Just used Village cars for pick up from Luton airport and got the same great service as I had a couple of weeks ago. Driver was early which was great, as I had booked for 45 minutes after landing and we landed early but the driver was already there waiting. Immaculately clean car, very pleasant driver and very efficient with detour as part of the M1 was closed. £31. Would definitely recommend.
Olly Cole
I booked transfers to and from Gatwick airport. Quoted £65 out, £67 + parking on the return. No problem. They took down our flight reference number, which I assumed was so they could time their arrival at the airport correctly.
On the outward journey, the driver's car developed a fault so we couldn't continue, and they had no other drivers in the area to take over. Ok, put that down to bad luck, but I did have to get an Uber to the airport in order to make our flight, which cost me over £80 in the end.
Our flight home was delayed by a good half an hour. After landing it took about an hour to disembark the plane, go through passport control and retrieve our luggage, as you'd expect for a large passenger aircraft. When we met with the driver the parking cost was £13, higher than I'd expected. When we arrived home the driver told us he was adding a waiting time cost and the fare was now £90! I had only got out £70 cash (having paid the £13 parking on my card) so we declined to pay anymore than that and he got quite irate with us. I got the impression he had been waiting at the airport since our original landing time. This would also explain why the car park charge was so high. We spoke to the operator from their office on the phone who tried to get us to pay £80, but after having to shell out for an Uber on the outward journey, and £13 on parking, we were still unable and unwilling to pay any more than the £70 we had on us. Eventually they begrudgingly took it and the driver the left.
What was the point of taking our flight reference number if it wasn't to check for flight delays? In addition to that, everybody knows that it takes a good 45-60 minutes to get out of the airport after landing. Surely with the number of airport transfers the firm must do, they would know this and time the driver's arrival accordingly? There is nothing we can do about delays and the time taken to get out of an airport, so expecting us to pay an extra £23 is totally unreasonable - and completely avoidable if you just used the flight reference to actually check the landing time and arrive accordingly.
The impression I got was that this presumably experienced cab firm had no interest in arriving at a logical time, preferring instead to create the opportunity of adding a huge bogus 'waiting time' fee to the bill, and as such we won't be using them again.
Given 2 stars as they were at least able to get us home from the airport. My advice to them would be to check landing times online, and also allow at least half an hour for people to get out of the airport, as their current way of operating constitutes very poor customer service.
EDIT: I need to edit my review in response to the company's reply, below.
1. Our plane landed at 6:55. As I mentioned, it was delayed half an hour - you would have known this if you tracked the flight number as stated. It was an 8 hour flight so you had plenty of time to check.
2. He did offer a discount but that was from £96 to £90. Your maths is incorrect as well because the car parking was not included in that at all - I'd already paid it separately. So in fact, your 'waiting time' charge was £29. We took an hour to get out after landing so in effect you'd charge us £29 for 20 minutes over the 40 min waiting time? That is scandalous.
3. My overall point is that it is an awful business model to try and charge the customer for waiting time which they (a) can do absolutely nothing about, and (b) was at least 50% your company's fault for sending the driver much too early.
4. Perhaps I will tell the cab firm exactly what time to arrive next time - it was obviously a mistake on my part to expect some common sense on that front.
Chika eze
One of the female operators has the worst attitude! I gave two stars because at least the cab drivers are nice but this woman has made me stop using this company I have been using for 3 years! Extremely rude and threatening me with the police without hearing what i had to say. She kept interrupting and yelling at me saying she would get the police involved because of a parking charge. Absolutely disgusting and refused to even discuss the situation calmly.
Shirley green
I have been using this cab service for the last 6 months after having them recommended by family. I have always found them extremely helpful, polite and very very cheap. Last week I was let down by a friend who was supposed to be picking me up from Luton airport, not her fault her car broke down. I called village from the airport and told them my predicament and also I was a single older woman panicking about not being able to get home! The operator was extremely helpful and reassuring, they got me a car there in 20 mins the driver contacted me when he arrived and was very kind helped me into the car and got me home safely. And I was only charged £32! I Would highly recommend this company to anyone they go above and beyond! Thank you Village Cars.
Klinkman Klinklainian359 days ago
Please avoid, they will literally take you for a ride. I used the cab service and the guy turned up on time but that's the best the review is going to get I'm afraid. I was sitting in the back and could see the his google maps and the route that was given to take me to the destination. As soon as we had set off, the driver changed the route to the longer route than what was originally suggested. A few minutes later, he then changed the route again to the even longer route so adding a few miles on to the journey in order to get a bigger fare. I sat there and said nothing as I didn't want to get thrown out of the cab mid journey having my child and girlfriend with me on our way to a function at a hotel. I confronted the driver at the destination and asked him why he changed to the longer route twice, he blindly denied that he had done so even when I said that I had seen him do it.
