Tom Powell
FOR years they have brazenly ripped off customers.
But now One Way Van Hire and its unscrupulous owners, the subject of a series of Olive Press exposes, could have met their end.
‘Customer service manager’ Jonathan Eggett, a key driver, has been banned from driving for 40 months by Lincolnshire Magistrate’s Court after failing to provide a specimen for breath analysis and driving without insurance.
He was also fined €860 and made to pay costs of €540.
Meanwhile, his father and business partner Jeremy Griffiths, based in the Axarquia, has taken their One Way Van Hire website offline, as well as their other business, the disgraced courier firm Pet Taxi.
One angry customer Tod Cury, owed over €1,000 by Eggett, has even set up a new website www.onewayvanhire.eu to warn others about the pair.
Cury was left high and dry after paying for a van to move from England to Spain in September which was never delivered.
After being fobbed off with excuses by Eggett, he eventually had to hire another vehicle last minute but never received a penny back from One Way Van Hire.
“I would urge anyone to not do business with the individuals or their companies. Although these two websites are offline, they have been known to operate under different names,” said Cury.
“I intend to keep the pressure on both Jonathan and Jeremy until I have my money,” he added.
Griffiths’ Pet Taxi business was first exposed in the Olive Press in August 2012, when an expat family’s beloved pug died while being transported to England.
Dianne Lunt, 56, who lived in Marbella for 28 years, alerted the authorities after dog Wasabi allegedly collapsed from heat exhaustion and suffered a cardiac arrest on the journey.
The dog belonged to her daughter Amy, who set up a website denouncing the firm (pettaxitransport.com) which claims at least six dogs have died in their hands.
Later that year an expat couple began pursuing legal action against Griffiths after the brakes failed on a van they had hired to transport belongings to England.
Retired prison service worker David Steel and wife Ann took the van to mechanics who said they ‘didn’t know how we’d got that far alive’.
“They described the van as a death trap and refused to release the vehicle until all the repairs had been done. It was a nightmare, we could have been killed,” he told the Olive Press.
Since then, the list of disgruntled customers owed money or hired dangerous vans has increased manifold.
Both the Olive Press online stories and a TripAdvisor forum are awash with more unhappy customers.
Despite the many complaints, newspaper Sur in English has continued to run advertising for his Pet Taxi company on its back page.
An ex-girlfriend of Jonathan’s told the Olive Press last night: “I don’t have much to do with him or Jeremy, but I know Jonathan was still hiring vans a few weeks ago.”
Jeremy Griffiths did not respond to the Olive Press’ requests for comment.
‘Costa Scammers’ says it all, there should be a website dedicated to all Costa Scammers so as people can reference who and what to be aware of and avoid.
There used to be a site called Crimeshare which listed not only timeshare scammers but quite a few estate agents/developers/lawyers (many now defunct) that operated in Spain during the mis-selling boom years.
They moved a van load of stuff for us from Sheffield to Spain. We went with them because they were the cheapest we could find and we factored in that risk. They were on time both ends, no breakages and all well packed. He seemed like a nice guy struggling to keep his head above water. Similar to many I know down there.
From all the vitriol in the OP I suppose he/they have upset a lot of people and we were lucky, but I think Jeremy’s problem was he always underestimated his costs, constraints and the logistics involved to try to get the work and that meant he ended up upsetting everyone as he dug himself an ever deeper hole. He should have done more to make things right with people when things went wrong but on the other hand is this OP campaign the “right” thing to do? How about a “how to” series on starting a business in Spain the right way, running a business in Spain, advice to new businesses on grants etc instead of endlessly castigating a few bad apples?
Seems to me that the OP have a bit of a vendetta against this company/people for some reason. Funny how, after all these years, they haven’t been convicted of anything and that they still appear to be running, hiring new staff and opening new premises. Talk about dragging a story on by any means possible, I used to have a lot of respect for this magazine but that’s gone now.
Having unfortunately dealt with Jeremy and his van hire company I can honestly say this man couldn’t tell the truth to save himself.I had a van booked for 7 days,which then became 5 as he said he had a problem with the van. I later found out that the previous hire had run over by 2 days.I asked for a refund for the 2 lost days ,which he refused.As I had a Ferry booked back to the UK I had no choice but to go with it .Incidentally I had booked the van over a month in advance .Luckily I had no trouble with the van.I was told by him that my deposit would be paid back after a month.After 4 months sending emails,and numerous phone calls promising me my money back I decided I’d had enough.On a visit back to Spain I decided to pay him a “visit”.Even then all I got was more lies,but got the money paid into my account within 5 minutes.This person is not some nice guy struggling to keep his head above water(see above).
This looks to me like some sort of vendetta.I have checked the website and sent an email and received a courtious reply.I have used this company many times, seen their many vans and had absolutely no problems.Maybe you should concentrate on the people that have lost their furniture with other companies!!
Hopefully they are losing business and suffering as a result of the negative press and online reviews. Every potential customer who reads all the negative press/reviews and decides not to do business with these thieves, means that even if they are still in business, they are losing business and hopefully suffering and feeling some pain, as they have caused other people pain and suffering. Let’s keep the pressure on and post as much negative information as possible anywhere on the internet or press throughout Europe. If you become aware of any other businesses or names they are operating under then expose them. They have stolen £795 from us back in September 2014, cost us an extra £2000 in expenses and the stress caused me a severe angina attack that put me in hospital for 3 days. I can provide written proof that what I say is true, so anyone who thinks these con men are genuine and that myself and others are lying about our negative experiences, just ask and I will show you the evidence.
I can’t believe that people don’t google before handing over money to these scam companies. If I had been scammed I would write to every place I saw showing their advert.
BEWARE – They are now using the name Transporté Peninsular and have a facebook page
Beware – They are also trading as Taxi4Pet out of Horncastle Lincolnshire. It looks like a new website registration under Jeremy’s name. ¨´http://www.taxi4pet.net/´
Tod Cury has offer a £500 reward for information on a man he killed two months earlier. How do you spell obsession??
http://www.onewayvanhire.eu/index.php?option=com_kunena&view=topic&catid=4&id=29&Itemid=123#29