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Faq About SMAT Chauffeur Services



Question:  You claim to accept payment by cash, account, credit / debit card and by bank transfers but when I tried to book a cash car, it was declined. Why?

Answer:  We accept cash payments from our account customers. We also accept cash payments from new customers as long as the pick up address or drop off address is their home or business address. We will require your full address for our records. For safety reasons and due to our cancellation policy, we need to verify a person's identity before allocating a chauffeur. For these reasons sadly, we reserve the right whether to accept cash booking from new customers or not. As long as addresses are satisfactory, we can accept cash bookings.

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Question:  All Chauffeur bookings have to be made in advance. What is the minimum time possible to secure a booking

Answer: Generally speaking, 24 hours is required. However, we may be able to supply a car at shorter notice of about 6 hours. We appreciate that most people will use us for special occasions or where impressions count in which case they would have known about such occasion well in advance. Having said all this, we encourage you to call first. We're here to help.

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Question:  Explain what you mean by the Chauffeur Guaranteed service

Answer:  Good. We are pleased to say we are probably the only company that offers this guarantee. Your cars are never late, your car is always clean, your chauffeurs are always presentable and very knowledgeable. Anything short of this and the car is yours for free.

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Question: But when I book a Chauffeur Car, I expect the car to be punctual and with an experienced chauffeur, so what's so special here

Answer: Correct. The key word here is expect. So what happens when the car is late for genuine reasons ? Well there is not much you can do. The service provider will probably quote a clause in your contract that absolves them from any liability. What we say is no matter what, your car will be prompt, whether there are riots, road closures or adverse weather conditions. We will let you know at the point of booking if the guarantee applies so you know. The trick here is this: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. We rather be under-booked and maintain excellence than be over-booked and perform poorly. As of our chauffeurs, they are strategically chosen, hand-picked for excellence and service. Generally with a minimum of 5 years chauffeuring experience. There is one catch to the guarantee service and that is, the free part only applies to your original booking only. Any changes will be paid for. So if your booking says W1 to Manchester, then that is what you get free. If you then change the booking to W1 to Manchester via say finchley, then you only get the W1 to finchley part free. I'm sure you're wondering how much we stand to loose and you would be right. The truth is we have so far offered none for free because we maintain excellence. Good to know what is available to you though.

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Question:  What are the different Chauffeur Car booking options available ?

Answer: In order to simplify the booking process, we have developed various methods of booking. For non account customers, you can call us, book online or by fax ( download the booking form, fill it and fax it back to us ). For account customers, in addition to this, you can email us your booking, you've also got coded text booking where you simply text us from your registered phone, you can opt for voicemail booking where you simply leave a voice message. Whichever method of booking you choose, be rest assured its reliable. We have security checks in place so no need to worry even in the event you loose your phone.

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Question: Can I open a Chauffeur Account and how does it work ?

Answer: Yes you can and is strongly encouraged and the process is quite simple. Simply download an account opening form from the site or request one to be sent to you. Once you fill it out, send it back to us and your account could be up and running straight away subject to status. Depending on what has been agreed between us, your payment will be due either daily, weekly, forthnightly or monthly. We will send you an email showing your usage and then afterward send your invoice. We give you a credit facility in this case but if you are a credit card or debit card account customer, we will always send you a breakdown of what jobs we have done for you in addition to your invoice / receipt.

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Question: What types of Chauffeur Cars do you run ?

Answer:  If you are reading this online, then you would have seen for yourself our fleet of chauffeur cars but generally speaking, we select the very best for our services so for example if you're looking at booking a mercedes, while others might have chosen the E Class, we chose the S Class and for the BMW we use the 7 Series instead of the 5 Series etc. The aim here is to provide the best cars and best service for our clients. We can also supply luxury coaches if needed so again our aim is to provide the best for our customers.

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Question: Your service must be expensive then ...

Answer: Yes and No. We charge more than the typical minicab rates as expected but considering we have put this service together due to customer demand, surprisingly our prices are quite competitive. A minimum charge applies and can be viewed on our prices page.

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Question: How can you claim to provide an eco chauffeur service when you only use top of the range cars

Answer: Again planning is the key. The belief that smaller cars are more environmentally friendly is not totally true! A small car carrying only one passenger and stationary in traffic will be consuming less fuel and emitting less pollutants into the atmosphere. Change that to three or four people and travelling on rural and urban roads and a new picture is formed. On the contrary, in one of our chosen chauffeur cars, the consumption in traffic might be marginally more than the smaller car but combined, it will most likely be the better choice considering all factors. Also the average life of a smaller car will be shorter compared to our choice cars. And because of proper training and many years of driving experience, our cars are best choice for eco chauffeuring. In addition to this, we continue to look out for better greener options. For example, for those who like petrol power, we've got the lexus LS600 hybrid car. Most of our cars are diesel driven which tell of our green incentives yet without degradation to performance so rest assured you wont be dissapointed. The A8 TDI Quattro is our choice for quattro drive. Check out this machine's statistics and you will be surprised at how green it really is. We eagerly await the new S Class mercedes hybrid. We also await future BMW developments. For our super luxury fleet, it comes down to how they are driven as opposed to what is driven.

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Question: What is your cancellation policy

Answer:  Cancellation has to be made at least 12 hours before the booking if in london and at least 24 hours if outside of london. Once job has been allocated, full charge will apply. For bookings that are for more than one day, only the first full day will be charged. All airport no shows are charged as job done.

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Question: Can I make a subsequent booking with your chauffeurs if I'm already in one of your cars

Answer: No. All bookings must be made through the office only. However, if you have already made the booking(s) and would simply like to make small changes like pick up times or location, then as long as we have confirmed with you that the same chauffeur will be driving you for your other bookings then that's fine. To avoid any mishaps, it is always best to notify the office directly. Any booking not recorded by the office means that booking is invalid, meaning you are being driven without insurance. YOU MAY BE STOPPED BY THE POLICE and your journey discontinued. The Public carriage office now also carries out random checks for customer safety and can lead to a lot of avoidable stress. Just call the office.

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Question: Can I request a particular chauffeur ?

Answer: Hmm... As part of our vision for excellence, we aim to allocate you three regular chauffeurs. You will get to know them closely so the need to request a particular chauffeur may not arise but if it does, we will do everything within our power to make it happen. If your booking is for the whole day or more, then most likely we will accomodate your request for a particular chauffeur. If a straight transfer, then due to operational reasons, we can only promise to do our best.

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Question: What about pets. Are they allowed in your cars

Answer: Sadly except for guide dogs, NO pets are allowed in any of our cars for health and safety reasons. Smoking and also the consumption of food and drinks in any of our cars are strictly prohibited. Our chauffeurs would gladly wait for you to finish your consumables before boarding.

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Question: I keep refering to you as Smart Chauffeurs. Why SMAT ?

Answer:  SMAT actually is the abbreviation of the founders names. However, most people refer to us as either SMAT Chauffeurs or SCS ie SMAT Chauffeur Services. We can't tell you what SMAT means though! Little secret. By the way, a SMAT chauffeur is a smart chauffeur. Obviously!

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Frequently asked questions about our services... Sit back & relax with SMAT Chauffeur Services.