Worst dealership experience ever. Wood BMW of Bournemouth.

[DaveI]

The only time I've ever had a dodgy experience with a salesman was when i went to buy an ex police Cavalier SRi when I was about 19, sales fella basically wouldn't even entertain me and tried to sell me a lovely Pug 306 Diesel instead, much more in my price range apparently.

Went to another garage and bought a Cavalier 2.0 CDX instead.

Lately sales people have been brilliant whilst face to face, only Skoda have failed to come back with promised pricing etc.

[RainbowFire]

Got my Octavia from Sherlodge in Oct '11. Had originally just been nosing around the forecourt on a sunday morning walk to get the veg and papers. The saleswoman, came out, introduced herself asked if she could help ("not at the moment thanks") and then if I did want any help, she's inside, straight in front of the door. Saw a green '06 L&K 2.0 DSG on the forecourt that I quite like the look of, popped inside, "can I have a test drive of the L&K please?" "certainly sir, when?" "Is Friday at 9 ok?" (as hade the day off). "No problem".

Pitched up at 9, was handed the keys, with almost a "off you go" type friendly attitude. Quite surprised that she didn't want to come along as well, but there you go. Took the car out for a couple of hours. Got back: "what did you think?" etc etc "got another couple to look at though". Following week traded a couple of e-mails on price, knocked off a couple of hundred and threw in 6 months tax. (Wasn't overly impressed with the deal, so let it sit.)

The week after they dropped the price of several other cars on the forecourt. Saw the Elegance 1.9 manual. Did the same again, arranged for a Friday test-drive on a sunday. Test-drive went ok, sat on it for a week and went back and did the deal. (Tank of juice and six months tax thrown in). Lorna was great, if she didn't know something, she found out straight away. Always friendly too. No pressure, no constant calling, no "someone else is interested". Very easy deal.

I did get a card a couple of weeks later saying I need the brake fluid changing. "Shouldn't this have already been done?" "Oh. Yes. It should have, drop the car back and we'll do that FOC." They also "bombed" the car as the nasty smell of cigarettes was coming through.

The courtesy car smelled of dog too (it had only arrived the day before, so it wasn't a biggie). Was able to swap the courtesy car back for mine out of hours too!

Car has been back for a service - no problems there - good price too.

The only quibble I had was over the price of changing the cam-belt, which I ended up having done at an indy.

Parts people are always helpful (especially when getting parts for The Fun.) The service manager (Russ) was the original salesman for The Fun many years ago, and was the salesman on my particular one. (His name's in the book)

So far, so good, even though I do hear variable things about then, I really can't fault them. Have seen Lorna at a couple of events, still says hello and asks how things are. :)

[littleade]

Hi RBF,

Think you've got the wrong end of the stick here. This post is supposed to be for **** dealers, not good ones

[pumpsmynads]

Just to give a quick update here - I got a call from BMW (or whatever 3rd party QC company they use) last night asking about my 'experience' with Wood BMW when I visited. Now I don't usually bother with these types of things but when I heard the name, "Woods" my ears pricked up. The poor lady on the call listened to me for half an hour go on and on about my 'experience' and apologised about 20 times (I kept saying there's no need for her to apologise on Lisa's behalf.)

My only recent times in a showroom since have both been in Skoda garages. I'm looking at changing the wife's vrs for a Yeti but does anywhere have a tsi dsg? Nope!

[GTWaites]

I made the mistake of visiting Carcraft once. Never again...

[threadbear]

When I was looking for a deal to buy my current Fabia, I went to the dealer that had serviced my then current Octavia. I told him exactly what I could afford and for how long. I went for a test drive, he looked at and drove my Octavia and said it was a good car.

 

He then said he could do a 3 year deal rather than 4, which I couldnt afford and offered me a crap trade in on the Octavia (having paid for a Glass price guide)! I said no thanks. Went else where, got the 4 year finance deal and a lot more money for the Octavia! The 1st sales man badgered me for a month before getting the hint I wasnt interested. Haven`t been back in nearly 3 years,

[Usernamealreadytaken]

I made the mistake of visiting Carcraft once. Never again...

When I was young and stupid I bought a car from them. The car was a good 'un but the finance deal was shocking. 

 

The guy who owns the group lives near my work. You want to see the cars he gets from the finance company. Zondas, Lambos, you name it.

[GTWaites]

When I was young and stupid I bought a car from them. The car was a good 'un but the finance deal was shocking. 

 

The guy who owns the group lives near my work. You want to see the cars he gets from the finance company. Zondas, Lambos, you name it.

I've never felt so pushed in all my life. Was just looking around, yet this moron in a suit just wouldn't leave us alone. I was looking at one car and he came up "are you going to buy it?" After a while, he said "so have you seen anything you like?" I replied "yeah, the exit."

I did get my first car from a similar company, CarShock. Week after owning it, the exhaust dropped off when joining the A19, then a week after that, they went bust.

[MartynVRS]

Carcraft are bad but it's where the Astra I had after my parents came from. Was OK at the time but aren't great now. We did have Empress nearby who were owned by the same people.

