READ HERE WHAT SOME PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY
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ARNOLD CLARK AUTOMOBILES LTD
Crow road sold my friend's an Audi A4. after only one week
it has defective suspension, and a fuel computer which
has never
worked. As I found out from our friendly Audi dealer, the
fuel
computer is integrated with the electronics with the
immobilizer
system. which may explain why the car locked the keys
& an eight
month old baby inside the car.
the only way to get wee Nicole out fast was to break a
window.
As you could imagine, My friend & her baby, in fact
everyone
involved in the rescue were extremely upset.
On phoning the salesman to complain about these
unacceptable
faults his reply was, "it was F***ing stupid leaving
the keys in
the car".
This was not the reply you expect my friend had just
placed her
baby into her car seat, shut the door & the bloody
car locked.
We complained to the sales manager, Area manager& up
the chain of
command we went and between them all they couldn't give a
collective f**ck.
So looks like we will have to pull out the BIG GUNS!!
I bought a Volkswagen fro A.C. a couple of years ago. I
found dealing with them was
a complete fiasco.
Nice clean car but didn’t take long for the problems to
become apparent. Nothing that six return visits to A.C.
couldn't fix. To be
fair, I would expect a three-year-old car to show some
signs of wear and tear. And I
am not shocked to read here that mechanics do not check
cars before they are sold.
I am not going to blab on about the details but after
driving five minutes they
were pretty obvious. I fail to see the value add here
from what is a Volkswagen
main dealer.
A.C fixed the problems, just a pity I had to jump through
hoops
to reach that point.
However the whole experience was more pantomime than
motor-trade. I had many of the same problems outlined
here, Salesman vanishing
after I signed on the dotted line, wrong parts being
delivered, phone calls
never returned.
What did make me laugh though was a couple of month later
I
get the "follow up" letter asking my opinion of
the service from A.C. On the same
day I get a letter from Strathclyde police charging me
with having no tax disk on
the car I had part exchanged with A.C. 2 months previous.
Does the DVLA take two
months to update ownership records?
Car is up for replacement soon, would I
buy from A.C. again? If the price was right, sure. But I
would be ready with the
fine toothcomb before the 30 days warranty expires. To be
fair we should apply
that to every car from any dealer.
Cars are full of moving parts, it is
inevitable that bits will break or fall off. This is not
Arnold Clarks fault. But
I find enlisting his company's support to fix them too
much of a headache
I
am happy with my car and the price I paid but I do
believe that customer service at
A.C is amongst the worst I have ever experienced.
BTW
Customer service
aside.
If, for arguments sake, 10% of used cars sold are dud, is
it not
inevitable that A.C will sell more of them? Is that
really A.C's fault?
What do
you think the company should be doing to solve the
problems listed on this site?
Good point here about the used cars
etc and the same car
should be taken with other dealers. At this point however
is
where Arnolds come into their own. My car was less than
one year
and out of eight faults, they only fixed two. Arnolds
refused etc
etc and inconvenience was indeed extraordinary
considering my
position. At this point, no other garage would have put a
customer through it. I have previously worked for Vardy's
and
Phoenix Nissan a few years ago before getting out of the
game and
I’ll tell you no other dealer would attempt to enrage
customers
with such ease.
I'm glad that you did get your car fixed in
the end which was
indeed a very lucky escape, but to reflect on Arnolds
personal
opinion of his customers he shows no respect for those
who have
gave him their hard money. I did try to get everything
done
inside one month warranty and they kept putting this off
saying
they were too busy etc etc until it ran out and then had
the
service manager of that branch call me at work to
threaten me.
Nice one eh ! Therefore, after months of going to their
customer
services at their head office ( 6 to be exact )I put all
correspondence in one envelope to Arnold himself. What I
didn't
tell him is that I got in touch with Renault UK head
office and
spoke to customer operations director who was very very
much on
my side. Still nothing from Arnold but Renault did their
best but
in the end saying that as it was a pre-reg car when it
came down
to it Arnold was the man.
So I called Arnolds head office again to
speak with the
customer services guy their. Now at this point I should
point out
that I recorded this conversation on my ipaq very good
digital
quality it was too. In the conversation, he quoted that
Arnold
did get my correspondence and that an answer would not be
forthcoming. I asked who would answer me then, the answer
to this
beggars belief. " From what I understand Mr. Clark
doesn't think
my issues warrants an answer " !!!!
I spent my bloody hard earned money
with this man and it cost
me more to fix the shit that was wrong with it and he
went5 back
on his word with regards to the warranty !!! PRICK !
