DO NOT BUY A VEHICLE FROM CAR SHOP!!!!

I recently purchased a car from the Swindon outlet and have had six weeks of hell.
Firstly the business manager was a lying, deceitful person who would say anything to get a deal, once a deal was agreed he did not give any form of customer care! with promises of updates and phone calls that never materialised for a whole week!

When I finally picked up the vehicle there was no fuel in it and they would not put any in it for me (it was so empty the engine spluttered down the road) and it was far from roadworthy with a defective brakes that pulled the vehicle into oncoming traffic, (this fault was raised on my test drive and nothing done about it)
Then proceeded 5 days of more lies and indecisive customer service before a decision was made on how and where to fix the fault, all the time I have to chase them and I have to drive around in a dangerous car.

Customer services are understaffed and overworked therefore breeding a culture of lies, not once have I had an apology from any form of manager or compensation for my time and effort.

My vehicle is now in there workshops for the third time, on all occasions I have been lied to and have to chase customer services for updates all the time! and every time I have not received an apology for the way I have been treated.

Therefore I would not recommend buying a car from (in my opinion) this lying, bullying, deceitful company, who clearly don't care about their customers who are in the majority hard working families that are strapped for cash, it is rotten from the sales floor to the customer services!

Purchased a car 4 weeks ago, but I'm still waiting to take delivery!

It is now four weeks since I purchased a new vehicle from the Carshop, but I am still waiting to collect it! In those 4 weeks the Carshop have only initiated communication with me ONCE to offer an explanation for the delay. Their customer service and level of communication has been appalling. They were very quick to take my money and my part exchange vehicle but so far they have failed to provide the product I have paid for. If you value your sanity, stay as far away from this company as you can.

My story......

Wednesday 13/3/13 - I reserve an Alfa Romeo Mito on line and book a test drive for 10am Saturday 16/3/13

Saturday 16/3/13 - I go for a test drive and agree to purchase the vehicle. I am also part exchanging an old vehicle as part of the deal. I am told that the Mito is not ready to drive away as it needs to be valeted, but that it would be ready for me to collect on Monday 18/3/13 so I provisionally agree to return on Monday evening to pay for and collect the car.

Monday 18/3/13- I phone Kevin Bryant (Carshop finance department) mid afternoon to check that the car is now ready to collect. Kevin confirms that all is OK so we agree to meet at 5.30pm. I phone my car insurance provider and arrange for my policy to be swapped over from my old car to the Mito from 6pm. I arrive and meet with Kevin at 5.30pm as previously arranged. Kevin takes my payment and directs me over to the vehicle pickup/drop-off area. When I get to the pick up area I am advised that the car is not available! Surely Kevin knew that the car was not ready before he took my money? The Carshop apologise and tell me that the car will be ready in 24 hours. As compensation for the delay they say they will give me a full tank of fuel. I leave empty handed, still driving my old car that I now have no insurance for.

Tuesday 19/3/13 - I phone Kevin Bryant at 3pm to check that vehicle is now ready to collect. Kevin doesn't know, but agrees to find out. He phones me back at 4.45pm to say "There's some good news and there's some bad news......". Apparently the car is still not ready and will be delayed by a further 2 days, but as compensation for the further delay he tells me that the Carshop will service the car free of charge. The reason for this extra delay is unclear.

Thursday 21/3/13 - I arrive at the Carshop to collect my car at 5.30pm. I hand over the keys and log book etc of my old car that is being part exchanged. I am then told that, whilst servicing the Mito, The Carshop had broken one of the glow plugs. This was a specialist repair so they were going to have to send the car away to be fixed. Apparently this damage occurred "literally 10 minutes before I arrived to collect the car", so they hadn't had time to phone me to let me know the car wasn't ready. As The Carshop had just taken my old car in p/x they give now me a Chrysler Delta courtesy car to use until the repair is complete.

Monday 1/4/13 - I have heard nothing from The Carshop for 11 days. It is now two weeks since I paid for (and should have collected) my new vehicle.

Tuesday 2/4/13 - By this point I have heard nothing from the Carshop for 12 days, so I decide to pay them a visit to find out what's going on. I am told by Adrian in the service department that, whilst repairing the glow plug (which required they cylinder head to be removed), they had "discovered" that an injector was also broken so the car is still not available. Adrian advises that the car is currently in Milton Keynes but should be available for me to collect within the next "1 to 2 days". He promises to phone me every day with updates.

Wednesday 3/4/13 - I receive a telephone call from Adrian at 2pm (this is the first time that The Carshop has made any attempt to contact me directly since I paid for the car on 19th March!) Adrian advises that the car still in Milton Keynes and estimates that it would be at least two more days until it can be collected.

Saturday 6/4/13 – I have heard nothing from the Carshop for 3 days so I pay them a visit at 10am and speak to Matt Jones (customer experience manager) and Kevin Bryant. I give them an ultimatum - either the car is ready for me to collect by Monday evening 8/4/13 or I will have my money back. I also tell Kevin that I expect The Carshop to give me an extended warranty as compensation for the delay. He declines, saying the vehicle warranties are provided by a third party, so The Carshop can't give them away. He tells me the most he can offer is a 3 month warranty. According to the Carshop website, every car they sell comes with a 3 month warranty so he was basically offering me nothing extra.