I then phoned up the office to complain and got the most rude guy you could ever come across. I explained what had happened and of course he didn't believe me and told me never to used the company again so I hung up before he could say anything else
Howard Ross1 year ago
Booked a cab to collect at 8am as had to catch a train. Was assured that this would not be a problem. 8am came and went, rang company no booking.
Raj2 years ago
I have used VillageCars many times in last 10 years and nearly always on time and good value service. Hence gave 3*stars
However, I Booked for Airport journey 4.30am on 24th Aug. Reconfirmed with the office the evening before. All was assured ..
Driver turned up at 5am !! Frantically tried calling the office many times but no response, by about 4.45am I had no choice but to take an Uber.
Village cars driver turned up and phoned me at 5.00am saying sorry for delay as “he had an argument with a customer “ !! Well I’m sorry for you, but that’s not my issue - he could of called me saying there is a delay or something.
Since 4 days so far I have not been contacted by the office with any apology!
Moral of the story: Always have a backup plan and UBER is a guaranteed alternative because you can see they are actually coming to pick you up.
Sadia2 years ago
Fantastic services and could not recommend them more! Seamless pickup for my father and very elderly grandmother from Heathrow. Picked them up from a very early flight and helped with all the bags and wheelchair too. Excellent rates and lovely service.
On the outward journey, the driver's car developed a fault so we couldn't continue, and they had no other drivers in the area to take over. Ok, put that down to bad luck, but I did have to get an Uber to the airport in order to make our flight, which cost me over £80 in the end.
Our flight home was delayed by a good half an hour. After landing it took about an hour to disembark the plane, go through passport control and retrieve our luggage, as you'd expect for a large passenger aircraft. When we met with the driver the parking cost was £13, higher than I'd expected. When we arrived home the driver told us he was adding a waiting time cost and the fare was now £90! I had only got out £70 cash (having paid the £13 parking on my card) so we declined to pay anymore than that and he got quite irate with us. I got the impression he had been waiting at the airport since our original landing time. This would also explain why the car park charge was so high. We spoke to the operator from their office on the phone who tried to get us to pay £80, but after having to shell out for an Uber on the outward journey, and £13 on parking, we were still unable and unwilling to pay any more than the £70 we had on us. Eventually they begrudgingly took it and the driver the left.
What was the point of taking our flight reference number if it wasn't to check for flight delays? In addition to that, everybody knows that it takes a good 45-60 minutes to get out of the airport after landing. Surely with the number of airport transfers the firm must do, they would know this and time the driver's arrival accordingly? There is nothing we can do about delays and the time taken to get out of an airport, so expecting us to pay an extra £23 is totally unreasonable - and completely avoidable if you just used the flight reference to actually check the landing time and arrive accordingly.
The impression I got was that this presumably experienced cab firm had no interest in arriving at a logical time, preferring instead to create the opportunity of adding a huge bogus 'waiting time' fee to the bill, and as such we won't be using them again.
Given 2 stars as they were at least able to get us home from the airport. My advice to them would be to check landing times online, and also allow at least half an hour for people to get out of the airport, as their current way of operating constitutes very poor customer service.
EDIT: I need to edit my review in response to the company's reply, below.
1. Our plane landed at 6:55. As I mentioned, it was delayed half an hour - you would have known this if you tracked the flight number as stated. It was an 8 hour flight so you had plenty of time to check.
2. He did offer a discount but that was from £96 to £90. Your maths is incorrect as well because the car parking was not included in that at all - I'd already paid it separately. So in fact, your 'waiting time' charge was £29. We took an hour to get out after landing so in effect you'd charge us £29 for 20 minutes over the 40 min waiting time? That is scandalous.
3. My overall point is that it is an awful business model to try and charge the customer for waiting time which they (a) can do absolutely nothing about, and (b) was at least 50% your company's fault for sending the driver much too early.
4. Perhaps I will tell the cab firm exactly what time to arrive next time - it was obviously a mistake on my part to expect some common sense on that front.
The operator was extremely helpful and reassuring, they got me a car there in 20 mins the driver contacted me when he arrived and was very kind helped me into the car and got me home safely.
And I was only charged £32!
I Would highly recommend this company to anyone they go above and beyond!
Thank you Village Cars.
I then phoned up the office to complain and got the most rude guy you could ever come across. I explained what had happened and of course he didn't believe me and told me never to used the company again so I hung up before he could say anything else
However, I Booked for Airport journey 4.30am on 24th Aug. Reconfirmed with the office the evening before. All was assured ..
Driver turned up at 5am !! Frantically tried calling the office many times but no response, by about 4.45am I had no choice but to take an Uber.
Village cars driver turned up and phoned me at 5.00am saying sorry for delay as “he had an argument with a customer “ !! Well I’m sorry for you, but that’s not my issue - he could of called me saying there is a delay or something.
Since 4 days so far I have not been contacted by the office with any apology!
Moral of the story: Always have a backup plan and UBER is a guaranteed alternative because you can see they are actually coming to pick you up.