Steven G

Fleeced

I purchased a vehicle from Stebbings in April 2022. My experience was far from good, in fact it was downright frightening. On the day of the handover I had to get the train from West Wales (Where I am living with a friend) and pick my old vehicle up from my old house (recently split from my wife), a journey of nearly 300 miles. The week before I had been offered 18,000 for my two year old electric van - and I had this in writing. I got to Stebbings (Kings Lynn) shortly after 1pm and took the 'new' vehicle out for a test drive. While I was just about to pay the balance for my new vehicle, the showroom manager came to speak to me. He said that as the van needed cleaning, he could only offer me 17,500 for my van.... after first saying 16,900. He knew the predicament I was in. My van would not have had the charge to get back to my old house and I had planned to drive the new vehicle back to Wales the next day, so I HAD to do a deal there and then. I was in a very difficult situation and they knew that they could offer me considerably less for my van EVEN THOUGH I had it in writing of the higher offer. I felt scared that I would end up in a really bad situation and pressurised to take the lower offer. To use the excuse that the vehicle had to be cleaned was very poor. Firstly, I had already thoroughly cleaned the exterior, the dash and the seats, so it was only the floor that needed cleaning - an easy to clean plastic surface and would have cost maybe 20 pounds maximum to get it done. OK so it was only a 500 difference, but it put me out of pocket considerably and I believe that this was extremely dishonest and morally disgusting so I would not recommend Stebbings to anyone. This sort of dishonest practice should not be allowed to continue. If you are given an offer in writing for part exchange, then they should honour it or not give an offer at all until the car is seen.