James

Awful treatment

Very disappointed with the way this Garage treated me as an 18 year old. I was coming up from 6 hours on the train to buy a Skoda Fabia VRS. I attempted to leave a deposit prior to coming up, on the day before, over the phone but was told by Craig, who was lovely, that there was no need to leave a deposit and they of course wouldn’t sell it whilst I was on the train up, so all sounded good to me - He even laughed at the thought of selling it to someone else whilst I was on the train! So the next morning, I kept the garage up to date on my journey, annoyingly there were bad train delays, but I managed to get round them and get on another train. This was a slower one, so I said that if I couldn’t make it by closing time I’d get a hotel and come first thing in the morning. Well, 5 hours into my journey, I got a call saying they’d sold the car to someone in Ireland over the phone! Absolutely disgusting. Craig wasn’t in on said day, so this was the owner Paul’s decision! He defended this as a ‘judgement call’ as they weren’t sure I was going to make it, even after we’d spoke on the phone saying I was just a few hours away! Another excuse was they weren’t sure I’d actually buy it, however if I’m coming 6 hours on the train I think that’s shows how serious o am. Furthermore, as mentioned I was denied the option to leave a deposit, whereas this customer in another country was allowed to buy it over the phone. So I was left 6 hours from home, a whole day of travelling and £150 lost. I would take this as a red flag for other customers, as Paul clearly has no care for customers if he can put a teenager through such an experience, and not even feel he was in the wrong! This garage has taught me a big life lesson and I hope they don’t do this to others, especially an 18 year old!