Monday 8/4/13 - I hear nothing from The Carshop so I phone Kevin Bryant at 4.30pm to check that the car is available to collect. Kevin doesn't know so goes away to find out. 30 minutes later her calls me back and says it's still not ready but 100% guarantees that it will be ready the following day. I agree to give them a further 24 hours to get the car ready.

Tuesday 9/4/13 - I arrive at the Carshop to collect my car at 5.30pm. I am met by John Ruskin (retail manager) who tells me that the car is still not ready. He apologises for the delay and tells me that the Mito is still not available, but that it will be ready for the weekend (hopefully sooner).

Monday 15/4/13 – It is now 6 days since I last heard anything from the Carshop. It is exactly four weeks since I paid for and should have collected my new vehicle. I am still waiting……..

Great service

From start to end we were very satisfied with our dealings / experience with The Car Shop in Northampton. We needed a replacement vehicle quickly and were on a fairly tight budget. We were also quite weary of car dealerships due to previous bad experiences. The live video online shop "thingy" that the Car shop offer meant we were able to view to car the night before online to avoid disappointment - all looked fine, so we made to 20 or so mile journey up the next afternoon. All the staff were friendly and willing to go the extra mile especially one of the Managers (I think Andy was his name). He got one of the staff to drive us to get our Tax disc in his car, as we were running out of time - in fact we only made it with seconds to spare! That was greatly appreciated, as it would have meant making the journey again the next day otherwise. We love our 59 reg Citroen Berlingo, (which had less than 16000 miles on the clock when we got it in Dec 2012 and cost under £7000 if I remember correctly) and we’ve have had no issues to date. Thanks to all at The Car Shop Northampton for restoring our faith in the car sales industry!

I have just purchased a 207 from Swindon.They have been very good, and I will DEFINITELY and actively refer them to my colleagues and friends

I made my initial enquiry through one of the business managers, Nadeem. This man was extremely helpful, and yes I know he earns commission off my sale and finance application, but his attitude was that I am not going to let you go until we have both got a deal we are happy with. The car which I have purchased was in Cardiff, but one of the salesmen, I think his name was Mo, has gone to Cardiff, bought the car back to Swindon, presumably has had it valeted and serviced, and his boss Neil, who I have plagued the life out of, has kept me in touch every single inch of the way. I can understand with an operation of this size that occasionaly problems will arise, that is life. God willing it will not happen with my purchase, but I am of the opinion that if it does, all I will have to do is pick up the phone and something will be done.
Would I return to the Carshop Swindon, answer 101% yes, will I buy again from them, again 101% yes. Good attitude and customer service from the top down. Well done!

Warranty not worth the paper it's printed on !! NOT HELPFUL AT ALL

We bought an AUDI A4 Cabriolet 2007(57) with 3 year extended warranty
Oil Pump failed due to Sudden failure, Engine seized RAC warranty and Car Shop didn't give a toss and didn't cover repairs, LAST TIME I EVER GO IN THERE!!

Wave goodbye to £13k I had only had the car 18 months!!!

Straightforward, thorough and honest

This was a well thought out approach to car buying. Having established a budget and 'must haves' for our next verhicle we were offered several matches from a massive choice. Having decided which one appealed the most we had a good test drive and proper look round. All questions were answered promptly and openly. The buying process was simple, straightforward and thorough and the prices did seem to be competitive. The salesman even left us to look up similar cars for sale on the 'net and get a valuation from Parker's - can't say fairer than that. We'd recommend Carshop Swindon highly and will definitely be back, but not just yet!

Pleasure to do business with

Quick and efficient service. Really friendly staff,couldn't do enough for me. Went above and beyond,car was mot'd and beautifully valeted ready to drive away in a couple of days.
I even needed some new tyres on the car which they fitted free of charge. Would definitely purchase from the Swindon branch again.

Very poor customer service

Avoid this lot like the plague, not interested in customer service. I am in process of going through small claims court because they know they are in the wrong but believe law is on their side and are therefore uninterested.

Piss poor customer service

As soon as they grab your money they couldnt give a monkeys about customer service.

Bunch of thieves. Deeply dubious sales tactics to force warranties and loans which are cheaper elsewhere even when i stated i did not want them. They claim they are legally obliged to inform me about all these overpriced additional costs and i was subjected to 90 minutes of this rubbish even though i continually said NO. Read carefully about the APR on the finance as they claimed it was 4.5% yet the form clearly said 10.9%!!!

Paid on the day, and waited all day for a confirmation that i could collect the car. Because nobody bothered to phone head office within office hours (even though i had reminded them 6 times over the day) to check they had recieved it. Wasted a day of my time and would not offer to cover the cost of wasted journeys due to their incompetance.

The sales people are sweetness and light, till they get your money and then they are just rude and arrogant. Deeply unpleasant people.

Hairy Monster found this review useful

THEY LIED AND SOLD ME A DUD VECTRA ESTATE. AFTER SALES IS CRAP ,THEY DONT GIVE A SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

there swingling wankers DO NOT TOUCH THE CAR SHOP NORTHAMPTON

Hairy Monster and Sarah Smith found this review useful