655 replies to this topic

[sundrivehirearebrilliant]

From Family Travel Centre:  

Quote

“Rogue camper vans”

A camper-van rental company featured in a Sunday Times festival guide has ceased trading. Sundrive Hire has left scores of festivalgoers and holidaymakers out of pocket, with little hope of getting their money back. Calls to the company — which traded from “virtual offices” in Shropshire and London, and blamed its demise on “an internet smear campaign” run by angry clients who had lost money — are being handled by a third-party answering service. Victims, many of whom have lost hundreds of pounds, are advised to contact their local Trading Standards office.”

Source: Sunday Times Travel Section 17th July 2011

They would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those pesky angry clients who had lost money...

[miniand]

Seem to have a lot in common with an affinity fraud, especially with the way that a few refunds were made before an event where they would be expecting to hire out all of their imaginary 105ish motorhomes.My link

[loyallibby]

OK, I am back from holiday and learned while I was away that Sundrive ceased trading.  I was a fool to believe they were honest traders.  I may or may not get my money back, like many others.   I have also had my festival experience ruined as there are of course no other camper vans for hire (at anything near what I paid Sundrive) and I don't want pity, I am just sad, and angry at the Sunday Times for not researching this business more thoroughly before listing them as a suitable supplier.  
Sorry guys for getting all your backs up, I/we will doubtless all be more careful in future because of this.
At least you know now I'm genuine, and wasn't a 'Sundrive stooge' as some of you were suggesting.
BTW Folk by the Oak festival at Hatfield House yesterday was a great event for anyone who lives in Herts area - a steal for £22.  Happy Festival going!

[jameshunt]

loyallibby, on 25 July 2011 - 03:17 PM, said:

OK, I am back from holiday and learned while I was away that Sundrive ceased trading.  I was a fool to believe they were honest traders.  I may or may not get my money back, like many others.   I have also had my festival experience ruined as there are of course no other camper vans for hire (at anything near what I paid Sundrive) and I don't want pity, I am just sad, and angry at the Sunday Times for not researching this business more thoroughly before listing them as a suitable supplier.  
Sorry guys for getting all your backs up, I/we will doubtless all be more careful in future because of this.
At least you know now I'm genuine, and wasn't a 'Sundrive stooge' as some of you were suggesting.
BTW Folk by the Oak festival at Hatfield House yesterday was a great event for anyone who lives in Herts area - a steal for £22.  Happy Festival going!

Sorry to have doubted you.  If you read this thread from the beginning you'll see good reason as to why you were suspected as a Sundrive stooge though.

I hope you get your money back ,along with everyone else scammed by that 'company', and that the owners get what should be coming to them.

[Morse Code]

eFestivals, on 19 July 2011 - 12:20 PM, said:

yep - you never made that post.

Your post count (in your profile) says that you've made just one post - which must be this one because your post count hasn't been tampered with.

edit: and even more from your profile .... you didn't even register until the 17th, so you couldn't have made a post on the 16th.

WTF was that all about?

[Morse Code]

loyallibby, on 25 July 2011 - 03:17 PM, said:

OK, I am back from holiday and learned while I was away that Sundrive ceased trading.  I was a fool to believe they were honest traders.  I may or may not get my money back, like many others.   I have also had my festival experience ruined as there are of course no other camper vans for hire (at anything near what I paid Sundrive) and I don't want pity, I am just sad, and angry at the Sunday Times for not researching this business more thoroughly before listing them as a suitable supplier.  
Sorry guys for getting all your backs up, I/we will doubtless all be more careful in future because of this.
At least you know now I'm genuine, and wasn't a 'Sundrive stooge' as some of you were suggesting.
BTW Folk by the Oak festival at Hatfield House yesterday was a great event for anyone who lives in Herts area - a steal for £22.  Happy Festival going!

It's good of you to come back on with an update. And of course I never doubted you! ;-)

I guess if there's a lesson to be learned here it's that old adage that caused me to post in the first place, 'if something looks too good to be true, it probably is'!!

Good luck with getting a refund and hope you enjoy the Cambridge Folk Festival :-)

[loyallibby]

Morse Code, on 25 July 2011 - 07:49 PM, said:

It's good of you to come back on with an update. And of course I never doubted you! ;-)

I guess if there's a lesson to be learned here it's that old adage that caused me to post in the first place, 'if something looks too good to be true, it probably is'!!

