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This is a copy of a letter sent to arnold clark i think it discribes the full extent of what an unproffesional company they are and how they try to rip people off. I am writing on behalf of my partner Richard Clark concerning a complaint he would like to pursue regarding your branch in Newcastle-under-Lyme.On Saturday 20th of June at around 9.30am Richard arrived in his Alpha Romeo 147 to get, what he understood, a free service as he thought it was part of the contract upon purchasing the car in June 08. Once there he was told he did not have a free service on the vehicle and so would have to pay. My partner kindly refused and was advised to see the sales manger a Mr Chris Hargreaves. My partner took the advise and did see him. At this point he was shown a contract which did not match his own. Upon discussion the sales manager agreed with Richard that something was wrong and he would see what he could do for him. Mr Hargreaves told Richard he would ring him on Monday the 22nd of June in the morning to discuss the outcome of his inquiries. My partner then left at this point thinking the matter would be resolved with a positive outcome. Monday came and Richard awaited a phone call from Mr Hargreaves all morning whilst at work. Disappointed at no phone call Richard decided to ring the branch himself at 2pm to see what was happening, the secretary kindly told him that Mr Hargreaves was busy and she would ask him to ring him back in half an hour. He waited an hour and there was still no phone call. He rang the branch at 3pm and eventually spoke to Mr Hargreaves to be told he the sales manager had not got round to it and would get back to him and the conversation was ended. 5 minutes later the sales manager did ring back and stated that the original contract was invalid and that a later contract that was signed in July 08 was valid.When signing this agreement Richard was not made aware that any modifications were made to the original document and so was misled. He then rang the customer service department at your head office to lodge a complaint as he felt he had been treated unfairly. He was told to speak to the general manager to see if any agreement could be made before pursuing his complaint any further. At around 3.15pm my partner rang the branch to make them aware he would arrive to discuss the contract. At about 4pm on the 22nd of June 2009 my partner and his father went to discuss the service agreement with the general manager of the branch Mr Bob Bentley. Upon arrival he made the secretary aware he was there to see Mr Bentley and was told he would only be 10 minutes. Half an hour later Richard and his father still had no consultation and so he politely asked the secretary to ring again. She did and 5 minutes later the general manager approached him asking him to follow him to his office. The outcome of the prolonged discussion in the office was that of the original outcome he would still have to pay for the service and if he did not his warranty contract on the car, which was brought for £300 - £400, would become invalid. Unhappy at the level of customer service and respect shown my partner told Mr Bentley, when leaving, the conversation between himself and Richard had been recorded....this is when he lost his temper with him. He grabbed him round the neck and threatened him, his dad warned him to get off. He squared up to him, wanting him to fight. He left the showroom shocked. That was not the end though he decided to follow him and his father outside and continue to threaten them, shouting 'come on big boy if you think your hard enough'. This foul behavior was then encouraged by one of the security guards they have working there. He ripped his off his tie then shouted 'come on then' and also threatened that he new where he lived. Disgusted and intimidated by this behavior Richards father threatened to ring the police when they got a reply of "the general manager' s colleagues would back him up". When realising it would be pointless to pursue the matter with the police he and his father sensibly got in their cars and drove away.
Unfortunately this is not the only complaint my partner wishes to pursue. As Richard purchased the car in summer he did not check the heating system to see if it was working correctly. Once the colder months arrived its was discovered the heating was not working correctly at all it was only blowing cold air. With an 11 month baby he decided that it was unacceptable to have no heating. He contacted the service department at the branch in Newcastle-under-Lyme to ask them to find the problem. An appointment was arranged and once the car was looked at he was told that it was a flap that controls the airflow and it was not covered under the warranty Autocare, but, as a gesture they would adjust the flap to fix it to a hot setting to get him through the winter months when he expressed he had a child under 1, and they did. He was then told to fix the problem it would cost £600 - £700. Not having that high amount of money at the time Richard refused to have the works completed to his car. This however did not resolve the problem a month later the heating was blowing back cold. My partner decided to get a second opinion and went to an authorized Alpha Romeo Dealer called Platts in Stoke-on-Trent. They did a diagnostic on the car which cost £70. They discovered that it was not actually the flap that was proposed by Arnold Clark it was the heater motor, which incidentally is covered by the Autocare warranty. Richard was told coincidentally that this as quoted by the Arnold Clark service department would be £600 - £700. My partner was asked how long the millage had been flashing for, to which he replied since he had the car. He was informed that the heating was the reason for this. The mechanic went on to say that the heater motor was found stuffed up the dash board and wrapped in electrical tape to attempt to secure it in place. Astonished at this finding Richard felt that the Arnold Clark dealership in Newcastle-under-Lyme had again tried to mislead him and rip him off £600-£700. He immediately went to the dealership and they agreed to fix the car once they were shown what Platts had found. Richard questioned the first diagnostic done by Arnold Clark and was told that they do not have the resources to find that kind of problem. My partner thinks he was deliberately misled on this occasion.
Again ,unfortunately, this is not the only complaint Richard has regarding his treatment by your Newcastle-under-Lyme branch. To comply with his Autocare warranty he took his car to have an MOT to the service department. He was charged full price for the MOT but Richard expected this. When taking the car to be serviced he was told by the secretary in the service department he did not have a free service the only thing he had was a half price MOT. Richard replied he had not had that and the secretary checked and agreed. He was told it could not be reimbursed but it could be past on for the next service.
I would now like to quote parts of your mission statements.
"WE AIM TO PROVIDE GENUINE VALUE FOR MONEY AND CREATE THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION"
I do not see how on any of these occasions your Newcastle branch have tried to offer this. On every occasion Richard feels he has been tried to be ripped off.
