As you may already be painfully aware, mobile phone connectivity in Hebden Bridge has been hugely degraded for a few days.
We understand this is affecting O2 and Vodafone, and the various virtual providers that use their system (such as giffgaff, Lyca, Sky, Virgin, and Tesco on O2, and TalkMobile on Voda).
Fortunately our cars have so far been able to connect using EE.
So we have some work-arounds for you that may work.
To make a booking:
Book in the app from a location with WiFi, or you can book from your home computer as well, by visiting bookings.pod-caldervalley.co.uk
To start your use of the car:
Try to “start your usage” from nearby WiFi. Several shops and cafés have this around Salem Mill, as does the Town Hall near Market Place.
(Of course, please respect the Terms & Conditions of any WiFi you choose for this. That may for example require you to be a customer of the place.)
Unlocking
You should then be able to go to the car and unlock it in the app, because that can be done locally by Bluetooth rather than over the internet.
If your Bluetooth is not turned on, the app should ask for permission to turn it on, but depending on your security settings, you might have to do that manually in your settings.
If Bluetooth doesn’t work for you, then you should also be able to unlock the car by returning to where you had WiFi earlier.
During your booking
As always, we recommend taking the key with you during your booking and using that.
Ending your use
To end your use of the car (and end your billable booking time):
1. First please lock the car using your phone. As mentioned above this ought to work via Bluetooth. If that fails, please return to a place where you have WiFi and try from there.
2. Then connect to nearby WiFi to end your usage.
3. If you cannot get this to work, then when you are back home or somewhere with signal, try again over that WiFi, then if that too fails, contact our Emergency Helpline on 01422 292099. We will end the booking remotely for you.
Fair play
Please let us know by email if delays being able to end your usage have meant you are being billed for longer than you actually had the car.
Best wishes
The POD team