ian/555

Yesterday I phoned a Company up who Advertised on the Autotrader and fish4cars website's.

The advert said they had a W reg, WRX type RA Ltd. In Sonic blue with Del miles for £18995. I spoke to them to confirm the Car's spec etc and that it was a NEW car with only Del miles.

Today I phoned again to confirm the details of the Car and asked what time they close as I would be travelling some distance to view the car, namely about 80 miles! I was informed that they shut at 6pm and i asked for there address and was given 24 Main st Strettly DE13 0EA.

I drove up and down Main St looking for the Car dealer and at first thought it was a wind up. As I could not find No 24 but only a Budgens store. So I phoned them again to say that I was lost and could they give me directions to which the woman who I spoke to said 24 Main st is our old place we have moved up the road.

When I arrived at the Showroom I was eaglely looking for my reason for driving there, but all I could see was a Dark Blue Vectra and a white EVO V on a R reg for £18K.

I did think that one of the 4 or 5 salesmen would jump on me and ask what I was interested in, but noone aproached me so I then asked someone who said take a seat and I shall be right with you. After a few sheepish looks from a number of them I was informed that the car was sold a while ago and that they would have 3 more next week.

To which I was incensed as I had made it obvious on the phone that I would be coming over in a couple of Hours time to view it.

My view of the way I was treated is that the sales staff are not to bothered about wasting peoples time!

edited as posted in anger by mistake

[This message has been edited by ian/555 (edited 16 November 2000).]

ChrisB

Interesting story that Ian.

Ian Shipton have been advertising a WRX Ltd Edition in my local rag for a long time now - I would guess it's been in their listing for a few months.

They moved from Main Street many months (if not years) to their new site (which is a nice setup) - weired they gave their old address out.

Chris.

Kevin2000

Ye a 160 mile round trip to see an imaginery car would be rather annoyin.Sorry to hear about it.

logiclee

They had it in a few weeks ago. A little over my price range but it did look awesome.

I'll agree they don't seem bothered over the phone. Rang about a Rover for my father, they said they had four left but one hour later when we got there they only had one.

My father bought it as they were as cheap as Motorpoint Supermarket and had full garage facilities. The car was prepped up very nice and aftersales are good, just a shame about the sales staff.

Lee

SWOLL

I work 5mins round the corner from Ian Shiptons and he is well known for doing this sort of thing. From experience he seems to advertise top spec cars (Mondeo ST200, EVO6 GSR, WRX's) that he never has in his showroom.

Andrew Dixon

Can't understand why dealerships do this, as it only costs them in the long run.

I had a similar experience when looking for my first Impreza. Phoned the garage, "Yeah, we've got two brand new DBM MY99s in." Drove the 20 miles to the garage (more like a shed) to find only one second hand MY98 car in white. I complained the owner (over a mobile phone) and he told me that he could get me a car if I left a £2000 deposit there and then with his 16 year old assistant. I said that this seemed a little unreasonable and he replyed with "F*** off and stop wasting my time." So I did.

Another mate of mine did a 250 mile round trip to see an imaginary Sapphire Cosworth ... but that's another story entirely.

A.

GCollier

A similar story of apparent dealer indifference - this week I've been left wondering if dealers are really keen on selling cars at all, or if any of them even bother following up enquires from email/internet.

I'm trying to arrange some test drives for the start of December:
1) Honda S2000 - Honda were totally superb, both at head office where the application was processed, and with the dealer they located for me which had a demonstrator. Test drive was booked within 15 minutes of clicking Submit on the web page.
2) RalliartUK - Email returned within 24 hours, inviting me to take a test drive at any day of my choice.
3) Porsche Boxster 'S'/993 - No reply, until I got onto the dealerships head office, then they certainly jumped, and have bent over backwards to accomodate me, but its a shame the service couldn't have been like that from the start, and I would expect more from Porsche.
4) BMW M-Coupe - No reply at all from the local dealer BMW's website directed me too, despite the fact that they have a suitable car in stock.
5) Lotus Esprit V8-GT - No reply at all from London Lotus Centre, the dealer I was directed to from the website.

I may be wrong, but if a company can't be ar$ed to deal with sales enquires promptly and politely, then they're not going to get my business. In todays business age, having websites with "book test drive" sections which are ignored, and emails which are not returned is just as bad as not answering the phone.