"PROVIDE ACCURATE AND RELEVANT INFORMATION IN A CLEAR AND FAIR MANNER"
Again on each occasion Richard feels your Newcastle branch have failed to meet this requirement stated in your mission statement.
Richard would like to know what you intend to do about the way he has be treated, on all 3 occasions. Richard would like to get this matter resolved ASAP but his confidence is greatly diminished in Arnold Clark so much that he intends to speak with trading standards to seek their advice in this matter and act as a third party on his behalf. He also intends to contact several newspapers unless the matters are not dealt with appropriately and he feels he has been offered genuine value for money and the highest level of customer satisfaction.
Thank-you
popped in to my local Arnold Clark garage (Hardgate in Clydebank) to enquire about a used peugeot 406, as we had decided to buy a bigger car as my wife is expecting.
The sales manager Paul Macrae, told me that there was one at the Mount Vernon branch but he would reqire a £100 deposit to get it transported through, i was speachless and in no uncertain terms told him to get lost, he said it was because people arrange for a car to be transported and then don't come back to view it and they are out of pocket, anyway he decided to take the risk on me, as if i didn't want it he would have people queing up to but it in his words.
Came back the next night after work to view car 406 2.0L HDi silver 38,000 (full srvice history) lovely car test drove and liked it straight away ,so started to negotiate my terms got 1 Months warranty, 6 mths tax, a full years MOT ,set of mats, car had been serviced 300 miles ago checked oil and it was spotless so didn't press for a service but told him i wanted the timing belt changed as the car was now over 5 years old and still running on the original belt he said ok, a couple of tiny scratches which were touched up for me, noticed that the high level brake light had a bulb out so told him that would need replacing again no bother sir its going through an MOT this will be picked up and fixed.
We agreed on a price and agreed i would pick the car up in 3 days time (still not gave him a penny yet) i told him i wanted a phone call the day before I picked it up to confirm all was ok and all my demands had been met.
Got my phone call and went through my check list with paul on the phone aparantley all was fine.
Picked the car up next day and paid cash for it i asked for the green slip from the registration document and was told that it had all been sent to DVLA which i foolishly accepted at this time. I also had to ask for the cars log book to be updated and stamped regarding the timing belt change as this hadn't been done.
I was told that at MOT they had fitted new front brake discs, got home went to lock the car with the key and both the drivers door and passanger door wouldn't lock with the key just then my wife says by the way that high level brake light still has that bulb out (obviously not checked at MOT as this would have failed) took car back in next day he said sorry and a bit red faced got one of the mechanics to replace the bulb and sort the locks the feedback was that they had seized due to lack of use (which i accepted)drove away and noticed that the brakes were grinding (only some times)went to jack the car up to inspect and found the Jack was broken, so got out my trolley Jack, next problem was that i couldn't get the locking bolts for the Alloy wheels off as they were damaged by the use of the air driver in the garage, spent 4 hours getting the bolts out and went and bought 4 new bolts £8.00 fitted these while i ahd the wheels off i inspected the brakes and found that the discs in the front were indeed new however the pads hadn't been replaced ( you just wouldn't do this) phoned up to book the car in for the brake inspection feedback was that that front pads were cracked and had been replaced (it took 5 mins and a few lies to get this answer) i checked they had been replaced and they had been , also jack was replaced with new. my mate who also has a 406 was looking at the car and checked my air filter and it was the dirtiest air filter i have ever saw (remembering it was serviced 300 miles ago this was a red rag to a bull, so i phoned up and was told i could pick up a new filter, which i done (fitted myself). after 2 weeks of owning the car i still didn't have any documentation to say i owned the car either from DVLA or arnold clark all i had was the receipt for my cash.
so i phoned DVLA and they said that they had no record of me owning te car, again red rag to a bull
went in to confront the sales manager and he managed to find the green slip in the office( in my opinion the document hadn't been sent at this time and he detached it there and then) as about a week later i got my new document through from DVLA which is about the correct time frame.
Then came the faults with the indicators and rear electric window isolator switch, and the aerial falling off the roof at 60 MPH on the M8, booked it back in, when i went to pick it up i was told that they weren't going to fix any of the faults as they were all down to wear and tear, i exploded at this point and demanded to speak to the service Manager John, but he was to busy to see me, so I got to speak to Larry Mullholland the branch general manager, who told me that i must have broken the aerial and that with regards to the other faults what do you expect with a 5 year old car, you should have taken out an extended warranty, i said i've got a 1 month warranty which hasn't yet expired and he said thats not worth the paper its written on and that it was just a gimic to aid sales (Quote what do you expect from a sales man).
anyway after an hour of arguing i got the aerial fixed and as the other 2 faults were not present at this time he couldn't do anything about them.
I had to accept this as it was true at this time.
