Kevin A

Avoid at all costs

I went to visit Marshams after seeing a car on Autotrader. After inspecting it I noticed a small dent above the door. Other than that, the car looked immaculate. The agent said that they would remove the dent and that I could collect the car 3 days later and leave my car in part exchange. The agent said that he would contact me and when he didn’t and the 3 days passed, I emailed him, but he never replied. I tried multiple times to contact him and eventually he contacted me back saying that it would take a following week because there was a scuff on the boot that also needed doing. This was news to me as there was no scuff on the boot when I viewed it. More days passed and I still hadn’t heard from the agent, so I contacted them again and never got a reply. Out of frustration I contacted them through their live chat and told them I didn’t want the car and that I wanted my deposit refunded and low and behold they contacted me back straight away, all apologetic and saying that the car would be ready in a few days. My car tax was due the day before I had to collect the car, so I had to tax it which was annoying knowing that I would only be doing this for one day. While I was collecting the car the agent admitted the reason that it took longer was because the car had a lot more scratches and scuffs than I knew about and on the day I viewed it they had filled them in with black marker pen. As you can imagine, this came as quite a shock and he assured me that all the marks had now been taken care of when they had sorted the small dent. The car looked good. so I took it and left my car in part exchange. 8 weeks later and my car has a lot more scuffs and scratches than when I first bought it, so they had marker penned some of them and not sorted them out properly as he suggested. I still hadn’t had my tax refund (It usually takes a maximum of 6 weeks) so I contacted DVLA and to my shock, they said the car was still in my name. I contacted Marshams and they confirmed they hadn’t sent the v5 off and they didn’t know where it was. My old car had been sold at auction, so they didn’t even know who had it. They told me I would likely have to apply for a replacement v5, for a car I no longer own! No apology and no offer of help or acceptance of the problem that they caused. All they said was that they would look into things and be back in touch. They haven’t. No one has contacted me and I doubt anyone will. I am now having to sort this out through DVLA myself which is proving very difficult. I’m disgusted with the way this whole thing has been dealt with and how dishonest they have been about the scuffs and scratches. My current situation is that someone has my old car which is still in my name, I don’t know who, and they could be doing anything in it to which I will be liable for. If you are in any doubt about buying a car from Marshams, don’t. Avoid at all costs or else end up in a similar situation as me!