Our worst one by far has the initial TCW and it is shocking. I've been in there twice and I've never been so pushed in my life to buy a car. I considered an Astra Coupe at one time but left it after I found how heavy and gutless they were. They had one there with more mailes tham my Mk3 Astra and the loosest gearchange I'd ever seen in a car. The "Boys in the garage" could sort it I was told. Yeah right! I almost got to the point of impolitely telling him where to go but something else got his attention and I left. Everything there has been in a bump and repaired and once you learn to see it you can't unsee it. Most aren't recorded though so it really is buyer beware. Parents Octy came from there. I wasn't with them when they got it but the list of things wrong with that car was unbelievable and we found out coming up to selling that at one point the whole side had been resprayed. 

CS in Cardiff is awful too. Parents were looking to trade in the Octy so we drove a Focus we didn't want to, an Astra that was bog standard and nowhere near respectable spec and a 2.0T version that was slightly out of budget. It was OK but I noticed the tracking was out and you could feel it wandering at anything over 50mph. Tried to haggle and they wouldn't budge despite faults we'd picked up. They said they could bring a car down from another store that was the same spec. Yeah because all cars are the same innit. We demanded our licences back and left. Ended up getting a one owner from new Swift from a small garage in Stroud that still had proper warranty left. Not that crap that lots of garages pedal that isn't worth a toss. Seemed a nice guy and was family run. We haggled on price because it was due a service, we all drove the car for a good spell each and did the deal.

Always amazes me how dealers can get it so wrong. Main dealers too. Skoda, Mazda and the smaller Renault dealer by me were all good for test drives and answered all questions with no problems, Sinclair Skoda being the best one. Honda chased and chased weeks after for a sale, some dealers never got back to me, the Skoda dealer in Cardiff let me go round Hadfield Road roundabout and back and that was all then asked would I buy it.

[Waplord]

Try visiting "Trade Centre Wales" then you have truly passed the lowest threshold of hell. 

[Lemming]

Had the deposit before test drive from Cardiff Hyundai - Cwmbran offered to fill the tank and send us out again when we came back from a 2 hour test. Bought the wife's car from them.

Griffin Mill in Pontypridd wouldn't give me a confirmed price to change and kept ignoring me for 2 weeks - Capitol in Newport offered me a really good price plus extras we wanted thrown I and won my business.

Previous experience of White Dive in Cardiff means I will never go back there (sold an accident damaged ex-demonstrator to us without saying).

Griffin Mill Hyundai/Vauxhall in Treforest Industrial Estate have been fantastic - just wish they did Skoda as well

[MartynVRS]

Try visiting "Trade Centre Wales" then you have truly passed the lowest threshold of hell. 

That's who I meant. Horrific place

[Waplord]

That's who I meant. Horrific place

 

 

My story is a few years ago i didn't know what car i wanted next. So i thought i'd go to a car supermarket to have a look at some cars to get some idea of what i might like. The second i got out the car was approached by a salesman trying to see what i wanted, i told him im not sure and i'd have a look around, he said "thats fine just let me know if you see something you like", started walking around the place and this guy wouldn't leave me alone he was no more than about 6ft away from me at any point when i was walking around. He then asked me if i'd be interested in a 3 series he led me out a firedoor at the back over the main road to an overflow carpark where there was a rather tatty 8 year old 318 full of crisp packets and covered in mud and he said he could start work on the finance for me. Told him i wasn't interested and it was too old to be considered so at that point i decided to leave the salesman started to get very snappy with me that i was wasting his time not knowing what i want and i wouldn't know a good car if i saw one. I can honestly say never returning to that place ranks amongst the best things i've ever done!

[MartynVRS]

A bit unfair but I judge people who buy cars from there as not knowing much about cars. I haven't been wrong yet

[Lemming]

Griffin Mill Hyundai/Vauxhall in Treforest Industrial Estate have been fantastic - just wish they did Skoda as well

That should read Hutchings - Griffin Mill are bloody useless...

Edit button has gone walkies on mobile at the moment

[cheezemonkhai]

I had a stunner when looking at cars in the Bath area this week.

 

Audi dealer - No current model A3 in to even look at, but we've a nice S-Line A4 sir. (At least they tried).

Merc dealer - We've sold our last a-class, but feel free to have a look at it (No drive possible, but we can call you to arrange one)

BMW dealer - Reception lady, we're too busy for you to talk to a salesman today, can you come back another day.

                     They looked surprised when I asked if they were serious.

                     I ended up walking out, because they were too busy to want a sale.

 

 

On the plus point, the skoda dealer just down the road was pretty helpful.

 

I get the feeling certain dealers get complacent and forget customer service.

That's ok when credit is easy and times are good, however not so good when they're not.

Edited 8 July, 2013 by cheezemonkhai

[Beryl's Chief Pilot]

The Skoda dealer in Dartford is great for service but terrible for sales.

First time I went into view a car, I was told 'the Salesman is having his lunch, can you wait 20 mins?'.............Didn't!

 

I mentioned it to a friend, told me he'd also walked out, when the same salesman told him 'you'll never get a better deal,' which of course he did!

