Rob C

Dream cars end up being a nightmare..

Super responsive when agreeing my deal for a BMW M135i, John took my call on a Sunday and was really helpful and all backed up by a really slick website and pictures. Found out to it’s all a front and those preconceptions we all have about car dealers are alive and well at John Holland Sales Ltd. Was quickly passed over from John to “Business Manager/Snake Oil Salesman” Peter who called me to say they could accept my offer and pointed out if I didn’t make a £500 deposit to reserve the car now he had another gentleman’s number on his desk to call who was desperate to make his deposit. Then Peter tried to sell me a £495 ceramic coating for the car despite me having been told by John that the previous owner (an elderly gentleman who used the car for Sunday driving and kept it garaged all its life!!) had spent a lot of money recently having one done already. Took me three times to persuade Peter that John had told me it had been done, Peter insisted there was nothing in the notes about it. Also Peter tried his best to pull me into his finance package to receive his kickback from them, although that only needed me to repel him twice. I arranged an £8.25K bank transfer from my account that night and £27K bank transfer from the finance company to land at 10am the following day. Including my £500 deposit the total agreed price of £35,750 was paid in full 6 days prior to scheduled delivery date. Over the next two days I emailed both John and Peter to confirm that the £35K had arrived safely and hadn’t disappeared in a scam artists pocket. Fast forward two more days and 4 unanswered emails later (including copying in Mark Holland the owner of the business) no one has ever confirmed in writing the £35k has arrived. Bewildered by the complete silence once they had my money (still don’t know??) I wrote an email to request the deal for the car which I have never seen or been in be cancelled and the full amount to be refunded as per my rights to cancel in 14 days without question. I had lost faith in them to deliver an honest transaction and a genuine car. As it stands today - it is still complete radio silence on email front but my phone has been blowing up with calls and texts from Peter asking me to kindly return his calls. No one at that business is willing to answer anything in writing and instead they what to handle their business by mobile phone presumably so there is no record of the interactions. My finance company has thankfully supported me and reaffirmed my rights to cancel, my option to involve The Motor Ombudsman if necessary and insisted I have a record of all communication with John Holland Sales. John Holland Sales wants the exact opposite and I have no idea where my £35k is, I have no car as I sold my old one and my request are being ignored by John, Peter and Mark. Please look elsewhere for your dream car and avoid the horrible stress of dealing with this company. I have resorted to leaving this review of my experience in the hope it may prompt them to engage with me and refund the £35K. It says all over the website that they are a family company and still embody those values and infer that they would treat their customers as part of that family – that was absolutely my experience BUT then they got my money and they couldn’t care less once they had it because that’s all they really want.