Peter

Why Oh Why did we ever think Robert Eard

Why Oh Why did we ever think Robert Eardley & Son were any good. We bought a new Skoda from Robert Eardley and at that time they were helpful attentive and provided a decent service. The car has always been serviced there and although there was a real problem when the car was ‘fixed’ to correct the fraudulent emissions claims Robert Eardley were generally OK. After that recall the car went into ‘limp mode’ less than 50 miles after it was returned to us and had to be towed back to them at our cost. It cost us to cancel a hotel booking and to change our ferry crossing as well as losing 2 days of holiday. They refused to accept any liability for this. Certainly their communication was poor, their record keeping bad but they were pleasant, generally helpful and we continued to use them as we wanted the car services by a Skoda main dealer and they were the nearest. However, the car recently failed with what appeared to be a gearbox fault. The DSG automatic would only find forward gears 2, 4 and 6. We specifically asked them to diagnose the fault and get a price as we were concerned the fix could cost more than value of the car. We telephoned them immediately the problem showed on 8th February and were told nothing could be done before Monday (perfectly reasonably) so we drove the car to them as requested first thing on the Monday morning 11th February. After a week with no response we telephoned to be told they did not know the cause of the problem and Skoda UK were being asked for assistance. Days went by with no updates so we took to telephoning every 2 or 3 days as they did not seem capable of making a call to at least update us. They did say that Skoda were being very slow to respond but eventually we had the message that the fault was said to be on the gearbox management system. A new one had been ordered (without of course coming back to us to see if we wanted that expense on a car 7 years old). We then complained to the Service Manager, Mark Burgess, who was not helpful and said they were not happy that it was taking up space in their workshop, as if we were somehow happy about their tardy progress. It turned out that after fitting the system it would now not engage any gears. So three weeks and no steps forward and one step back. We asked to speak to the Dealer Principal and was told he was not present. We asked for him (we understand he is Cam Defoe) to call us back. Of course he never did. We were next told the problem had been referred again to Skoda and they eventually said a clutch problem. Mark Burgess said parts would be delivered 7th March and we would have the car back for the weekend and he would not charge for the extra (albeit wholly abortive) work. We were supposed to be grateful for this. He also promised to telephone us on the Thursday. He did not. We telephoned him on Friday. One of us was out in the morning, and he said he had tried to phone in the morning. No message was left and he did not try on the other 2 contact telephone numbers they have. The car was alleged to be almost ready and would now be ready on Monday. The delay has also cost us a lot of money. If told what the problem was we would likely have scrapped the car. However, taking over a month means additionally the car has had to be re-taxed and re-insured, it now has less than 6 months on the MOT (due by 1st September) so the valuation from ‘webuyanycar’ has been reduced. Robert Eardley & Son are not interested. Robert Eardley do not seem to be able to keep staff, and whether this is the problem why they cannot diagnose a problem we do not know. We do know that customer communication is supremely important and that they cannot do it. We do plan taking them to the Small Claims Court. I would strongly recommend avoiding Robert Eardley & Son. Skoda has made serious efforts to improve their image since VW took them over. They have largely been successful. Having dealers like Robert Eardley & Son will take them back to where they used to be if they are not careful