Brompton Bike Hire

Tried to register on the App but it wouldn’t send me a text to verify my phone number. Opened a chat with customer service who was very helpful and registered my details for me. When I logged into the app it then wouldn’t register my cards. Wasted a good 30 minutes on this today and got precisely nowhere.

A complete shambles in every way.

It’s been now months that I’m trying to hire a bike, not only that the process is useless and painful- the app is filled with glitches on iPhone 12/13. Impossible to book due to an error message - I thought they’d fix it - so I sent several email - no answer. I can confidently say I won’t hire or buy a bike now. It has been a frustrating user experience. Please fix. You’ve got a great product, this is a problem. If that helps, this is what happens: I can delete and re download the app, nothing changes, the moment I log in, put my address and click on submit I get this message: Sage Pay returned an INVALID status. The description of the error was "3379 : The Amount including surcharge is outside the allowed range."

I need a bike for a couple of days a week, without the struggle of having to store it in London. This seemed like a good option. Utterly pointless. The app is a non-starter, requiring a code texted to a phone number that never comes. I tried on several platforms and with different numbers. You cannot just hire a bike at the machine, and the ‘support’ (contradiction in terms) number just goes to an answer machine telling me to message via the website. If this is the Brompton Standard, then I will just buy a bike and risk leaving it chained up.

Payment verification failed with multiple cards. The app simply isn’t fit for purpose, it can’t be used to register and hire a bike

It simply will not authenticate payment. I have tried a couple of different cards and reinstalling the app. No assistance available in the weekend to help with registration.

The fact I have to verify my identity so heavily for a bike hire is ridiculous to begin with. Such intense security is so off putting. Then the fact that it takes for ever to verify and can fail so many times. I’m still trying to get mine submitted and having to wait between each time for it to say it’s failed. Then not being able to get through to their “emergency” help line but only at specific times. I can call Next bikes phone line any time of day and get through to someone.

I originally got stuck on the phone verification code but tried again a few days later and it came through fairly quickly. The rest of the account setup process was fairly quick and painless. Hiring a bike was easy enough. Returning was strange. I needed to choose a return date. Then once the bike was returned there’s no confirmation it’s been received by notification or in the app. An hour after returning it I got a text reminding me I had until the end of the day to return the bike. The app needs work but in general works as fairly easily.

The UI always goes blank…

This is good in concept, but booking a bike is cumbersome and you’re forced to book full day for £5 rather than by hour