Arnold Clark Sucks
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I have just returned home after collecting my car from Arnold Clark, Balfield Road, Dundee DD3 6AH.
In January 2003, I purchased a car from the above garage as well as the Arnold Clark service cover policy. One of the conditions that are imposed on me by the policy is that I have my car serviced in line with the manufacturer’s recommendations.
When I purchased the car, it had just been through a ‘minor’ service (at approx 25,000 miles) so when the mileage was 35,000 miles I was aware that a ‘major’ service was due. My car’s manufacture booklet advised that a major service was fairly extensive and covered a great deal of work. As I had purchased my car from the above garage and had been very happy with the service I received at the time, I asked Arnold Clark about booking my car in and leaving it for the day. I was advised that as I have no alternative mode of transport the garage’s driver would take my work colleague and I to work in Dundee and collect us after, or deliver my car to my work place. With this in mind I decided to book the car in for it’s ‘major’ service as going to a local garage in St Andrews would mean taking a day off work, a day that I would loose pay for.
We arrived at the garage at approx 8.15am and booked the car in, the woman behind the desk said the driver had left on his first round but he would not be long and would then take us to work. By 8.40am my colleague and I were becoming increasingly worried that we would not be getting to work on time as the driver still had not returned, the staff in the garage showed no remorse or sympathy that we were being kept waiting. I telephoned another colleague who lives in Dundee and he very kindly came to collect us from Arnold Clark, when we left the garage the driver still had not returned and we only arrived at work with 1 minute to spare. In our job lateness is not looked on kindly and is disciplined very strictly.
As promised, the garage telephoned me during my half hour lunch to advise me that the car was now ready for collection. I advised the woman that I was not able to collect until after work so could they arrange that their driver collected us from work at 5pm. The response I received was “Oh, our driver finishes at 4.45pm, can’t you come at around 4.15pm to collect the car?”, I again said that we did not finish work until 5pm and was greeted with a silence. A work colleague who lives in Dundee happened to be sitting with me and at this point offered to give me a lift back to Arnold Clark to collect my car.
When I had paid, the lady behind the counter proceeded to proudly advise me that they had replaced the N/S/R number plate light that had become dulled. She then went on to ‘advise’ me that the N/S/R and O/S/F bottom wishbone bushes were split, both inner front brake pads were low, the front brake disks were corroded on the edges and the front tyres are worn on the inner and outer edges.
I questioned why the brakes had not been done as I had been under the impression that a ‘major’ service included brake maintenance. I was told that unless the pads were dangerous they were not changed. So I questioned what had actually been done for my £139.87. She flashed a long check list at me saying all these had been checked and that the oil and air filters had been changed as well as the oil and spark plugs. I was gob smacked to say the least as I had been under the impression a ‘major’ service would mean my car would not require further work.
When I got home, I reviewed the invoice and find I have been charged for (excluding VAT):
Bulb
£0.60
Screen wash additive
£1.25
Oil filter
£5.99
Air filter
£8.99
Plugs
£52.76
Rocker cover gasket
£1.52
‘consumables’
£3.00
Brake cleaner
£1.50
Semi-synthetic engine oil
£22.00
Carry out 30,000 mile service
£34.65
However on the checklist I have hand written note: Parts & Oils £46.00; Labour £85.50.
I am amazed at the costs of the parts on this invoice. Never in my 22 years of driving have I paid £52.76 ex VAT for spark plugs!! What are they – 9 carat gold???? Even the oil is expensive; I can buy oil in Halfords for less than that! I also object strongly to being charged for screen wash additive when I filled my screen wash up just 4 days ago and added my own screen wash … and the remaining contents of the bottle were sitting in the car boot!
Whenever I have previously taken my car to a garage for work the garage has always given me the old parts, in particular it is always useful to have a spare set of spark plugs in the boot.
So, all in all you can safely say that all the good will earned by your salesman who sold me the car back in January has been completely lost and I still have to take my car into a garage to get my split wishbone bushes replaced and the brake pads replaced. I still cannot believe that the brake pads are not routinely changed when a ‘dim’ number plate bulb is! Where are your priorities?
When I viewed the car in January the car’s rear wiper was not working, it was put into the garage by the sales man to be repaired, but they couldn’t find anything wrong as it was working by the time it entered the garage. I was told that when it stopped working again they’d still repair it under warranty as it had been picked up when I purchased the car. Since then the intermittent fault with the wiper has driven me crazy, it does not work for days on end but the minute I book it into the garage for repair the thing starts to work again. They constantly tell me that they can not tell what is wrong with it while it is working and I should just take it in when it stops, but I can not get anyone to look at it when I just turn up at the garage with it not working, I have to book an appointment. Several times I have booked the car in and had to cancel as the wiper started working again. Today I had asked them to see what was wrong, they ‘checked’ the motor and said they can’t find anything wrong with it so cleaned the contacts in the tailgate – I had already done this and had told a member of staff that.
As I only earn £165 a week I am not able to afford to take the car to any garage to have my brakes or bushes done until next month after such a hefty bill for your garage doing so little work.
