a whole day on Aug 7th. We could do nothing but move to our prepaid campsite in Portree. Then on Aug 8th, we were forced to leave our seniors, child and that motorhome in Portree and drive back that broken voyager campervan van to those garages in Kyle to fix the Adblue system issue after they were given authorization. All professional mechanics later confirmed the issue is in the system and they can do nothing except getting it towed away to Ford services. Even professional mechanics cannot fix the issue, Spaceships Rentals in later emails still blamed us customers for not fixing it by their so-called 3500rpm suggestion. And they tried very hard to blame our driving for the issue, though the mechanics have confirmed no user damage to the Adblue system. This really pissed me off! Spaceships Rentals customer service simply ignores the assessment from mechanics and made different excuses trying to blame us for these already existing issue in their van. Finally on Aug 9th, we had to wait another whole day for the towing lorry to pick up that voyager campervan. As we were told we need to hand in the key by ourselves. When we finally got to Edinburgh office on Aug 10th, we saw a couple who just returned an exact same voyager campervan complained to the staff about the same Adblue system issue. They were lucky enough it later was gone. But this means the issue is not uncommon at all among Spaceships voyager campervans. Think twice before you make the booking! During the whole process, we were forced to leave the other motorhome behind and were not able to drive it for vacation at all. And we were kicked back and forth among Spaceships Rentals, Roadside Assistance (RAC), recovery team and local garages. The information we got from them conflicted many times. In total, our valuable eight-people family trip was ruined by Spaceships Rentals by at least four days. Besides the portion of car rental services we were not able to use and related out-of-pocket expenses, the time and effort we spent on this big travel plan preparation, visa application, my families’ twelve hour flight from the other side of the world and our emotional loss. And this was completely caused by the poor vehicle maintenance and customer service from Spaceships Rentals. I have filed a formal complaint letter to Spaceships Rentals and I am now preparing letter to local MP and files for small claims court.