 

The next time, I thought i'd test him by going at 10 minutes to closing time & seeing if the guy could be bothered? Guess what? He said they'd shut the computer down now & could he have my details 'so I can give you a much better service when we have more time. I'll ring you in the morning & we can go through all your requirements etc'.

 

FIVE DAYS LATER, I get a missed call from him, asking ME to ring HIM back!!

 

I think my worst experience though, was about a year ago. I went into my local independent Skoda garage to test drive a Roomy, I specifically wanted to see how my stock fitted in it and how much room I would have in the garage, where the tailgate would end up, roof wise etc. To do this, I would need to take it less than 5 miles to my home. Baring in mind that I bought my first skoda from them, that I'd been giving them my business for 17 years & that they made a lot of money from my L&K up to that point. The owner couldn't have been less interested! He spoke a few words to me over the top of his news paper, never put his food down. tossed me the keys and said 'get a tape measure & measure it'  whilst making it pretty clear that I was interrupting his lunch!

 

Needless to say, they don't get a penny from me now!

[sparks03]

There are plenty of charlatans in the motor trade and what always comes as a surprise to me is most of them appear to be in large/ main dealerships. However the horror stories i've heard from Carcraft are amongst the worst ever. Cue a friend of mine being taken in by a previous generation Toyota Celica. Signed the sales/ finance agreement form and is refused a copy. A week later one arrives in the post which he hadn't signed and registering him for gap protection, payment protection and all sorts of add-ons he'd never consented to. 

 

 Worst personal experience was with (Hamer) Ford in Lichfield. I was rather fortunate enough for the old man to be able to buy me a new car for my 21st birthday and a 1400 Zetec was the choice. Had a good test drive and was happy with the car in every way. The vehicle looked slightly different in the brochure and was assured it was an old booklet and what i'd have would be better. When I came to pick it up it wasn't there. They'd put it back on a transporter and sent it to Leicester. It would only cost £25 to bring it back... nope. When it finally did arrive one wing mirror had been replaced with a non-colour coded one (we broke one on another car and had to change it) and the interior didn't look like the one in the show room/ brochure. It had no electric windows as promised. Because i'd been sold the old unit and the one in the brochure was in fact the latest model. It also hadn't been fitted with the aircon that had been paid for and after three weeks the engine management unit failed. After wranglings and unreturned phone calls, unhelpful service and even the accusation i'd purposely broken the car, it was returned and our money refunded (after the threat of legal action). I'd never, ever go near another Ford or another Ford dealership. Just glad the place went under and to this day stands empty. 

[Gwilo]

Ahh, shoddy dealers.......

Like the Alfa salesman that wouldn't let the old man test drive a 156 JTD or tell him how much they were (no price list available in showroom) until he said and signed a contract to buy it.  Drove two minutes down the road, got a good deal without too much drama, without stupid salesmen putting the cart before the horse, on a BMW, drive back to the Alfa dealer, showed them the sales order and said "thats what you could have won".

 

Conversly, when I used the main ford dealer here, they were very helpful on sourcing the car I wanted (well, turns out it was the car I could afford, not the one I wanted! HAHA!) but the servicing dept are a total shower, not helped by either ford's (or the dealerships) pricing structures and costs.

[Aspman]

Car Craft is on the Beeb tonight in a 'Watchdog' type program

 

http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/ckrq4r/your-money-their-tricks--series-1---2-cars

 

And Kwick Fit.

 

No doubt knowing the Beebs way of doing things it'll be so skewed I'll end up feeling sorry for them.

Edited 10 July, 2013 by Aspman

[Rob_Quads]

Yup it seems to happen all the time. It really amazes me as people buy from people. Have a friendly good salesman and unless he is selling duds he will normally do OK.

 

We had the same when we were looking for a car for the wife - she fancied something like the Ford Kuga. We had a number in our mind in terms of how much to spend. We went in and talked to the guy about the car for a couple minutes. Mentioned the sort of spec we are looking for and he gave us the book price to which we said, that's more than we are really looking to spend, giving an mount only a couple k less (hadn't even talked about trade ins)  We asked if he could tell us how long the tailgate to rear seats is (to fit the snowboard bags for holiday), rather than go and get the measuring tape he said "Oh its in the brochure" and then just walked off.

We ended up doing for an ASX but when push came to shove went for the move expensive diesel which actually cost very similar money to the Kuga. ASX saleman was really good, friendly, arranged test drives of the petrol & deisel back to back.

[Ootohere]

I am looking forward to 'Undercover Boss' on Channel 4 on Monday 15th, with the Boss of Hyundia UK.

Even if it is not showing that much behind the scenes, just to see cars arriving at Tilbury Docks.

 

george

[vrs777]

BMW, Audi can be rude as they have both had record sales. Most are through business though so they don't have time for us mere public.

I wouldn't buy any car new though because the stealer will always walk away happier than you!

[jgcsteve13]

skoda in milton Keynes walked in looked around at the whole range had to go & find a sales rep & eventually she said can I help you . I replied I would like to buy two car. she couldn't even be bother to find out what I was interested in. two cars were not enough for her to be bothered . shock horror bought eldewhere