elmo Reviews 408

Had a 12 month subscription - 2 months on car has had to be returned like many others. Left without a car to take family member to hospital appointments. No apology or no new car. Clearly this company is going bust

Like other customers here, after several months of paying their fees , I received a termination agreement request this week and they want to pick up the car a week before Christmas leaving us carless; defleeting is the excuse ; no offer of another car no flexibility shocking customer service ; sounds like they are in financial difficulties; a valuable lesson in how not to treat customers

Suddenly withdrew the car I was using from their fleet, but could not offer me a replacement at all, leaving me 3 weeks to find a new car.
Despite the recall and a promise that they wouldnt apply fees for collection and termination this was applied to the account and I had to point this out to them.

Car was delivered with the “service required” warning light on. Having chased up how to get it serviced, I have now been informed that my subscription has been cancelled after only 2 months of hire giving me 30 days notice to hand back the car. No alternative vehicle has been offered leaving me high and dry just before Christmas. It seems that this is happening to quite a few customers. Can’t be a good business model cancelling the subscriptions of many customers.

Suddenly cancelled subscription leaving us with no car. They are collecting the vehicle 3 days before Christmas. They could have told us this sooner and given us a chance to get another car, but they have left us completely stuck. No alternatives offered, no vehicles available. No transport for our children or our business. More than a year of paying their fees and this is what we get in return. A great lesson in how not to treat your customers.
Edit: Just had a look at their accounts. Seems defleeting has been planned for a while to keep the business going. The stuff about age and mileage is total nonsense. Stay well away.

Cancelled my subscription and refused to offer me a replacement car, so have no car over Christmas!

In common with many others, received 30 days notice of Elmo taking car back. Can only assume the company is in trouble (similar business model to on.to which recently went bust).

I have paid my subscription for almost a year and paid extra each month so that I had the option to swap my vehicle with 30 days notice. However, in the time I have had the vehicle, Elmo have had virtually no alternative vehicles available so I might as well have paid less to be tied in to a year's subscription. Not that taking out a longer subscription would have prevented Elmo taking back the vehicle with 30 days notice according to others' recent experiences.

Whilst I have sympathy for a business in trouble, there are better ways to deal with loyal customers than an abrupt email with no honest explanation of the situation.

I now have less than 30 days to source an alternative vehicle. I am lucky in that I have access to other vehicles but if this was my only vehicle, I would be potentially facing Christmas without a car!

I plan to take out a subscription direct with a manufacturer as this multi-marque subscription model does not seem to be viable.

This was previously a 5* review.
However as per many other reviewers I have this week discovered that my car is being revoked with 30 days notice despite my contract ending in March 24.
The email states that this is due to the age of the car ( I received it brand new December 22) & I have also had notification that it is only just due its first service. If it is really due to age then why allow me to commit to a years lease starting March 23? This seems much more to be a way of moving customers from waiting lists for subscriptions that are £100 more expensive a month than what myself and other customers signed up to over a year ago!? Totally outrageous.

The team at Elmo state they cannot offer any alternative vehicle, and so I am now going to be without any means of transport for the Christmas period & no way of commuting to work. They are not willing to prioritise me as a loyal customer for any alternative cars or allow me to extend until January. They did state that they are wavering the collection & early termination costs! SO KIND OF THEM? Avoid this company if you want reliable transportation terms.

Echoing other recent reviews. Took out the subscription in August so just 3 months ago… the Car is a 72 plate and so not even 1 year old.. but apparently due to age and Mileage, I’ve been given a 30 day notice of termination with no alternative vehicles available.

“ We regularly assess elmo’s fleet in line with a number of factors including the age and mileage of the vehicle. Unfortunately, we will be removing your vehicle from our fleet.”

I really had no complaints until now.. I thought this was great as my credit score is below par and I couldn’t get anything on finance so this was perfect for me albeit pricey.. but I was happy with that.

Now I will be carless just a week before Christmas.

No apology, no nothing.. just a “we will wave the collection and cancellation fee” - well I’d hope so because I’m certainly not paying it.

WORST PART…. they took my next months subscription payment today and sent the email just a couple hours later.

I’ve every right to be requesting everything back that I’ve paid.. or at least some form of compensation.. I’m so annoyed! This can’t be legal?… not when it’s happened to so many people?

3 months into a 12 month contract.

AVOID. AVOID. AVOID.