I know from reading other peoples horror stories that in comparison to my story, mines probably seems trivial, however it dosen't take away that if i wasn't prepared to argue and fight for what i believe to be right, i would have been walked over with big bloddy boots on, can you imagine if your mother, sister or daughter with little or no knowledge of the mechanics of how a car works was to have bought this car and the only problem they encountered was a puncture on a winters night , damaged wheel bolts , broken jack etc see where i'm going they would be getting the bus home if they weren't murdered first.
i bought a renault scenic rx4 off a/c for £13,500. i had the car for a year and had a lot of problems with the car. then after 18 months i was on the motorway when the gearbox exploded and the car lost all control. a/c said they had the car checked and diagnosed a faulty gearbox which they would replace as the car was under warranty. 2 days after getting the car back it exploded again with my 2 year old in the car on the motorway again. a/c again checked out the car and again diagnosed a faulty gearbox. this time they also replaced the diff and i was told not to worry it was all covered under warranty. then when i was on my way to pick the car up for the third time i recieved a phone call saying the gearbox had exploded again. this was now 6 weeks since it had first happened. then i recieved a phone call from a/c says they have discovered my car has faulty tyres on it which caused all the problems and i now have a bill in excess of £20,000 if i want to see my car again. That was three years ago and i havn't seen my car since, i have had to keep paying £305 a month to the finance company and been throgh hell. i have been without a car for the first time in 18 years having to get work and bring up two kids and they have made things as awkward as possible . they have even made me keep the insurance running on the car for three years when i dont even now where the car is, forcing me to insure the old banger i have now have with no no-claims bonus.
although i feel sorry for you all it at least makes me feel a bit better to see all these comments about AC as i know its not just me who they treated badly!! took my astra in for some minor problems last year and when i got it back it was worse than ever but try getting them to admit to it!! been a nightmare and would not recommend to anyone!
This company are obviously very keen to offload a car onto you but then try getting any after sales care from them! I was told on countless ocassions that I would be called back and never was!
Went to AC Stafford- thinking about trading in my C-Max for a Focus. As soon as we got there we were pounced on and followed around. We were interested in a couple but my partner noticed quite a bit of rust on them and a scratched bumber. We were told this is normal for a focus?!?! but they would fix it. We were still nterested to find out what the part ex would be on our car so went inside.
The salesman took the keys to the 'valuer' who supposedly went to value ours. They had had the keys for 20mins and still not come back so we sent the salesman to get the keys as we weren't interested any more. He went away and came back saying our car had gone to be cleaned?!? 10mins passed and my partner was starting to get irritated so sent him off for the keys again. This time he came back with a value (but no key) which was well below its worth. Again we asked for the keys and he came back this time with a higher figure. We definately weren't interested by this point and were getting very mad. So we went to get the keys ourselves.
When i got home i noticed the aerial was missing from the roof. As they were now closed i called the next morning. It took the salesman 2 hours to return my call and 'apparently' the drive through car wash happened to have been broken that day so it was washed by hand and the car cleaner didn't remove the aerial.
I left it at that then when i got back to my car noticed it had actually been snapped off!! (as you would expect if it had gone through a car wash and not been removed).
This evening i have been back to the garage with my father to ask again about my 'missing' aerial. When we got there we spoke to a valeter bloke who happened to be wandering round. We asked if they had a car wash machine which they have, and told him about the aerial- he said they don't work Sundays so it would have been the sales staff who used it- no mention at all of it having been out of use.
We then spoke to the car valuer bloke who took the keys from us the other day. He obviously remembered my call yesterday and immediately said the aerial wasn't removed for cleaning as it was washed by hand and it was him who had cleaned it! I find this very hard to believe as firstly it was freezing cold,windy and rainy when we went and he was wearing a shirt and tie and no jacket, and secondly he was sat in his office as we saw him each time the salesman went back to ask for the key!!!!
He then accused me of having parked it somewhere and it had been damaged ( i went straight home), then he said it must have been lost on the way home (so it just spontaneously snapped off on the drive home). An absolute joke!!!!!
So i went to enquire about trading my car in and came away with a damaged car.
I can very well believe all these stories on here and will be recommending friends keep well away.
Have found Arnold Clark to be fine to purchase a car from, but the after sales service is terrible.
On several occassion when my cars have been in for service, promises are not kept, you are not kept informed of progress, calls are not returned etc etc. I have been left without a car for days, with the promise that it will be ready early the next day. Never happens.
I purchased a Zafira in Mar 08. Some months later we noticed a rattling noise and found that the head light unit had cracked. I phoned Arnold Clark and they suggested bringing the car in they may be able to look at it under the extended warranty. I was initially told that they had realigned the head light and there would be no charge. As I inspected it prior to leaving I noticed that they hadn't even looked at the head light and it was still loose. They then told me they looked at the other side and that the broken head light unit would cost me approx. £250.00. When I asked what the likely cause was they stated that it could have been hit with another vehicle and this might have caused the unit to break. I then went through the insurance as my excess was only £100.00. Upon collecting the car from the insurer's recommended repairer, they pointed out that they had carried out the repair of the headlight unit only. The actual bumper was damaged and had been badly repaired from a previous accident and would not be covered. We later found out that the car had been in an accident and the previous owner, a rental car company, had sold it to Arnold Clark in the damaged state. Arnold Clark had obviously repaired it on the cheap and resold it at a premium. We have repeatedly requested the repair to be carried out at their cost and was offered a refund on two fronts - the service agreement and the extended warranty (this would have paid for the repair). However, we have not seen anything from them and they seem to have washed their hands of this matter. They do not respond to any of the letters we have sent them. They have obviously got their profit margin from this sale and do not offer any after sales customer care. I would not recommend anyone to buy or deal with this company, all they care about is their profit margins and their sales figures. It appears they buy on the cheap and sell their cars at a premium. This has cost be my £100.00 excess and will also affect my future insurance premiums!
In response to SDuffield.....no I haven't just "plucked these figures out of thin air"...I work in the motor trade. £400-£500 IS the usual figure a dealer allows for reconditioning - please bear in mind that salesmen, not mechanics tend to carry out the appraisals on a part exchanges...occasionally, a car costs less than this....similarly on occasion, a car costs more than this, because there are things that can need replaced after a professional inspection, that a non-qualified person could never has detected. All in all, it tends to balance out at £400-£500.
