Sophie M

AVOID - Horrific Customer Service!!

Bought a brand new car from Paisley Fiat in May 2022. In August 2022 the car already needed repairing due to an oil leak. This was repaired very quickly and returned to me 'fixed'. In July 2023 I was having the same issue with the car leaking oil. The car at this point had only done 4500 miles. Had to wait over 3 weeks for a repair booking, therefore the car was not drivable in this time. The dealership advised me that I could get the car looked at quicker if I used Fiat Roadside Assistance which I did. RAC came out and confirmed the car needed to be repaired ASAP. The RAC guy said he could tow the car into the garage but told me I had to phone the Fiat Paisley garage to ask for this. Fiat Paisley refused to take the car, stating they had no space and had to be left on the street. I challenged this and got hung up on multiple times until they finally agreed to take the car in. Despite getting the car to them earlier, they didn't look at it until the repair booking date. At no point during this was any courtesy car offered despite numerous requests for one. The car was finally looked at and repaired by Paisley Fiat in August 2023. The repair on this occasion took much longer than the last, and for some reason, the gearbox had to be removed for this repair, but not the previous one. I did not give them any different information, so I'm unsure why this was not done on the first occasion. For the weeks of the car waiting to be repaired and for the time the car was being repaired, I was still not offered a courtesy car forcing me to pay for car insurance on my Dad's car. For the entire time the car was in for repair, I informed the dealership that there was a lack of service history for the vehicle as I was travelling when it was due and the leak occurred as soon as I returned home. Paisley Fiat kept saying they didn't know if the repair would be covered under warranty or not until it was repaired. Furthermore, the servicing team failed to call me to update me on the progress of the repair, leaving me to call them to ask for updates on what was going on. A week after the car was finally looked at, I received an invoice for over £800. I was told it couldn't be covered under warranty because of the service history. I NEVER would have consented to them doing the repair if they had informed me that servicing issues = no warranty. I had told them from the first phone call that the vehicle had servicing issues. If I knew it wouldn't be covered, I would have taken it to a more reputable garage that doesn't rip off their customers and does repairs correctly the first time. I have contacted both AC and Fiat multiple times who are absolutely no use at all, and don't seem to know how to take care of a customer. The car hasn't even done 4,500 miles, and AC's first attempt at a repair clearly failed. They claim this oil leak is different from the first one - never heard anything like it. When I went into the dealership to question the repairs further, I asked to see job cards from the service manager who told me she couldn't show me them because they 'have mechanics personal information about wages on them' - again, I've never heard anything like it. I asked to see this information with the apparent personal info blocked out - again, I was told I could not see this. This forces me to question why they're being so secretive about this information. I escalated this issue to my finance company who have been more helpful, and have requested further info from both Fiat and AC to investigate the issue further. Despite multiple requests over the last 6 weeks, they have received no information from Arnold Clark, and I am still waiting to get an answer. Throughout these 6 weeks, I've had multiple phone calls from the dealership asking me when I'm picking the car up. Yet, the customer service team at AC have ignored emails from me, and when I've followed up, they've stated they can't speak to me anymore because they are liaising with the finance company. How can this be if the finance company haven't received anything from AC? Coming onto 2.5 months now without a car and AC couldn't care less. All I've requested is upfront, transparent info from them about the repairs done - which I have not received. I have told them on multiple occasions I don't mind paying a repair bill, but the least they could do is refund me the money I've had to pay out of pocket for temporary car insurance. These requests have not been met. Apart from all of the above issues, the staff at Paisley Fiat are some of the most unpleasant and unhelpful I've ever come across. They genuinely do not care and seem to be enjoying using the servicing history as a get-out-of-jail-free card. I just wonder how they aren't embarrassed - selling brand-new cars that are faulty, and blaming their customers for it.