If you think that £509 + £100 (for charging) per month is enough to cover a tyre pucture in your ELMO car, YOU ARE WRONG.

well well well another company bites the dust had a great experiance with elmo but suddenly out of the blue they email saying the vehicle needs returning many companies saying the same going out of business poor customer service and poor attitude towards reliable customers

Had a car on subscription for the last 15 months, paying over £12k in that time. Today I received an email stating that the subscription was being cancelled due to the age of the vehicle and that there are no other vehicles at all available, leaving me carless with no way of getting to work or taking my kids to school. Extremely poor service. They obviously knew the date this vehicle was reaching its age limit so why wasn't I informed two or three months ago (which would have given me time to sort something) and why didn't they make a provision to supply another vehicle at that time? Instead, they've willingly lost a customer spending £789 per month. Crazy.

Worst company ever!!!!!!

Daughter was in hospital in sept. Had to take unpaid leave from work. Explained to Elmo I will be a week late with my payment. Threatening email back saying they are collecting the car in 2 days if I didn’t pay. Made an already stressful time ever worse!!!!

Now a email to say they will be collecting the car in 30 days due to over subscribing etc!

Joke of a company. Hopefully it’s went bankrupt and it’s awful staff are out of a job !!

Avoid this company.

The cars available are older than I expected, but I decided to go with Elmo as they were more established and owned by Constellation Automotive (Cinch, Webuyanycar etc). However, they seem to have growing pains and management issues just like a small startup.

I've had a subscription for 18 months - first a Tesla model 3 performance edition which they forgot to MOT when it reached 3 years old, so I was unknowingly driving without MOT or insurance (even though paying for it as part of the monthly fee).

They swapped it for an Audi Quatro 55 - the monthly cost went up and the online dashboard data stopped working. Now, as per others on here they have simply terminated the agreement with 30 days notice and pointed me to their competitors.

Staff aren't the smartest (accidentally CC'd me into internal comms about sorting their MOT mistake) and ruthless if they can make more money from a new customer.

All in all, exactly the type of business that I'd avoid if I was making the decision again.

Took a 12 month subscription out in February. Everything was great until last week when I received an email advising that they were "defleeting" the 13 month old vehicle I have been using. Now have 30 days to find a new vehicle as they are "experiencing a surge in demand" and are unable to supply an alternative vehicle. Customer service seem uninterested is providing any alternative or even an apology.

Also just got the 30 day cancellation email with no alternative available. Very blunt email and to the point. No options offered.

I speculate they’re liquidating their fleet as they’re in financial trouble.

Very very poor customer service.

I thought everything was going well. Had an annual contract until march 2024 but I just received an email this morning telling me my car contract is now ending early and i must return the car before 9th December. I use it for work so to receive a robotic unapologetic email saying there are no other cars available is stressful and disappointing. I called but said it happens on the odd occasion that a car needs to be recalled by the fleet managers but I can see below that other people have experienced exactly the same. Do not use this company. Something weird is going on. Not even a thanks for your custom. I've pasted the email below:

Dear Valerie,

Please be aware that we need to arrange the collection of your subscription vehicle. We regularly assess elmo’s fleet in line with a number of factors including the age and mileage of the vehicle. Unfortunately, we will be removing your vehicle from our fleet.

In accordance with this, we will need to conclude your subscription and arrange for the return of the vehicle before 9th December. Per the subscription agreement, we are obliged to provide no less than 30 days notice to terminate a subscription, and this collection date represents the period for which you have paid for subscription services, failure to book collection before this date will result in a daily fee being charged until collection is arranged. We understand that this is an inconvenience and we will waive your collection and any early termination fee.

We kindly request that you select your collection date by either terminating your subscription through your dashboard at elmodrive or contact us by calling 0330 165 4945 within the next 5 working days.

Sadly we do not have an alternative vehicle to offer you due to high demand.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause and we understand that this situation may raise questions or concerns. Our team is readily available to provide any necessary clarification or assistance.

Best Wishes

elmo

Just to echo a similar vehicle recall others have experienced in the last days. Shocking tone deaf e-mail and robotic phone customer service. Staff more than happy to defend their handling of the matter - this lot do not deserve to be in business and may well be the case soon. They couldn't care less.

Oh dear. Another victim of the bogus "defleeting" email. (my wife's 12 month old, 9000 mile Fiat 500) - no replacement available, 30 days notice, no explanation, no "thank you for your custom" - nothing.

Either Elmo is going the same was an On.to did or they're about to do a massive price hike or something... Either way they're burning any good will their loyal customer base has had (look at the reviews on here prior to this week and then compare them with the past few)

What a shame. Then again, this whole subscription model always did seem a bit "magic" - now we find out why - it was clearly built on sand.

Not gonna go into too much detail. I'm too annoyed to even bother. Let's put it this way. I have 2 cars with this company and both on 12 month contracts and now both are being defleeted apparently, due to age. I get it for the 71 plate polestar but the 72 plate Tesla, mmmmmmm something very fishy here. Part of cinch so guess I'm not surprised.

Thanks guys it was good while it lasted. 😶