Sparshatts of Fareham Ltd - Fareham

[lemonvrs]

These guys have a new showroom at Botley now, and I went in a few days ago to look at used Roomsters. The salesman, Jonathan was helpful and showed us a car. I wasnt keen on it and we went inside as he had another at the Fareham showroom. He offered to take us down there for a look, but I had spied a Fabia Estate in the showroom and liked it a lot more. He gave us brochures and a card and said Ill leave it to you to decide what youd like to try.

I contacted him the next day to ask about a price for my car as a part ex againt a new Fabia, he phoned me back next day with a reasonable price from a trader and then offered to add another £350 to it from themselves. I arrived to try a Fabia 1.4 16v, he asked me what sort of roads Id like to try which was good and I had a decent drive out. I liked the car and asked if they had any in stock, he checked the system and said it would be a factory order of 8 to 12 weeks as non were available. I wasnt keen on this, so said Id think about it. At that point he said they had a 1.2 HTP estate in stock, I thought it would be too slow so he offered another drive in a 1.2. Took it out and was impressed, far better than I thought, so decided to have the one in stock, although he offered other colours which were in stock at Skoda. At this point I asked about a deposit and they wanted £500, I replied I only could do £100 as it was near the end of my pay month and was nearly skint. He asked if they would accept that and they did after some begging from him!

The car itself had a slightly ill fitting bonnet, which turned out to be one of the rubber blocks and they fixed that and its ready for me this Thursday. So, from a sales point of view both Jonathan and Ben have been very helpful, not pushy and very polite. I got the car with the VAT off deal and 0% on the finance, and also the extra £350 for my car.

Its worth mentionng that I did contact a more local dealer for a price on my car, a dealer thats hughly rated on here and they never got back to me... so for now Im happy with Sparshatts of Botley.

[lemonvrs]

Had my car serviced by them today, booked in for 13:00 for a half hour service. Car done at 14:40 so not really happy with that. Didnt say what oil they used like most dealers do and my service indicator is now blank, it no longer seems to count down the miles or time to the next service. Was a very good price but a very average experience overall.

[jonnb]

When the service indicator is reset, it takes a while to start showing the mileage / days to next service, this is not a fault.

[lemonvrs]

You were right, that has sorted itself out. However after 2000 miles their oil is filthy and the cars tappets are a tad noisy on cold starts, I wonder if it was chip oil after all

[george brann]

I have virtually given up with my local Skoda dealer, I bought my Skoda Fabia 2 1.4 TDI from new in 2007. I had a good deal and was pleased by the car. I felt the old service manager was ok; some of his staff were far from satisfactory. Since Chichester has closed down (and the service manager has left) and they have moved everything to Fareham it has gone from bad to worse.

Staff are very unhelpful, rude and don’t do what is agreed.

There seams no ability to correct any of these faults, I get the impression customers are an inconvenience. You are treated as if you are either a 2 year old or 90 years of age.

They are so rapped up in their rules and routine they can’t adjust to this century.

I will not purchase another Skoda while Sparshatt’s have the franchise. I am also strongly considering having my car serviced by an independent and not by Sparshatt’s in the future.

I had the normal Skoda boot leak problem, which the service manager said “I cant guarantee this being fixed, but the mechanic said there would be no problem” During the time in the garage they put a nail in my tyre while driving it around, I did not have a spare in the car as the boot was being fixed, I had some idiot ring me on the last day thinking it was funny the fact the tyre was constantly deflating on a daily basis, despite them pumping it up. I was not impressed if they had told me I would have taken the spare to the garage immediately.

Recently I have had the lockable fuel cap go faulty. They would not order one until their mechanic had seen the problem! He confirmed the fact it was faulty and one was ordered but could take 6 weeks to arrive! Skoda UK said it could arrive within 2 days if ordered properly, Sparshatt’s said they would try to push it through quickly. It arrived but as normal no one rang me. Remember it was only a fuel cap a child of 4 could put it on, the fuss made to fit it was ridiculous.

One customer service representative asked me “what can I do to make things better” I listed some areas but he just seamed either unable or not interested, I wonder why he asked in the first place. The mechanic seams to know his stuff and has always fixed the problems. I also had the problem with the hand brake, that most Skoda owners have experienced. The mechanic said this was normal but funny when I got it back post boot problem it actual now holds and you don’t have to lift it to the roof of the car for it to do this, not funny when I was on a car ferry in February.