Secondly, most car dealerships segregate their various departments, ie that their parts dept charges the service dept full price, less a nominal discount for parts, and the service dept charge the sales dept a similar cost for the work they carry out....these costs have to be passed on internally, otherwise the service dept would devote all their time and effort to walk-in retail customers who would be more profitable, and sold cars would never be prepped.
Thirdly, 12 months warranties cost a dealership about £200, FACT. These however, ARE normally sold to the customer at this price, as it helps to sell the car....if you walk in to solely purchase a 12 month warranty for your existing car, expect to pay £299-£399 for it...
Finally, just because your friend prices his cars one way, doesn't mean everyone else does. Obviously I don't know his business, but it would make sense that if he had to compete with a large dealer group like AC for instance, he would need his prices to be slightly more competive, as people do tend to go to the biggest companies who can afford to spend larger amounts of money on advertising to get people through the door. Also, his costs won't be as high, as he may have a smaller site, less staff, and lower overheads than a big company. If your cost to pay all staff involved is £300 on a used car, and you make £500 profit, you're £200 in the black. If your cost to pay all staff on a used car is £500, you need to make £700 profit per car to have the same margin. And ultimately, if you're paying to have better staff, better workshop facilities, better aftersales service and more facilities available to customers, like better coffee, WIFI facilities, more courtesy cars, better valeting services and more comprehensive warranties, its not unreasonable to expect a customer to pay a LITTLE more to avail of all these services....at the end of the day, on such a big purchase as a car, believe it or not, money isn't always everything....
The prices you quoted, have you just plucked these figures out of the air?
It cirtainly does not cost £400-£500 to recondition car. The figures you quote are for one-off's. Don't you think that we know how many cars AC will recondition and will get hugh discounts of parts, panel repairs, tyres ,servicing etc. They will use their own mechanics to do the work, therefore reducing the cost to AC.
It certainly does not cost AC £200 for a 12-month 3rd party warranty. It costs that much for one car and I can't see AC paying retail price for each warranty (more like they will have a volume trade discount deal).
Do you seriously believe that AC will take trade-in cars if they know that all they will get in profit is less than £500?
To give you some idea, I traded in my car at a local garage (not AC). After servicing, repairs to small dents in the door panel, 2 new tyres, 12-month warranty and a full valet, the garage put it up for sale £1000 more that they gave me as a trade in. Knowing the garage owner, he admitted that the sale of the car would land him a profit of £600 even if it didn't sell for a couple of months. He didn't even price the car up at full value (which AC dealers would).
In response to dmuirs comment below, this is a rather unfair comment. Let's look at it logically - Arnold Clark pays £2300 for your car. Arnold Clarks will then have a certain standard that they have to legally adhere to to put bring your car up to retailable standard, namely servicing it, changing tyres that are approaching or are at legal limit, changing brake pads etc etc, then having to recondition the car, ie repairing any minor scuffs,scratches or chips, and carrying out a full valet. This obviously costs money, and most car garages allow a for a reconditioning cost of approx £400-500 per car. This puts their cost on your vehicle up to £2700-2800. You have to then also bear in mind that car dealers do not have a limitless sized site, and obviously due to the rental rates that a centrally placed dealer needs to pay for a site, every single car displayed essentially costs the dealership money to display,as while its sitting there, another car is getting older in storage until a display space for it becomes available. Clearly though, you can't put a monetary value on this, however a dealership has to take it into account. Next, Arnold Clark will have to supply a warranty with the car. In most cases, this is a 3rd party warranty provided by an insurance company, and usually costs a dealer about £200 for 12 months. So the cost of your car to them is now up to £2900-3000, excluding the cost of having the car on site.
Next, do you honestly expect someone to pay the asking price of £3988 for your car?? As much as they can display this on the window, they will NEVER get that for it, unless they get a really gullible person to agree to it. Most dealers on this car would eventually agree to take £3500 after a bit of haggling. This leaves them with a profit of around £600. On this profit, they have to pay VAT @ 15%, leaving them £510 profit. I'm not honestly sure of tax implications after this, but I'm sure the government will take a cut, reducing that figure further.
Finally, they have to pay the salesman for selling the car (otherwise he wouldn't make a living), and from the rest of the profit cover the costs of heating and lighting the site, followed by covering costs of telephones, rent, and hiring a nice lady to greet you as you walk into the showroom. All in all, they aren't robbing you...for you to think they're just pocketing £1700 from your car is highly unrealistic.
Just bought a 1 year old Astra 12,000 miles on the clock for £2000 less than dealer price its ex rental but thats what any one who does there homework should know about car supermarkets they don't sell many privately owned 1 year old cars for these prices. An excellent transaction and will definately use again much better buying experience than Motorpoint you get a proper test drive and they fix any issues such as stone chips without any problems. Thanks to the salesman Adam.
i bought 2 cars from arnold clark a couple of days after christmas using our old car as part exchange.i told the salesman i thought the car was worth £3500 but would happily accept £3000 approx.after a lecture about present economic from salesman & his manager i reluctantly accepted £2300 believing thats all we could get.less than 2 weeks later same car is in arnolds garage forecourt & website for £3988.nobody expects value on a trade in but £1700 profit is too much.adise anyone using arnold to sell privatelyor at auction , better still avoid arnold clark
put my car into arnold clark renault. on the 30th dec. to get electric window checked. an hour later when i got my car back, i noticed my windscreen was cracked. they said it wasnt them. its got me so angry, ive reported them to trading standards. i will never go near them again.
i would never go to these garages again when looking for a car we went to the one in edinburgh and because we did not agree with the deal they offered they took our car keys away and would not return them to us when we wanted to leave,i have heard from other people this is common practice from the sales assistants
After reading the 100's and 100's of complaints about Arnold Clark I think we should all join together and make a stand against them. We will have more power together!