You ask in your customer satisfaction survey “would you recommend us to a friend/relative/colleague?” - my answer is a resounding NO. I have never been so angry and dissatisfied with a garage before. I feel like all you have done is stand and tick a few boxes, done a couple of routine maintenance jobs that my son could have done for me and charge me £52.76 + VAT for (gold?) spark plugs that I can’t even prove have been changed!
It is no wonder that web sites like this exist http://www.arnoldsucks.com 19.9.2003
I personally had a bad experience with Arnold Clark Alfa Romeo in Perth. As
appears to be the case looking at other comments on this site, there was
absolutely nobody interested in some fairly major problems with the car. It
never ceases to amaze me how short sighted businesses can be sometimes. Quite
simply, if you please people they will come back, tell their friends, etc. Even
when there are problems, if they are dealt with correctly, the customer ends up
happy. Licensed motor traders, such as Arnold Clark, can only retail cars when
they have undergone a thorough check, involving more than an MOT test. The
results of this test should be made available to prospective buyers, and the car
should not be made available to view until the car has passed this test. I can
supply a copy of this test format to anybody requiring one. Quite simply,
consumers have loads of rights these days and they should use them to put shoddy
businesses out of business! I would recommend anybody !
with a complaint about a recently purchased car (three months or less) sold by a
licensed motor trader (any motor trader must be licensed) to take the complaint
back to the trader firstly but if, as we can see by the many examples here, the
trader does not offer to rectify any faults, report the problems to the local
council licensing department. Hit them where it really hurts - if the council
get complaints they are at liberty to take the license away 19.9.2003
to=day I purchased a used passat from Arnold Clark ,when I viewed the car during
the week it looked ok but after I reviewed it to-day their where faults in the
paintwork relating to bad touchup.
the vehicle was stamped to-day with a service but after checking the oil and
filter the oil was old and the filter was old as well I approached the sales man
and he agreed that the service was not done and the touchup was badly done
he agreed to take the car back on Monday to sort the problems but now i feel i
want to just give them the car back and go else where - were do I stand with
this problem i cant get on the Arnold Clark site to view the terms and
conditions and log my complaint as telling the sales MAN I FEEL IS NOT ENOUGH
any advice would help and I would like to thank in anticipation of your
co-operation 21.9.2003
good site bud yip am another sucker !been dealing with the crook for years cause
it was handy seen your website and started thinking first bad experience was a
couple of years ago when one of the girls at the VW dealer in Glasgow forged my
signature on a bill so it looked like i signed for 3 hundred odd instead of 190
should have jailed them then but never stupid me:o( put my car in on Thursday
for a 69 pound service yes i know about that know see the bit about it on this
site anyways there was a wee noise from the engine so told them to check it they
phoned my wife with a stupid list of faults the 69 pound service has turned into
630 pound and i still haven't got my car back there waiting on parts???????it
will be interesting to see the outcome anyway thought i would share my prob
cheers for now21.9.2003
I've kept away ever since my experience in 1978. I bought a 2nd hand Mini
from them. Good car, actually, no complaints UNTIL I took it to another
garage for its MOT. It failed, due to rusty brake pipes. I took it back to
Arnold's and asked for new brake pipes to be fitted. Picked it up a couple
of days later, paid the bill for new brake pipes, took it back to the MOT
place. It failed again, due to rusty brake pipes that had been painted
over.
A year or so later, I met an Arnie mechanic at a party and told him my
story. He wasn't surprised - said they were told to do that sort of thing
all the time.21.9.2003
My father took his 'X' registration Rover 25 to Arnold Clark at Seafield in
Edinburgh, they have recently taken over the franchise from the Abercromby group
- whom we dealt with problem free, for its first M.O.T and 36,000 mile service,
the car has only done 20,000 miles and these are the problems we had:
1. Told that it would take 3.5 hours to complete.
2. Phoned at 1.15pm and was told that it had only been M.O.T'd and that it had
failed because the fuel tank was leaking "excessively", this surprised us
somewhat as the car sits on cream slabs in a driveway yet they were still
immaculate with no traces of diesel and my father would certainly have noticed
any loss of fuel. They were putting together a quote for the repair, we decided
to go in and see about this so-called fault and were unhappy that no one wanted
to tell us exactly where it was leaking.
3. When we arrived we spoke to a man, no name badge, who we tried to explain to
that we found it hard to believe that there was a leak, he was unhelpful so I
mentioned that we had heard of this website and that there reputation was not
that outstanding, he then asked whether we wanted them to carry on with the
work, NO!
My father, who is now unable to look after his car himself, but has had many
older cars which he has fixed and serviced himself, took the car to his local
garage who put it up on ramps, could see what looked like a damp patch so they
steam cleaned the tank there and then - after sometime they came to the
conclusion that it wasn't diesel and that if it had been there was no need for
M.O.T failure.
The result now being that the car was re-M.O.T'd and passed without any further
work having been done. We wonder however what the quote for repair would have
been for this invisible fault had we allowed Arnold Clark to continue - this
certainly is worrying!! 21.9.2003
