Adam

Such a shame

I bought a car from Swancar last year and all went well during the buying process. I found the owner of Swancar, Alastair, to be friendly and honest. We did have a minor disagreement regarding some faults that showed up a week or so after taking ownership of the vehicle and I was wrongly and quite rudely accused by Alastair of causing them and trying to cover it up, but he back tracked and apologised once he realised he was wrong, and we ended up as friendly as we started off. Anyway, having kept an eye on their stock over the months I saw a car that really interested me recently. I contacted Alastair and we had a friendly chat about the car. As with the last car I bought from them I was prepared to agree a deal, pay a deposit over the phone and buy the car upon seeing it, no time wasting. So I put forward the deal that I was looking for and he put forward the deal he could offer. We were not far apart financially so Alastair suggested he call me back in the morning as it was now late in the evening and it would also give him time to work out the best deal he could offer. He gave me his word and stressed that he would not sell the car to anyone else until he had phoned me back. I was fine with this as I was sure a deal could be done. The next day I didn't hear from him so I phoned back the day after. I was told by his colleague that Alastair would be out of the office "for half an hour", so I explained I was calling about the car and that he was supposed to call me back the day before. His colleague said he would definitely get him to call me back. Again, I didn't receive a call back. As I didn't think it was Alastair's style to dodge people, and he always seemed to express how honest etc they were, I assumed he had just forgotten to call or got caught up in something else. So once again, giving him the benefit of doubt, I called again the next day. Again I was told he was out of the office, this time for an hour, but was assured "100%" that he would definitely phone me back by close of business that day. Again I waited... No call back. So, three unreturned calls in as many days and it was obvious that he just didn't want to sell the car to me so I decided to give up and move on; but a friend of mine chose to enquire about the car a day or so later and it turned out a deposit had been taken on it that day... so some five days after I first spoke to Alastair and made an offer. Now I'm sure my money is as good as the next man's, and I'm pretty sure that the part-ex plus cash I offered would have overall still got them at least the asking price of the car they were selling, probably more.... so maybe his issue was with the car I was part-ex'ing as part of the deal. But this is the car I had bought from them 8 months prior, which at the point of sale they were singing its praises. And it is a sought after vehicle with only an extra 2000 miles on it. So maybe there's another reason I'm not aware of that they don't want my car back? This situation is disappointing to say the least.... Firstly because I really didn't expect this stereotypical dodgy car dealer behaviour from Swancar, especially as I felt I had a good relationship with them. If they wasn't interested in selling to me all it would've taken is a bit of common decency and a quick call to say "no deal", instead of leading me to believe a deal was in the pipeline, dodging my calls, promising callbacks and basically wasting my time. The second disappointment comes from the wild goose chase they led me on causing me to miss out on another car being sold by a different dealer that I didn't pursue because I preferred to deal with Swancar. I guess it's partly my fault for believing that Swancar was any different to all the other car dealers who are full of empty promises. My search continues for a genuinely honest and reliable car dealer who shows a bit of customer loyalty, and one who can appreciate that for them a car is just a commodity they buy/sell, but for a potential customer it's something far more important. Swancar have certainly lost my future custom and recommendation.