Dean C

Avoid at all costs! Not worth the hassle

It all started perfect. The young male salesman, keiran, was very helpful and polite during the sale of a 2004 plate Vauxhall corsa, which I bought for my fiance for her birthday. Keiran fully understood that I am in the army so I could only collect the car as and when possible due to training deployments or if I had planned periods off work. I would have given them a good review at this point. Once I moved the car off their premises, bearing in mind they had put the car through an MOT which resulted in a pass, the car developed a number of faults. Faults which would most definitely result as a failure on the MOT. After just 1 week of legally owning the car, I returned the car with a list of faults on what I found wrong with the car. With the car being under warranty, they happily accepted to repair the faults and that I would have to wait a week before myself or my fiance could collect the car. However, a couple of weeks pass and I heard nothing about the repairs being carried out. After I ring up to inform them I was going skiing for a week, with work, they still had no update on the repairs. This was 4 weeks at this point in which they had my vehicle with no progress on repairs. Upon myself returning from my ski trip, I receive a call off them stating my car was ready for collection. As I arrive to collect the car, none of the original faults which I informed them about had been repaired and they had cracked the windscreen on the car, must have been a good 8-9 inch crack. They informed me they would repair the faults, again, and that I would have to wait yet another week. That is now 6 weeks with no progress on the repairs. After the extra week they mentioned, I finally receive a phone call saying the car was repaired and I could collect the car. Upon arriving at their showroom, the young lad, keiran, informed me that they rung the wrong person and that my car was still not ready to collect. But I had to wait yet another week, that's 8 weeks! After feeling as though I've been messed around with this sale I ask for a refund, a phone call to trading standards informed me of my rights to a refund, only to be told I need to speak to the manager, Paul, making me take extra days off from work to travel over to try and resolve this matter. During this conversation with the manager, he informed me that my rights were wrong and that he has certain rights to adhere to. Basically he was refusing my rights to a refund. He did not come across aggressive in any way, remained calm and civil during our conversation. After another phone call to trading standards, to inform them of this matter, they informed me to try again with the refund in a face to face conversation but also reading out my rights stating the consumer rights act 2015. And yet he still refused the refund, after sending letters stating the problems with the car and my rights for a refund, he replied with a letter dated before I even had any contact with them about any potential sale. After a reply to his letter stating I would accept any alternative means of refund, whether it's a different car with the same value or a slightly different price value, I receive a letter stating that they had ceased trading! Leaving me with a car that me or my fiance no longer want and with faults that would still deem the car unsafe for road use due to the safety of other road users and pedestrians, as well as my family. AVOID AT ALL COSTS! If you want good value for money, take your money elsewhere!