It doesn't matter if you no longer deal with Arnold Clark, you can help by telling us your story. I am personally still having problems but I will not let them get away with this.
I purchased a car and also bought a Service Plan for the car. The Service Plan was included in the Finance Agreement.
After 2-1/2 months of problems we rejected "resinded" the car. We chose another car from stock and are happy with it.
There was outstanding finance of approx £1000 and the dealership called and asked us to pay this off as it was tied to the car and they could not sell the car onwards. I called Consumer Direct and asked them how I stood thinking why should I pay for something which is useless to me and not refundable or transferable to our new car.
I was told that when the car was rejected the whole deal including all finance and service agreement was void as it falls under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 section 75 and also under the Sale of goods act 1979 as ammended.
I called the finance company and they told me it is up to the Dealer to inform the finance company this has happened and the dealership is the only person who can cancel the finance even though the finance is in my name.
In one way it is a bad idea to put the service agreement in with your finance due to the fact if you trade in the car you cannot transfer it to your new car. In another way it is good that I did this because when I rejected the car then everything is then void.
This also shows that the dealership either new this and tried to get me to pay it off so they didn't have the hassle of this or they don't know which is even worse!!
I am now waiting on the dealership to sort this out!!
looking for a smaller car right now, have been hunting around for the best deal. arnolds garages have been some of the better ones i have been in, good service and deals going too i think some of these folk need to get a grip.
I was told i had to leave a £200 deposit on a car they found me as it had to be transported from one of their other showrooms. I was told the deposit was REFUNDABLE if i didn't like the car as I obviously hadn't viewed it or had a test drive. The car had damaged which i was not told about so I decided not to have it. The manager said i couldn't have my deposit back and he was keeping my money to pay for his transport costs !!!! i'm a single mum and feel i have been taken advantage of.. CAN ANYONE OFFER ME ANY ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO ? Thank you
I think some of the commments, if not most of them posted here are a bit unfair, i bought a peugeot from AC in glasgow a couple of years back, and am looking for a car again - the car is great and the service was fine, for the sale and servicing. There may be problems here and there but they cant be worse than most companies out there.
My 70 year old mum ordered her new Motability car from the Lenzie branch on 5th April 2008 with a delivery date of 26th June 2008. They forgot to order it. This wasn't discovered until June at which time they said they'd order it but it would take 3 months. She called them last week and was told the car would be delivered today. They called her today and told her the wrong car had been delivered to their branch - she can only drive automatics due to her health condition and a manual car had arrived. Upon further investigation it appears that the wrong car was ordered and they can't tell her when she'll get her new one. The salesman's response "i want it here just as much as you do - i don't get paid until you take delivery of it!" So, there you go - promises delivered? I don't think so......
I looked at a car and was told I'd need to leave £100 - either cash or debit card. Salesman's words were "if you don't buy the car, you get the money back and we part as friends" - training-speak of the cheesiest.
The sale didn't happen, and after numerous phone cals, being told the cheque was in the post, again, again, again, I contacted trading standards.
Be really careful - in law it seems that a deposit does NOT need to be refunded, but that's not what the salesman told me, so be very very careful if you're thinking of buying from Arnold Clark. This would have been my 5th car from them, but I won't go near them from now on.
I bought a Nissan Tino from Clark. One week later the bonnet blew up and smashed the windscreen. I have an AA report stating that the bonnet catch was seized. I also have photographs backing this up. I went to the Trading Standards people in Motherwell who told me this was not enough evidence to take them to court !!!!!!
I suggest that anybody who has a complaint about Clark add the following above the ARNOLD CLARK sticker on their back window. "Never again will I deal with"
having recently purchased a car from 'Arnold Clark' i thought i should write about how poor the aftersales service is and the fact they make promises to you and do not delivery unlike there company moto says!
I purchased a new 08 plate car on the day of collection the car was presented to me with a scuff on the wheel arch which was easily buffed out, however after getting home i discovered that the alloy was also damaged and the car had no locking wheel nuts as promised. To add to this i was told the 2nd key (the master key) would be sent on to me found this odd but the sales man give me a story about we dont trust the drivers therefore we hold a key back dont worry about it though as it will be sent on.
here i am several weeks later and after serveral calls to the dealer all of which have been ignored (very childish) i still have all the problems outlined above.
I have been in touch with the Head Office customer care who have been in contact with the store i purchased the car from, the sales manager the called and asked me if i had anything in writing to say the above would be done !!!! what a new car should be tip top condition and supplied with 2 keys .... well not in the eyes of 'Arnold Clark' its not !! at least someone has called though.
I have also been in touch with trading standards who are aware of the full story and will be invetigating them, i would suggest any one with any issues should get incontact with there local office and report them as they keep on getting away with the poor after sales and customer care.