Gary.

salsa-king

it's in the nottingham evening post motor section every week!!!!!!! same car!
wot a bunsh of..........

bet you were v. mad. ;(

Mungo

Bell & Colvill have also not answered enquiries I've made by email/internet.

Audi have been very good at following up with brochures, and offers of test drives after I used their website.

Andy-D

That's one of the best things about a BB like this. You can quickly recommend the good guys and politely warn people of the bad guys that are about through personal experience. Hopefully this will minimise the time/money we spend with the likes of the company described above and pass more business on to those companies that deserve it. It's just a shame when you're the guy/gal that has to find out if a company is a pile of, shall we say, poo!

JoeyDeacon

When I first went through my phase of wanting an Impreza about 18 months ago I emailed loads of dealers to find out what their waiting lists were like and what sort of deposit they required. All of them replied except Bell & Colvill!!!

8 Months ago when I finally got round to buying the car I purchased it from Bell & Colvill as they were the closest to me and happened to have the colour I wanted for immediate delivery due to "a cancelled order" (Yes I realise now they were bending the truth but I didn't know waiting lists had reduced so much since my previous enquiries) Anyway I can't fault their sales but I am so annoyed by their service department that I am going elsewhere in future.

I agree with you about some dealers not wanting to sell you cars though! Just over a year ago my girlfriend needed a car and after looking at loads of secondhand rubbish we decided that she would probably be better off with a brand new car. Now this was my first experience of buying a brand new car and I thought it would be a simple and enjoyable experience. Even I couldn't forsee the hassle we were going to get!!

Fiat were doing a deal on the last of their Fiat puntos £6995 with 0% finance and two years free insurance which seemed perfect. Off we went to the local dealer (Edwards in Epsom) walked into the dealership had a look around and waited.... and waited... Fiddled with the cars... and waited... Eventually a salesman came over so I told him what we wanted and that we didn't need a test drive (We had one as a courtesy car at the time as my girlfriends car had just been written off) He took a deposit, did some paperwork and said he would phone me the next day with delivery dates and colour availability. To cut a long story short it turned out that he had forgotten to order the car and we couldn't get the colour we required. By this stage we had got bored of waiting and I started calling other dealers. Another dealer had the car we wanted in stock so I told Edwards to cancel the order and I went in and got my deposit back.

Everything was fine until the day before we were due to pick up our new car when my girlfriend phoned me and told me that Edwards had taken £3500 out of her account. I phoned them up and asked what was going on and they said it was a mistake and that we could have the money back in a week. This was useless to us as we were supposed to be picking up our new car the next day so I decided to pop in on my way home and confront them. When I got there I was told the salesman had the day off so I pointed out to the guy that I could see him hiding at the back of the dealership. After a heated discussion he told me it would take a week to get the money back (Why when it took him 10 seconds to take the money in the first place) I left and the next day my girlfriend called the manager who told her that if she didn't stop complaining he wouldn't give the money back at all. She could also hear the salesman just laughing in the background. They also told her that they didn't appreciate me coming in and throwing my weight around!! We even phoned Fiat head office and they didn't want to know (And they wonder why they come bottom in the JD power league!)

Anyway because of this they also lost out on me buying the Fiat Coupe 20 Valve turbo I had been lusting over at the time which equates to them losing £30 grand in business!!

So when buying a car first impressions definitely count. If you are not getting the service you expect just walk out. If we had done this when we were left waiting in the dealership for 10 minutes none of this would have happened.

DavidBrown

Ian/555, it's one of the oldest tricks in the book.

...keep advertising something they had.. and find a car once interest is shown.

Sorry to hear your time was wasted.

AlexM

You might have a case for claiming compensation for your cost (travel time, petrol etc.) if the car advertised never existed.

Maybe.

What a bunch of cretins!

Alex

Bright Kar

A friend of mine runs a garage and he is always advertising nice cars. People come to see the nice cars and but then end up buying cheeper ones. He says it is a way of getting the crowds in.

Of course one big difference is that he actually stocks the place with real cars rather than imaginery ones.

I think he has had every mental hot hatch ever made through his showroom.

bkar

ian/555

I am lost for words, at the amount of dealers that just don't give a damm about us the customer.