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Arnold Clark (Edinburgh) - Seafield, Edinburgh


DGW

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  • 3 months later...

Phoned them twice Re ignition coil replacement campaign,still waiting on them to call back,phoned Chathams at sighthill,could'nt have been nicer on the phone,I,ve to pop in tomorrow so they can check what coils are fitted.Sorry Arnold nil points from me.

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Arnold Clark have only just taken on the Skoda franchise and as far as I know they are still recruiting staff. So far in my negotiations with them they have been fine. As has been mentioned they are not the best at getting back to customers (but this is due to lack of sales staff) and it is a bit disconcerting when they tell you they are a Renault garage when they answer the phone.

I am only 8 weeks in to being a customer (Roomster on order) but will just have to see how things progress.

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Arnold Clark have only just taken on the Skoda franchise and as far as I know they are still recruiting staff. So far in my negotiations with them they have been fine. As has been mentioned they are not the best at getting back to customers (but this is due to lack of sales staff) and it is a bit disconcerting when they tell you they are a Renault garage when they answer the phone.

I am only 8 weeks in to being a customer (Roomster on order) but will just have to see how things progress.

That's my experiance with them in regards to aftersales I phoned up as I needed my windscreen washer fixed at the end of last year, and it was Renault that answered and it was Seat who would fix my car, needless to say I took it to Chatham's (which is not ideal for me as Arnold Clark is a five minute drive from my house) they have been down at Seafield since December with the garage opening in January.

I've only heard one bad review of Arnold Clark from a friend who was looking at a Fabia, the salesman did not want to do business by knocking the price down from £7200 to £7000, so lost a customer who had test driven the fabia and was looking to pay cash that day.

Davu

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  • 3 months later...

I have just taken delivery of my Roomster from this dealership so can now report on my experience with the sales team. The first slight niggle is that every time you phone them you get the Peugeot switchboard who put you through to the Skoda switchboard.

When I ordered my Roomie back on March I was given an expected delivery in June and an estimated trade-in figure for my car, which the paper work stated could increase. During my 21 week wait for the car AC have only been able to blame Skoda for any issues and Skoda Customer Service in turn have told me they can give me no more information than my dealer.

Having been made to wait 21 weeks by Skoda for the car I was given a turn around time of 4 working days to take delivery. AC notified me the car had arrived on Monday and I HAD to collect it on the Thursday due to some 10 day turn around time rule (which I am not sure is imposed by Skoda or AC). When I went in to go through the paperwork I was informed that my trade in was now worth £500 less than the paperwork stated and there is nothing AC can do about this. I also enquired about the 18 week compensation payment from Skoda which AC were unaware was no longer available as Skoda had not informed them about the change in policy for 2011 orders.

During conversations with the sales team it appears all AC care about is taking orders and hitting sales targets (this is what all their team meetings are about and how they are pushed by Skoda and AC management). They have no interest in honouring deals or working in conjunction with Skoda UK to keep customers informed or happy.

I will be writing to both AC and Skoda UK with my experiences but I do not expect they will be interested, which is really a shame as the way I have been treated has taken the shine off of my first Skoda purchasing/ownership experience.

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I have just taken delivery of my Roomster from this dealership so can now report on my experience with the sales team. The first slight niggle is that every time you phone them you get the Peugeot switchboard who put you through to the Skoda switchboard.

When I ordered my Roomie back on March I was given an expected delivery in June and an estimated trade-in figure for my car, which the paper work stated could increase. During my 21 week wait for the car AC have only been able to blame Skoda for any issues and Skoda Customer Service in turn have told me they can give me no more information than my dealer.

Having been made to wait 21 weeks by Skoda for the car I was given a turn around time of 4 working days to take delivery. AC notified me the car had arrived on Monday and I HAD to collect it on the Thursday due to some 10 day turn around time rule (which I am not sure is imposed by Skoda or AC). When I went in to go through the paperwork I was informed that my trade in was now worth £500 less than the paperwork stated and there is nothing AC can do about this. I also enquired about the 18 week compensation payment from Skoda which AC were unaware was no longer available as Skoda had not informed them about the change in policy for 2011 orders.

During conversations with the sales team it appears all AC care about is taking orders and hitting sales targets (this is what all their team meetings are about and how they are pushed by Skoda and AC management). They have no interest in honouring deals or working in conjunction with Skoda UK to keep customers informed or happy.

I will be writing to both AC and Skoda UK with my experiences but I do not expect they will be interested, which is really a shame as the way I have been treated has taken the shine off of my first Skoda purchasing/ownership experience.

