I went to Arnold Clark to buy my first car and was very pleased with the service i recieved from the sales staff, i spoke to 4 different people and all were helpfull and friendly.
I signed up for a used 55 reg Ford Focus, which i recieved a great deal including 6% finance including 12 months warrenty, 6months MOT and 12 months autocare mechanical warrenty (which i later found out i was paying for and they weren't free as i was lead to believe)
I picked the car up on tuesday and drove it home and then found that the bonnet would not open, I phoned them up and was told i wouldn't be able to take it back until Saturday, my dad then phoned and i was told to take it back immediatley. I dealt with the servicing manager Ian (who you would assume would look after customers to his best ability.... wrong!)
It then took until the following Monday for them to get the parts in. I dropped the car off on Monday evening and was told someone would ring me once the work had been carried out on the Tuesday. No one rang!! I phoned them at 4pm and was told rather abruptly that some one would ring me once the car was ready. I phoned again at Dinnertime on Wednesday and was told the car had been ready since Tuesday and the servicing manager (Ian) even had the cheek to say he had spoken to me himself the previous day and told me to collect the car (a blatant lie!)
So i went back again and picked the car up, once home i checked the bonnet and found 3 cracks about an inch long on the crease of the bonnet. So again i went back with the car and again delt with Ian, who argued with me for 20 minutes about how his staff had no need to touch the bonnet... they were fixing the bonnet catch, so i'm guessing that they would actually have to do so...?!
I phoned up the following day and said that if they were not willing to fix the bonnet then i would take the car back and cancel the deal as i was still within my 14 day cooling off period, i was then tolthe card i would need to ring customer services, i asked for the telephone number and was put on hold, then lo-an-behold i was asked to take the car down on the next Saturday for the general manager to have a look and see if there was anything they could do.
I took the car down and was then asked to wait until Monday so he could speak with Ian. The phone call on Monday was no suprise, they could not do anything as they did not believe they were responsible.
Over all i am very dissapointed in their service, once they have your signature on their paper they are no longer interested in looking after you. The sales staff are great but the servicing staff are very poor and i am very dissapointed with the car. I would never recomend them to anyone and would never go back to them for any work to be carried out.
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I think loads of companies are the same, once they have your money then they dont care about aftercare.
Amazingwoo 01.10.2008 14:01
For some reason the name Arnold Clark is ringing alarm bells with me. I really hate it when people lie - I'd rather the manager was honest and said that they forgot to call, rather than having the cheek to claim they spoke to you.
Advantages: Good deals possible, special offers, extensive choice. Disadvantages: Bad aftersales, rubbish part exchange valuations, staff not always very knowlegable.
drewboy 03.10.2004 (03.10.2004)
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Review of Arnold Clark
Oct 1st, 2008
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