K H

Incompetent and unethical

My partner wanted a little cheap runaround for taking to work and back and that would be easier to park. We looked online and found a 7 year old Mini at Stratstone Mini in Harrogate so we drove over and test drove the car. It didn’t drive very well but we spotted another one that looked great and on driving it my partner really liked it so we decided to buy it. During the test drive the clutch was very stiff and biting very high (a sign that it’s worn down). After agreeing on the price we asked Rachel, who sold us the car, if we could see the service book and evaluate the condition of the car. We really wanted to know the state of the car we were buying as really, we had no idea. Unfortunately, we were told the service book was not available for us to see. I therefore asked them to do a full service of the car so we could see what condition it was in. This just seemed common sense to me. A day or 2 later Rachel called us to say the car didn’t need a service because it had one less than 2 years ago. They would however make sure the car was roadworthy and safe. She was aware that the clutch was very stiff and I asked her to make sure they checked it. Might it need replacing soon? Sure enough that evening Rachel told us the clutch was going to be replaced. We were really pleased because clutches are expensive to replace. However, the next day Rachel’s manager called me to say she’d replaced some things on the car. Great I thought but what about the clutch? She said she didn’t know anything about the clutch but as far as she was concerned it was absolutely fine. I tried to tell her we had been told something different the day before but she was adamant all her staff were ‘travel guardians’ and we could be assured there was nothing wrong with the clutch. On collecting the car it really was difficult to change gear and still very stiff but we had now been assured by both Rachel and her manager that the car was absolutely fine. A few days earlier I had been at my local garage, a lovely family run business, who has really helped us out with problems in the past. They agreed to have a look at the mini for us to make sure the clutch was okay. I decided to pay for a full service because I really wanted to make sure the car was safe and I had kind of lost trust in Stratstone at this point. The next day the garage told us the clutch was ‘knackered’ and a worn clutch can have an impact on the gearbox. I had the garage replace it and the car now drives brilliantly. A few days later I got a customer satisfaction email from Stratstone so I responded honestly about our experience. I explained they had sold us a car with a knackered clutch. I explained that this would have been absolutely fine had they told us this. We would happily have replaced it post purchase. The problem with having a knackered clutch is that eventually it will damage your gearbox. Replacing the clutch cost £570 but replacing a damaged gearbox would cost at least £1500. After replying with my comments the customer service representative Jas then called me and I explained this, however because the clutch was repaired elsewhere and they couldn't check it, she said there was nothing they could do. Fortunately, I still had the old clutch to show her so she agreed for us to bring it in. On bringing it in Rachel walked past us several times, ignoring us, despite us saying hello, portraying customer service as its poorest. In a customer service based industry surely such behaviour is completely inappropriate and childish. We showed Jas the clutch and eventually the service department confirmed it was knackered. She asked for the receipt of the clutch replacement and said she would get back to us. 5 weeks later we still had no response so I rang Jas who was working on reception for some reason and couldn’t speak to me. Eventually it turned out she still hadn’t made any progress on why nobody had been able to tell us the clutch was on its last legs. She called me the next day and said there was nothing they could do. She said that they didn’t have to check clutches on second-hand cars they were selling, they only had to make sure the car was roadworthy and safe. Clutches are not covered in the warranty they offer. The only time they would check the clutch (I’ve since learned they have to take the whole car apart to do this) is if it was biting very highly on the road test. Okay.. So at this point I was kind of losing the will to live because that’s exactly what happened and that’s exactly why we asked them to check it. I think somebody did check it, I think they wanted to replace it, but I think somebody, maybe management(?) decided it would be too costly to replace so they left it in and didn’t tell us. If I hadn’t had it checked the next day the car would most likely have broken down somewhere and the gearbox become damaged. Jas agreed to go back to the service department and asked them again if they might cover some of the cost of the new clutch. But I would have to wait a week of course, she couldn’t just ring them she had to go in person!? and was only there once a week. A week later she rang again and said they wouldn’t budge. This was a stressful process, but it’s also quite worrying. The checks they conducted meant they ticked all the right boxes but ethically I think there is a serious problem at Stratstone Mini. It also felt like nobody really took responsibility for what happened and each department seems to be quite separate from one another, meaning it took their own customer service representative over a month to get back to us with a ‘computer says no’ and who still to this day doesn’t know why we were sold a car with a knackered clutch, or at least why no one was able to tell us it was knackered. Her only concern seemed for us to be getting a money back but really we wanted them to ensure in the future the sales process was transparent and any questions such as what state is the car in? could be answered. Me and my partner will certainly never return to Stratstone Mini Harrogate and we have told all our friends and family about our experience and they will never be going there either. Stratstone will probably respond to this with their customer services number which I won’t be ringing. Our advice: Avoid at all cost, look for a more competent and ethical company!