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Robert Eardley & Son (Stoke)


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Ok heres my review........

Was looking to downgrade (no flaming posts please, the Fabia i got is a brilliant motor) - from my 2011 Audi TT-RS which to be fair was a supercar running at 415bhp, but i wanted something cheaper yet something that still had plenty of poke....... hence why i decided to go for a lovely 2010 Fabia vRS.

I found one i was interested in at Robert Eardley and Son (Stoke) 17 miles from where i live.

Cut a long story short, i went in, did a deal i was happy with, jobs a good one :)

Now....... the Fabia i bought was on Autotrader at the time, and i had also had a good look at it a few weeks prior to me buying as i stopped and had a look when passing by, so i knew what it looked like, spec etc..... . The day before i was due to pick the car up i was asked to come in and sign all the paperwork. Not a problem. But before i left i wanted to see the car to make sure i was 100% happy before they handed it over to me the following day.

As we approached the car which was parked / hidden around the back of the dealership, i noticed it didnt have the Black Gigaro 17" alloys on, which were on the car a week or two previous, and advertised on the Skoda website and Autotrader with pictures.

I wasnt happy and asked if these could be swapped before i turn up the following day, but no matter what i asked the dealer, and his boss said nothing could be done now as they didnt have anymore in stock and they were taken off as somebody else walked in and wanted some black alloys a week earlier. Must be some trade act against that??

As i stand today, im still waiting on a phone call to come in and get the Black Alloys fitted (i doubt that phone call will come!!)

Next thing which royally p***ed me off was that they took my TT-RS off me as part ex and the salesman told me that they would pay my finance off 2 days later. I trusted the salesman (how silly of me!) but made it very clear if he didnt i would in 2 weeks time be due to pay another, wait for it, ....... £800 as that was my monthly bill to Audi.

I called this Salesman 3 days later and he assured me that it was paid and that the payment had been sent, dont worry about it Paul, its all covered. I called Audi constantly for the next week to see if they had received the payment and they hadnt.

Unfortunately for me then, i had to go away for 3-4 days and when i came back, low and behold..... my bank account was £800 short!

I called Skoda once again and they confirmed it had been sent, i called Audi and they confirmed it hadnt been received.

For the next week i kept checking to see if the payment had been received by Audi and it hadnt, it came to the point i asked the Finance manager on the phone for Audi to call Skoda herself and demand the money as it sounded like Skoda were just fobbing me off. She agreed....... called Skoda........ then called me back 5 mins later......... and she said....... ''They are going to send the money tomorrow first thing!!''

I nearly had a fit...... the cheeky so-and-so's had bull5hitted me for the past 2-3 weeks!!

In the end the payment was made....... but as of today (12/03/12) nearly a month into vRS ownership, im STILL £800 down, although im due to receive it back later this week!

Paul / RockyVRS

PS - I didnt cancel my DD when i got rid of the car as my Dad has had a few Audis in the past and when he has done that he has received fines from Audi

Edited by RockyVRS
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Learned last week that Mr Eardley retired in Jan and has sold the busines to a dealership based in Stoke. Could be SEAT, but don't quote me.

Always received good customer service under whilst owned by Mr Eardley, so hopefully it will continue (recent issues with the Columbus unit aside).

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  • 2 months later...

This dealership is now part of the Barlow Motors Group (Wolverhampton Seat dealership and Stoke Seat dealership)

I Ordered my yeti from them in October 2011 - eventually got it on March 2012 - Salesman kept me up to date and they gave me a good PX price for the Seat Altea (And agreed to keep the price even though the yeti took 5 months to get here)

I haven't used them for servicing yet - we shall see how good they are then.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Eardley's saved me from the total incompetence of a Skoda dealership south of their garage (same county).

A repair to my Skoda had been attempted on 5 occasions by those others, I was fibbed to and fobbed off until I had to change garage.

The Eardley's staff where much more professional in attitude and gave me confidence that they would find the problem and put it right. I was not disappoined - they did an excellent job.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Posted here back in March when I learned that Mr Eardley had retired and sold the business. Being the closest dealer to work it made good sense to use them and I always received good service from them.

Since the change of hands all the old staff seem to have moved on and service is not as good. The icing on the cake came yesterday when the engine management light came on on the dash. The response from the Service Department at Eardley's was to ring Skoda Assist and ask them to recover me to another dealer, since they couldn't look at the car for another week. Not a lot of use I thought!!

