Ryan C

Horrific Service Department Experience

I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND USING THIS SERVICE DEPARTMENT, HORREDOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE AND LEFT ME IN A DIFFICULT SITTUATION. I have posted my email below explaining what has went on with Arnold Clark and how poor they have been. This hasnt been responded to, I have to call them and still not helpful. Good Afternoon, I feel I have been treated unfairly and the customer service has been some of the worst I have ever come across. This was by the service department at Fiat Arnold Clark, 1 Brunel Avenue, Salford, M5 4BE. After speaking to Peter (Arnold Clark Service Manager) he informed me that it was best to get in contact with customer service. On the 30th August 2023 I rang the service department to organise dropping my car off with them although it wasn’t due to be checked until 12th September 2023. I informed them that I had been with Halfords a couple of days before and they told me that it needed to go to a garage because it had an ECU problem. We had to get the car recovered from Manchester to home the week before due to it breaking down. After missing a call from the service department at Arnold Clark at 11:03am 30/08/23 I called them back and asked the person on the phone if I could drop the car of on 30/08/2023 as it was running and I didn’t want to leave it a couple of weeks incase it wouldn’t start again. After speaking to them at 11:42am, I let them know that I would be down within the hour. Once I arrived at Arnold Clark I couldn’t find anywhere to park as the spaces were full in the Arnold Clark car park and was unfamiliar with this Arnold Clark as I had never been here before. So I left the car just outside the front of the gates on the left, walked inside to the service department and let the lady on the service desk know that my car was out front and it will need moving once there is a space and before the end of the day so it is secure. They said that is fine and took the key off me and put it in a brown envelope. My mum was with me throughout this whole process due to her having to bring me back once I dropped the car off. She was also with me when I spoke to the staff at home informing them that I was bringing the car in, On 11th September 2023 at 16:42 I received a call from the manager informing me that my car had a load of tickets on it and asked why it was left outside the front. I explained to him what had happened and that I let the staff know on the front desk that it needed moving the day I dropped it off. This was only a 3 minute conversation and he let me know that he would get back to me the next day. On 12th September 2023 16:34 I rang the service department again to ask what was going on with my car and if they had an update about the tickets on my car as the manager had not called me back. I spoke to a lady on the phone who wasn’t sure and went to seek some advice from the manager. She let me know that they were still checking my car over and that the manager had been looking into the tickets, she also said that he was going home in 10 minutes due to him having to go and pick his children up and therefore didn’t;t have the time to speak with me - this call lasted approximately 9 minutes. She said that he would phone me tomorrow and let me know the outcome. He never called me back. On 19th September at 12:25 I rang the service department asking for an update on my car and if it had been fixed. As I knew the parts were expected to arrive on 18th September but I had not heard anything. I paid £500 for these services and thought that the communication throughout the process was poor. She informed me that the parts arrived last night and that they needed now to put this in a queue again to be repaired. This was very frustrating as I needed the car, I was expecting the car to be fixed when the parts came in as they knew when they were expected. They never said anything about the car being fixed at a later date once the parts had arrived. On 23 September at 09:56 I received a text informing that my car was completed and ready to pick up. I went just before 12pm to pick up the car, I spoke to the ladies on the desk and they informed me that the car was being washed and will be ready in 5 minutes. Once I was given my keys I walked over to my car where I could see 2 tickets on my car, one was open and the ticket was unreadable due to how wet it was and the other wasn’t open. I took the tickets back inside and asked if I could speak to the manager as I thought this has been resolved and there was no issue. Whilst waiting for the manager to come out the engineer that had fixed my car and brought the keys in informed me that the thought there were more then 2 tickets on the car. When the manager came out I began asking him what had been happening with this situation and why had he not contacted me back to let me know what was going on regardless of me ringing up and him also stating that he would call me back. He said that he had tried to call me which is not true as I have evidence on my phone showing that he had never tried to contact me (please see attached photos as evidence of telephone history). He also said that it was my problem but I left the keys with the staff and informed them that the car needed moving the same day as I dropped this off. The manager was rude, obnoxious and was not helpful at all, this is not my fault and believe that it is the fault of the staff who work on the service desk. I now have to contact the Salford City council explaining this whole situation and what has happened due to the poor communication from Peter and this issue not being resolved quickly. In summary, I have no idea how many tickets I have received, I was given the assurance my car would be moved 30/08/23 by the customer service team and I am now being expected to pay for tickets (unsure how many) at no fault of my own. I would like a satisfactory answer to my complaint within 10 working days maximum and should this not be resolved in a satisfactory manner I will be pursuing this matter further with a solicitor. Kind regards, Ryan CastilE