Lauren C

Reported to trading standards

I recently had an extremley unpleasent experience at this dealership. I initially processed finance for a car online, and Ali, one of the sales representatives, assured me that I could secure financing for £35 more than the online quote. He presented me with an option to add a 24-month warranty for just £6 more per month. Seemingly reasonable at the time, I agreed to this revised quote. However, when I received the finance agreement after they had conducted a hard credit check. It turned out that the warranty actually cost £26 per month, not the £6 that I was led to believe. They had included this inflated cost in the finance agreement, which amounted to over £1000, including interest. I was also told that I should have the warranty because of a long journey I'd be undertaking. When I refused the warranty, Ali attempted to coerce me by implying that I'd "probably" be declined for finance and they would only be able to secure this at higher rate. This was clearly a tactic to pressure me into the sale with the warranty. To make matters worse, I requested to speak with the sales manager, who continued to push the warranty at the inflated price of £26 per month. When I refused once more, I was informed that there would be a £199 admin fee for not taking out an additional product. This "admin fee" was nowhere to be found on their website. When I raised this issue, the sales manager put me on hold and then claimed that the admin fee was actually a "silver package" not listed on the website, which included an MOT and a 150-point check on the car. I strongly believe this was nothing more than a charge to compensate for the commission they lost when I declined the warranty. I strongly advise anyone dealing with this dealership to request their finance documents prior to a credit check, to check for any additonal warranties added on at an inflated cost, as I've now had a hard search on my credit file. I have reported this experience to trading standards