NBoonham

The thing is when I called them on the original delivery date they had to discuss with the manager. Then they came back and said there were issues with the engine and it delayed delivery. By some miracle, from that date the delivery followed the exact time line they initially told me. This makes me suspect they simply forgot to order the vehicle first time, in fact the guy I did the deal with had left by then, so it’s possible he forgot. The engine delay story may have been to cover this up, there weren’t problems reported when I ordered or it seems after then. In the mean time I had a car at the end of its lease that they were taking in PX and their first thought was that I should just wait and the lease car was my problem. They then agreed to take the lease car but leaving us without a car. Finally, after a lot of complaining they agreed to take the car and rented me a Citygo. I asked if there were other vehicles like we ordered in the dealership network, they said there were not. This also appeared to be untrue, because when I phoned around the first DMKeith I called (Grimsby) had two - the same spec but more expensive (£500) paint colour. When I bought this up they said they could transfer my account to Grimsby but only if I paid for the paint. Fair enough, but for £500 I thought they could have solved the problem there and then, since I didn’t care what colour the car was and the problem was caused by them not me. At the very least had they called around like they said, then they might have given us the option - perhaps they just assumed we wouldn’t want to pay the extra. Instead I rented a Citygo off them for three months which wasn’t very convenient as I was switching from a Fiesta to an estate due to the need to fit larger child seats, something I had to delay for 3 months. So as I said, I suspect several instances where they said missleading things (obviously I can’t be sure they outright lied though that would be one interpretation if you were being unkind) and there were three months of inconvenience caused by their poor service.

Thanks everyone for the further feedback and suggestions of better dealers in my area next time around I will canvas views in advance - lesson learned !!! I should stress that my experience is with the York branch. The other branch I phoned was Grimsby and they were really helpful and bent over backwards to try and help - sourcing a car from outside the dealer network and making it available to the York branch. Who still maintain it can’t be done. The irony however continues, I decided to post some reviews of my experience on line. As a result the branch phoned today to ask: Why I posted bad reviews ? Would I post more ? And why did I call the Grimsby branch ? When I asked if they thought they had delivered good customer care, they thought they had because they were renting us a car - at my cost, to get them out of a hole for failing to tell me my car wasn’t arriving for another 3-5 months (on top of the 3 months I have waited already). Apparently this is them doing me a favour. They said they would look out for a car in a different colour now (this wasn’t seemingly an option last week) but the metallic paint would cost £19 extra per month. I suggested they should pay for it to make up for the hassle. They said no chance. Maybe I am missing something here, I honestly thought that I was the customer and the best option they keep coming back to is for me to cancel. As much as I would love to I would then be without a car till another dealer sorted one out. Completely gobsmacked !!!

Bingo - thank you Colin !!

Sorry - new to this forum, I posted yesterday and some helpful responses, but I can reply to my own topic which is really frustrating. If I go into other topics a box appears at the bottom to enable me to reply, but not on my own one ?? Hope you can help !!

Ordered a car here and paid a deposit in February, I was told I would receive regular updates but didn't hear anything. A couple of weeks prior to my Ford PCP expiring I called them up - they said they would call back but didn't. A week later I called again to find that the car was delayed till somewhere between July/September !!! When I asked about my expiring PCP they said I had two options - buy a car that was £5K more expensive or cancel my order - which would leave me carless. Basically that was it. After significant complaining they eventually 'rented' us a Citigo (we ordered an estate !!). They claimed they couldn't access any cars of the spec we ordered within the dealership, but I called another branch who had two cars and after explaining the situation they contacted the York branch to say they were available and could be transferred. When I called, they claimed this wasn't true and they couldn't get me a car. Essentially they simply can't be bothered to help me out, anything they could do would cost them money, the cars from the other branch are a more expensive colour and they don't want to pay the £595 to put the situation right. When I spoke to the head of the branch he said selling new cars doesn't make any money so basically they aren't going to do anything if it costs them money. He also said the branch was basically struggling to retain customers - which in retrospect is pretty ironic ! I get the impression they would rather I walked away rather than purchase a car from them, I have never encountered such poor service and complete lack of interest or engagement in solving a problem or apologising even for a problem they caused - completely staggering. Needless to say I wouldn't recommend this branch of DM Keith to anyone.