Casting the hook, line..

Well naively, like so many before and since, (I wonder how many), I pursued my booking through this bunch of incompetents, asked for, and received their "Licence Agreement", and asked for a copy to be countersigned by either Larkins, the Agent, or the property owner. This query went backwards and forwards, and finally Larkins deigned to take my call and explain that a Licence Agreement didn't require the Licensor to sign. This is probably a legal nicety that I did not bother to explore further, but I remembered enough about the Law of Contract to know that a transfer of monies constituted a transaction, and I duly sent my GBP950 for my week's rental.

Again, much toing and froing to get what most of us understand is a normal business practice - a "receipt". (Look it up Larkins.) I put all this down to pure incompetence, but how naive can one be? It's all part of their attempt to leave as little a paper trail as possible. But like a number of other victims of this organisation, the warning bells were beginning to ring, and to ring quite loudly, and indicating that their activities were less than "above board". So I began to take detailed notes of conversations, and to insist that everything was in writing through email.

An email receipt was duly produced for the rental monies paid, together with an acknowledgement that the Licence Agreement had been received, and was valid. Subsequently, and just prior to departing to London, I made arrangements for a further "REFUNDABLE" deposit for GBP950, with a specific request that a receipt would be issued. Of course, none was. Initially. Neither was there any confirmation as to how keys would be handed over, despite giving details of flight arrival times, expected arrival at the flat etc.

Oh, and here a very nice touch by Larkins, who was uncharacteristically, (it turns out) helpful when the money was in the offing, suggesting that he could arrange a car to meet the flight etc. Oh, I fell for that.

I give you all these details because I'm sure they will sound all too familiar.

We arrived in London, rang the office as we were leaving Heathrow, and told them of the time we would arrive. We duly arrived. No one was there. Rang the office again, twice. "On their way" was the repeated excuse. 45 minutes later than the scheduled time, Rachel Larkins pitched up, as if nothing was wrong, suggesting that arrival times from the airport were so unpredictable, they usually waited until the clients had arrived, as they were "just around the corner", in Courtfiled Gradens, it would seem. Thanks Rachel. Thanks for being such a customer-oriented service company. Sitting on a London street with all your suitcases isn't much fun. The upstairs neighbour, (who was curious about why we were "lurking" on the street outside acknowledged that most of the clients for this rental had a similar welcome). How very thoughtful.

Anyway, I wont bore you with other details, but the flat was dirty. (The picture above is of the cloth we used to clean the kitchen floor, which had an unattractive sticky quality.) I will spare you a picture of the cloth to clean the lavatory. The carpets were grimy, un-hoovered, (how difficult is that, and for GBP50?), and I was beginning to feel sick in my stomach about this silly, silly mistake of using this awful outfit.

We persevered, but I think for GBP950 for 7 days the thought that this was a good alternative to an hotel quickly began to evaporate.

Lights didn't work in the kitchen, bathroom, one of the bedrooms, the two table lamps in the sitting room. Rachel very kindly (?) gave me her mobile number so that I could contact her and overcome the difficulty of getting anyone at the office. I reported these deficiencies. No one responded.

We decided to get on with our meetings and social activities in spite of the increasingly obvious rip off The Real World Rental Company, Rachel Larkins, Robin Larkins and his merry band of (fill in the blanks....) were perpetrating.

I did finally manage to get a receipt for the deposit, after several requests. REMEMBER the paper trail...