So to answer your question on the site
( god bless the man
who put this together )this site serves people to make a
fully
educated decision on buying a car from Arnolds or not. I
have
also been known to hand out this web address to those I
suspect
may think of buying a car from the old git. If they don't
think
my experience was a one off, then they can log on here
and get
the full picture. Like a service to the community.
So if you want to buy a car from somewhere
that will always
give the best service even if it means loosing money, go
to
Phoenix, it really is unbelievable how well they treat
their
customers. I would just like to point out here that I do
no
longer have any connection to this company, just a bit of
sound
advice from someone who was on the inside.
I bought a Rover 25 4 months ago and have had it back 9
times.
first off I gave them 13 faults first week I had it. Then
I
discovered that the car cut out whenever it felt like it.
I
pointed out that I nearly had an accident because of
this, and
was assured that the car had had an Arnold Clark Rover
approved
service (wow). This week it cut out again, in a tunnel.
The end
result was I hit the car in front, which hit the car in
front of
that. Now Arnold Clark insurance services tell me I'm not
insured as the car was not road worthy. DON'T BUY A CAR
FROM
THIS MAN, HE'S A ROBBER. He'll take your money and leave
you
with a heap of shit.
Come on! Why on earth should we have to jump through
hoops OR
put up with bad service anywhere? Yes, cars get old and
bits
fall off but surely a lot of these problems are not just
wear
and tear?
As for A.C selling more duds that anyone else. well you
got that
right! And yes it is his fault! It doesn't matter if he
sells 1
car or 1 million cars the proper before and after service
and
checks should apply to them ALL. OK you can't please
everyone but
you can at least try!
It doesn't take DVLA 2 months to update records,
that was
Arnold's fault as well for not notifying them in good
time, but
I'm sure that will come as no surprise to anyone!
my megane was serviced at a/c Cumbernauld (Nissan)
after that the engine started cutting out .problem was
transferred to a/c stirling (Renault). after 2 visits it
was
discovered that the wrong spark plugs were fitted.
fingers crossed !
The Motherwell Branch has the most appalling service in
the
dealership..................service dept is crap ......no
customer care whatsoever....
No way I'll be going to Arnie's now though!!
The first car £2000 overpriced so the financial company refused to pay, I was told to find another car at another branch to buy so once again I set off. I found a Nissan Primera at another branch and told them to situation they refused to phone the original branch whom I wanted to buy the car from I was then told in order for the branch to get the car I would have to sign a form so I good faith I did so. However, what I had signed was an order form and this again caused delay and hassle. The car was eventually transferred in mid September and I received a call from my finance company that told me that the speedo had been changed and that they could not verify the mileage. At no point up until this was I told so this deal was off.
As the finance was arranged I quickly found yet another car from a differently branch this time I dealt directly with them and after much time wasting by the salesman three months after I wanted to but a car I was the proud owner of a Peugeot 406. This was the start of another nightmare.
I collected my car at night, and the next morning I noticed it had been scraped along the back and sides, Arnold Clark agreed to do the work, before it could be repaired the car it overheated. So back to the garage for two weeks, I then took the car to work and the brakes failed when I had to stop once again the car went back to the garage, I went to collect it three weeks later to be told that the brakes pads were bedding in, I argued my point and a senior mechanic took the car out came back and told me that the brake master cylinder was faulty, just before new year I got the car back.
On Hogmanay my family and myself went out to celebrate after five minutes we noticed a burning smell and smoke coming from the rear drivers side tyre, once again the brakes had a fault. Once again the car went back to the garage. During this period I had been in constant contact with the finance firm who argued with Arnold Clark to get my car changed, Arnold Clark refused to do so.
I finally had enough and decided to trade it in, only to find out the car was worth less than half that I paid for it so I decided to fight on. When I collect my car I was told by the sales director that even though I had a warranty they were refusing to do anymore work free on the car, I that I was being unreasonable. All I have ever wanted is a car that does not brake down and he was told as such.
I got the car back and within a few days the starter motor went on it this was the final straw. I contacted the general manager of Arnold Clark and the director of the finance company. It was agreed that the car was unroadworthy and I would get to choose a replacement from any branch and it would be done through the branch that sold me the 406. The salesman refuses to take my calls and has done nothing to find me a car and I have had to do his job.
Almost six months after I decided I would be a safe and reliable car through a so-called respectable dealer I am in a worse position than I started. I have just found a Volkswagen Passat and I am getting it inspected so I hope that will be the end of the matter.
Arnold Clark does not deserve its reputation they simply do not care about the car and the customer’s safety once they have got their money.
If you decide to buy a car through them get the car inspected and insist on a 3-6 months warranty and consider taking out a longer one. Take everything they say with a pinch of salt and if anything does go wrong keep a log and contact trading standards and your financial company immediately.
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