National www.nationalcar.co.uk Reviews

HelenD28's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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I chose National as they offered the best online deal when I was looking for car rental for a short UK break.
Collecting the car was no problem and I was happy with the car I was given.
On returning the car however (to the Pentonville Road branch, Kings Cross) I was shocked to find that I physically could not turn into the forecourt to return the car! There were so many people trying to return cars that they were backed right out over the path and spilling out onto a major London road, blocking buses and other traffic. The police were even there issuing parking tickets to all of the rental cars that had not been able to pull onto the forecourt! I then witnessed those customers being told they would have to pay the parking tickets, which is unbelievable.
Due to the one way system of the road I was on and the fact I could not pull onto the forecourt, I had no choice but to turn left and to come around to try again. I tried 3 times and each time was unable to get onto the forecourt. The left turn I had to take to get back around to the garage took me very briefly through a congestion charging zone, which was unavoidable.
I eventually managed to park the car in a side street near the garage and had to beg an employee to come and take the car back from me there, which after 10 minutes they did.
I went into the office to finalise the paperwork and explained to the guy behind the counter what had happened. I was assured that I would not be charged, settled by bill and left.
2 weeks later £91.05 was taken from my bank account with no notification or authorisation. I have called the head office several times and either had no answer or been put back and left on hold. I have also emailed the head office (through 2 different channels) 6 times and have still, after a further 2 weeks received no response.
I have finally had an invoice through the post to say the £91.05 is for the congestion charge zone that I was forced to go into as I could not pull the car onto the forecourt!
I would NEVER rent from this company again. They have zero customer service skills and they do not care about this in the slighest. They do not even respond to a complaint through the complaints section of their website.
What appeared to be a very good deal has resulted in me paying a small fortune for 5 days of car hire and the experience has been extremely stressful.
I have rented from many different car hire companies, including Sixt, Hertz and Practical and found them all to be very helpful in comparison.
I WOULD AVOID RENTING FROM NATIONAL AT ALL COSTS.