A couple missed out on their “bucket list” trip to the Pitlochry New Year Street Party after a car hire company in Glasgow failed to give them a pre-booked vehicle.
Stephen and Linda Campbell travelled from Belfast for Hogmanay in Scotland and made plans to travel north to the famous ceilidh on January 1 using rental company Green Motion.
Video of the event is above this article.
The couple had dreamed of attending the Pitlochry dance after honeymooning in the Perthshire town in 2013.
Arriving at Glasgow Airport on New Year’s Day to pick up their hire car, Stephen was told he needed two forms of ID.
Only having his driver’s licence he told Green Motion he would return to his hotel in Glasgow to retrieve his passport while Linda stayed with the hire company.
Upon his return around 90 minutes later Stephen was informed they had no cars left to rent to the couple at that time.
With the Pitlochry street party taking place between 1pm and 4pm, Stephen finally cancelled the booking knowing he would be unable to make it to the dance on time.
The holidaymaker said he could not understand why Green Motion did not have a car.
“It’s so bizarre and as a result, we couldn’t travel to Pitlochry. If we had got a car, by the time we got there it would be over and dark.
“This (the street party) was on our bucket list. We’ve been to Pitlochry many times.
“We’ve house hunted in Pitlochry and we had out honeymoon there. But this cancelled the plans that we made for New Year’s Day.
“It’s unbelievable to think that a car hire company would take reservations and have no cars for their customers.
“They informed me that they had to give my car out because they were waiting on returns.
“It was just a nightmare, it’s not the experience you would want either at home or on holiday.
“It just seems obvious that if they’ve taken reservations for 20 people they should have cars for 20 people.”
Green Motion have apologised to the couple, saying their fleet held at Glasgow Airport was “relatively small”.
A spokesperson for the company said: “As the customer did not have his passport on him he advised he would return to the hotel to collect it.
“Notes were applied to our system to show this. Unfortunately the location then experienced a situation outside of their control.
“Due to the failure of the previous hirer to return the vehicle at their allocated time, this meant the vehicle was not available and the customer was unable to take the booked vehicle.”