I have to say the whole experiance with 'Arnold Clark' has been very unpleasant and would not be going there again nor will i recommend to anyone.
i worked for arnold clark 4 5 months and i have to say the company is full of con artists, all they care about is gettin that sale,wether the car is in proper condition or not and i heard it from the horses mouth! i heard the way they talked about there customers and they way they were secretly treating them! phone calls of complaints would come thru the phones everyday and when the general manager was approached about these phonecalls he would constantly ignore them and get the receptionist to say he wasnt there! they have no interest in gettin the right car for u they jus wanna sell sell sell....i even know the cars sometimes went out to the customers befor even being checked over or serviced by a mechanic, jus valeted and sent out to the buyer! the way they treat there staff is a disgrace also ...u will be lucky to go into any AC motorstore and find an employee who has been there longer than 3 months!!Where i worked there was also drug taking that i know of while at work, dealing with customers,driving cars around the lot and too and fro the motor showroom!also certain members of staff who are on the managers leash are allowed to go into work drunk, also with the risk of having to drive a car! i have heard so many stories from the customers about ther mis fortunes with AC and its only right ppl know about this,maybe u have had a car that was ok for you,but u are one of the lucky ones,next time it could be ur best mate or your daughter gettin done over by them, and u will fel bad because you recomended them!so as i say,beware of AC....there is more to it than meets the eye....and i knw it for a fact!!!
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Unfortunately this is not the only complaint my partner wishes to pursue. As Richard purchased the car in summer he did not check the heating system to see if it was working correctly. Once the colder months arrived its was discovered the heating was not working correctly at all it was only blowing cold air. With an 11 month baby he decided that it was unacceptable to have no heating. He contacted the service department at the branch in Newcastle-under-Lyme to ask them to find the problem. An appointment was arranged and once the car was looked at he was told that it was a flap that controls the airflow and it was not covered under the warranty Autocare, but, as a gesture they would adjust the flap to fix it to a hot setting to get him through the winter months when he expressed he had a child under 1, and they did. He was then told to fix the problem it would cost £600 - £700. Not having that high amount of money at the time Richard refused to have the works completed to his car. This however did not resolve the problem a month later the heating was blowing back cold. My partner decided to get a second opinion and went to an authorized Alpha Romeo Dealer called Platts in Stoke-on-Trent. They did a diagnostic on the car which cost £70. They discovered that it was not actually the flap that was proposed by Arnold Clark it was the heater motor, which incidentally is covered by the Autocare warranty. Richard was told coincidentally that this as quoted by the Arnold Clark service department would be £600 - £700. My partner was asked how long the millage had been flashing for, to which he replied since he had the car. He was informed that the heating was the reason for this. The mechanic went on to say that the heater motor was found stuffed up the dash board and wrapped in electrical tape to attempt to secure it in place. Astonished at this finding Richard felt that the Arnold Clark dealership in Newcastle-under-Lyme had again tried to mislead him and rip him off £600-£700. He immediately went to the dealership and they agreed to fix the car once they were shown what Platts had found. Richard questioned the first diagnostic done by Arnold Clark and was told that they do not have the resources to find that kind of problem. My partner thinks he was deliberately misled on this occasion.
Again ,unfortunately, this is not the only complaint Richard has regarding his treatment by your Newcastle-under-Lyme branch. To comply with his Autocare warranty he took his car to have an MOT to the service department. He was charged full price for the MOT but Richard expected this. When taking the car to be serviced he was told by the secretary in the service department he did not have a free service the only thing he had was a half price MOT. Richard replied he had not had that and the secretary checked and agreed. He was told it could not be reimbursed but it could be past on for the next service.
I would now like to quote parts of your mission statements.
"WE AIM TO PROVIDE GENUINE VALUE FOR MONEY AND CREATE THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION"
I do not see how on any of these occasions your Newcastle branch have tried to offer this. On every occasion Richard feels he has been tried to be ripped off.
"PROVIDE ACCURATE AND RELEVANT INFORMATION IN A CLEAR AND FAIR MANNER"
Again on each occasion Richard feels your Newcastle branch have failed to meet this requirement stated in your mission statement.
Richard would like to know what you intend to do about the way he has be treated, on all 3 occasions. Richard would like to get this matter resolved ASAP but his confidence is greatly diminished in Arnold Clark so much that he intends to speak with trading standards to seek their advice in this matter and act as a third party on his behalf. He also intends to contact several newspapers unless the matters are not dealt with appropriately and he feels he has been offered genuine value for money and the highest level of customer satisfaction.
Thank-you
Yours faithfully
Stacey Mudry
The sales manager Paul Macrae, told me that there was one at the Mount Vernon branch but he would reqire a £100 deposit to get it transported through, i was speachless and in no uncertain terms told him to get lost, he said it was because people arrange for a car to be transported and then don't come back to view it and they are out of pocket, anyway he decided to take the risk on me, as if i didn't want it he would have people queing up to but it in his words.
Came back the next night after work to view car 406 2.0L HDi silver 38,000 (full srvice history) lovely car test drove and liked it straight away ,so started to negotiate my terms got 1 Months warranty, 6 mths tax, a full years MOT ,set of mats, car had been serviced 300 miles ago checked oil and it was spotless so didn't press for a service but told him i wanted the timing belt changed as the car was now over 5 years old and still running on the original belt he said ok, a couple of tiny scratches which were touched up for me, noticed that the high level brake light had a bulb out so told him that would need replacing again no bother sir its going through an MOT this will be picked up and fixed.
We agreed on a price and agreed i would pick the car up in 3 days time (still not gave him a penny yet) i told him i wanted a phone call the day before I picked it up to confirm all was ok and all my demands had been met.
Got my phone call and went through my check list with paul on the phone aparantley all was fine.
Picked the car up next day and paid cash for it i asked for the green slip from the registration document and was told that it had all been sent to DVLA which i foolishly accepted at this time. I also had to ask for the cars log book to be updated and stamped regarding the timing belt change as this hadn't been done.