Good luck with getting a refund and hope you enjoy the Cambridge Folk Festival :-)

Thank you so much....and I have learned not to be so blinking gullible!  Having had such a brill time at Folk by the Oak (in the sunshine!) I am really looking forward to Cambridge....enjoy your next Festival too!!

[bangerbrown]

Thank god I found this forum before heading to Leeds festival. I found it 2 days before I was due to receive my vehicle from Sundrive. Having read what people were saying about this sham of a company I was able to arrange another Campervan. Had I not seen it I would have been sat in like a mug waiting around for them to deliver. When i found them on the internet several months before they sounded perfect. excellent prices and home delivery which I felt was an amazing selling point and one which I felt other companies could be missing out on. Now I see it was no more than a great ploy to rip people off. they should have offered a butler service as well. Maybe this Gary Mccfaden could have scammed a few more people before being caught out. I did try a number of time to ring this joker but just got a generic message with no facility to leave a message. This message was made more annoying by the fact the person leaving it sound so smug. After a while I gave up deciding I wasn't going to let this criminal masquerading as a legitimate businessman ruin my weekend so I phoned the Police. Something I would urge anyone who has been conned by this scumbag to do. It is after all a white collar crime. The police were very helpful and said they are going to investigate and hopefully they will be able to do something about this crook. The officer i talked with told me that most crimes like this go unreported due to the fact most people feel to embarrassed that they have been conned. I then phoned my bank who informed me that my money will be returned to me within the week. Even tho I paid by visa debit because it carries the visa logo I am still protected against fraud. I did wait around the house for half an hour after delivery was due just to give them a chance although i knew it was never going to arrive. I am also going to go down the trading standards route just to venture down every avenue to see that this sorry excuse of a businessman get whats coming to him. Fingers crossed eh. It does appear that no one has left a comment for over a month but i do hope others will read this.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I've got a Visa debit card. Interesting to note that it is covered for fraud.

[Nick07]

Any way of getting the money back now?

Only found out today as van booked for Saturday.

[bangerbrown]

I contacted my bank and they said they would be able to get it back in to my bank between 7-10 days. unfortunately the bank couldn't act until after the time it was supposed to arrive. Until that time they still haven't failed to deliver. I would contact the bank as soon as they fail to deliver your camper. The sooner you do the sooner they will be able to seek reimbursement for you. I hope you have contacted the police also. I personally would like to see some action brought against this villain. Did you receive any confirmation from sundrive saying the van wont be delivered? I didn't which is why i was so pleased to find this forum. without this i would have been non the wiser as to the situation.

[Morse Code]

bangerbrown, on 01 September 2011 - 07:50 PM, said:

I contacted my bank and they said they would be able to get it back in to my bank between 7-10 days. unfortunately the bank couldn't act until after the time it was supposed to arrive. Until that time they still haven't failed to deliver. I would contact the bank as soon as they fail to deliver your camper. The sooner you do the sooner they will be able to seek reimbursement for you. I hope you have contacted the police also. I personally would like to see some action brought against this villain. Did you receive any confirmation from sundrive saying the van wont be delivered? I didn't which is why i was so pleased to find this forum. without this i would have been non the wiser as to the situation.

Haven't they officially gone out of business? If they ever were in 'business'!
If so surely the banks will pay up before hand as there's no possibility of the booking being fulfilled.

[StoneCircle]

Interesting site on this matter!

http://sundrivegroupscam.com/

[eFestivals]

StoneCircle, on 02 September 2011 - 01:47 PM, said:

Interesting site on this matter!

http://sundrivegroupscam.com/

an interesting site and interesting read.

But if anyone uses the information that's there to make any sort of illegal act against McFadden, while that might be understandable due to the people who have lost money because of him, it makes that person the same sort of low-life as McFadden appears to be.

Please people, keep within the law.

[eFestivals]

It's been suggested to me that Sundrive might have resurfaced under a different name, as Arrow Motorhomes.

I've got no idea whether that's actually true or not, tho it's certainly the case that some of the text on the Arrow Motorhomes website is identical text to text on other motorhome suppliers websites, which was of course a feature of Sundrive's various incarnations of websites.

Arrow's website can be found here:-
http://www.arrowmotorhomes.co.uk/

[eFestivals]

I've had a bit more info on Arrow Motorhomes.

They have, apparently, recently let a customer down on a hire vehicle with very similar excuses to those used by Sundrive. There also seems to be a firm relationship between Arrow and Motorhomesrus.co.uk (as I've been told that a booking with Arrow was billed by Motorhomesrus), so it looks like they are the same operation using different names and websites.