It’s a shame Sparshatt’s treat their customers with such contempt, I have given them the best part of 3 years to improve and despite phone calls and letters things have actually got worse.

[matt84]

I must say I've never felt the need to review or comment on this kind of this but here goes...

Firstly I was impressed by the professional image of the place and since I have never dealt with a large dealer before my experience of buying a car was very good, the salesman bent over backwards to help and I felt I got a really good deal.

The issue I have is this...if you have booked in a service or an appointment then the service you receive is really quite good. However if you have a slight issue that needs a 'quick look' and I mean very quick then it seems very difficult for them to accomodate you. You just don't get that personal touch you would with a smaller more independent garage, you just feel like one of their many minions! Seriously considering going elsewhere next time....

[piglet]

Just bought an '07 Fabia 1.9TDi from Fareham. Can't say I'm impressed with the service.

To start with I tried to collect the car as arranged and then they discovered they didn't have the V5 (having swapped off a cherished number plate). So it was a month later that I finally managed to collect the car. To be fair they did put fuel in the car to compensate for the extra costs I incurred on insurance having to re-insure the car I was part exchanging.

When I did collect the car they hadn't fixed the fault of the vibration in the steering which they agreed to do. First I found that all of the tyres were at least 10psi under pressure. Then for the sake of less than 20 quid I took the car to the local tyre specialist and had the front wheels balanced which cured the problem.

I sent them an email with this information but I didn't get a reply apologising.

Hasn't done much for my confidence in the Skoda brand as far as customer service goes.

[juan27]

Too soon for me to comment on the service department, but I did go in to buy some mats.

The middle aged spares guy brought them out from the store and dropped them noisily from waist height onto the showroom floor which I though showed a lack of respect for me the customer (who had to pick them up after paying of course) and a certain lack of care in dealing with the goods. I know mats probably can't be hurt by this treatment but even so it gives a poor impression.

Hopefully he'd was just having a bad day and I'll see a better side of Sparshatt's after sales, but it doesn't fill me with confidence as a new customer to the dealership.

I will certainly post on here if I have a more positive experience, so come on guys impress me!

Edited 8 December, 2010 by juan27

[lemonvrs]

Well, I contacted them for my 20k service expecting them to beat all the other local dealers hands down as they did on the 10k one.... how wrong was I. They came out the most expensive of all I contacted, so based on the non too brilliant service from Botley re my first service I shall be going elsewhere.

I still fail to see how Skodas dealers get such rave reviews, so far my experiences have been average since the purchase.

[stevehants]

Sparshatts of botley has the worst service department i have ever encountered, unable to rectify the simplest of faults.

[skodanut]

The salesman we dealt with was lee cracknell when we went for a skoda superb greenline via the motability scheme. Our original choice of a skoda octavia automatic was ok, but the wait was way too long. Lee cracknell went on the dealer site to see what was available and came up with the surperb greenline, and it arrived within 2weeks compared to waiting 4-5 mths for the octavia. That super fast track down of the superb was in our opinion nothing short of fantastic, and we was very pleased with the proffesional way the whole deal went. Whether we can get another superb at the end of 3yrs remains to be seen, and see if he can renegotiate the deal. Failing that, it will probably be a visit to Seat and the exeo se tech 143bhp.

We are still smarting over the financial loss of our skoda superb mk 1 comfort...a lovely luxury car that basically died with oil pump failure and cost us an arm and a leg to make the car sellable again.The car has since been sold, but i wonder if sparshatts skoda really did know about the oil pump issues on the superb? i'm thinking that they did, as they sold a few of them. They probably knew of issues from the main skoda people in milton keynes, but even they werent helpful. I mean how can a diesel engine made by VW die at 38900 miles? It was even serviced twice and receipts to prove using genuine parts and oils, done by a franchise as to cut the high labour costs, but even they were skoda approved!! All in all, we find sparshatts are very good for doing a deal, but i feel they should of done a bit of hard thought and put their customers 1st, as after all, repeat customers is what keeps garages in business.

[TeflonTom]

i wouldn't bother to buy parts from sparshatts in fareham, they are absolutely useless, took them a good half an hour to find the part on etka while i stood there on one leg twiddling my fingers, if only they'd have asked me and i would have found it in 20 seconds or less.. there used to be a fella in the parts department called maurice who was really good but he's not there anymore sadly.. never mind

[jesters]

I bought my Octavia Vrs from Fareham and dealt with Lee. Everything went fine and I was happy with the deal i got.