I was told that at MOT they had fitted new front brake discs, got home went to lock the car with the key and both the drivers door and passanger door wouldn't lock with the key just then my wife says by the way that high level brake light still has that bulb out (obviously not checked at MOT as this would have failed) took car back in next day he said sorry and a bit red faced got one of the mechanics to replace the bulb and sort the locks the feedback was that they had seized due to lack of use (which i accepted)drove away and noticed that the brakes were grinding (only some times)went to jack the car up to inspect and found the Jack was broken, so got out my trolley Jack, next problem was that i couldn't get the locking bolts for the Alloy wheels off as they were damaged by the use of the air driver in the garage, spent 4 hours getting the bolts out and went and bought 4 new bolts £8.00 fitted these while i ahd the wheels off i inspected the brakes and found that the discs in the front were indeed new however the pads hadn't been replaced ( you just wouldn't do this) phoned up to book the car in for the brake inspection feedback was that that front pads were cracked and had been replaced (it took 5 mins and a few lies to get this answer) i checked they had been replaced and they had been , also jack was replaced with new. my mate who also has a 406 was looking at the car and checked my air filter and it was the dirtiest air filter i have ever saw (remembering it was serviced 300 miles ago this was a red rag to a bull, so i phoned up and was told i could pick up a new filter, which i done (fitted myself). after 2 weeks of owning the car i still didn't have any documentation to say i owned the car either from DVLA or arnold clark all i had was the receipt for my cash.
so i phoned DVLA and they said that they had no record of me owning te car, again red rag to a bull
went in to confront the sales manager and he managed to find the green slip in the office( in my opinion the document hadn't been sent at this time and he detached it there and then) as about a week later i got my new document through from DVLA which is about the correct time frame.
Then came the faults with the indicators and rear electric window isolator switch, and the aerial falling off the roof at 60 MPH on the M8, booked it back in, when i went to pick it up i was told that they weren't going to fix any of the faults as they were all down to wear and tear, i exploded at this point and demanded to speak to the service Manager John, but he was to busy to see me, so I got to speak to Larry Mullholland the branch general manager, who told me that i must have broken the aerial and that with regards to the other faults what do you expect with a 5 year old car, you should have taken out an extended warranty, i said i've got a 1 month warranty which hasn't yet expired and he said thats not worth the paper its written on and that it was just a gimic to aid sales (Quote what do you expect from a sales man).
anyway after an hour of arguing i got the aerial fixed and as the other 2 faults were not present at this time he couldn't do anything about them.
I had to accept this as it was true at this time.
I know from reading other peoples horror stories that in comparison to my story, mines probably seems trivial, however it dosen't take away that if i wasn't prepared to argue and fight for what i believe to be right, i would have been walked over with big bloddy boots on, can you imagine if your mother, sister or daughter with little or no knowledge of the mechanics of how a car works was to have bought this car and the only problem they encountered was a puncture on a winters night , damaged wheel bolts , broken jack etc see where i'm going they would be getting the bus home if they weren't murdered first.
My advice is keep away from Arnold Clark Garages.
The salesman took the keys to the 'valuer' who supposedly went to value ours. They had had the keys for 20mins and still not come back so we sent the salesman to get the keys as we weren't interested any more. He went away and came back saying our car had gone to be cleaned?!? 10mins passed and my partner was starting to get irritated so sent him off for the keys again. This time he came back with a value (but no key) which was well below its worth. Again we asked for the keys and he came back this time with a higher figure. We definately weren't interested by this point and were getting very mad. So we went to get the keys ourselves.
When i got home i noticed the aerial was missing from the roof. As they were now closed i called the next morning. It took the salesman 2 hours to return my call and 'apparently' the drive through car wash happened to have been broken that day so it was washed by hand and the car cleaner didn't remove the aerial.
I left it at that then when i got back to my car noticed it had actually been snapped off!! (as you would expect if it had gone through a car wash and not been removed).
This evening i have been back to the garage with my father to ask again about my 'missing' aerial. When we got there we spoke to a valeter bloke who happened to be wandering round. We asked if they had a car wash machine which they have, and told him about the aerial- he said they don't work Sundays so it would have been the sales staff who used it- no mention at all of it having been out of use.
We then spoke to the car valuer bloke who took the keys from us the other day. He obviously remembered my call yesterday and immediately said the aerial wasn't removed for cleaning as it was washed by hand and it was him who had cleaned it! I find this very hard to believe as firstly it was freezing cold,windy and rainy when we went and he was wearing a shirt and tie and no jacket, and secondly he was sat in his office as we saw him each time the salesman went back to ask for the key!!!!
He then accused me of having parked it somewhere and it had been damaged ( i went straight home), then he said it must have been lost on the way home (so it just spontaneously snapped off on the drive home). An absolute joke!!!!!
So i went to enquire about trading my car in and came away with a damaged car.
I can very well believe all these stories on here and will be recommending friends keep well away.
On several occassion when my cars have been in for service, promises are not kept, you are not kept informed of progress, calls are not returned etc etc. I have been left without a car for days, with the promise that it will be ready early the next day. Never happens.
Dyro!!!!
Secondly, most car dealerships segregate their various departments, ie that their parts dept charges the service dept full price, less a nominal discount for parts, and the service dept charge the sales dept a similar cost for the work they carry out....these costs have to be passed on internally, otherwise the service dept would devote all their time and effort to walk-in retail customers who would be more profitable, and sold cars would never be prepped.
Thirdly, 12 months warranties cost a dealership about £200, FACT. These however, ARE normally sold to the customer at this price, as it helps to sell the car....if you walk in to solely purchase a 12 month warranty for your existing car, expect to pay £299-£399 for it...
