Arnold Clark Sucks
READ HERE WHAT SOME PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY
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problem and has been going on for YEARS. I have two good stories about how
customers have been ripped of by Arnold Clark. The first - about 17 years ago
my Mum had saved hard and borrowed some money to buy our first family car. Not
knowing a lot about cars my Mum went to a 'reputable' garage thinking they would
keep us right. We ended up buying a little blue Volvo (340 I think). The car
was never right - always noisy, draughty and didn't run smoothly. No amount of
contact with Arnold Clark would make them look at the car again. Finally, my
Mum put the car into a proper garage to have a look at the gearbox (a problem
since we bought the car) with a view to getting it repaired and then sold on.
The garage called my Mum and what they told us was unbelievable! The car that
we bought (with a British V5 and registration plate) had actually been
registered in Ireland (with an Irish registration !
that had been changed), had also been a write off (well part of it anyway) and
was actually a cut and shut (two cars for the price of one!) - yes Arnold Clark
sold us something that could have led to us being killed! We went straight to
get legal advice and were told we had no comeback on Arnold Clark due to the
fact that we were ONE DAY outwith the timelimit for pursuing claims! We ended
up having to scrap the car. The second - my father in law wanted to change his
car about five years ago and went to Arnold Clark with my boyfriend (obviously
hadn't listened to my warnings), they saw a lovely Nissan (Primera I think) with
one of the fancy paint jobs and decided to buy on the spot. The car was being
sold as a 2.X litre engine. They had completed the paperwork and left a deposit
with the salesman. When they got home my father in law called for a quote from
his insurance company to be told that the engine size of Nissan that Arnold
Clark were trying to sell him didn't ev!
en exist! My partner called the salesman who had the barefaced cheek to call
the insurance company liars!!! Then followed a call to a Nissan dealer who
confirmed they did not do this car in the engine size that Arnold Clark claimed
they were selling. My boyfriend and father-in-law went back to see the salesman
to cancel the deal as the car they were being sold was not what Arnold Clark
were advertising and were told they could not cancel because they had signed an
agreement! Only after my partner threatened legal action did they relent to
cancelling the deal but then wanted to keep the deposit as my father-in-law had
cancelled. Following a further threat of legal action and publicity they
finally returned the deposit! How are things going with Watchdog - it would be
great to see all of this finally highlighted on national TV! 22.7.2003
Having read all the negative comments regarding Arnold Clark on your excellent
site, it would now appear that I am not alone in experiencing numerous problems
with this excuse for a car dealer. The one and only thing this company is
extremely good at is dodging complaints from customers. Once you run out of
patience with being fobbed off by the dealer staff, don't think that writing to
Arny at Head Office will reap any benefits. He has employed a person by the name
of Alasdair Craig, who deals with ALL customer complaints in a manner which can
only be described as shockingly bad, and he attempts to frustrate those
complainers into giving up their fight for justice by taking ages to acknowledge
complaints and eventually responding with what can only be described as insults
to (valued) customers' intelligence. Taking a complaint to "The Judge" at the
Sunday Mail is also totally pointless, as they will refuse to get involved in
any kind of action against what is their major car !
advertiser. It would appear that the only realistic and effective action which
can be taken is to tell any prospective customers to avoid AC at ALL costs; word
of mouth has more clout than some people think!! 24.7.2003
These incompetent fools with all their so-called electronic diagnostic equipment and "skilled" (ha-ha) technicians spent over £2000 of my companies money on a new turbo.
By bad luck, the car could not come back in to our own workshop for another couple of months, by which time they refused to honour the warranty.
As a motor technician, I diagnosed the fault (without all the bells and whistles) myself, and found the fault was a mass air flow sensor costing £58.
Taking your car into Arnies for service or repair? BEWARE, if they try to screw their own trade, think what they will do to you!!!!!!! 24.7.2003
locking did not work and is not much better after being repaired, but most
important they put a new mot on the car and the seat belt was nearly halved in
two, but it was passed, I should have got an independent report at the time but
didn't, they fixed that rather rapid, the locking system however took 1 month to
fix, I agree with you they are cowboys, and eat beans for breakfast, tell me has
your problems been resolved ? 24.7.2003
A. Clark Bishopbriggs and their after sales service is the worst i have ever came
across.
after they got my chq no more contact with me give us your money and piss off.
Julie something sold us the car she needs a wee refresher in dealing with the
public, she forgets who actually pays her wages any way i wont be going back. 24.7.2003
after receiving the car (i.e. within the first week) i was nearly involved in an
accident because the brakes locked.
at this point i got the car inspected and there were 28 fault with the car plus
i was only getting approx 20-25 m.p.g. from a diesel this car had just been
mot'd by A.C. and i was informed by the salesman that this mileage was normal for
a diesel). i contacted the branch (peat road motors) and informed them of
displeasure and asked for my trade in to be returned and to be refunded my
money. i was told this was not possible i even contacted Arnolds assistant. the
upshot was that they took the car back to repair after about two weeks the car
was returned and i was told that they could not find any thing wrong. I then went
into dialog with the branch manager to exchange this car but even this was a
grind so i eventually decided to see what i would get as a trade in and this is
when i got them to quickly deal with me. the car had Irish plates and when
buying i was told it was a R plate I wish i had asked to have it changed as i
would have walked from the deal) but it was in fact a !
P plate i then went to see the branch manager and within half an hour i had
struck a deal to exchange this for a ford focus it also involved me having to
get an independent inspection on the vehicle and a cash balance in favour of
Arnold Clark but i was glad to see the back of them to date the focus has been a
good car but it was less than six months old when purchased. this experience
will see me never setting foot inside another Arnold Clark dealership 28.7.2003
