Abi

Worst car buying experience ever!

I don’t usually like writing reviews like this but the service from The Car Shop Wakefield has been appalling in every way it could. I bought the car (BMW 3 Series Estate) on the 10th October 2023 and realised the next day that the headlight had condensation so it was booked in Tuesday 17th October for the headlight looking at. After it was looked at the headlight was free of condensation but it needed looking at better to Identify the cause. However on the 19th it came up on my dashboard that there was a service fault with the light so I rung back and took the car back on the 20th October. I never heard again from yourselves even after ringing multiple times until I finally got put through to Shannon on Saturday 4th Novermber 2023 who said the light was still on order and she’d have to chase it up with the staff in charge of the eBay store. Also mentioning that we couldn’t have a courtesy car until the 13th November 2023 but she would do what she can and give us an update at 3:30pm. However, as she was ‘busy’ we heard nothing until we rung up and spoke to Dan who said he would find out what he could and let us know Monday. We had enough at this point and came into branch to look for another car as this is a lot of hassle for a headlight and we needed a car asap. Emily who sold us the previous car was sent over to help and was very helpful and apologetic when we explained what happened and went to grab Dan (I believe he was a manager) but he wouldn’t come over to speak to us so another Manager Jordan came over and was helpful, apologetic and understanding of the situation again. He managed to get us a courtesy car to be going on with and he would chase the car up personally and give us an update Monday. However, Monday has been and gone and we had heard nothing again. After we rung up again on the Tuesday they said the headlight was there just waiting to be worked on. so I said I wanted my money back under The Consumer Rights Act but was told the car would be finished that night ready to collect in the morning so have a think about it. The car was not ready as we received no phone call. They finally called us back Saturday saying we could collect anytime today as the car was finished we told them we didn’t want the car after that had happened and they told us they would speak to Michelle and she would ring us back. Michelle phoned us back and said we couldn’t have our money back as we’d already notified the finance company and she doesn’t know where we got the information from that we could have money back under the consumer rights as it doesn’t apply to them. We arranged the car to be dropped off at my partners work as we had to wait for the finance company to decide if we could get a refund and we couldn’t keep the courtesy car. They dropped the car off at 9:50am. my partner drove home from work at 4:00pm and the radio and heaters couldn’t be used at the same time. We rung the car shop back straight away and they said they would collect the car from his work the following day and have it ready for when he’s finished work and we wouldn’t even notice it’s gone. 45 minutes after he’s finished work there was still no car so he went into the car shop once again. He collected the keys and went to check over the car in their car park noticing the headlight they claimed were new had condensation in again. He went into branch and got someone to come out to see the headlight to prove it to them. He Then asked for paper work proof that the headlight was new which after no surprise they couldn’t get on the spot for whatever excuse they had. They claimed they had changed the light and there was nothing else they could do that night. After taking the car home again we looked into it further to find a crack in the top of the ‘ new’ headlight. After seeing this it was Clear the unit wasn’t new or had been fitted poorly resulting in a crack been made. so we rung back up yet again and told them of the issue. We were told they’d look at the car again and let me know an update. At this point we were feeling fully deflated and the whole experience of getting a new car was ruined by the on going problems. The finance company favoured on our side and said the refund would be soon as they were pushing it to the top of the pile and to get in touch with Michelle to do the same. Yet again nothing but problems from car shop so I rung up and planned a meeting with Michelle to get the refund papers signed but in true car shop fashion she went home early and we didn’t have the meeting. we handed in the keys and as we didn’t have the V5 as it wasn’t received when purchasing the car we had to wait a week. A week passed still nothing so we spoke with Tom from sales and he is the only member of staff that I would recommend. he got us down to sign the papers and sorted everything out there and then. however as there was still no v5 he had to hold £500 back until it arrived as the car was showing as taxed. The following week we rang to see if there was an update and got told no but that is the first time someone had rung us back throughout the whole experience of dealing with car shop Wakefield. I rung back a few days later to say it hadn’t arrived but Tom wasn’t in and was told they’d call us back … again nothing. After another 2 weeks I phoned back again to say the v5 hadn’t arrived and I spoke to Tom again who couldn’t believe someone hadn’t sorted it in the 2 weeks leave he had. He then had the refund sent as the car was showing untaxed now and said it shouldn’t be our fault so they would sort it. So after buying the car on the 10th October 2023, driving the car for a maximum of a week all together and getting a full refund on the 20th December 2023 it has been the worst car buying experience I have ever had and the most stressful 2 and a half months. If it wasn’t for Tom at Sales understanding our frustration we would probably still be fighting now. The horror story’s we’ve heard since purchasing a car from car shop Wakefield are horrendous, ares including. If you’re thinking of buying a new car avoid these Scam artists at all costs.