Finally, just because your friend prices his cars one way, doesn't mean everyone else does. Obviously I don't know his business, but it would make sense that if he had to compete with a large dealer group like AC for instance, he would need his prices to be slightly more competive, as people do tend to go to the biggest companies who can afford to spend larger amounts of money on advertising to get people through the door. Also, his costs won't be as high, as he may have a smaller site, less staff, and lower overheads than a big company. If your cost to pay all staff involved is £300 on a used car, and you make £500 profit, you're £200 in the black. If your cost to pay all staff on a used car is £500, you need to make £700 profit per car to have the same margin. And ultimately, if you're paying to have better staff, better workshop facilities, better aftersales service and more facilities available to customers, like better coffee, WIFI facilities, more courtesy cars, better valeting services and more comprehensive warranties, its not unreasonable to expect a customer to pay a LITTLE more to avail of all these services....at the end of the day, on such a big purchase as a car, believe it or not, money isn't always everything....
peopleareneverhappy at 20th Jan 2009, 10:30PM
The prices you quoted, have you just plucked these figures out of the air?
It cirtainly does not cost £400-£500 to recondition car. The figures you quote are for one-off's. Don't you think that we know how many cars AC will recondition and will get hugh discounts of parts, panel repairs, tyres ,servicing etc. They will use their own mechanics to do the work, therefore reducing the cost to AC.
It certainly does not cost AC £200 for a 12-month 3rd party warranty. It costs that much for one car and I can't see AC paying retail price for each warranty (more like they will have a volume trade discount deal).
Do you seriously believe that AC will take trade-in cars if they know that all they will get in profit is less than £500?
To give you some idea, I traded in my car at a local garage (not AC). After servicing, repairs to small dents in the door panel, 2 new tyres, 12-month warranty and a full valet, the garage put it up for sale £1000 more that they gave me as a trade in. Knowing the garage owner, he admitted that the sale of the car would land him a profit of £600 even if it didn't sell for a couple of months. He didn't even price the car up at full value (which AC dealers would).
Next, do you honestly expect someone to pay the asking price of £3988 for your car?? As much as they can display this on the window, they will NEVER get that for it, unless they get a really gullible person to agree to it. Most dealers on this car would eventually agree to take £3500 after a bit of haggling. This leaves them with a profit of around £600. On this profit, they have to pay VAT @ 15%, leaving them £510 profit. I'm not honestly sure of tax implications after this, but I'm sure the government will take a cut, reducing that figure further.
Finally, they have to pay the salesman for selling the car (otherwise he wouldn't make a living), and from the rest of the profit cover the costs of heating and lighting the site, followed by covering costs of telephones, rent, and hiring a nice lady to greet you as you walk into the showroom. All in all, they aren't robbing you...for you to think they're just pocketing £1700 from your car is highly unrealistic.
peopleareneverhappy at 13th Jan 2009, 09:48PM
It doesn't matter if you no longer deal with Arnold Clark, you can help by telling us your story. I am personally still having problems but I will not let them get away with this.
Anyone interested?
After 2-1/2 months of problems we rejected "resinded" the car. We chose another car from stock and are happy with it.
There was outstanding finance of approx £1000 and the dealership called and asked us to pay this off as it was tied to the car and they could not sell the car onwards. I called Consumer Direct and asked them how I stood thinking why should I pay for something which is useless to me and not refundable or transferable to our new car.
I was told that when the car was rejected the whole deal including all finance and service agreement was void as it falls under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 section 75 and also under the Sale of goods act 1979 as ammended.
I called the finance company and they told me it is up to the Dealer to inform the finance company this has happened and the dealership is the only person who can cancel the finance even though the finance is in my name.
In one way it is a bad idea to put the service agreement in with your finance due to the fact if you trade in the car you cannot transfer it to your new car. In another way it is good that I did this because when I rejected the car then everything is then void.
This also shows that the dealership either new this and tried to get me to pay it off so they didn't have the hassle of this or they don't know which is even worse!!
I am now waiting on the dealership to sort this out!!
The sale didn't happen, and after numerous phone cals, being told the cheque was in the post, again, again, again, I contacted trading standards.
Be really careful - in law it seems that a deposit does NOT need to be refunded, but that's not what the salesman told me, so be very very careful if you're thinking of buying from Arnold Clark. This would have been my 5th car from them, but I won't go near them from now on.
I suggest that anybody who has a complaint about Clark add the following above the ARNOLD CLARK sticker on their back window. "Never again will I deal with"
I purchased a new 08 plate car on the day of collection the car was presented to me with a scuff on the wheel arch which was easily buffed out, however after getting home i discovered that the alloy was also damaged and the car had no locking wheel nuts as promised. To add to this i was told the 2nd key (the master key) would be sent on to me found this odd but the sales man give me a story about we dont trust the drivers therefore we hold a key back dont worry about it though as it will be sent on.
here i am several weeks later and after serveral calls to the dealer all of which have been ignored (very childish) i still have all the problems outlined above.
I have been in touch with the Head Office customer care who have been in contact with the store i purchased the car from, the sales manager the called and asked me if i had anything in writing to say the above would be done !!!! what a new car should be tip top condition and supplied with 2 keys .... well not in the eyes of 'Arnold Clark' its not !! at least someone has called though.
I have also been in touch with trading standards who are aware of the full story and will be invetigating them, i would suggest any one with any issues should get incontact with there local office and report them as they keep on getting away with the poor after sales and customer care.
I have to say the whole experiance with 'Arnold Clark' has been very unpleasant and would not be going there again nor will i recommend to anyone.
the saga continues ............
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