I spoke to Faintree directly afterwards and they looked at the car this morning at 8.30, the part is on order and wil be fitted on Friday - now that's what I call service :-)

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  • 3 weeks later...

See my previous comments at the top. Since then i would never use them again.... change of hands or not!

Even though they are definitely not the closest, i now travel to Mitchells Cheshire Oaks Skoda and they have treated me alot better!!! So much so i traded in the Fabia for a Octavia vRS last week :)

Paul

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  • 1 month later...

I had my Monte from them when it was owned by Mr Eardley, excellant. service but.....noticed my rear drums were rusting so decided to paint them, could I get the wheels off ,could I hell , seized on, no probs, I thought I will pop in Eardleys and ask them to just loosen them.

The attitude of the Service manager was abysmal kept saying it wasn't a warranty issue and I would have to pay, what about customer loyalty and satisfaction I said he replied you will have to pay.I explained that it is a fault and it was dangerous to try and remove a seized wheel with just a side jack , his answer was call Skoda Direct , they have lost another customer with their attitude.

?

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  • 1 year later...

Unlikely to buy another Skoda based on their poor service performance. Always 2-3 visits to fix any fault. In flexible, only offer fabia as a loan car. I drive an Octavia as I have a boot full of tools to carry for work which won't fit in a Fabia. Different Service reception staff every visit. Always keep you waiting for ages to finish paperwork! Keep ringing and e-mail to book car in for an MOT and it's only two years old!

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  • 4 months later...

Bought a service plan from Eardleys for my 10 plate Fabia 1.2 TSI SE in July 2012.  Had to badger Stoke to get them to give me any info about the service plan (both Crewe and Stoke Eardleys previously ignored emails) and then the chap in the showroom (I think I decided to go in as I was sick of waiting for a reply) gave the impression he'd never heard of, let alone sold, a service plan before. 

 

He then gave me misleading and/or conflicting info and seemed totally unsure of himself.  He was no spring chicken and seemed to have worked there a while.  He also indicated it was necessary to wait around 3 weeks for the plan to be registered (or something along those lines) before the first service could be done - slight pain as I needed the service fairly sharpish.  The whole thing was a bit of a farce for what should (I would have thought) be pretty easy.  Even paying for it was a rigmarole as I recall.

 

I should have just left and gone elsewhere, but Crewe had seemed even more 'half arsed' in my limited dealings with them and I wanted a main dealer stamp (not sure why - no-one seems to care much these days), so after half an hour or more of this, I bought the plan just to be done with it.

 

On one of the services, I went out of my way to avoid having a courtesy car as I worked fairly locally at the time.  When I phoned to ask if it was ready to collect, I was told the service team were going in to a meeting soon, so it would help if I got there sooner (than they'd mentioned in the morning when I dropped the car off).  I changed plans and left work early to get there sooner as requested and - you've guessed it - "it's not ready yet, sir".  When I queried how it could not be ready because the service team should by that time be in their urgent and very important meeting, I can't remember what the reply was but I'm fairly sure it smelled a bit.  Another half hour or more wait.

 

I've just realised that they haven't done all the work they should have done on the 2 services - they haven't cleaned the rear drum brakes on either service.

 

I now need another service plan.  Eardleys emailed me on Sunday saying a service was due and to get in touch.  I emailed them Monday - no reply.  I sent an enquiry via their web enquiry thingy (which I think claims they'll get back to you in 24 hours) on their website yesterday lunchtime - no reply.  They now only have an 0843 number and I can only contact them on a mobile (I work out of the area now) so I'm reluctant to make a call which won't come out of my allowance and may cost me £4 or £5 by the time they put me on hold and arse around for a while, particularly when I've already emailed them twice.  Their service plan looks reasonable value on their website at £299 for 2 services / 20,000 miles.  However, just typing this has reminded me that most of my dealings with them have been a PITA, so I think it's off to a local independent for me.  I'll ask Eardleys to do the drum brakes that they should have done (and have been paid for through the plan), but otherwise, I don't think I'll bother with them.

 

I'm thinking of trading up to an Octy VRS, but don't think I'll trouble them with that either.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 months later...

Just had all 4 glow plugs on my 2006 fabia vrs changed here and touch wood no issues, i rang my usual garage but they refused to do it as the thread is sensitive, next garage wasnt sure they could do it but Skoda accepted and booked me in straight away for all in all £60. Pretty chuffed. I use these for all my parts and they're great only issue is in certain knowledge on what should be fitted such as calliper springs they argued wouldnt fit, but do. Pretty happy with their service overall.

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