Brompton Bike Hire 4+

Very good introduction to Brompton for my wife. Thoroughly enjoyed cycling together with my E-Brompton.

Instructions at the dock took a little while to understand- not all buttons start the process which says “Press any button to start” - when only numeric buttons actually did this. It will only took 5 minutes to resolve.

Also, We live in Sheffield and Newark is the nearest dock. That’s 32 miles as the crow flies but nearer 50 each way by road. This will reduce our usage of the system. Sheffield is very hilly and 6-speed is the minimum requirement for getting around (hence my brilliant EB). The 3-speed hire bike was a bit challenging for a new rider like my wife.

Overall though it’s a brilliant concept which I hope gets extended. We have already planned to hire one for our holiday in July. I hope more feel the same.

Cumbersome verification process remains so you have to go through the call desk.

If an issue occurs, even if you have the bike out, you are instantly locked out of your app. A more common sense approach would be to let you either update card details (as was needed in my case) or return the bike. Instead it flashed up a warning that you have an inactive account, and no other details. This is the helpful text I redirected several times a day:

“A recent payment has failed and you will not be able to hire bikes until this is resolved. Please contact BBH”

You have to go to the website and find the number to contact the support desk.

The experience contacting the support desk varies, last time I had a very helpful lady after the bike I got was scuffed and scratched all over with very worn breaks. This time, I had a ‘computer says no’ person who would rather spend time arguing over me than just listen to my requests to update the card details and pass a suggestion to the app team. Even had the cheek to sarcastically state I was wrong about there not being any notice on how to get in touch with the help desk since everyone she’s seen it all the details were there. If instead of trying to get one over others in pointless arguments, she actually tried to help then the service could be drastically improved.

Fantastic bikes, poor app design, patchy service, and sadly sometimes even worse customer service.

The app does work, I guess, but the service is awful. Hired a bike from Portsmouth Harbour, took several attempts to unlock the door, rushed for the train so didn’t check the bike. Unfolded the bike at Waterloo and not only was the rear tire flat, but the tire was obviously perished. Found a local bike shop and got the tire pumped up. It lasted a day so I thought I’d chance a second day’s hire. Sadly the next day I made it half way to work before the tire popped. Had to take it and leave it at a bike shop. They called later in the day to say the tire needed replacing, which I declined to have them do. It cost me £15 to get just the inner tube inflated enough to get me back to Waterloo. I had a similarly frustrating experience returning the bike back to the racks. Watch out for the back tire on the bike in bay one at Portsmouth Harbour, I guess. Have since ended up buying a burner bike to leave at Waterloo. Leave the Bromptons to the Lycra clad middle aged white dudes.