Their preperation wasnt up to standard though and the faults that we had agreed would be right were not done correctly and the car had to go back for the problem to be resolved.

Ive only used their parts dept once and was informed a part was not available to buy - a quick call to skoda parts.com and the item was posted the same day!

From reading the reviews, I think I will get my servicing done elsewhere!

Edited 9 August, 2011 by jesters

[juan27]

On balance pleasantly surprised to be pleased with my 1st variable service experience yesterday at Sparshatts. My expectations were fairly low which reflects my previous experiences with other makes and main dealers, as much as some negative comments on here.

Price 33% less than I was quoted nearer London and as far as I can see everything seems right. To be frank it was basically changing the oil and oil filter. A technician came out and discussed an issue with me which put my mind at ease. I didn't feel a great deal of warmth from the service reception staff but they were efficient and I can't say I was kept waiting for any significant time.

I'd say I'll use them again.

Edited 20 September, 2011 by juan27

[blackandwhite]

I had my car serviced today in fareham , staff were helpful and kept me up to date with what was meant to be happening (minor service). But it turns out that between Sparshatts Botley and Sparshatts Havant - they 'forgot' to service my car before i picked it up when i originally purchased Jackson

Sparshatts Fareham decided that they would clear up Botleys mistake and service the car for free

So all is good with my experience at Fareham even though i hate driving there , i will go back !

[Macdemon]

Kitten and I bought our car from the Newgate Lane site and delt with a nice young man called Steven Vincent, he seemed to take a genuine interest in us as a couple.

This was made clear as he remembered stuff we had told him about on previous visits.

Would we go there again, Yes, but we would also Visit James at Allums as he's seems like a GREAT chap to know also.

Faraham is about 60 miles there and back, so distance would be the only factor to put us off revisiting Steve.

[Carl Monte]

Lee Cracknell is my brother lol! He was the best thing about Sparshatts of Fareham but he's been head hunted to Portsmouth Audi.

The bloke Ross on service is a complete and utter a*r$eh0|€. His customer service skills are non existent and my wife has actually had to physically restrain me from going in there and ramming his computer monitor down his throat. I have told Skoda UK if I had met him before we bought the car I wouldn't have bought it... We've got to deal with this bloke for the next 3 years!

I'm intersered to read other people have the same view of him..... Shame Sparshatts can't see the damage he's doing to their name!

[Carl Monte]

Lee Cracknell is my brother lol! He was the best thing about Sparshatts of Fareham but he's been head hunted to Portsmouth Audi.

The bloke Ross on service is a complete and utter a*r$eh0|€. His customer service skills are non existent and my wife has actually had to physically restrain me from going in there and ramming his computer monitor down his throat. I have told Skoda UK if I had met him before we bought the car I wouldn't have bought it... We've got to deal with this bloke for the next 3 years!

I'm intersered to read other people have the same view of him..... Shame Sparshatts can't see the damage he's doing to their name!

[BenSh]

Sparshatts of Fareham
First Corner
Newgate Lane
Fareham
Hampshire
PO14 1AJ
01329 828727

[BenSh]

My supplying dealer, via Carwow. Good price new in March 2018. Kris (sales via Carwow) was very good, although very busy. Gave good advice.

Did all the private plate work for me after I gave Kris the form and dashcam fitted as required.

Can't say more as only days into driving car, but good with no issues so far.

 

[edbostan]

At the end of 2013 I was looking for an ex-dem Roomster. There was a special offer going offering the SE model £4400 of new price but the colours were Brilliant Silver and a Duck egg blue. I live in North London but in this area the offer price was £9995 but the ex-dem was £9600 in Fareham. I travelled down to Fareham and took a test drive and was willing to part with £9600 when the manager offered me an unregistered silver model for the same price of £9600 so I shook hands on the deal. They were probably wanting to move stock of Euro5 spec engines and the lower output 86bhp.

Edited 23 December, 2018 by edbostan

[dan245]

I bought a new Octavia VRS through Sparshatts Fareham using Carwow in February 2019, dealing with Adam.

A good experience, no hard sell and the car was available in 10 days (stock car shipped over from Emden).