I think it boils down to AC's work practices which are notoriously questionable regardless of marque sold. Good for car hire steer clear of any other services ar sales they offer IMHO.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Tried phoning to book my Yeti in for it's first service, girl answered phone "Arnold Clark Renult" , " I will put you through to the Skoda service dept." even though I dialed the Skoda service dept. Number??? Will service dept answer phone?....NO. That's it Arnold you've had your chance, im off to Chathams with my business. :thumbdown:

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  • 2 months later...

I doubt that there is a worse garage to take a car to than Arnold Clark.

A recent visit to investigate an ABS warning light turned in to a monumental disaster. First the car had a warning light but in no way affected the driving, after they expertly poked about decided it needed a new hub at the front. simple enough.

Went to collect the car, was assured that the work had been done and it was all ok. Got in the car to find the power assisted steering non operational, the speedo not working and the engine management warning light on. but in their defence they had managed to get the ABS light off!

When I challenged them on what they had done, they explained that the manger and senior technician had left (cant blame them), as the senior tech was the only person who had any relevant experience (being that he had been trained by Audi, not Skoda though) they had done the work according to his old job card, but not actually checked to see if it had been a success. This work had been carried out by the trainee chavvs from peugeot.

If you take your skoda, to be worked on by a skoda dealer, I think it is reasonable to think that the spanner wielders will be skoda trained. But with Arnold Clark this is not the case.

The eventual compromise was that they took the car to a seat dealer that actually had a vag trained tech. Since getting it back with three new hubs and a new ABS system... grr... it has been checked over by West End Garage in Broxburn (who are in a different league I hasten to add) and is back to its usual self.

I know that this is a bit of a rant, but I want want Skoda owners to know, If you use Arnold Clark servicing, you get Arnold Clark mechanics,

and that in no way guarantees they know what they are doing...

Edited by sullivan
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Smart practice is to buy the car from AC ...

Are you quite, quite, sure? AC are not known as A Shark for nothing!! :giggle: :giggle:

I tried them and they were several thousand out on doing a half decent deal on a new vehicle, and nearly £1,000 adrift just on a trade-in price.

For some people, it's easy come - easy go; but for me, it's my hard-earned money and I'm looking for good value, integrity and great service before parting with my money.

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  • 4 months later...

Looks like they are making some progress as nothing but good things to report from me!

My Octy managed to 'swallow' my phone on the way to Edinburgh when visiting family. I had put the phone on the lid of the ashtray and a bump in the road made the flap go open, resulting in my phone sliding BEHIND the ashtray, unable for me to get to it.

Panick all round as it had address details etc in it. Phoned my company's leasing company who said: 'driver error, not our problem'.

So there I was somewhere between York and Edinburgh without a phone.

We searched the net (on my wife's phone) and found AC in Edinburgh as being the most convenient one. Went straight there and I must say the servic was amazing.

Ok, we couldn't see the service department at first so walked into the showroom where they were super friendly and helpful. Service team came out and they again were really nice. They prepared me for worst case scenario (an hours work with relevant labour costs) and asked me if it was ok for me to wait in the s****y showroom with the great view across the firth (which I gladly did as I really needed the phone).

In the end, they managed to get it out very quickly and I was able to continue my journey.

Overall it was an amazingly pleasant experience. Great service, nice people and excellent result. Thumbs up from me for AC Edinburgh!

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  • 1 year later...

Smart practice is to buy the car from AC but get service done elsewhere.

 

Funnily enough my wife agrees with you (it's her Roomster, I'm still driving a Ford!). She bought her used Roomster from AC Seafield, but since she bought one of those AC "Service Plans" it gets serviced at the local AC complex, which happens to be Honda, (nothing against Seafield, just too far to drive to and fro for service). Not much in the way of complaints about that (Honda) dealer - apart from they managed to screw up the EGR sensor by giving the old Roomie a fuel treatment. At least they did sort that out (multiple visits needed) free of charge. Car also gets valeted when we collected it, and the Honda dudes will even collect it for you if needs be.

 

Not sure though that I'll be letting them near my Skoda when I get it next year. :p

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  • 4 years later...

Just ordered my Fabia S Estate from this branch. Salesman from start to finish was good, he worked for the Peugeot branch joined onto skoda and seat and knew his stuff, let us try prams in a yeti and a 17 plate Fabia S estate.  He worked out prices for us while we were looking around the 17 plate and came back and said we could get a brand new one cheaper than his demo which included a servicing plan and optional parking sensors.

 

He did try to get us a SE model but the cost was too high for our budget.

 

Because we had kids he allowed me and my wife to go out on separate test drives. 

 

Bought cars ares from Arnold Clark before and this has to be my best sales experiance from them. 

 

Davy

 

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