Thank you to they guys at Van & Ute Hire.

I had been left in the lurch by another hire company. With a time sensitive job to compete and I was desperate for a van at extremely short notice. Fortunately Van & Ute Hire had one available that I was able to race across town to collect.

I was greeted by friendly, efficient, no fuss service. Van was clean and parked outside ready to go, paperwork was straight forward, and a copy of the invoice was emailed to me at work.

What more could I ask for?

Approximate cost: $88.00

Three times in recent weeks I have needed to book a hire van and was delighted to find that Bunnings in Port Melbourne had them at a reasonable rate. Unfortunately I've been disappointed each time so won't be going back!

For the first booking I arrived to discover that because the previous booking had been collected late, their 24 hr booking had started from their pickup time not their booking time regardless of mine following directly after. I was left waiting for over an hour till van arrived back. On that occasion staff went out of their way, offering a discount on hire and a genuine apology, and the error was very well handled.

For the second booking, I had a collection time just before closing. Van was in the car park waiting which was a good sign, but between arriving at hire desk and finalising payment, it had been put away for the night, and getting it out again involved inconvenience and delay because all other vehicles, trailers and outdoor displays had been parked behind it.

The third and most recent booking was for a very time sensitive and critical movement of valuable objects. After my past experiences I rang to book, double checked booking on return of the second booking, sighting it recorded in the schedule. I also gave myself an additional hour to allow for any delays.

On collection, staff found the keys and we went looking for it. No Van! Back inside and we discover it was hired out for 24 hrs that morning. This was feeling like a Seinfeld episode! I was offered excuses about swapping booking systems, but that doesn't help when you need it now. Nor does the offer of an open ute...with a tarp if I wanted it when it is about to pour rain. There was some effort made to call other Bunnings stores to find an alternative, but none were available.

I ended up standing in Bunnings making phone calls to hire businesses to find one with a vehicle available and then racing across town to collect it to meet my deadlines.

I can't afford to be messed around like that so won't be going back!