Wednesday, June 3, 2015

NEVER EVER USE EUROPCAR Europcar Fiat Panda Reg No. 3324 JFG WARNING!

I had the unfortunate experience of using this company during our trip to Spain last week.
We were charged 95 Euros for a broken door lock which I suspect was already broken.
If you read their reviews my initial cynicism actually seems fully justified.
PLEASE READ https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.europcar.co.uk
When we booked the car through the easyjet website everything seemed fine and the car worked out around 130 euros for 6 days.
On arrival at Malaga Airport we went to the Europcar reception and initially I was asked if we would be doing much driving. I indicated that we would not. I was then asked if I would like to upgrade to a higher quality car which was on a “good rate”. I said “no thanks”
I was then asked if I’d like to pay another 22 euros per day for better insurance cover with no excess I said “no thanks”
We were then given a black Fiat Panda Reg 3324 JFG
I duly checked the car in the car park and did not see any visible damage.
The car has a remote key fob. My only mistake was to use the remote key fob and not try the lock on the driver’s door.
On returning the car to the airport full of fuel (we only used 20 euros of fuel during the time we were there) a lady quickly looked round the car. Bear in mind it is in a poorly lit underground car park and its 11pm.
Having quickly looked round she asked where the keys were which were still in the ignition.
Moments later she walks over to the office and tells the office lady something in Spanish along the lines of “it’s the black fiat panda with a broken lock”
We were then told by the receptionist the lock had been broken and we must pay an additional 95 euros.
Looking back I do not recall the lady who checked the car even trying to put the key in the lock...if she did she didn’t try twice as I would have noticed.
I returned to the car to check the lock myself an there was no sign of damage to have spotted the lock wasn’t working before picking up the car is pot luck especially if you have a remote key fob.
I asked to see the paperwork for the last person who hired the car to see if they had also been charged but this was dismissed out of hand as somehow impossible even though she photocopied our contract/invoice
Reading the reviews for Europcar I am convinced this is not an unusual occurrence. There is even a review from a former employee which says:
First they will try to sell you an upgrade...check
Second they will try to sell expensive insurance ...check
Third.. they will give you the worst car they can...check
Judging by the reviews I have little hope of receiving a response from customer services never mind getting my money back.
Basically we were robbed by Europcar on the last day of an otherwise pleasant break.
Therefore I shall advise everyone I know not to use this company. If you are unfortunate enough to hire Fiat Panda 3324 JFG and you are charged for a broken lock please contact fraser@pickseo.co.uk and I can pass the matter onto the Police.

Hopefully within a few hours google will pick up this reg no. 3324 JFG and we can see if Europcar actually attempt to fix this car.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Wooden greenhouses a google search challenge

Cabin Living have now added Wooden Greenhouses to their product range and although they do well for search terms such as garden cabin, residential log cabins and log cabin kits as with any new product launch they won't show up for "wooden greenhouses"

Our challenge is to see just how long it takes for them to appear in what is a arguably a very competitive sector.

So PickSEO have checked their rankings simply by adding searches for the phrases "Greenhouse" and "Wooden greenhouses" to the wonderful position checking tool over at SESCOUT

As you can imagine Cabin Living do not show in the top 500 positions on google for either search phrase.



Over the course of the next few weeks we'll watch the rise of their position hopefully just like the young plants that spring up in these wonderful wooden greenhouses

As a start we have loaded a tab delimited spreadsheet of products to google so that these greenhouses appear in shopping results.

Plus with an additional 50 pages or so we have revised the xml sitemap and resubmitted that to google also.

Next we will begin a process of link building from other websites, blogs and social media links including facebook links.

The clock is ticking and we'll post updates of improvement here!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Wedding Singer Sisters - Website Design

Recently completed Sisters in Song. Features include the fantastic j player which is great for cross browser compatibility including I phones and Ipad.

Quite a nice looking jquery gallery help complete the look.



Sisters in Song are a professional and versatile female singing duo committed to making your special day memorable and remarkable with outstanding live vocals.

Sisters Tracey and Maria specialise in singing at weddings and corporate entertainment events in the North West of England covering the Greater Manchester and Cheshire regions.

Sisters in Song have a built up a vast repertoire of songs which allows you to create a playlist that is personal to you.

Tracey and Maria sing everything from classic love songs and well known tunes from West End shows to modern pop hits. Popular songs which are sure to appeal to your audience and ensure your entertainment event is a resounding success.

Sisters in Song offer superb value for money so call today to secure these sensational singers for your special day.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Golfing Holidays in Scotland


We've successfully launched the new Golf Vacation Scotland website. As well as creating a new website using the old url we have launched a sister site on the new golftourpro url. To avoid duplication we will gradually merge the two sites making Golf Tour Pro the driving force moving forward.

Initially having created sitemaps for both sites nearly all the pages have been indexed for GVS and only a few appear to be indexed for GTP.

This is the difference between a brand new domain and a domain which has been round for years. Our challenge is rebranding the business without losing this value. There is a third PR3 website for golf which we intend to merge using 301 redirects. This may prove to be the best solution for GVS also but we would prefer a situation where all the sites pages are indexed before taking this step.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Golf Tour Pro - New website!



PickSEO are delighted to announce the launch of a new website for Golf Tour Pro using url www.golfvacationscotland.com

A very interesting project in that the company St Andrews Associates had several domain names and had tried to create a different image for each url. Although the keyword rich urls are effective for a particular phrase they fell down with any variation on that phrase.



Our primary goal was to create a new brand identity, we sourced a new url name including the creation of a new logo and brought the old websites into the 21st Century with a complete redesign. Now compatible with I phones and I pads and full of useful information the new website is well on track to transform their visitor numbers and enquiries.

Our intention is to run both Golftourpro.com and Golfvacationscotland.com to establish the dominant domain name.

So for Golf Vacations and Golfing holidays in Scotland take a look at the Golf Tour Pro website.

We will be working on their SEO over the coming months to ensure they hit a wider range of keyphrases relating to golf tourism

Monday, August 22, 2011

Commercial property to let - Scotland

We are pleased to have agreed a contract with Uphall Estates a company specialising in commercial property in Scotland to manage their gold seo package. We will be working closely with them to improve their rankings on a number of search engines including Google.

Commercial property in Scotland


With FTP access and admin level access we will be able to do all we need to do to get this site created by another company using a varaition on a wordpress template ranking highly on google and other search engines.

We have already created their google places listings and have started modifying meta tags and body text to optimise their online presence.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Biomass Heating Specialists

PickSEO are delighted to have agreed a contract with Scot Heating Company Ltd to develop their website profile using our gold seo package.

Biomass Boilers



As a company specialising in Biomass Boilers and renewable energy their installations can be of great benefit to commercial operations looking to reduce the carbon footprint of their heating systems. As an ESCO (Energy saving company) grants are available to cover the costs of installation.

Using wood pellet burners these highly efficient heating systems make use of waste wood material and burn material easily available as a renewable resource.

We look forward to working with them to improve their google rankings and promote their green energy solutions.