Hello, I booked a car with Book a Classic for my wedding day on 11th December, which was overall a really poor, stressful and frankly traumatic experience. I am only sending this mail now as I have not had the energy to focus on how bad this experience right after the wedding but I now need to make you aware. I booked the Volvo Amazon with Brett Shearer to collect me from my hotel (Locke at Broken Wharf St Paul’s) to bring me to my wedding venue (Trinity Buoy Wharf E14). This is normally around a 25 minute drive, 45 at most if the traffic is bad. I allowed for a full hour to get me there by booking the car at 13.30 to get me there for a 14.30 ceremony start time. The car was to take me (the bride) along with my parents to the venue. Brett did not arrive until 14.35 to collect us. Admittedly, traffic was particularly bad in East London on this day, but I refuse to accept ‘bad traffic’ as an excuse. I booked a black electric cab for my bridesmaids which was also a little bit late (just 15 mins) due to the traffic, but due to me giving extra time to get there on my side, they arrive just before the ceremony was due to start at 14.20. I, on the other hand, had still not been collected!! Brett called me at around 13.20 to let me know he would be 10-15 mins late, which would have been manageable. However the wait time was much, much longer. I called him numerous times while waiting and he assured me he was close by. When 40 minutes had passed I started to try and book other transport. When he did finally arrive, 65 minutes late (after my ceremony start time!) he parked right around the corner. It was raining and I was in my wedding dress, and we had to walk 2-3 mins to meet the car. He blamed this on road works, but weirdly, he had actually come through the road works barrier and there was absolutely nothing stopping him from getting to the door of the hotel. The car itself did not had working seatbelts. He also had the boot full of his own things so there was no room to put my bag or bouquet. It was a really horrible a stressful experience sitting in the car trying to get to the venue. Yes, traffic was bad, but it still only took 30 minutes to get there. So I absolutely would not have been late if the driver allowed himself more time on his end. This was a very emotional experience for me and my parents when the car was booked as something nice for us to share together. The lateness to the venue had a knock-on effect for my husband and I’s whole wedding day. Firstly our guests had been sitting there for an entire hour waiting. Because we started an hour late, that was an hour less canapés and drinks (which we paid for!), we had barely any daylight for our professional photographer to take photos, our band ended up starting late and they actually had a live music curfew so the whole thing was rushed. Our starters for our meal were also ruined because they had to be reheated. It is a completely ridiculous scenario and a really negative memory of my wedding day that I will have forever and I would like to be fully compensated for it. A refund is the least you/the driver could do for me, as I will never get to have my wedding day again. I would appreciate your support in this. Regards, Johanna
By Johanna H.