I'm writing this in the most objective way I can to illustrate the months of sheer hell that my wife and I experienced at the hands of the above dealer.
On February 1st 2004, we found a very nice ford mondeo on the hartwell ford website. We went in and viewed the car and after one and a half hours of haggling with the sales advisor we reached a deal. We signed the relevant paperwork after being assured all was ok with the vehicle.
We arranged to take delivery of the mondeo on saturday 7th february 04 and asked the dealer to tax the car on our behalf as we both work all day.
I checked with the sales advisor on wednesday 4th Feb to see if we were on track for picking up the car on the 7th as agreed...he said yes all is in order. Friday 6th at 4.20pm, we get a phone call stating that there's a problem with taxing the car and we would not be able to pick it up on the agreed day.
This was due to the fact that the car was de-registered and would need re-registering by DVLA before we could tax it. I asked for a time scale and was told this would be done in one week. After several promises from the sales staff to call us with updates, I finally got annoyed on the 19th Feb and asked for clear information on why the process was taking so long.
I was then told it would take a further 6-8 weeks to sort the problems out as the original paperwork for the vehicle needed sourcing from Ford UK. I was totally stunned by this but was determined to get the car so I agreed to wait as the two other options were not that great (ie get a refund and walk away or select a different car).
I wrote to Ford UK, customer relations on two occasions and got various calls back from both the dealer and ford uk stating that everything was progressing nicely.
On the 31st March, I decided to call DVLA to check if the registration process was in progress only to be told that the documents had not yet been submitted by Ford and
there was nothing that could be done by DVLA until the relevant documents were submitted.
I confronted the Sales Manager at Hartwell Scunthorpe to get an explanation of why there was no progress and he basically just grinned at me. I stated that the motor trade federation and my solicitor would be involved after the 16th April if I had not taken delivery of the car by then.
On monday 5th April, I got a call from the very same sales manager stating that the documents were finally submitted and the process would be completed by the 16th as agreed. I am not holding my breath!
On Friday 16th April...the day I was supposed to pick up the car, I had a meeting with the sales guy and the general manager. I got a lot of waffle about it wasn't their fault etc but basically they still didn't have the relevant documents for the registration.
I found out from a third party in the mondeo owners club that another member of the Hartwell sales team told him the deal might not happen at all despite having a 1.5 hour stressful discussion with the two guys that day...I have a complete transcript of this web based discussion saved should I need to use it in the future. This has since been removed from the Hartwell website. Question here is.. why was this information being passed on to other customers?
So anyway, the outcome from the 16th april was that I still didn't have the car and they were saying another 2 weeks possibly. They didn't have any paperwork to hand that can prove that the registration is being processed and when pressed for this info they try to squirm out of providing it.
Legal action was now the next step as I asked what I'd be getting in terms of compensation when this sorry matter comes to a close. They offered a full tank of petrol and a service...pretty generous considering for the amount of grief we've had with them (NOT).
So the bottom line with this is that Hartwell didn't know or even try to find out what was happening and Ford UK did little to help resolve the problem either.
On Friday 30th April, I waited until 4.55pm to see if Hartwell would call me back..I finally lost my patience and called the Sales Manager who happily told me everything had been sorted and he was just about to call me with a registration number which had just been assigned to my vehicle....about bloody time after 3 months.
I arranged to pick the car up on the Bank Holiday monday 3rd May and gave the general manager a list of issues that needed sorting before I picked the car up finally.
Monday 3rd May 04 came and my wife and I went to pick up the car. I gathered up our V5 document, service history and keys etc for our existing Mk2 mondeo which we were putting in part exchange.
We were met by one of the sales staff who was helpful and sat us down to complete the deal. The atmosphere was very icey throughout but we rather expected that after months of problems so we just wanted to get the deal finished and get out the door quickly.
My wife handed over the documents and items belonging to our existing car and paid the outstanding amount owing on the car whilst I went to the lockup to check that all the outstanding issues were sorted to my satisfaction.
She also handed in 2 slips (one for £50 cashback for recommending a new customer and another £50 cashback to the person who recommended us as a customer). This is a reward scheme designed to get existing customers to recommend new customers. But as of the 30th June 04, neither party has got the £50 reward cheque...again I'm not holding my breath for this.
Anyway, back to the car pickup...A couple of bits were missing (the blank service booklet, towing eye and the spare wheel securing device) but the sales lady got those sorted out fairly quickly.
When we had signed all the relevant paperwork, the helpful salesman who met us when we arrived, came over, smiled and pointed out that I was required to sign additional paperwork relating to the registration change in order to cover Hartwell Fords back.
I refused to do this as it was not part of the original agreement (and had been advised accordingly by my solicitor, who I had to disturb twice at home due to the problems on the pickup day) so the salesman informed me that Hartwell would not release the vehicle to me until I had completed the papers they wanted signing.
Now remember whats just happened here, I have handed over my car, keys, v5 and all documents and just switch paid in excess of £5k and now they're holding my new car until I sign additional paperwork....hmmm sounds a bit dodgy to me!
I eventually got to speak to the general manager (most likely because I was kicking up a fuss in the saleroom whilst other customers were in close proximity) about this problem who reluctantly said I could take the car and I drove away. The car is great and I'm very happy with it but the bank holiday incident just finished it for me!
The saga does not end there though. I waited until the 24th May for the V5 document to turn up , it didnt, so I called DVLA who told me that Ford had registered the car in their name and the V5 had gone back to Ford so I would have to contact them for the v5.
I called the general manager at Hartwell Scunthorpe and asked for the document to be sent to me. He promised to follow it up and told me to give it about a week as it may be in their internal post. I did this but its not turned up to this day.
I finally got totally hacked off with the whole business and called the general manager asking for £19 to get a replacement. He agreed and a couple of days later, my wife popped into Hartwell Scunthorpe to pick up the money. She was offered the £19 or a £25 fuel voucher, so she took the voucher.
On the 29th June 04, I was totally stunned when I got a letter from the general manager saying he was concerned about my comments on Ciao and wanted to clarify once more why there was a delay and that they did everything they could to help. He finished up by saying my posting was unfair but if there were any problems, please contact him....I'll be doing that very soon.
In summary the facts are
5 Months from start to finish to purchase a second hand mondeo from a Ford Dealer..now you decide is this an acceptable amount of time to wait for a car??
Hartwell Scunthorpe claim to this day, they don't know why it took so long...have they thought about finding out why so it doesn't happen to anyone else??
Give serious consideration before handing over any of your hard earned cash to this dealer. They are really nice until you have a problem (of any sort) and then give poor customer service They also don't solve problems quickly when they arise.
I've had my last car in their body shop 5 seperate times for the same problem as they didn't fit my front bumper correctly each time.
To top it all off, they've now got my last car advertised on their web site with the wrong milage...I rest my case...some people never learn by their mistakes.I've written to the general manager and asked what compensation I'll be getting for the months of hassle, I'll update this when I get a response!
Go to a different dealer and save yourself a lot of grief..thats what I'll be doing next time I need to change my car!
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13.12.2004 13:17
You sound as if you have been very restrained - I believe you are allowed to cross-post in Buyers Beware - check with Ciao! support. You have had an enormous amount of non-member reads - no wonder Ford aren't too happy with you. I hope you have received some compensation by now and will soon update... jes ≈≈≈≈{; -)-{{:::{||||||<
08.04.2004 00:19
I think I'll stay away then - Welcome to Ciao... K xxx
07.04.2004 23:18
I drive past this place every day, and all that had registered was how overpriced their cars seem. Now I know they combine this with such superb service, they really seem an irresistible proposition. Thanks for the warning. Paul